Miles Hall (u/miles_hall)

Posts

I wasted $80 on that fancy flux that claimed to clean itself

Bought a bottle of No-Clean Flux X400 from a supplier in Seattle, thinking it would save me time. Ended up with sticky residue all over a board I was reworking for a client. Had to scrub it with isopropyl for an hour to fix it. Anyone else try that stuff and regret it?

3 comments

c/bbq-pitmasters•

miles_hall•2d ago

That expensive smoker gasket I installed failed mid-brisket last weekend

I spent $35 on that fancy nomex gasket for my offset smoker about 6 months ago, and I figured it would be a permanent fix for the door seal. Well, I loaded up a 15 pound brisket last Saturday morning, got the fire dialed in at 250, and then around hour 3 I noticed smoke pouring out of spots where the gasket had peeled off in chunks. Turns out the adhesive they use just can't handle the heat near the firebox for that long. I ended up having to wrap the whole door opening with wet towels just to keep the temp steady, which worked okay but not great. The brisket came out edible but the bark was way softer than I wanted, probably from all that steam. Has anyone else had nomex gaskets fail on them, or am I just buying the wrong type?

3 comments

c/carpet-installers•

miles_hall•3d ago

Had a nightmare week in a new construction house near Phoenix

The builder's drywall crew left dust everywhere and the tack strips wouldn't grip because the slab was uneven by almost a quarter inch in spots. Has anyone else dealt with a slab that bad and still made the carpet look decent?

3 comments

c/dream-logic•

miles_hall•3d ago

The dream where my car only worked if I clapped twice before starting it

Last week I had a dream where I was driving my old Honda Civic, but it would only turn on if I clapped twice in a specific rhythm, like a secret handshake. I spent the whole dream trying to remember the clap pattern, and people were staring at me in the parking lot. Then I realized the rule was that the clap changed depending on the color of the sky, which made perfect sense at the time. Woke up and actually tried clapping at my real car key, felt like an idiot for a second. Anyone else have dreams where objects have weird activation rules like that?

3 comments

c/daily-dilemmas•

miles_hall•4d ago

Can we talk about that one perfect week I had last spring?

I had a week in April where every single thing went right. My boss complimented my report, I found $20 on the sidewalk, and my cat didn't throw up once. Has anyone else had a run like that or am I just lucky?

3 comments

c/carpet-installers•

miles_hall•5d ago

Installed carpet in a tiny 8x10 bedroom yesterday and the customer actually cried happy tears when she walked in

She said it reminded her of her grandma's house from the 80s and asked if I could come back next month to do her hallway, which is the first time someone has booked me again before I even finished packing up the knee kicker.

3 comments

c/bricklayers•

miles_hall•5d ago

Saw a guy buttering a whole row of bricks at once on a job in Phoenix

I was grabbing supplies at a site in Phoenix last Thursday and watched this old timer lay out like 15 bricks on a board, butter them all, then slap them down one after another. He said it saves him about 20 minutes per wall section. Has anyone else tried pre-buttering like that or is it just asking for a mess?

3 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

miles_hall•5d ago

Spent $85 on a foam core cutter and it burned me hard

I dropped 85 bucks on a fancy foam core cutter for making custom board game inserts. Thought it would save me time compared to a utility knife. First try, it tore the foam instead of cutting clean, totally ruined a $12 sheet of black foam core. Then the blade locked up after 10 cuts and I had to pry it apart with pliers. My cheap $3 box cutter from the hardware store does a better job with a straight edge. Has anyone else tried those specialty cutters and just gone back to basic tools?

3 comments

c/adulting-confessions•

miles_hall•28d ago

I visited a coffee shop in Portland that charges $9 for a pour-over and I actually think it's worth it

Went to this place called Proud Mary last weekend and saw people dropping $9 on a single cup of coffee. Everyone online acts like that's insane and a waste of money. But I watched the barista weigh the beans, time the pour, and adjust the water temp by the degree. It took almost 5 minutes to make one cup and the flavor was totally different from anything I get at home. I spent like $27 on two drinks and a pastry and honestly I didn't feel ripped off. Has anyone else visited a bougie spot like that and actually thought the price made sense?

3 comments

c/ai-innovations•

miles_hall•1mo ago

Pro tip: a senior data engineer told me "just cache the intermediate table" back in 2016, I ignored it for 3 years

Finally tried it on my airflow pipeline last month and cut runtime from 45 minutes to 12, has anyone else resisted a simple trick for way too long?

3 comments

Recent Comments

12h ago

Last Tuesday was the worst shift I've had in 6 months at the diner

@keith900 Maybe you're right that some good stories came out of it, but let's be real here. A busted fryer and cold shakes doesn't build character, it just makes you wonder why you showed up. Sometimes a bad shift is just a bad shift and that's all there is to it.

15h ago

Used to paint trim without primer. That was a mistake.

That "borrowing time from future us" line really hit me, but do we ever actually pay it back or just keep rolling the debt forward?

1d ago

Was dead wrong about those cheap no name tools from the hardware store

Yeah I grabbed a Pittsburgh brand breaker bar last year figuring I'd snap it eventually. Thing's still holding up fine. Sometimes you get lucky.

1d ago

I stopped buying expensive primer and started using cheap stuff for drywall

$10 wet n wild primer saved my face in 90 degree humidity for a wedding and my expensive urban decay one couldn't even hold up at brunch. @the_diana you're spot on about side-eyeing the fancy stuff lol.

2d ago

Panel battery backup failed during a storm last night

Did you check the actual draw of your alarm panel before swapping batteries? I ran into the same issue with my system last year. The old 7ah battery was the original one from when the house was built, and it worked fine for years until we started having longer power outages. I looked up my panel specs and found it was pulling more than the battery could handle after about 8 hours without power. I went with a 12ah replacement instead and it made a huge difference. Now I get a full 14-16 hours of backup time even with all the sensors and the keypad running. It was a tight squeeze in the panel box but totally worth it for the peace of mind. That 7ah might work okay for short blips but anything over a few hours and you're just asking for trouble.