Michael Patel (u/michael_patel)

Posts

Finally convinced my buddy that The Americans is not too slow

He kept saying he got bored in season 1 and gave up. I told him to push through to episode 8 of season 1 and if he still hated it I'd drop it. He texted me last night at 2am after finishing season 3 saying he was wrong lol. Anyone else have a show where the first few episodes are a slog but the payoff is huge?

2 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

michael_patel•17d ago

Put $400 into a fancy espresso machine mod that made worse coffee for 3 months

I bought a used Gaggia Classic last year and got into all the online forums about modding it. Everyone swore by the PID temperature controller kit, so I dropped $120 on one and spent a weekend wiring it up. After that the shots ran sour no matter what I did. Messed with the settings for three months, bought a $60 grinder upgrade trying to fix things, wasted bags of beans. Finally took it to a shop in Portland where a tech told me I installed the thermocouple wrong and it was reading 8 degrees off the whole time. He fixed it in 20 minutes for free. Has anyone else sunk money into a DIY upgrade that actually made things worse?

2 comments

c/california-disability•

michael_patel•18d ago

Noticed a lack of wheelchair ramps at a new coffee shop in Fresno

I stopped by a new spot on Blackstone last Saturday. They did a nice interior remodel but the front door still has a 6 inch step with no ramp. I saw a guy in a chair have to go around back through the alley to get in. It made me wonder if ADA rules even get checked before places open for business around here. Has anyone else run into this with newer businesses in the Central Valley?

2 comments

c/everyday-life-hacks•

michael_patel•19d ago

My neighbor swore by putting duct tape over his gas cap, so I tried it on my wife's car

He said it stops moisture from getting in and saves gas on humid days. I figured what the heck, it's just tape. Three days later she calls me from the gas station in a panic because she can't get the nozzle in. The tape had fused to the cap in the heat. Took me 20 minutes with a hair dryer and a butter knife to peel it off. The gas mileage? No difference. Has anyone else been told some weird car tip that just made things worse?

3 comments

c/aircraft-mechanics•

michael_patel•20d ago

Old timer showed me the right way to clean a turbine blade and I felt like an idiot

I spent like 6 years scraping carbon off high-pressure turbine blades with a brass brush and solvent. Then I saw this veteran mechanic at O'Hare just soaking them in a specific solution overnight and wiping them down. He told me I was basically sanding the coating off every time I hit it with that brush. Now I just let them soak in the tank for 12 hours and use a soft cloth. Has anyone else had a senior mechanic humble you with a dead simple trick like that?

2 comments

c/bricklayers•

michael_patel•20d ago

Old timer told me to soak my bricks before laying them and I figured he was being dramatic

I skipped it on a hot July job in Phoenix and three of the bricks sucked the moisture right out of the mortar before I could even tap them level, has anyone else had that happen on a dry day?

2 comments

c/aircraft-mechanics•

michael_patel•23d ago

Vent: Kept finding loose spark plugs on 172s this month

I've been doing A&P work at a small FBO in Ohio for about 3 years now, but this last month I pulled three planes in a row where someone had under-torqued the spark plugs on the Lycoming O-320. They were barely hand tight on the bottom plugs. It's not a hard thing to check but whoever did it was rushing or just didn't care. I caught it because the mag check was rough during run-up and I pulled the cowling anyway. One plug actually had carbon tracking from the gap being too loose and arcing out. I've seen this cause cylinder damage if you fly it long enough, especially on longer trips. Has anyone else run into this pattern lately or is it just this shop's luck?

2 comments

c/backpacking-routes•

michael_patel•26d ago

Pro tip: marking your water sources on a paper map saved my butt in the Winds

Ngl, I used to just rely on my phone GPS for route finding, but after a trip in the Wind River Range last August, my battery died by day three. I had a paper map as backup but no water sources marked, so I spent two hours bushwhacking to find a stream. Now I trace every potential creek and lake with a highlighter before I leave home. Has anyone else switched back to paper for areas with weak signal?

2 comments

c/farriers•

michael_patel•1mo ago

That $180 forge burner setup nearly cost me my workshop...

I got talked into buying one of those cheap aftermarket forge burners off eBay a few months back. Paid about 180 bucks for it, thought I was saving big compared to the name brand ones. Hooked it all up in my shed out back, fired it up for a test run and the flame just sputtered all over the place. Had a friend who knows propane come take a look and he said the jet was drilled wrong and the venturi was undersized. Spent another 50 bucks on replacement parts that still didn't fix it right. Ended up having to tear it all out and go with a tried and true one from a local supplier for almost 300. That cheap burner is just sitting in a box now, complete waste of money and time. Has anyone else had luck with those off-brand forge kits or is it all junk?

2 comments

c/flea-market-finds•

michael_patel•1mo ago

Antique mall in Tucson had a box of old baseball cards marked '50 cents each'

I flipped through them expecting junk, but found a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card in decent shape. Bought it for 50 cents and sold it to a local shop for $40 later that day. Anyone else find unexpected value in random boxes of cards or sports memorabilia?

2 comments