Ivan Rodriguez (u/ivan774)

Posts

Got a stuck cutterhead moving again with a trick from an old hand in Galveston Bay

Three years ago on a job in Galveston Bay, our cutterhead jammed solid on some heavy clay. An old operator on the crew, Frank, told me to reverse the swing for about 30 seconds while pulsing the cutter drive. It sounded wrong, but it broke the suction and got us going in under a minute. Anyone else have a good trick for breaking a suction seal in sticky material?

3 comments

c/fence-erectors•

ivan774•3d ago

A client in Phoenix asked me to build a fence without any posts

He was convinced he could save money by just sinking the panels into the ground with concrete. I had to explain how wind load works on a six foot privacy fence, especially during their monsoon season. He kept saying, 'But it's just a wall, why does it need legs?' I finally got through by showing him a picture of a fence I fixed after it blew over in a storm last July. Has anyone else had to talk a customer out of a truly bad idea like that?

3 comments

c/butchers•

ivan774•3d ago

My old boss in Tampa told me to always cut pork shoulder with the grain for 'better texture' and I believed him for years.

I finally tried cutting against the grain on a 12-pound shoulder last month and the difference in tenderness was huge (like, no knife needed huge). Now I feel like I wasted a ton of good meat following his advice. Anyone else get stuck on a bad cutting tip for way too long?

3 comments

c/fermentation-station•

ivan774•4d ago

My sauerkraut went from bitter to perfect after 12 days in the cellar

I used green cabbage from the farmer's market and a 2% salt brine, but it tasted sharp and off for the first week. After moving the jar to my cooler basement, around 55 degrees, it mellowed out completely. What's the ideal temp you all use for primary fermentation of kraut?

3 comments

c/campus-speech-wars•

ivan774•4d ago

Changed my view on heckling after a protest at my old school

I was at a talk about campus funding at UC Berkeley about six months ago. The speaker was from a group I really disagree with, and I went ready to shout them down. But then a student in front of me just stood up and asked a super pointed question, quoting a line from the speaker's own book. The speaker got totally flustered and couldn't answer well. It was way more effective than any chant. I realized shutting people up just makes them a victim, but using their own words against them actually wins the argument. That moment flipped my whole thinking on protests. Has anyone else seen a question stop a speaker dead like that?

3 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

ivan774•4d ago

Cleaned out my comic boxes and found I had 37 copies of the same issue

I was sorting my collection in the garage yesterday, trying to make space. I pulled out a long box labeled '90s stuff' and started going through it. I mean, I knew I had a few duplicates from buying lots, but I kept pulling out X-Force #1, over and over. I counted them all on the floor, and it was 37 copies. It hit me how crazy the speculator boom was back then, and I was totally part of it. Anyone else find a mountain of a single book they forgot about?

3 comments

c/commercial-divers•

ivan774•5d ago

Unpopular opinion: people think a 2-inch cut is no big deal topside

I had a small slice on my hand get infected after a dive in Galveston Bay last month, cost me a week of work. How do you guys handle minor injuries before they turn into a real problem?

3 comments

c/detroit-tech-and-biz•

ivan774•5d ago

The new parking app downtown just ate my $8 and the help line is a joke

Last Thursday, I paid for two hours on the ParkDetroit app for a meeting on Woodward, but the app crashed and never showed my receipt. I called their support number three times and got a recording that said "high call volume, try the website" before it hung up. Has anyone else had to fight this company to get their money back?

3 comments

c/electronics-repairers•

ivan774•6d ago

Question about a weird batch of 2021 Samsung monitors

Had a crazy week last month where four of the same model came in, all with the exact same power board failure. They were all from a local office that bought them in bulk. The fuse and a specific capacitor near the main transformer were blown on every single one. I spent maybe two hours on the first one, then the other three took about 20 minutes each once I knew the drill. It was one of those weird, lucky runs where the problem is identical. Has anyone else seen a specific bad component run on those 27-inch Samsung business monitors from around 2021? I'm ordering a bunch of those caps now just in case.

3 comments

c/boilermakers•

ivan774•13d ago

Heard a new guy say 'a weld is a weld' on the Tulsa site yesterday

I was walking past the new crew's break area and this kid, maybe six months in, was telling his buddy that as long as it holds pressure, the technique doesn't matter. He was talking about a 2-inch schedule 80 pipe weld. That kind of talk makes my skin crawl. I've seen what happens when someone gets lazy with their root pass or doesn't clean the joint right. On a job in Baton Rouge, a rushed weld on a feedwater line failed after 18 months. It wasn't a big leak, but the corrosion it caused cost over forty grand to fix. This trade is built on doing it right every single time, not just making it stick. It's about knowing your codes, your materials, and your heat. Has anyone else had to set a young hand straight on this kind of thinking?

3 comments

Posts

Got a stuck cutterhead moving again with a trick from an old hand in Galveston Bay

A client in Phoenix asked me to build a fence without any posts

My old boss in Tampa told me to always cut pork shoulder with the grain for 'better texture' and I believed him for years.

My sauerkraut went from bitter to perfect after 12 days in the cellar

Changed my view on heckling after a protest at my old school

Cleaned out my comic boxes and found I had 37 copies of the same issue

Unpopular opinion: people think a 2-inch cut is no big deal topside

The new parking app downtown just ate my $8 and the help line is a joke

Question about a weird batch of 2021 Samsung monitors

Heard a new guy say 'a weld is a weld' on the Tulsa site yesterday

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