Coolant flood vs mist - I'll take the mess any day

I ran a Haas VF-2 for two years using only mist coolant because I hated cleaning up the puddles. Thought I was being smart keeping the floor dry. Then last month I got a job doing 304 stainless with a 1/2 inch end mill and the mist just wasn't cutting it. Chips were welding themselves to the cutter after about 30 seconds. Switched to flood on a whim and the tool life tripled instantly. I mean yeah the machine looks like a swamp now and I gotta scrub the way covers every shift. But not burning through 40 dollar end mills every other part is worth the extra cleanup. Has anyone else stubbornly run mist too long before giving in to flood? My only regret is not switching sooner.

That Chris Brown apology video from 2023 still bugs me

I watched it like 3 times and his eyes kept darting off screen every time he said 'I take full responsibility'... it felt like he was reading lines someone wrote for him. The way he blinked hard during the emotional parts reminded me of a customer trying to fake being sorry for damaging a sofa during a move. Am I the only one who thinks the excessive hand gestures in these videos are a dead giveaway they're not genuine?

Hot take: I actually enjoy weeding by hand after a good rain

Just found out how much copper is actually in an old water heater

I was stripping down a junk water heater from a 1980s house in Cleveland last Tuesday, and I decided to weigh the copper lines and valve assembly out of curiosity. It came to 4.7 pounds of clean copper, which at scrap prices is around $18 - way more than I expected from something that small. Has anyone else ever weighed the copper out of an old appliance and been surprised?

I finally changed my mind about blurry faces in deep fakes

Last week I was at a meetup in Denver and a guy showed me a video where the person's face was slightly blurry. I always said that blurry faces meant it was fake. But he slowed it down and showed me the lighting matched perfectly and the lip sync was dead on. That video was actually real, it was just shot on an old phone. Now I don't jump to conclusions about blurry faces anymore. Has anyone else had a go-to sign that turned out to be wrong?

Just realized the right fat makes or breaks shortbread cookies

I made two batches of shortbread last weekend for a bake sale here in Austin. One used butter and the other used shortening because I was out of butter for the second batch. The butter batch came out golden and flaky with that rich taste everyone loves. The shortening one was pale and crumbly but held its shape perfectly for stamped designs. Now I'm wondering if I should blend them half and half for Christmas cookies this year. Has anyone else tried mixing fats like that for holiday baking?

Shoutout to the guy who showed me a trick with a knee kicker

I used to stretch carpet by hand and pray it didn't wrinkle after a day. Last summer, an old timer in Denver taught me to use my knee kicker at a 45 degree angle instead of straight on, and it's made a huge difference. Has anyone else tried adjusting their kicker angle like that?

Why I stopped using online courses for programming skills and went back to books

Tbh I used to think video tutorials were the only way to learn, but after 3 wasted months on a Python course that kept crashing, I picked up a used textbook for $12 and actually finished building a project in 2 weeks. Has anyone else had better luck with old school methods over flashy platforms?

Lost a whole weekend fixing a dimension error I made last Tuesday

I was laying out a floor plan for a kitchen remodel in Akron and somehow misread the window rough opening by 3 inches. Didn't catch it until I went to frame it out on Saturday morning. Had to tear down half the wall and redo the header, which put me behind schedule by like 6 hours. My apprentice kept giving me side eyes the whole time, which didn't help. Anyone else have a dumb measurement mistake that snowballed into a nightmare?

Old timer at a hammer-in showed me how to read scale colors

At Quad-State last year, a retired smith named Bill pointed at my orange scale and said 'you're burning out your carbon, kid, aim for straw yellow instead.' Anyone else have a veteran just casually drop a game-changing tip on you?