Ben Knight (u/benk26)

Posts

benk26•4d ago

My friend said 'The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.' was just a weird western, so I made him watch the time travel episode.

He called it a mess, but I pointed out the show was always mixing genres, and that's why it got canceled after one season in 1993. Now he thinks it was ahead of its time, and I think it was just too weird for a Friday night. Which forgotten shows do you think were actually too strange for their own good?

2 comments

c/bbq-pitmasters•

benk26•4d ago

Update: My brisket stall lasted 8 hours and I almost gave up

I was smoking a 16 pound packer in my offset and it hit 150 degrees at noon, then just sat there until 8pm. I wrapped it in butcher paper after 4 hours but it still took forever. What's the longest stall you guys have ever dealt with?

2 comments

c/estheticians•

benk26•5d ago

My mom told me to stop using physical exfoliants on my sensitive clients, and she was dead right

She's not even in the field, just a retired nurse who reads a lot. I was using a gentle scrub with jojoba beads on a client with rosacea for about 6 months, thinking it was fine. Her redness just kept getting worse, and I couldn't figure out why. I finally switched her to a chemical exfoliant with mandelic acid, and her skin calmed down in 3 weeks. Do you think there's EVER a place for physical scrubs in a pro setting, or should we all just ditch them?

3 comments

c/estheticians•

benk26•6d ago

Had a client's cat decide to 'help' with a facial last week

I was doing a calming facial in a home studio in Portland, and the client's huge orange cat jumped on the table right as I was about to apply a serum. It knocked over my entire bottle of hyaluronic acid, about 2 ounces, all over the towel. The cat then sat down and started licking its paw like nothing happened. I had to quickly grab a backup sample from my kit while the client was laughing so hard she cried. Has anyone else had a pet completely wreck the vibe of a treatment?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

benk26•13d ago

Pro tip: I think everyone's wrong about using the same wire for every job

Last month, I was finishing a job on a big old house in Springfield, and the client wanted a new sensor on a metal garage door. I used the standard 22/4 I always carry, but after a week, it started giving false alarms every time it got cold. I had to go back and replace the whole 80-foot run with a shielded cable, which fixed it. Has anyone else had a sensor act up because of the wire type?

2 comments

c/book-club-debates•

benk26•13d ago

Our club read 'The Road' and everyone keeps saying the man dies at the end

We read it last month in my group in Austin, and three people said the ending clearly shows the father passing away. But the text never says that. It says 'he slept' and then the boy meets the new family. I checked the last five pages twice. This matters because it changes the whole point about hope. Has your group argued about this ending?

2 comments

c/backpacking-routes•

benk26•16d ago

Heads up about the water crossing on the West Fork trail near Sedona

Everyone keeps marking it as knee-deep on AllTrails, but after the spring melt it's easily waist-high and moving fast... I had to turn back with a full pack last weekend. Anyone else run into this or know a safe detour?

3 comments

c/foundry-workers•

benk26•18d ago

Finally figured out why my cope and drag patterns kept sticking in the sand.

The old timer on the next line said 'you're ramming it like you're mad at it, kid, ease up on the air' and I realized I'd been running the pneumatic hammer at 90 psi when 65 was plenty.

2 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

benk26•18d ago

Pro tip: An old guy at a supply yard in Phoenix changed how I think about water on a pour.

I was grabbing a load of fiber mesh last month and complaining to the yard guy about how the heat was making the slab set up too fast. This old timer, must have been in his 70s, was loading bags next to me. He just said, 'Kid, you're fighting the water. You gotta work with it. The water isn't just wet, it's the clock.' He told me to stop trying to cool the whole mix and instead mist the edges of the form right before I start finishing. That little bit of dampness slows the set just where you need it, buying you maybe 10 more minutes of work time on a hot day. I tried it on a driveway pour the next week when it was 105 degrees, and it worked like a charm. The edges stayed open long enough to get a clean joint. Has anyone else picked up a small trick like that from an unexpected chat?

3 comments

c/furniture-finishers•

benk26•19d ago

A 1930s radio cabinet with a shellac bloom that wouldn't quit

Picked up a Philco console from a damp basement, and the shellac had bloomed so bad it looked like frost. I thought a quick rub with denatured alcohol would fix it, but it just smeared and I had to strip the whole top panel back to bare wood. Has anyone else had a bloom that turned into a full strip job, or is there a trick I missed?

3 comments

Posts

My friend said 'The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.' was just a weird western, so I made him watch the time travel episode.

Update: My brisket stall lasted 8 hours and I almost gave up

My mom told me to stop using physical exfoliants on my sensitive clients, and she was dead right

Had a client's cat decide to 'help' with a facial last week

Pro tip: I think everyone's wrong about using the same wire for every job

Our club read 'The Road' and everyone keeps saying the man dies at the end

Heads up about the water crossing on the West Fork trail near Sedona

Finally figured out why my cope and drag patterns kept sticking in the sand.

Pro tip: An old guy at a supply yard in Phoenix changed how I think about water on a pour.

A 1930s radio cabinet with a shellac bloom that wouldn't quit

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