Kai Miller (u/kaimiller)

Posts

Overheard a senior drafter say hand drafting is dead at a firm in Chicago

I was at a meetup in Chicago last Tuesday and this older guy said hand drafting is completely useless now for real work. I get that Revit and CAD are the standard, but I still sketch out rough ideas on paper before touching the mouse. It helps me think through the geometry faster than clicking around menus. Anyone else still use a pencil for initial layouts or am I just old school?

2 comments

c/ask-anything•

kaimiller•4d ago

Watching a customer fall off a loose ladder at a job site in St. Louis changed how I set up

Saw a guy go down hard at a hardware store demo area. Ladder wasn't on level ground, legs not locked. He broke his wrist. Now I check every ladder I set up, even if it's just a 6-footer for baseboard work. Do you guys do a full gear check every time or just when you remember?

2 comments

c/family-heirloom-stories•

kaimiller•11d ago

Great Aunt Martha's china platter finally bit the dust this morning

I was moving my great aunt's 1920s Noritake platter from the top shelf to wash it and my hand just slipped. It hit the counter edge and cracked right down the middle, pieces everywhere. I spent the last hour carefully gluing it back together with that clear epoxy from Ace Hardware, got maybe 70 percent of the shards back in place. Has anyone else tried to fix broken china and had it hold up for display only?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

kaimiller•13d ago

Spent $80 on that fancy foam core insert for Terraforming Mars and my tiles still slide everywhere when I tilt the box 5 degrees.

The guy at the game store said it would keep everything perfectly organized during transport but after three game nights the slots are already stretching out and my greenery tiles end up mixed in with the oceans has anyone else had better luck with a different brand's insert or am I just being too picky?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

kaimiller•1mo ago

Vent: My supervisor told me my harness checks were too fast for safety

He said I was going through the pre-dive checklist like a robot and missing loose straps, so I slowed down and actually found a frayed buckle I would have skipped over... has anyone else had to relearn their routine from a harsh critique?

2 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

kaimiller•1mo ago

Dropped $200 on a fancy power trowel that sat in my truck for a year before I sold it at a loss

Bought one of those lightweight models thinking it'd save my knees on big floors, but it never could keep up with the heavy stuff and just vibrated my arms numb. Anybody else buy a tool that looked good on paper but just didn't fit the way you actually work?

3 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

kaimiller•1mo ago

Had to choose between a free VPN and paying $5 a month for one after getting hacked last month

Logged into my bank account and saw 3 charges from a game site I never heard of. Total was about $180. I had been using a free VPN from some random app for 6 months because hey, free is free right. Switched to a paid one after that mess, ProtonVPN for $5 a month. Cost me way more to deal with the fraud stuff than just paying for decent protection upfront. Anyone else get burned by a free service and learn the hard way?

2 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

kaimiller•1mo ago

I finally dropped $80 on a fancy coffee grinder and it ruined my morning routine

Honestly, I thought upgrading from my $20 blade grinder to a burr one would be a game changer. Ngl, I spent 80 bucks on this thing online and it took me 3 tries just to get the grind size right. First cup came out bitter as hell and I ended up dumping it down the sink. Has anyone else had a new grinder mess up their brew for a week straight?

2 comments

c/book-club-debates•

kaimiller•1mo ago

Found out my favorite author used ghostwriters for 3 books

I was digging into some old interviews on Archive.org and discovered that a series I loved since high school was mostly written by an uncredited co-author. Has anyone else run into this with their book club picks and had to decide if it changes how you feel about the books?

2 comments

c/drafters•

kaimiller•1mo ago

A senior drafter in Seattle called out my dimension lines and I'm still embarrassed

I had a senior guy at my last job pull me aside and say all my dimension lines were too close to the object lines. I thought I was being clean but he said it made the print look cluttered and hard to read. So I started leaving a 1/8 inch gap minimum between the object and the first dimension line. After a week of doing that my drawings got approved way faster and the redlines dropped by about half. Has anyone else had a small detail like that get called out that totally changed your workflow?

2 comments