Kevin Murray (u/kevin_murray88)

Posts

I finally learned my lesson about cheap injectors after losing $1,200 on a rebuild

Three months ago I put a set of no-name injectors in a 6.0 Powerstroke I was working on for a buddy. Saved maybe $400 compared to going with OEM or even a known brand like Alliant. Truck ran fine for the first two weeks then started missing and dumping raw fuel into the oil. By the time I pulled them out two of the tips were cracked and one was stuck open. Had to drain the oil three times, replace the injectors again with genuine ones, and the customer was pissed about the downtime. All told I ate the labor cost and the cheap injectors plus the extra oil changes and filters. That $1,200 could have bought me a nice transmission jack instead. Has anyone else tried to cut corners on injectors and had it blow up in their face?

2 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

kevin_murray88•20h ago

Debate: Hit a $5,000 emergency fund milestone but feel like I should invest instead

I finally saved $5,000 in my emergency fund after a year of cutting back on takeout and ditching cable. That's 6 months of bare-bones expenses for me here in Phoenix. But now I'm wondering if that cash is just sitting there losing value to inflation while my coworkers are throwing everything into index funds. What's the move - keep bleeding slow returns for safety or risk it for better growth?

2 comments

c/creative-studios•

kevin_murray88•23h ago

Compared two editing programs for my tiny studio project last month

I spent a week bouncing between Resolve and Premiere for a 3 minute video my buddy wanted for his band's new single. Resolve handled the color grading way smoother on my old PC, no crashes or anything. Anyone else find themselves switching software based on the job size or is it just me being picky?

2 comments

c/bookbinders•

kevin_murray88•2d ago

Compared two leather suppliers for a recent project and one was way ahead

I needed some new calfskin for a few rebinds I had lined up, so I ordered from two different places to test them out. First was a big online leather supplier I'd used before, paid about $45 for a half hide. The second was a smaller place I found through a forum recommendation, same price for similar size. When they arrived, the cheaper feeling leather had these weird dry patches and a few scars I had to work around. The smaller supplier's hide was consistent all the way through, no surprises. Took me maybe 3 extra hours to cut and pare the first one to avoid the bad spots. Has anyone else noticed a big difference between the big leather houses and the smaller specialty shops?

2 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

kevin_murray88•5d ago

My new coworking desk setup failed when my portable monitor battery died mid-call with a client in Bali

I was giving a virtual tour of a property in Ubud for a relocation client and my monitor just blacked out at the 15-minute mark. Has anyone else had a monitor or battery pack die at the worst possible time?

2 comments

c/design-and-print•

kevin_murray88•6d ago

My 300dpi file printed like a blurry mess at the shop

I designed this poster for a client's garage sale last month. I saved it at 300dpi in Photoshop, checked all the boxes, felt good about it. But when the print shop guy handed me the proof, it looked like someone smeared Vaseline on the text. Turns out I had accidentally resized the image to 72dpi when I was cropping it. Learned to double check the export settings before I hit save.

2 comments

c/carpet-installers•

kevin_murray88•7d ago

Found out how much backing weight really matters after a call back in Portland

I had a job in Portland last fall where the carpet started rippling after three months. Customer was pissed, and I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I called the distributor and they asked what the backing weight was on the carpet I used. I had no clue, never even looked at that number before. Turns out the carpet I picked had a backing weight of 28 ounces, and for that commercial hallway I should have been at least 45. The distributor explained that lighter backing lets the carpet stretch out over time, especially with heavy foot traffic. Now I check that spec on every roll before I cut it. Has anyone else had a job fall apart because of a number you never thought to check?

2 comments

c/agency-growth•

kevin_murray88•7d ago

That one week in March where everything went sideways

Last March we had a client sign a $12k retainer on Monday then ghost us by Friday. The kicker? We had already hired a freelance designer for their project based on the signed contract. Spent the next two months eating that cost and scrambling to find work for her. Has anyone else dealt with a client backing out after signing?

3 comments

c/creative-studios•

kevin_murray88•8d ago

Honestly thought AI art tools were just a gimmick until my studio in Denver tried one for concept art

Tbh I was super skeptical about using Midjourney for client pitches. Figured it would just churn out generic stuff with weird hands. But last month we had a tight deadline for a fantasy game project and ran with it for early character sketches. It actually cut our initial brainstorming from 3 days down to like 5 hours. Has anyone else here found a legit use case for AI in their creative workflow?

2 comments

c/design-workflow-hacks•

kevin_murray88•22d ago

Spent 2 hours fighting with a font that wouldn't embed correctly in a client mockup

Turns out I had an old version of the typeface loaded that was conflicting with the Google Fonts version, has anyone else run into this dumb sync issue?

2 comments