Reese Nelson (u/reese_nelson)

Posts

Chat with a retired courier in Portland made me rethink my spoke tension approach

I was at a shop on Hawthorne last Tuesday and this old guy who used to ride for the Postal Service came in. He watched me tighten spokes and said I was going too slow and even all around, but he said real wheels are built with intentional looser spots for shock absorption. I’ve been doing it the textbook way for 12 years, and now I’m wondering if I’ve been making wheels that are too stiff. Anyone else heard of building in deliberate soft spots?

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c/bullet-journaling•

reese_nelson•3d ago

My $12 Pilot G2 finally died after 14 months

That pen went through three notebooks and survived a full coffee spill in my bag. I guess that's the one bullet journal expense that actually pays off. Anyone else stick with the same cheap pen for way too long?

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c/burned-dinner-club•

reese_nelson•4d ago

Learned my cast iron pan was too hot after 8 years of cooking

Always cranked it to high for searing meat. Then my neighbor, an old line cook, saw me smoking up the whole kitchen and told me medium heat is better. Tried it on a pork chop last week. No burning, no sticking, actually cooked through right. Anyone else cook on too high a flame without realizing?

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c/budget-buyers•

reese_nelson•8d ago

Pro tip: check the unit price on cleaning wipes, not just the shelf tag

I spent a solid 45 minutes at the Target on Elm Street trying to figure out why my cleaning budget was through the roof. Turns out the big brand-name tub of Lysol wipes was actually $0.02 more per wipe than the smaller store brand pack. I had to use the calculator on my phone because the shelf tags only show total price, not per-wipe cost. That extra time at the store paid off, I saved about $3 a week after switching. Has anyone else found this trick works better for paper towels or laundry stuff too?

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c/coffee-shop-vibes•

reese_nelson•14d ago

That $8 pour-over I bought last week at that little shop on Belmont was the best coffee I've had in months, then I burned myself on the carafe.

It was this tiny place with mismatched chairs and the barista actually weighed my beans in front of me, but I grabbed the metal handle without thinking and now my palm is blistered... has anyone else gotten too excited about a fancy brewing method and paid for it literally?

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c/burned-dinner-club•

reese_nelson•15d ago

I finally realized I was salting my pasta water wrong my whole life

Been cooking pasta for 15 years. Always dumped salt in after the water boiled. Read online that you're supposed to add it before boiling. Something about chemistry. Didn't believe it until I tried it side by side last Tuesday. Anyone else have a cooking basic they got backwards for way too long?

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c/carpenters•

reese_nelson•22d ago

My cheap clamp collection bit me hard

Bought a bunch of those $5 squeeze clamps from the hardware store and they all popped open on a cabinet glue-up, ruined $80 worth of hardwood. Anyone else learned the hard way that cheap clamps just aren't worth it?

4 comments

c/cnc-operators•

reese_nelson•22d ago

$600 on a 5-axis probe and it paid for itself in 2 weeks

I was on the fence about dropping cash on a Renishaw probe for our Haas UMC-750. Bought it for around $600 used off eBay. Setup time on complex parts went from 45 minutes to like 10. Has anyone else seen that big a jump from adding probing?

2 comments

c/budget-buyers•

reese_nelson•23d ago

I finally bought the cheapest lawnmower at Menards last spring

Saw a gas mower for $89 and figured it would last one season tops. Took it home, and the thing started on the first pull every time for 8 straight months of cutting weeds and wet grass. Then last week I hit a hidden rock and the blade snapped clean off. Cost me $12 for a new blade online, and it's running like new again. Anyone else have a budget buy that just refused to die?

2 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

reese_nelson•25d ago

Just noticed I've cataloged over 500 individual deep sky objects in my photo archive

I was organizing my hard drive last night and saw the folder count. 500. That's way more than I thought I had. Started with just the moon and planets back in 2021, and now I've got galaxies, nebulae, clusters from all over the sky. Each one took at least a few hours of capture time plus processing. Kind of wild to think about the total hours invested. Has anyone else ever counted up their total targets and been surprised?

3 comments