My buddy was using one of those hiking apps last summer and it took him right off a cliff edge. He had to get rescued by park rangers because the trail just stopped existing. The map showed a solid line but it was basically a straight drop. He still won't use GPS for anything but driving now.

Three days per chair is a real project killer. I wonder if a heat gun on a low setting could help soften those fused spots before you even touch the stripper, making the scraper work easier. You have to be so careful not to scorch the wood though, especially on those thin spindles. It might save your elbows on the next three chairs.

Man, that's a new one... a tree. I once spent an hour pulling a modem out of a crawl space where a raccoon had dragged it. The things we do for signal. You get that call and just know it's gonna be a long day. At least you got it back in one piece.

What's the actual failure rate on those cheap ones though? A few bad crimps out of a hundred is still way cheaper than buying the expensive tool for a one-off job. Sometimes good enough is actually good enough.

Honestly that's the best way to learn the vibe of a place. Everyone's gotta have that one embarrassing first post to break the ice, lol.