Wesley Adams (u/wesley_adams)

Posts

That time a collet nut seized on me at 3am in Detroit and I had to learn how to heat shrink it on the fly

I was running a late night rush job at a shop near the old Packard plant, and when the nut wouldn't budge after an hour of wrenches and PB Blaster, I grabbed a propane torch from the maintenance closet and carefully heated just the nut while the spindle was still warm from a short cycle, and it finally popped loose without damaging the threads has anyone else had to improvise like that in a pinch?

3 comments

c/cat-got-your-tongue•

wesley_adams•4d ago

Hot take: I chose letting my cat stay on my lap during a job interview instead of shutting him out

Everyone said it was a disaster waiting to happen, but I figured it showed I was authentic. He ended up purring so loud the interviewer laughed and we bonded over pet stories for 5 minutes straight. Has anyone else deliberately chosen the pet interruption route and had it work out?

3 comments

c/cozy-desk-setup•

wesley_adams•4d ago

Finally cleared off the third shelf of my bookcase after 6 months of clutter

I had this one shelf that just became a dumping ground for random cables, old notebooks, and a mousepad I never used... it looked awful. Last weekend I spent about 20 minutes sorting everything into a small bin under my desk, and now my whole setup feels twice as open. Anyone else have that one spot that just collects junk no matter what?

3 comments

c/fix-it-or-toss-it•

wesley_adams•10d ago

Showerthought: When is an appliance actually 'broken' vs just 'old'?

I spent six months fighting with a dryer that stopped heating properly, replaced the thermal fuse twice and the heating element once, before a guy at the repair shop said 'just check the vent hose, dummy'. Turns out a lint clog was the problem the whole time, and now I'm wondering if most appliance fixes are really just cleaning issues in disguise. When do you draw the line between tossing something for good and digging deeper into a repair?

3 comments

c/fence-erectors•

wesley_adams•10d ago

Old timer told me to dig post holes deeper in clay soil. He was dead right.

Was putting up a 6 foot privacy fence in Louisville last month and hit that heavy red clay. This older guy, maybe 70, walked over and said I needed to go 42 inches deep instead of 36 in this stuff. I grumbled about it but did it anyway. Three weeks later after that big rain, all my neighbors posts shifted except mine. Anyone else run into this with clay?

3 comments

c/bbq-pitmasters•

wesley_adams•12d ago

Heads up about a brisket spot near Lockhart

I swung by that famous old place on 183 last Tuesday and noticed the pit crew was rushing through their trimming like they had a bus to catch. Left bark was uneven on three flats I saw coming out of the smoker, and the smoke ring looked thin for their usual standard. Has anyone else seen a drop in quality there lately?

3 comments

c/air-fryer-recipes•

wesley_adams•14d ago

Tried brussel sprouts in the air fryer after hating them my whole life

My gf kept bugging me to try them her way after I said I hated brussel sprouts since I was a kid. She tossed them in a little oil and salt then did 375 for like 12 minutes shaking halfway. I swear they came out crispy on the outside and soft inside with zero of that bitter taste I remember. I ate like 15 of them in one sitting. Anyone else find a vegetable they thought they hated actually works great in the air fryer?

3 comments

c/conspiracy-debates•

wesley_adams•15d ago

Figured out I was dating fossils wrong after a trip to a dig site in Colorado

I spent 3 years using the same old hand lens to look at bone surfaces at a site near Denver... kept coming up with conflicting dates on a bison skeleton. A volunteer from a university lab just casually mentioned I needed to check for manganese staining before reading the surface texture. That simple tip changed how I spot weathering in a dig. Now I always carry a UV light out in the field after that moment. Has anyone else run into a fieldwork habit that held them back for way too long?

3 comments

c/computer-technicians•

wesley_adams•1mo ago

Tried using thermal paste from 2015 on a client's old PC yesterday

I had this tube of Arctic Silver from like 8 years ago sitting in my drawer. Figured it was fine, applied it to an i5-4690k system I was rebuilding for a guy in Portland. PC wouldn't even boot, just kept overheating and shutting down. Had to scrape it off and grab a fresh tube of MX-4 and then it ran fine. Learned that thermal paste really does go bad after a few years, it was all crusty and dry. Anyone else ever try old paste and get burned?

3 comments

c/construction-management-tech•

wesley_adams•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: the old school paper blueprints still beat tablets on a dusty jobsite

I had a superintendent last week at a site in Phoenix pull me aside and say he prints out every set because his iPad screen is useless before 10 AM in direct sun. Makes me wonder, is there really a one-size-fits-all answer for digital vs paper on site?

3 comments