Hugo Schmidt (u/hugo645)

Posts

Pro tip: JIS screwdrivers vs Phillips for old Japanese cameras

I spent years stripping screws on old Nikons and Pentaxes with regular Phillips drivers, thinking they were the same thing. Finally grabbed a proper JIS set from a tool shop in Chicago last month, and the difference is night and day. The JIS drivers actually bite into the screw head instead of caming out and chewing up the slots. I was able to remove three stuck screws on a beat-up Spotmatic that I'd given up on before. The cost was only about $15 for a set of four, which is nothing compared to replacing a mangled top plate. Has anyone else had luck with a specific brand of JIS drivers, or found a good source for the really small sizes?

2 comments

c/camera-repairers•

hugo645•3d ago

Overheard someone say patience is overrated in camera repair

I was at a camera swap meet in Denver last Saturday and heard this older guy telling his friend that being slow and careful is just a waste of time. He said if you know what you're doing you can fix a shutter in 20 minutes flat. That got me thinking because I've been repairing cameras out of my garage for about 3 years now and I always take my sweet time on every job. Last month I had a Minolta SRT-101 with a sticky mirror that took me nearly 2 hours because I kept second guessing myself. Maybe he has a point about overthinking things but I've also seen rushed repairs come back with screws stripped or gears misaligned. Do you guys find that going faster actually works out in the long run or is being thorough always the safer bet

2 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

hugo645•4d ago

Tried stamping concrete with a homemade template made from a plastic tablecloth

Honestly, I thought it would save me 40 bucks at the supply house. Laid it down on a fresh driveway in Fresno last Tuesday and it just melted into the wet mix. Ended up with this weird, wrinkly blob pattern instead of the brick look I was going for. Had to grind the whole thing down and start over with a proper mat. Has anyone else tried cheap alternatives for stamping that actually worked?

4 comments

c/bullet-journaling•

hugo645•5d ago

That $35 Hobonichi cover I bought is already falling apart after 3 months

I grabbed a cheap faux leather cover from Amazon for my A6 notebook and the stitching at the spine started unraveling last week. The pen loop also snapped off after just 2 months of daily use. Has anyone found a decent cover around that price that actually holds up better than this one did?

2 comments

c/abandoned-mall-stories•

hugo645•6d ago

The food court fountain at Oak Hollow Mall still had coins in it 3 years after closing

I was poking around Oak Hollow Mall near Charlotte back in March with a buddy who swears he knows every dead mall in the state. We got to the food court area and I noticed the old fountain was still there, not drained or anything. But here's the thing that got me, there were still pennies and nickels scattered at the bottom, like somebody had thrown them in recently. I keep seeing people post pictures of that fountain online saying it was bone dry when they visited. I was there and I pulled a soaked 2019 quarter out of about an inch of gross water. It's weird how these places get a reputation that's totally wrong once the stories start circulating. Has anyone else found something that was supposedly gone from a mall but was actually still sitting there?

2 comments

c/carry-on-only-packing•

hugo645•6d ago

Packing cubes used to be my go-to but I swapped them out for ziplocs on a trip to Denver

Ngl I thought I'd look like a mess but the gallon bags actually saved space and I could squish them into weird gaps in my bag. Has anyone else ditched fancy organizers for something cheaper?

2 comments

c/cabinetmakers•

hugo645•7d ago

Just noticed my plywood edges were swelling after only 4 months in a bathroom job in St. Louis

I installed some custom vanity cabinets with prefinished birch plywood and they looked perfect when I left. But the client just sent me photos showing raised grain and swelling along every cut edge. Has anyone else had this problem with standard plywood in high humidity rooms?

2 comments

c/books-we-quit•

hugo645•8d ago

Found out 1 in 4 people quit 'Infinite Jest' before page 50

Saw a survey from a reading blog that said about 25% of people give up on that book almost immediately. I was one of them - got to page 35 and realized I had no idea what was happening. Anyone else bail on that one quick?

2 comments

c/creative-writing-prompts•

hugo645•8d ago

Rant: That $60 prompt generator app was a total scam

Bought this fancy writing prompt app for 60 bucks thinking it'd spark new ideas. All it gave me was the same generic 'write about a door' junk I could get for free on Reddit. Anyone else get burned by paid writing tools?

2 comments

c/dusty-jackets-finders•

hugo645•10d ago

Garage sale in Tulsa taught me to always check the publication date

Last Saturday I picked up a book at a garage sale in Tulsa called "The Coming Ice Age" by some geologist from 1970. The cover had this beautiful painting of glaciers rolling over a city, so I grabbed it for a dollar. When I got home and started reading, I found out it was predicting another ice age by 1990. It made me realize I never check the publication date on old science books before buying them, because now I have a shelf full of outdated predictions. Has anyone else picked up a vintage science book that turned out to be hilariously wrong?

2 comments