Had a similar mess on a steam drum at a plant in Hammond back in '14. Ended up keeping a few spare gaskets in the truck ever since, saved me more than once.

Actually saw a contractor on YouTube say anything under 1/8 is totally fine on most standard walls. That little gap is nothing, caulk will fill it easy

Did they actually test that beige against the brick? My buddy owned a sandwich shop a few years back and paid some design firm ten grand to "modernize" his brand. They turned his bright yellow logo into this dull mustard color that looked like a stain, and his regulars started saying the place felt dirty. He switched back to the old logo after three months and sales went right back up. Sometimes these design people forget the sign has to actually show up on a building.

Torque specs on terminals matter way more than which connector you use. Seen plenty of burnt wire nuts too from guys who just crank till their wrist gives out.

That 90s molder cracking the platen sounds exactly like what happened with a 1987 press at a shop I used to work with... we ran it for years thinking we were saving money, then the main bearing seized up and took out the entire drive shaft. @stella_ross14 is totally right about metal fatigue too, that old stuff is just a ticking time bomb. We ended up losing almost a whole week of production waiting on custom parts that nobody even makes anymore... definitely cheaper to just replace it before it fails.