Brought my starter to a family reunion ONCE and my uncle asked if it was a science experiment.

Read something the other day about a construction foreman who said the best hires aren't the ones with years of experience but the ones who actually give a damn. He talked about a guy who showed up late his first day and instead of making excuses, he just owned it and worked twice as hard to catch up. Ended up being one of his most dependable workers. It's like that thing you said about common sense being rare, it's true. People forget that showing up and trying matters way more than pretending you know everything.

My garage sale find was a beat-up Rolleicord that had a stuck focus ring on it and no amount of gentle persuasion worked. I finally broke down and spent $150 on a set of old German-made spanner wrenches from an estate sale, and that thing turned a weekend project into about 20 minutes of careful work. I still use those wrenches for half the camera repairs I do now, they never slip or mar the metal. The trick is to find the ones with replaceable tips so you can sharpen them when they get dull, that's where the real value is long term. If you got a set from an actual repair guy's bench, you probably scored some heat-treated steel that'll outlast any modern Chinese junk. Sounds like you did good, lol.

Funny how a $250 tool can make you feel like a genius for being wrong.

Starting at 13% and bumping to 18%" sounds like a video game level up, not skincare. @sandra_bennett59 your cousin's dremel hack is hardcore, idk if i'd trust my own hand with a diamond bit near my face. But hey, whatever works, I guess.