Hit 500 shutter repairs last month and it changed my mind about cleaning them

I always thought you had to fully disassemble and soak every shutter curtain to get them working right. That's the popular method on this forum, I know. But after fixing about 500 of them over 4 years in my shop in Portland, I found that just blowing out the old dust and oiling the pivot points fixes 8 out of 10 shutters. People say you're cutting corners, but my success rate is the same and I save 20 minutes per camera. Anyone else have a number of repairs that made them rethink the standard way?

Had a shutter curtain fall off mid-roll on a Yashica yesterday

I was testing a Yashica-Mat I just got in, running a roll of cheap film through it to check speeds. About frame 8 I heard a thud inside and the mirror locked up. Opened it up and the entire first curtain had slipped its track, just dangling by one string. Took me 45 minutes with tweezers and a loupe to get it back in place. Anyone else had a curtain just give up like that on an old TLR?

Spent $250 on a hydraulic post driver attachment and it either saved my back or wasted my money depending on who you ask

I got that Skid Steer auger attachment and it ripped through frozen ground in 10 seconds flat, but my buddy says hand-digging gives you better control on rocky soil and now I'm wondering which of us is right - anyone else go back and forth on power tools vs. manual labor on tough jobs?

Had a client tell me her last esthetician burned her face with a peel

I was working on a client last Thursday in my little room near Portland. She told me her previous esthetician used a 30% glycolic peel on her without checking her skin type first. She ended up with red marks for weeks and was scared to try facials again. It took me about 3 sessions of just gentle cleansing and hydration to get her skin back to normal. She finally trusted me enough for a mild lactic peel last month and it went great. Has anyone else had to repair damage from someone else's mistake? How do you handle those first appointments?

Hit 5000 miles on my Honda Civic last month and still haven't fixed the check engine light

I know people are loyal to Toyota or whatever but my 2013 Civic just rolled over 5000 miles... wait no, that's 5000 since I bought it used, not total. Point is it's at 185,000 miles total and that stupid light has been on for 2 years but it runs fine. Why do people stick with Honda? Because they take abuse. My buddy's Ford died at 120k. Has anyone else just ignored a check engine light for that long and gotten away with it?

Nearly ruined a Rolleiflex with isopropyl alcohol on the lens coating

I was cleaning a Rolleiflex 3.5F in my shop last Tuesday and grabbed the bottle of 99% iso by mistake instead of my lens cleaner. Put a drop on a microfiber cloth and went to wipe the front element and saw the coating start to streak almost instantly. Caught it after maybe two seconds but I still had to spend 45 minutes gently buffing it out with lens-specific solution. The owner was picking it up Friday too. Has anyone else had a close call like that with the wrong solvent?

Tried cleaning a shutter with lighter fluid on a whim... actually worked on a Minolta SRT-101

That cheap boning knife cost me $60 in ruined meat

I bought a $12 boning knife off Amazon last month just to see if it could handle light work. First week it felt okay but by the third week the edge was chipping bad. I ruined a whole pork shoulder trying to trim it clean and had to toss about 4 pounds of meat. Anyone else have bad luck with those bargain-bin knives?

My external hard drive died in a cafe in Bali last month

I was writing a client report at a co-working spot in Ubud when my portable SSD just stopped spinning - no clicks, no warning, just dead silence. Lost about three months of client files and travel photos because I'd been lazy about backing up to the cloud. Anyone have a solid backup setup that actually works for nomads bouncing between countries?

That old forge at the county fair in Des Moines had me standing there for 20 minutes

Was at the Iowa State Fair last weekend and they had this guy doing live blacksmithing demos. He was using a hand crank blower, not even electric. The way he timed his hammer strikes with the rhythm of the bellows... I don't know, I just stood there watching. Made me want to build a simple coal forge in my backyard just to mess around with. Has anyone here tried setting up a small forge without a dedicated shop space?