Can we talk about setting posts in wet concrete?

I saw a crew in Medford last week just drop a 4x4 post into a hole and pour the bag mix right on top of the dirt. That's a sure way to get a leaning fence in a single winter. How do you all make sure your concrete footings are solid for the long haul?

I used to think any old anvil would work until I spent 6 months fighting a cracked one

Picked up a beat up anvil at a farm sale for $80 about a year ago. Figured it was good enough. After months of bad hammer strikes and wondering why my work looked sloppy, I finally had a guy at the Eugene meetup take a look. He pointed out a hairline crack running through the face. Switched to a borrowed anvil last month and my hammer control improved overnight. Anyone else ever wasted time on bad gear before figuring out the problem?

Finished painting the trim on my house and the can said it covered 400 square feet.

I was sure I'd need a second gallon, but it did the whole thing with a little left over. Has anyone else found those coverage estimates to be surprisingly accurate?

TIL about the 'lost' Roman city under a field in England

I was reading a report from the University of Cambridge about their geophysical survey in Kent, and they found a whole Roman settlement with streets and shops under a farmer's field. The detail that got me was they could see the exact layout of a bakery and a metal workshop from the scans. Has anyone else seen a recent find where the tech revealed something that specific?

My uncle insisted his 'magnetic stud finder' from a 1980s infomercial was better than my Zircon, and I finally let him prove it on a Reno remodel.

Shoutout to the 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot over the new shows

Everyone talks about the modern sci-fi shows, but the gritty realism and practical effects in that first season are unmatched. The new stuff feels too clean and safe. Anyone else think older series had more guts?

I tried a new weld prep method on some 1-inch plate and it backfired big time

We were working on a pressure vessel in the shop last week and I decided to try a 30-degree bevel instead of our usual 37.5. I thought it would save time on the fit-up. I ran the first pass and it looked okay, but when we did the x-ray, there was a 2-inch long lack of fusion right in the root. My boss said, 'You just cost us a full day of rework.' I learned that our standard bevel angle is there for a reason, especially on thicker material. Has anyone else had a weld prep shortcut blow up in their face?

Unpopular opinion: My boss at the Austin design firm made me redo a whole brand palette because 'it didn't feel right' for the client's yoga studio.

My neighbor's backyard studio in Seattle went up in a single weekend

Last month I watched them frame the whole 12x16 structure from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. They used a pre-cut kit from a company called Studio Shed and had three friends helping. It's wild how fast you can get a functional space now compared to when I built mine three years ago over six months of weekends. Anyone else seen these quick-build kits around their area?

PSA: I saw a bunch of people at the craft fair using PVA glue for full leather spines

I mean, I was at the market in Springfield last weekend and three different booths had these leather bound journals with spines that looked stiff and shiny. I asked one guy about his process and he said he just uses regular bookbinding PVA for everything. That glue gets brittle over time, especially on a flexible spine. I had a repair job last month where a 5 year old journal's spine cracked clean through because of that. Has anyone found a good flexible adhesive for leather work that doesn't cost a fortune?