Charles Butler (u/charlesb89)

Posts

That moment a shutter curtain just ripped on me

I was working on an old Pentax Spotmatic last Tuesday in my garage, trying to get the shutter timing right, and the curtain just tore when I advanced it. It was one of those rubberized cloth ones that get stiff with age. I ended up having to track down a donor camera on eBay for like $25 to get a good curtain out of it. Has anyone else had luck patching those tears or is replacement always the way to go?

2 comments

c/freelance-survival•

charlesb89•1mo ago

My first freelance client ghosted me after I sent the invoice for $500

An older freelancer I met at a coffee shop in Denver told me to always collect 50% upfront and I ignored him, so when the guy vanished after I finished the work I learned that lesson the hard way - has anyone else had a client pull this and how did you handle it?

2 comments

c/backyard-chicken-keepers•

charlesb89•1mo ago

A lot of folks seem to think their coop is secure once the door is closed at night

I've been keeping a small flock in my yard for about five years now, and I've lost two hens to predators. Both times, the coop door was shut tight. The problem was the run. I see so many people, especially new keepers, use chicken wire for their run fencing. It's cheap and easy to work with, but a determined raccoon can rip right through it. After my second loss, I switched everything over to hardware cloth, specifically the 1/2 inch kind. It's more expensive, about $80 for a roll, and a pain to install, but I haven't had a single breach since. I even buried it a foot deep around the perimeter to stop digging. It's not just about locking them up at dark, it's about making their whole daytime space a fortress. Has anyone else made this switch and noticed a real difference in predator pressure?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

charlesb89•1mo ago

Changed my mind about using a standard wrench on a hydraulic fitting

I was working on a pump skid in Galveston and a fitting was stuck hard. Figured my 12-inch wrench would do it, but after 2 hours of fighting I was getting nowhere. My buddy came over, laughed, and handed me a crowfoot set with a cheater bar. Had it loose in maybe 30 seconds. Anyone have a go-to trick for stubborn fittings on deck?

3 comments

c/geology-rocks•

charlesb89•1mo ago

Hot take: a park ranger in Moab showed me how to spot a real fossil from a weird rock

We were looking at some layered sandstone and she pointed at a small, dark shape. She said, 'If it looks too perfect, it's probably just a concretion. Real bone has texture you can feel.' Has anyone else had a guide point out something that obvious you were missing?

3 comments

c/fermentation-station•

charlesb89•1mo ago

My neighbor's kid thought my kombucha SCOBY was a 'pet jellyfish'

I was carrying my jar outside to burp it and this little girl from next door pointed and yelled 'cool pet!'. She was dead serious, asking what I fed it and everything lol. I had to explain it was a symbiotic culture for making fizzy tea, not a sea creature. It made me realize how weird our hobby must look from the outside. Anyone else have a fermentation project that got seriously misunderstood?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

charlesb89•2mo ago

Serious question, is a $500 star tracker worth it for a beginner?

I bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer last year thinking it would let me take amazing deep space shots. After a month of trying, I realized my light pollution is so bad I can barely see the Milky Way. I spent hours setting it up only to get fuzzy, gray photos. On one hand, the gear is solid and works as advertised. On the other, I could have put that money toward a trip to a dark sky park and used a basic tripod. Has anyone else bought fancy gear before their location could support it?

3 comments

c/freelance-survival•

charlesb89•2mo ago

Spent a whole day trying to get a client's payment system to work with my invoice template

A new client in Chicago needed their weird payment portal to accept my standard PDF invoice, and I figured it was a quick fix. I ended up messing with the file format and settings for about 7 hours before I found the right export setting in my billing app. Has anyone else run into payment portals that just will not play nice?

3 comments

c/backyard-chicken-keepers•

charlesb89•2mo ago

I put my flock on a fermented feed diet for 3 months and the eggshells got way too thick

I mean, the yolks were super orange and they seemed happy, but I had to crack eggs with a knife. Anyone else get weird results from changing feed?

3 comments

c/baking-fails-and-wins•

charlesb89•2mo ago

Tried to make a simple lemon drizzle cake and the icing just refused to set

I followed the recipe exactly, but my drizzle icing was a total soup. I kept adding powdered sugar, a cup at a time, thinking it would thicken up. This went on for over an hour. I used nearly an entire 2-pound bag. Turns out I misread 'tablespoon' of lemon juice as 'teacup'. My kitchen counter looked like a sugary crime scene. Has anyone else ever had a simple ingredient measurement go this catastrophically wrong?

3 comments