Kai Nelson (u/the_kai)

Posts

Just realized my old way of sharpening chisels was costing me time and finish quality.

I switched from a basic oil stone to a two-sided diamond plate three months ago, and the edge now holds for a whole week of heavy use instead of needing a touch-up every day. Anyone have a favorite angle guide they'd recommend for keeping it consistent?

3 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

the_kai•2mo ago

Showerthought: my $30 travel towel from a shop in Bangkok was the best thing I ever packed

I almost didn't buy it because it seemed like a silly extra thing, but it dried so fast after beach days in Koh Lanta that I never had a wet, sandy mess in my bag. It packed down to the size of a soda can and saved me from paying for overpriced rentals at three different hostels. Has anyone found a specific item like that which seemed small but saved a bunch of money?

3 comments

c/ask-anything•

the_kai•2mo ago

My whole website vanished from Google search results overnight

Logged in Monday morning to check my site's traffic and saw a flat line... zero visits from organic search. It was ranking on page one for 'landscaping services near me' for months. I checked Google Search Console and there's no manual action, no security issues flagged. It just... dropped. I've been reading about core updates but this feels like a total wipeout, not a slow dip. Has anyone else had their entire site disappear like this after the May update? What did you do to get it back?

3 comments

c/florists•

the_kai•3mo ago

Warning: I tried a new flower food from a vendor and it killed a whole batch of lisianthus

I had this new sales rep come in about three weeks ago pushing their 'premium' flower food, saying it would double vase life. I usually stick with the powder I've used for years, but they gave me a free sample pack. So I tried it on a shipment of 50 lisianthus stems I got in for a wedding. Big mistake. Within two days, the stems were slimy and the buds just drooped and turned brown. The batch I kept in my regular food is still perfect. The new stuff had this weird chemical smell and turned the water cloudy fast. I'm out about $75 on those flowers, not to mention the panic of replacing them. Has anyone else had a bad batch of preservative ruin good stock? What brand do you actually trust?

3 comments

c/cnc-operators•

the_kai•3mo ago

Spent three hours chasing a weird noise that turned out to be a zip tie

I was running a job on our old Haas VF2 yesterday, a simple aluminum bracket, and about halfway through I start hearing this faint, high-pitched buzzing sound. It wasn't the spindle or the coolant pump, it was something else. I mean, I shut everything down, checked all the way covers, the cable carriers, even pulled the way covers back thinking maybe a chip got stuck somewhere. My lead hand came over and we both just stood there listening, poking around for like an hour. Finally, I'm laying on the floor with a flashlight and I spot it. A single, leftover black zip tie from some old wiring was dangling just enough to tap against the sheet metal cabinet door with every tiny vibration from the machine. Snapped it off and the noise was gone. Has anyone else ever lost a huge chunk of time to something that dumb?

3 comments

Posts

Just realized my old way of sharpening chisels was costing me time and finish quality.

Showerthought: my $30 travel towel from a shop in Bangkok was the best thing I ever packed

My whole website vanished from Google search results overnight

Warning: I tried a new flower food from a vendor and it killed a whole batch of lisianthus

Spent three hours chasing a weird noise that turned out to be a zip tie

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