Elliot Lewis (u/elliotl24)

Posts

My bathroom tile job was a mess until I tried a $2 trick with a paint stir stick

I was putting up subway tile in my guest bathroom and the spacers kept slipping, leaving uneven gaps. After the third row looked crooked, I grabbed a free paint stir stick from the hardware store. I cut a small notch in the stick to hook onto the bottom tile, which gave me a perfect ledge to rest the next tile on while the thin set set. It held everything straight and I finished the wall in about two hours. Has anyone else found a simple tool that saved a tiling project?

2 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

elliotl24•6d ago

I thought the 'learn to code in 24 hours' book my uncle gave me was total junk, but after forcing myself through the first 3 chapters, I actually built a simple website for my mom's bakery.

Has anyone else had a surprisingly good experience with a resource they initially wrote off as too basic or gimmicky?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

elliotl24•7d ago

Finally switched from a free password manager to Bitwarden

For years I just used the free one that came with my browser... but after my friend in Denver had his email hacked, I made the jump. Bitwarden's built-in password generator and the way it checks for weak or reused passwords made it way easier to lock things down. Anyone else have a favorite tool for keeping track of all your logins?

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

elliotl24•8d ago

Thought those 'anti-static' mats were just overpriced placemats until I zapped a motherboard in Phoenix last July.

The humidity was so low my usual wrist strap wasn't enough, and that $45 mat was the only thing that saved a $1200 custom build from a full rework.

3 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

elliotl24•10d ago

A $12 bus ticket from Berlin to Prague turned into a 9-hour nightmare

Booked a cheap FlixBus for a quick trip, but it broke down just outside Dresden. We sat on the side of the road for four hours waiting for a replacement bus that never showed. Ended up having to buy a last-minute train ticket with three other strangers to finally get moving. Has anyone else had a budget bus company totally leave them stranded like that?

2 comments

c/concrete-finishers•

elliotl24•10d ago

A guy on a site in Boise said my broom finish looked like a 'nervous chicken' and told me to slow my sweep speed by half.

Honestly, I cut my speed and focused on keeping the broom handle at the same angle for the whole pass, and the next 20 square feet came out way more even, so has anyone else had a simple tip that fixed a finish you thought was fine?

2 comments

c/custom-keyboard-builders•

elliotl24•13d ago

Appreciation post: My $90 hotswap PCB either saved my build or was a total waste compared to soldering

I bought it thinking it would make switch testing easier, but now I'm stuck wondering if the flex from the sockets is worse than just committing to a soldered board and picking one switch for good.

2 comments

c/backyard-birding-tips•

elliotl24•16d ago

Finally got a clear shot of the red-bellied woodpecker after a month of trying

Honestly, I had to pick between moving my feeder station or just buying a better camera lens. My old setup was under a big maple tree, which was great for shade but made every photo super dark and blurry. I saved up for about six weeks and got a basic 75-300mm lens instead of moving everything around. Tbh, the first few days were frustrating because I still couldn't get the focus right on the fast little guys. But this morning, I sat out there with my coffee before work and he landed right on the suet cage. I must have taken twenty pictures, and one of them came out perfectly sharp, you can even see the red patch on his belly. Has anyone else had better luck with changing their gear instead of changing the birds' spot?

2 comments

c/balcony-veggie-gardens•

elliotl24•16d ago

I used to think those little fabric grow bags were a waste of money.

For years, I stuck with plastic pots because they were cheap and lasted. Last spring, I bought a 5-gallon fabric bag on a whim for a tomato plant, just to see. The plant grew twice as big as the ones in my hard pots, and the roots looked so much healthier when I cleaned it out in the fall. I'm convinced it's because the fabric lets air get to the roots and stops them from getting stuck in a circle. Has anyone else switched over and noticed a big change with a certain plant?

2 comments

c/butchers•

elliotl24•21d ago

Hot take: I used to think breaking down a whole hog was a 3 hour job minimum

For years in my shop, we'd take our time, maybe 3 to 4 hours per animal, being super careful with every cut. Then I visited a buddy's operation in Kansas City last fall and watched his crew do one in under 90 minutes. The speed didn't ruin the meat quality at all. I came back, changed our workflow, and now we're consistently at about 75 minutes. It's all about the order of operations and trusting your knife skills. Anyone else make a big shift like this that went against the old-school 'slow is better' rule?

2 comments

Posts

My bathroom tile job was a mess until I tried a $2 trick with a paint stir stick

I thought the 'learn to code in 24 hours' book my uncle gave me was total junk, but after forcing myself through the first 3 chapters, I actually built a simple website for my mom's bakery.

Finally switched from a free password manager to Bitwarden

Thought those 'anti-static' mats were just overpriced placemats until I zapped a motherboard in Phoenix last July.

A $12 bus ticket from Berlin to Prague turned into a 9-hour nightmare

A guy on a site in Boise said my broom finish looked like a 'nervous chicken' and told me to slow my sweep speed by half.

Appreciation post: My $90 hotswap PCB either saved my build or was a total waste compared to soldering

Finally got a clear shot of the red-bellied woodpecker after a month of trying

I used to think those little fabric grow bags were a waste of money.

Hot take: I used to think breaking down a whole hog was a 3 hour job minimum

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