Took me three print jobs and a lot of wasted money before a guy at the counter showed me the same thing, @felix478. I had been putting my crop marks right on the edge of the artwork thinking that was the trim line. Now I just add a half inch border of my background color on all four sides and set the marks a little bit outside that. It's such a simple fix but once you see it you can't unsee it.

Blue light filter is worth its weight in gold after dark. Makes a huge difference for winding down.

Corroded pin in a Collins tray? Classic, right up there with the "loose doorknob" analogy @blair_butler47 mentioned. I had a similar thing on a Cessna 441 last year - spent two hours swapping radios before I found the tray itself had a pin that looked like it'd been sitting in a salt marsh for a decade. Sure, the radio looked fine, but the tray was basically a passive-aggressive failure waiting to happen.

Haven't you ever considered that the torque specs might matter more than the metal type itself? I mean, I've seen guys crank down on zinc bolts with an impact driver and get mad when they strip, but the same bolts hold fine if you just use a hand tool with the right feel. Also, mystery bins usually come from surplus auctions where stuff gets tossed around, so even good hardware can get damaged from the sorting process. Maybe try testing a few with a manual torque wrench before you blame the material entirely. Worth a shot if you're trying to save those bins for future projects.

Had a buddy from trade school tell me a story about his uncle who painted hot rods back in the 70s. The guy was doing a candy apple red on a '69 Camaro and skipped the sanding between primer coats because he was in a hurry to get it done for a weekend show. Laid the color on thick and it looked perfect in the shop under fluorescent lights. Three days later at the show, the whole driver's side started bubbling up like a frog's throat. His uncle had to strip the whole panel back to bare metal and start over, missed the whole show and lost money on the job. My buddy said he never forgot that lesson and now he's the most patient painter I know. Takes his time on every step, no shortcuts.