Just hit 500 pours on the new green sand line without a single cold shut

Our crew in Toledo started tracking this when we switched to a different bentonite mix last quarter. We hit 500 perfect pours yesterday afternoon, which is a record for that line. The foreman said he hasn't seen a run that clean in over ten years. It saved us a ton of time on grinding and rework. Has anyone else had luck with a specific additive ratio to get consistency like that?

Shoutout to the old timer at the swap meet who said something about film advance gears

He was selling a busted Nikon FM2 and told me he stopped fixing them because the parts are just too brittle now. Said 'you can't make a 40 year old plastic gear act like new, kid' and it stuck with me. How do you guys handle telling a customer their classic camera is basically a donor body?

Talking to a firefighter neighbor changed how I think about system testing

He said their biggest problem is finding a system's main panel during a call, which made me start putting a bright red label on every one I install. How do you guys make sure first responders can find your gear fast?

Had to decide between a wired and wireless retrofit for a big old house in Oak Park

I got a job last month to upgrade an alarm system in a 1920s brick home. The owner wanted full coverage but the walls were solid plaster and lath. I had to pick between trying to run new wires for every sensor or using a wireless retrofit kit that would work with the old panel. I chose the wireless kit, a DSC PowerSeries Neo, because the thought of drilling through all those walls gave me a headache. The install went smooth for most of it, but I did have one motion sensor in the back sunroom that kept dropping its signal. I ended up moving the main receiver to a more central closet and that fixed it. The homeowner is happy, but I still wonder if the wired system would have been more reliable in the long run. Has anyone else had a wireless sensor act up in a house with really thick walls?

Just lost a full day to a coolant leak on a 2015 F-150

Had a truck come in with a slow drip. Pressure test showed nothing, dye test showed nothing. Finally found the leak was from the thermostat housing, but the plastic had a hairline crack you could only see with a mirror and a bright light from underneath. What should have been a one hour job turned into eight hours of hunting. Anyone got a better method for finding those hidden plastic leaks?

Went to the county courthouse to pay a parking ticket and the automated kiosk kept flagging my ID as 'suspicious'. The clerk said it happens a lot to people from my neighborhood.

I saw a post get 10,000 shares for a joke from 2012, and now the comedian is getting hate mail.

I thought those magnesium floats were just a gimmick until I tried one on a 40-yard basement slab last month.

Was reading an old farrier manual from the 1800s and saw they used to charge 25 cents a shoe

Found it at a used book sale in Omaha, and the price list for a full set of shoes was a dollar. My apprentice asked if we could go back to those rates. What's the most surprising old-time fact you've come across in this trade?

Rant: My credit card company just cut my limit by $2,000 without warning

I logged in yesterday and saw my available credit had dropped from $5,000 to $3,000. They said it was a 'routine account review' because I hadn't used the card much in six months. Has anyone had luck getting a limit reinstated after something like this?