Tried a bypass oil filter kit on my Ford 7.3

I put on a bypass oil filter kit from OilGuard about 6 months ago on my 2002 Ford 7.3 Powerstroke. Instead of cleaner oil, my oil analysis came back way worse with higher wear metals than before the kit. Anyone else have a bypass filter setup actually mess up their oil readings?

I picked a local credit union over Chase 8 years ago and never looked back

Back in 2016 I was living in Portland and had to choose between a big bank with a flashy app and a tiny credit union with maybe 3 branches in the whole state. I went with the credit union because they offered free checking with no minimum and actually picked up the phone when I called. 8 years later I've bought a house and two cars through them with zero headaches, so has anyone else found that smaller banks handle the big stuff way better?

Old timer told me to skip the preheat on a 2-inch plate weld. That was a mistake.

I was working on a repair job in a refinery near Baton Rouge last month and this old guy I was paired with told me preheating was unnecessary on that thick material. He said it was just extra work and we'd save time. Long story short, the weld cracked during a hydro test and we had to cut it out and start over. Has anyone else been burned by following advice from a senior guy that just wanted to rush things?

PSA: Track every dollar for three months before you touch a single budgeting app

I was dead set against logging every little coffee and gas station snack, but after trying YNAB for 60 days my savings grew $450 and I finally saw where my money was actually going, has anyone else found that manual tracking beats the apps at first?

Remember when you could fix a radio with just a multimeter and a schematic?

I was working on an old Cessna 172's KX 155 nav/com last week, trying to save the owner some cash. I found a cracked solder joint on a filter cap, reflowed it, and the radio came back to life, but the frequency display was off by about 0.05 MHz. Turns out the old crystal had drifted with age, something a simple visual fix couldn't solve. What's the oldest piece of gear you've brought back from the dead lately?

Rant: Hit 15 years in the trade and the number hit me harder than I thought

Honestly, I was just updating my insurance and saw the start date on my first real paycheck stub. It was from a framing crew in Spokane back in 2009. Ngl, I never kept track, but hitting that 15 year mark made me stop. I've gone from swinging a hammer to running crews and now I'm teaching my own kid the basics. It's wild how much the little tricks add up over that much time. Anyone else get hit by a number like that and realize how much you've actually built?

Honestly, I had a drafting epiphany while trying to fix my kid's toy car last weekend.

Ngl, it was a cheap plastic thing, but the axle was snapped. I was about to just glue it, but then I looked at the broken piece and realized the whole axle was just a simple cylinder. It had no shoulder or groove for the wheel to lock onto, so any sideways force would pop it right out. I ended up sketching a quick redesign in CAD, adding a little lip, and 3D printed a new one. It works perfectly now. It made me think about how often we overcomplicate stuff at work when sometimes the fix is just seeing the basic load path. Anyone else ever have a random household thing make you rethink a drafting principle?

Remembering that week in 2008 when the whole city felt like one big family

It was right after the big earthquake in Sichuan, and I was living in Chengdu at the time. For about a week, everyone just dropped what they were doing to help. My apartment building set up a donation point in the lobby, and we filled three whole trucks with bottled water, instant noodles, and blankets. The most striking thing was the line of taxis at the edge of town, all volunteering to drive supplies to the affected areas for free. You'd see people in the street, strangers, just checking if each other's families were okay. The normal city noise was gone, replaced by a quiet kind of teamwork. It was a terrible reason for it, but I've never felt a stronger sense of community anywhere else. Does anyone else who was there during that time have a small moment from those days that stuck with them?

I made a big pot of chili with ground turkey instead of beef for the first time last month

My friend in Portland warned me about posting a certain meme last month

He said the image of the politician with the edited caption would get flagged, and I didn't listen. Sure enough, my account on a big platform got a 30 day suspension for 'harmful misinformation'. It makes me wonder where the line is between a joke and something they think is dangerous. Has anyone else had a meme taken down that was just meant to be silly?