I used to think the 'One Piece' filler arcs were pointless, but a friend in Chicago made me watch the G-8 arc.

Tried a different sand mix for a small bronze pour and it totally backfired

I was doing a small art piece at home, a bronze owl about 8 inches tall, and decided to mess with my usual green sand recipe. I added a bit more bentonite than normal, thinking it would give me a sharper finish on the feathers. Big mistake, lol. The mold held too much moisture and when I poured, it steamed like crazy and caused a bunch of tiny blow holes all over the surface. The whole piece looked like it had acne. I had to spend like three hours grinding and patching it. Learned that even a 5% change in your mix can wreck a pour if you don't dry it out right. Anyone have a good rule of thumb for how long to let a tweaked mold dry before you pour?

I finally found my old film shots from the 1999 solar eclipse

Cleaned out a box in my garage. Found a roll of Kodak Gold 200 from that day. I had a cheap telescope and a homemade solar filter. The photos are blurry and the colors are weird. But you can see the diamond ring effect. It took me three tries to get that shot. Anyone else have old eclipse photos they dug up?

My sauerkraut bubbled over at 3 AM and I'm not even mad

I had a jar of caraway kraut going in the pantry for about 8 days. Woke up to a weird sound and found a slow, steady river of brine had leaked onto the shelf. Cleaned it up, put the jar in a bowl, and went back to bed. The smell in the kitchen the next morning was perfect, tangy and alive. Has anyone else had a really active ferment that made a mess but turned out great?

A customer brought in a bike with a seized seatpost that had been stuck for over a year.

I tried the usual ammonia mix first, but it didn't budge. Then I heated the seat tube with a heat gun for about three minutes, focusing on the area just below the top tube junction. The aluminum post finally twisted out with a loud crack, and the inside of the steel tube was covered in white corrosion powder. What's your go-to method for a post that's been frozen that long?

Serious question, why does everyone say you can't fix a broken hollandaise?

My sauce split during a 150-cover brunch shift in Portland last month, and I was told to just start over. Instead, I whisked in a single ice cube, and it came back together perfectly in about 10 seconds. Has anyone else tried this, or is there a better trick?

My recent health scare made me rethink shop safety

After years of ignoring it, I finally saw a doctor about my cough. Turns out, all that sawdust without a proper mask did some damage. Please, folks, wear a respirator, not just a bandana.

I quit saying 'BSOD' after a customer thought it was a bad word.