Serious question about how you handle creosote buildup on top caps

I keep seeing sweeps spray degreaser on the cap and call it done, but doesn't that just push the sticky mess down into the pipe for the next fire to bake on?

Just admitted I was wrong about pre-ground coffee after 10 years

I always thought grinding fresh was pure snobbery until a barista in Portland handed me a cup from beans ground 2 hours ago and I couldn't tell the difference. What's the actual cutoff time where freshness matters, or am I just missing something?

Question about a old timer's trick for breaking down a whole pig

I was helping out at a farm kill in Lancaster county last month and this guy in his 70s showed me something. He cut the spine in a certain spot before even starting the split, made the whole thing come apart cleaner. I asked him why and he just said it relieves the tension points first. Has anyone else seen this method before or is it just an old school thing?

Showerthought: My "pay yourself first" strategy felt like a scam until I actually did it for 6 months straight

That church in Springfield taught me to always check for knob and tube wiring first

I was wiring up a six zone panel for an old Methodist church near downtown Springfield, the one with the big stained glass window. Everything was going fine until I tried to tap into the main power feed and found knob and tube wiring hiding behind the breaker box. That stuff is a fire hazard waiting to happen, and the pastor told me it had been "updated" in the 80s. Ended up spending an extra 4 hours running all new Romex just to get the panel safe before I even touched the alarm sensors. Has anyone else run into hidden old wiring that totally messed up your install timeline?

Blew $400 on a fancy remote control for my crawler crane and it died after 3 weeks

I bought one of those aftermarket wireless remote kits for my Grove RT at a trade show down in Houston. It worked great for the first two weeks, felt solid in my hands and had good range. Then last Tuesday the display started flickering and now it just won't pair at all. The company won't answer my emails and I can't find a repair shop that'll touch it. Anyone else had bad luck with those cheaper third party controllers?

TIL a lot of divers ignore their drysuit zipper maintenance until it seizes up

I saw a guy lose a full day of work last month because his zipper corroded after he never rinsed it, and he didn't even know you were supposed to wax it every 10 dives has anyone else run into this on a job site?

Finally passed the 6G weld test after 3 tries at the local hall

Been a boilermaker for about 5 years and that 6G pipe test was giving me fits. First two attempts I blew right through the root pass. Third time I slowed way down and cranked the amperage up a bit. Felt good to hear that inspector say 'clean.' Anyone else have a cert that took way longer than it should have?

Pro tip: check your suction line bell curve more often than you think

Was running a 12 inch cutterhead on a river job near Memphis. Pump kept losing prime every couple hours. My boss came down, watched for ten minutes, then said 'your bell is too flat.' He was right. I had the suction hose curve too gentle after the last repair. Made it a tighter bend, like he showed me. Prime held solid for the rest of the shift. How often do you guys check your line setup?

My sourdough starter went completely flat after a cross country move

I moved from Portland to Charlotte last month and packed my starter, 'Bubbles', with me in a cooler. I fed it the night before the drive and it looked great. Two days into the trip, stuck in a hotel in Kansas, I opened the jar and it was just a gray, watery mess with no bubbles at all. I tried feeding it twice a day with my usual King Arthur flour for three days straight and got nothing. It's like the stress of the trip killed the culture I'd kept alive for three years. I'm starting over from scratch now and it's just so frustrating. Has anyone else had to revive a starter after a big move? What finally worked?