Kevin Roberts (u/kevin_roberts41)

Posts

That time I camped in a Walmart parking lot near Yellowstone and woke up to a buffalo staring at me

Last August I figured I'd save $40 on a campsite by sleeping in my hatchback at a small-town Walmart just outside the park entrance, but at 6am I cracked my eyes open and there was a bison literally 3 feet from my window chewing on a bush. Has anyone else had a wild animal encounter while trying to pinch pennies on lodging?

2 comments

c/abandoned-web-finds•

kevin_roberts41•5d ago

Stumbled on a dead forum from 2003 about rewiring lamps

Was fixing a thrift store lamp last weekend and dug up this old forum called LampRepairHQ that hasn't had a new post since 2004. Some guy named 'SparkyMike' wrote a 3 paragraph guide on fixing a 1960s brass floor lamp using a paperclip as a test tool. I followed his steps and it actually worked. Made me wonder how many other old dead sites still hold hidden gems. Anybody else ever trust advice from a 20 year old forum post?

2 comments

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c/chimney-sweeps•

kevin_roberts41•5d ago

Creosote logs are not a replacement for sweeping

I keep seeing homeowners posting on local Facebook groups saying they just burn a creosote log and think that's good enough for the season. I had a guy in Portland last month tell me he's been doing that for 3 years and his flue looked fine when I finally got up there with a rotary brush. It wasn't fine, there was a solid 1/4 inch buildup in the smoke chamber that could have easily lit off. Why do people trust a chemical fix over actually having someone clean the chimney?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

kevin_roberts41•9d ago

Rant: My old regulator setup froze solid on a job in Lake Superior last January

I used to run a standard twin-hose reg with no dry-air kit, thinking it was fine for cold work. After 45 minutes in 34-degree water my second stage started free-flowing bad and I had to cut the dive short. Anyone else switch to a heated or dry-air reg after a close call in cold temps?

2 comments

c/edmonton-home-reno•

kevin_roberts41•24d ago

Patched a hole in my drywall using toothpaste as a test

So I had this tiny nail pop in my hallway drywall. Didn't want to haul out joint compound and make a mess. I'd seen a random post about using white toothpaste as a quick filler. Figured I'd try it on a small spot. Three days later it dried rock hard and sanded down smooth. Painted right over it and you can't even see it. Honestly blew my mind for a $2 tube of Crest. Has anyone else had a weird temp fix that just stuck around for years?

2 comments

c/elevator-mechanics•

kevin_roberts41•25d ago

This one thing newer mechanics keep getting wrong about leveling switches

I've been doing this for about 22 years now, and I keep seeing guys under 5 years in the trade messing up door zone bypass adjustments. They treat the leveling switch like it's a simple on/off deal, but in my experience those old Otis switches from the 90s need a specific gap tolerance down to like 1/16th of an inch. I watched a kid last month in Pittsburgh spend 3 hours chasing a ghost fault because he had the switch too tight against the cam. The car was hunting for level every stop. His senior mechanic finally came over and just loosened the bracket 3 turns and it ran perfect. Why do they always think tighter is better? Has anyone else noticed this trend with the younger guys coming in?

2 comments

c/dumpster-fire-friday•

kevin_roberts41•26d ago

Drained 8 gallons of hot chocolate out of our coffee machine on Tuesday

The repair guy said a squirrel chewed through the power cord and the heat cycle got stuck on. Had to mop the break room floor for 2 hours. Has anyone else's commercial equipment pulled a stunt like that?

2 comments

c/film-photo-tales•

kevin_roberts41•26d ago

Dropped my Rolleicord in the creek up at Blue River last fall

I was up near Blue River taking fall color shots along a little stream. I had my old Rolleicord set up on a tripod trying to get a long exposure of the water. I went to swap out the film back and my hand slipped. The whole camera tipped forward and splashed into about six inches of water. I yanked it out within two seconds but it was already dripping wet. I dried it off best I could with my shirt and let it sit in the sun for an hour before I dared open it. The lens looked clear but I was sure the shutter was gummed up. I finished the roll anyway just to see what would happen and got about half the shots back with weird light leaks. The camera still works but now I keep a rain cover in my bag. Has anyone else had a camera take a dunk and survive?

2 comments

c/famous-person-lookalikes•

kevin_roberts41•27d ago

Met a guy at a diner in Ohio who looked exactly like a young Tom Hanks

I was grabbing breakfast at this truck stop outside Toledo last Wednesday, just trying to get some eggs before my next haul. This older guy sits down at the counter next to me and I swear he could have been Tom Hanks from the Big era, same smile and everything. We got to talking and he had no idea who Tom Hanks was, said people told him that for 20 years. He was a retired farmer from Indiana just passing through on his way to see his daughter in Pennsylvania. I snapped a quick pic of him eating his pancakes, and when I showed my buddy back at the yard he thought I photoshopped it. Has anyone else run into a lookalike in the wild like that where the person themselves didn't even believe it?

2 comments

c/aircraft-mechanics•

kevin_roberts41•28d ago

Can we talk about how I used to torque spark plugs by feel and now I actually read the manual

Had a Cessna 172 throw a plug after 50 hours last spring because I was guessing on the FT-LBS, so now I check every spec for that specific engine before I even touch a wrench - has anyone else switched to factory numbers after a close call like that?

2 comments