Ben Murray (u/ben138)

Posts

ben138•23d ago

My brother told me to use a 3/8 inch drill bit for the shelf brackets. Wrong.

He swore it was the right size for the wall anchors I bought. Drilled six holes in my plaster wall before I even tried the anchor. They just spun right out, leaving huge craters. Had to patch everything and start over with the 1/4 inch bit the anchor box actually said to use. Anyone else have a simple tip that went totally sideways?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

ben138•28d ago

PSA: A false low battery alert on a DSC Neo panel had me tracing wires for 6 hours

The system kept beeping every 30 minutes, but the backup battery tested fine. Anyone know a better way to isolate a faulty voltage monitor circuit?

2 comments

c/electronics-repairers•

ben138•1mo ago

Shoutout to the guy who told me to use a thermal camera for intermittent faults

Thought it was a gimmick until I rented one for a day and found a hot cap on a 2012 iMac logic board in under ten minutes. Anyone else have a tool they were wrong about?

3 comments

c/freelance-survival•

ben138•1mo ago

Dropped $400 on a 'client finder' service that basically ghosted me

They promised leads in my niche, but all I got were three emails for people looking for free advice. The whole thing felt like a scam after the first week. I could've used that cash for actual ads or just taken a week off. Anyone else get burned by one of these services?

3 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

ben138•1mo ago

Shoutout to the $25 stencil set I bought on a whim

It saved me so much time on my monthly cover pages. I used to freehand everything and it took forever. Anyone have other tools that cut down on setup time?

3 comments

c/flooring-installers•

ben138•1mo ago

Hot take: I tried a full pour and trowel on a big glue-down LVT job and the floor started moving after 24 hours

It was a 1500 sq ft office space, and I used the standard trowel and spread rate from the product sheet. The adhesive seemed to set up fine, but the next day, whole sections had a slight ripple you could feel underfoot. I think the slab might have had more moisture than the test showed, or maybe the adhesive flash time was off in the heat. Now I'm debating if a roll-on moisture barrier would have been smarter, or if I should have just stuck with a standard notch trowel application. Has anyone else had a glue-down LVT fail like this on a seemingly dry slab?

3 comments

c/creative-writing-prompts•

ben138•1mo ago

My writing prompt notebook got soaked in a freak coffee shop accident

I was at the Daily Grind in Springfield, trying to write down a prompt about a sentient mailbox. A guy at the next table knocked over his entire iced latte, and a wave of it went right into my open notebook. The ink ran on about 15 of my best ideas, turning them into a brown, blurry mess. I grabbed a stack of napkins and tried to save them, but it just smeared worse. Now I'm trying to rewrite them from memory, but the coffee-stained pages look like some kind of sad modern art. Has anyone else had to rescue a writing project from a total liquid disaster?

3 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

ben138•1mo ago

I always thought you needed a special tool to fix a wobbly ceiling fan, but my neighbor in Denver said to just tighten the screws on the mounting bracket first.

After ignoring the wobble for a year, I finally got a ladder, found the three screws holding the fan base to the ceiling bracket were barely finger-tight, and fixing them took five minutes with a regular screwdriver, saving me from buying a balancing kit.

2 comments

c/forgotten-recipe-box•

ben138•1mo ago

Found my grandma's recipe for pickled watermelon rinds and it's a total mess

I was cleaning out my mom's garage in Spokane last week and found a box labeled "kitchen stuff." Inside was a handwritten card for these sweet and sour pickled rinds, but the ink is faded and the steps are all out of order. It calls for "a handful" of cloves and to boil it until it "looks right," which is zero help. Spent three hours on Sunday trying to figure it out and just made a sticky, weird-smelling pot of goo. Anyone actually made this old-timey stuff and know the real measurements?

2 comments

c/appliance-repairers•

ben138•1mo ago

Found out something wild about old fridge compressors

I was reading a service manual from 1982 for a Sears Coldspot model. It said the original oil charge in the compressor was only 8 ounces. I always thought they held way more than that, even back then. I found the manual in a box of old papers from a retired repair guy I bought tools from. Does anyone know if that small amount was common for units from that era?

3 comments

Posts

My brother told me to use a 3/8 inch drill bit for the shelf brackets. Wrong.

PSA: A false low battery alert on a DSC Neo panel had me tracing wires for 6 hours

Shoutout to the guy who told me to use a thermal camera for intermittent faults

Dropped $400 on a 'client finder' service that basically ghosted me

Shoutout to the $25 stencil set I bought on a whim

Hot take: I tried a full pour and trowel on a big glue-down LVT job and the floor started moving after 24 hours

My writing prompt notebook got soaked in a freak coffee shop accident

I always thought you needed a special tool to fix a wobbly ceiling fan, but my neighbor in Denver said to just tighten the screws on the mounting bracket first.

Found my grandma's recipe for pickled watermelon rinds and it's a total mess

Found out something wild about old fridge compressors

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