Drew Perez (u/drew906)

Posts

Shoutout to the shop manager who told me to stop using WD-40 on chains

Back when I started fixing bikes 8 years ago, I used to hose down chains with WD-40 because it was cheap and handy. The old manager at the shop I worked at in Tucson told me I was basically just washing the grease out and attracting dirt. Took me about 3 months of replacing rusty chains on customers' bikes before I switched to actual wet lube. Was that a common thing other new mechanics learned the hard way too?

3 comments

c/drywall-installers•

drew906•2d ago

Spent 45 minutes hunting down a squeaky floor upstairs in a new build near Austin last Thursday and it turned out to be a loose drywall screw right next to a floor joist.

Pulled up three sheets of subfloor before I noticed the screw head was proud by maybe a millimeter, has anyone else dealt with phantom noises that trace back to the drywall instead of the framing?

2 comments

c/diy-console-mods•

drew906•3d ago

A guy in the discord told me my PS5 fan mod was wrong and he was right

I spent like 6 hours last weekend swapping the stock fan on my PS5 for a Noctua one, but my temps were still hitting 70C under load. Some random dude named techwiz42 in the modding discord said I was blocking the airflow path by using a flat adapter instead of a shroud. I took it apart, 3D printed a proper shroud from a file online, and now I sit at 55C even after hours of Elden Ring. Has anyone else dealt with dumb mistakes like this where one small part messes up your whole build?

2 comments

c/commercial-kitchens•

drew906•3d ago

Had a grease fire at the diner on Route 9 last Tuesday, changed my hood cleaning schedule

We were slammed during the lunch rush and a flare-up from the grill caught the buildup in the exhaust hood. Took us 45 minutes to shut everything down and clean it out. How often do you guys get your hoods professionally scrubbed?

2 comments

c/diy-tech-fixes•

drew906•3d ago

Talked to a data recovery guy at a diner last Thursday. Changed my mind about cloud backups.

He said he sees the same thing every week. People think their files are safe with Google Drive or iCloud. But accounts get locked, or files get corrupted on the server side. He told me a physical hard drive in a fire safe is still the best bet for photos you can't lose. Anyone here keep a local backup alongside their cloud stuff?

2 comments

c/diy-desk-upgrade•

drew906•4d ago

Talked to a carpenter buddy about desk sag and it made me check my plywood choice

Ngl I was getting ready to build a new desk with a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood from the big box store. Then I talked to my buddy Marco who builds cabinets for a living. He pointed out that basic pine plywood can bow after a year under a heavy monitor setup. He tested a scrap piece he had and it had almost a quarter inch of deflection over 4 feet. He told me to look for a plywood with more plies or grab a sheet of MDF instead. Has anyone else run into sag issues with the cheap stuff after like 8 months?

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

drew906•8d ago

I spent 4 hours chasing a ghost in the network closet

Last Tuesday I was troubleshooting a PC that kept losing connection every 15 minutes on the dot. I swapped cables, tested the switch port, even replaced the NIC. After 4 hours of this I was ready to pull my hair out. Turned out it was a bad power strip in the closet that was tripping the UPS every time the AC compressor kicked on. The UPS would surge protect for a second and kill the switch port. I felt like such a dummy. Has anyone else spent way too long on a simple fix like this?

2 comments

c/tiny-home-builders•

drew906•14d ago

Saw a guy building a tiny house on a flatbed trailer at the county fair in July

I was at the Washtenaw County fair back in July and this guy had a tiny house setup on a flatbed trailer, just parked near the livestock pens. It was maybe 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, all framed out in pine with these little windows from a salvage yard. He told me he used scrap metal for the roof and a composting toilet from a kit he got online for $250. The thing that got me thinking was how he managed the insulation with such thin walls, like maybe 2x3 studs instead of 2x4. He said he used spray foam but it seemed like it would be tight. Has anyone else tried building on a flatbed and run into weird weight limit problems or moisture issues?

2 comments

c/pets-with-jobs•

drew906•14d ago

I just realized I was brushing my farm dog wrong for two years

Ngl, I've been using a slicker brush on my border collie, Rusty, thinking I was getting all the loose fur out. But my buddy Tom, who runs a sheep farm near Boise, pointed out I was just skimming the top layer and missing the undercoat completely. He showed me one pass with an undercoat rake, and suddenly I had enough fur to stuff a pillow. Has anyone else been using the wrong tool on their working dog's coat?

3 comments

c/fix-it-yourself•

drew906•15d ago

Tried using boiling water to unclog a slow drain and it actually worked

Honestly I had this bathroom sink that was draining super slow for like 2 months. I tried Drano and a plunger and none of it did anything. Then my neighbor told me to boil a full kettle of water and pour it down in 3 stages with 30 seconds between each pour. I was skeptical because I thought hot water would just splash back or crack the pipe. But I did it and after the third pour the water just went straight down like normal. It cleared whatever gunk was in there without any chemicals. Has anyone else tried this on a kitchen sink with a garbage disposal?

2 comments