Tried a trick with a heat gun on a stubborn connector and now I'm rethinking everything

Had this old D-sub connector on a nav unit that just would not come apart, the locking screws were fused solid. A guy at the hangar in Tucson said to give it a quick, gentle heat with a heat gun to break the corrosion bond. I set my heat gun to about 250 degrees and gave it a few passes... and the whole plastic housing on the connector softened and warped. Not a meltdown, but enough to make it unusable. I was so focused on the screws I didn't think about the housing material being that sensitive. Ended up having to replace the whole connector assembly, which took an extra three hours. Learned the hard way that 'gentle heat' means something very different depending on who's saying it and what plastic you're dealing with. What's your go-to method for seized connectors when you can't just cut and crimp a new one?

Looking through some old trade journals and found a surprising number

I was reading a 1978 issue of 'The Guild of Book Workers' newsletter and it said a full-time binder could hand-sew about 15 books a week. I mean, that's way slower than I would've guessed. Does anyone know if that was a normal pace back then?

PSA: That 'simple' headband repair on a 1902 atlas took me three hours

I thought I could just glue a new piece of linen tape in place and be done in twenty minutes. The old adhesive had turned to dust, but the real problem was the tiny, frayed sewing threads from the original binding that kept getting in the way. I ended up having to carefully unpick about an inch of the old spine lining with a micro spatula before I could even start. Has anyone found a better tool for cleaning out that kind of old thread mess without damaging the text block?

I was sure a Coptic stitch would fall apart on a big book, but I was wrong

For a 400-page art book project, I was stuck between a standard case binding and trying a Coptic stitch for the first time. I picked the Coptic stitch because the client wanted it to lay flat, and after using 4-ply Irish linen thread, the thing is solid as a rock. Has anyone else used a Coptic stitch on a book over an inch thick and had it hold up okay?

PSA: I tried to organize a local comic swap meet and it turned into a weird scalper convention

Set it up at the community center last Saturday, thinking it'd be chill. Charged $5 a table. Out of 15 sellers, like 12 were just guys with stacks of polybagged #1s from the 90s trying to sell them for crazy prices. One guy quoted me $80 for a 'near mint' Spawn #1, which is wild. My friend who just wanted to trade some old X-Men issues left after 20 minutes. Learned that if you don't have super strict rules about what counts as a 'fan swap' and not a storefront, it gets taken over fast. Anyone know how to actually run a good, non-scalper event? Do you need to vet people beforehand?

Question about using a trunk injection system for a client's sick oak

I was always skeptical about systemic treatments, thinking they were a gimmick, but a job on a 60-year-old pin oak in Decatur changed my mind. The client insisted on trying a micro-injection for chlorosis, and after one season, the leaf color improved dramatically. Has anyone else had a specific case where an injection proved its worth?

My shop did 72 weddings this spring and it's making me rethink our whole business model

I just ran the numbers for March through June, and we booked 72 full wedding packages. That's up from 48 last year. The crazy part is, we're a small three-person shop in a town of 30,000 people. I always thought we'd cap out around 50 because of our size and the local market. Now I'm stuck between two ideas. On one side, this growth is amazing and we should ride the wave, maybe even hire a fourth person. On the other, I'm worried we're becoming a wedding factory and losing the personal touch that got us here in the first place. My lead designer is already feeling the strain, and I caught myself mixing up two brides' color palettes last week, which is a first. Has anyone else hit a volume number that forced you to choose between growing bigger or staying small and hands-on? How did you decide?

Got called out for my hand signal speed on a site in Phoenix

My spotter told me straight up, 'You're moving too fast, I can't read you,' after I nearly swung a load over a parked truck. I slowed my signals down by half and now I count to two between each one. How do you guys make sure your signals are clear without slowing the whole lift down?

I bought a $40 single-wall titanium mug because everyone said it was the best, and I burned my hand the first time I used it.

All the reviews talked about how light it was and how fast it boiled water. They were right about that, but nobody mentioned you literally cannot touch the thing without a glove once it's hot. I was making coffee at a site in the White Mountains and went to move it off the stove. Big mistake. Had to wrap my bandana around it just to pick it up. Learned that 'ultralight' sometimes just means 'missing a handle'. What do you guys use for a hot drink that you can actually hold?

My aunt told me my sourdough starter looked 'sick' and to throw it out, right before it tripled in size.