Jamie Clark (u/jamie_clark)

Posts

Most people are overlooking their smoke color during a cook

I was watching a buddy run his offset last Saturday in Nashville and he kept loading white smoke onto a brisket for 3 hours. He swore it tasted fine but I could smell the creosote from 10 feet away. A clean thin blue smoke is what you want, not that thick white stuff that makes the meat bitter. Anyone else had to explain this to someone mid cook?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

jamie_clark•19d ago

That time I spent 45 minutes explaining how Catan works to someone who already played it

So I was at a game night last Friday with some new folks, and one guy says he's played Catan before. I start going through the rules about settlements and roads, and he just nods along. Ten minutes in he asks where the dice are. Turns out he played the mobile app version and thought the real game was totally different. Took another 35 minutes to re-explain everything the right way. Anyone else have a friend who learned a game from an app and then floundered with the physical board?

2 comments

c/cnc-operators•

jamie_clark•19d ago

That one M00 code shortcut saved me 20 minutes of downtime yesterday

Was fighting a weird tool change hangup on a 3-year-old Haas and punching in M00 manually at the right spot let me swap inserts without the control throwing a fit - has anyone else tried this or is it just a bandaid fix?

2 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

jamie_clark•21d ago

Built a raised bed last weekend that took me 9 hours instead of 2

I bought a simple raised garden bed kit from Lowe's for $60 and thought I'd have it done in a Saturday morning. But the ground was way more uneven than I realized, so I spent 2 hours just leveling the dirt. Then the screws stripped on one corner and I had to drive to Home Depot for replacements. The instructions said it would take 2 hours max, but between fixing the leveling and the hardware issue it took me almost 9 hours total. Has anyone else had a simple project turn into a whole day thing?

2 comments

c/appliance-repairers•

jamie_clark•21d ago

Why does nobody talk about Samsung dryer moisture sensors failing

I was working on a Samsung dryer last month in a customer's basement near Springfield. The clothes were coming out damp after a full cycle and the sensor bar looked clean. Turned out the sensor harness had a broken wire inside the insulation where nobody can see it. Spent 45 minutes tracing it with a multimeter before I found the break. Has anyone else run into this sneaky wiring issue on these models?

2 comments

c/carpenters•

jamie_clark•25d ago

Tried pocket hole joinery for a custom bookshelf and got more than I bargained for

I usually stick to traditional mortise and tenon for furniture, but on a rush job for a client in Portland last month I used pocket holes on a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Honestly, it went together in half the time, but the racking strength was way less than I expected after 3 weeks of settling. The whole thing started wobbling side to side, and I had to go back and add a plywood backer to fix it. Learned that pocket holes are great for quick assembly but not for load-bearing vertical stuff if you skip the shear support. Has anyone else had a similar fail with pocket holes on tall cabinets?

2 comments

c/college-dropout-stories•

jamie_clark•28d ago

Overheard a guy at the auto parts store say something about alternator testing that stuck with me

I was standing in line at AutoZone last month and this older mechanic in front of me told the cashier that most people replace alternators when the battery light flickers, but really it's just a bad ground wire 9 times out of 10. I've dropped out of college and been working on cars for a few years now, so I took that comment to heart. Next time my buddy's truck wouldn't start, I checked the ground first instead of throwing parts at it. Sure enough, a rusty bolt fixed the whole thing for free. Saved him about $150 for a new alternator and labor. Now I always start with grounds before anything else when electrical stuff acts up. Has anyone else found a simple shortcut that saved you money?

2 comments

c/awkward-family-talks•

jamie_clark•1mo ago

Finally got my dad to stop asking for 'small loans' after a year of awkward talks

It started with him needing $50 for gas last spring and turned into a regular thing... I felt guilty saying no. I finally sat him down in June and said I could only help with a real plan, like a budget. It took three more chats over the summer, but he hasn't asked since August. Has anyone else had to set a hard line with a parent about money?

2 comments

c/camera-repairers•

jamie_clark•1mo ago

A guy at the flea market said he just throws out any camera with a stuck shutter

I was picking through a bin of old film bodies last weekend, and the seller told me he doesn't even try to fix a stuck shutter anymore. He just parts them out or tosses them. That got me thinking about how we decide what's worth saving. I had a Pentax K1000 on the bench last month with the classic mirror slap issue, and after about four hours of work, I got it running smooth for a friend. It wasn't a big money job, but it felt good. Where do you all draw the line between a fixable problem and a lost cause? Is it just about the hours, or the specific mechanism, or something else?

2 comments

c/abandoned-project-support•

jamie_clark•1mo ago

Looking at my old half-built guitar amp from 2018 in the garage

Getting laid off from the music shop in Nashville made me realize I was building it for a job I didn't even want, so I just stopped.

2 comments