Yeah, the "good welds from great ones" line hits hard. My welds are the kind that look questionable even with every crutch in the book (so I'm clearly not moving up a tier anytime soon).

Wasn't there an article a while back about how these servers are built to run for like a decade but most companies ditch them after only three years? That's what got me looking into them too. It's kind of crazy how much perfectly good hardware gets tossed just to keep up with leases or whatever. For a small office that doesn't need the latest thing, grabbing one of those three-year-old beasts is a total win. You get way more machine for your money and it's already been through its shaky newborn phase in some data center. The noise is a fair point, but you can usually tweak the fan settings if it's not in a full rack.

Let him figure it out on his own, the chair isn't that fragile. He might actually know what he's doing.

Feel your frustration with that damp floor problem. Simple drainage fixes often work wonders. Happy to hear your gravel ditch did the trick.

Electric forges are cleaner and cost less to run most of the time. Power cuts don't happen that often where I live, so planning for them with propane feels like a waste. Propane setups need you to keep fuel around and check it all the time. Getting a backup generator is a better fix for keeping your electric forge going. I'd stick with electric and not bother with the extra kit.