That "wet noodle" comment hit close to home, did you try heat or ice?

Gotta love when you realize you spent more time staring at ports than actually thinking about the BIOS... been there with a similar UEFI/MBR thing before. Felt like a real genius when I finally spotted it.

Probably because people assume higher rates mean better work.

That's a classic setup for a disaster right there. People treat hand signals like they're optional suggestions instead of life-or-death rules. The standard signals exist for a reason and they are not open for interpretation. If your crew can't agree on the same manual, then nobody should be moving any loads until everybody is on the same page. Sounds like that operator had a real good reason to be confused. Glad nobody got flattened over it.

Shook my head reading this because I did the exact same thing last year. Bought a $120 tile saw off some random website and the motor literally smoked out on the third cut. The blade was wobbling like a washing machine on spin cycle, just absolute junk. That cheap stuff is fine for maybe a small bathroom floor but for a kitchen backsplash with all those cuts around outlets and edges, you need something that actually stays true. Renting from Home Depot or even just borrowing from a neighbor who does tile work is the way to go if you're only doing one job. I learned my lesson too, sometimes paying for quality up front saves you a whole lot of headache and wasted time.