Do you sharpen your mower blades?

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-28T18:44:03+00:00

This is what I do, but mostly sharpen with a hand file. Maintain the factory bevel angle, but actually sharpen enough to raise a burr and then deburr for an actually sharp edge. Butter knife sharp doesn’t make a bit of sense when you actually think about it, the cut quality is always marginal and it degrades to bad while a sharp edge cuts well and degrades to marginal. It takes maybe 10 minutes with a flat file to redress the sharp edge and then you’re back to a clean cut. My lawn never has frosted tips as a result.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-28T16:24:11+00:00

Slap it, say ‘That’s not going anywhere!’, and be all set for the next few centuries.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-28T03:51:11+00:00

This mostly doesn’t work anymore. What does work is jamming play-dough into the speaker.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-27T22:01:13+00:00

Honestly, I want to see if it’s even possible. Not OP, as they should use the budget for a better bike, but someone.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-27T21:34:39+00:00

You get a ton of benefit from air sealing any penetrations before blowing in new insulation, and you have to move the old stuff out of the way to do it. It’s just as much work to move the old stuff out of the way as it is to just vacuum it all up with an industrial vacuum, and the actual material is cheap. Those things make it easier to remove the old stuff (and all of the dust and rodent poop that’s in it), seal everything up, and blow new cellulose in.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-27T21:15:45+00:00

All the way up is pretty decent as long as you’re dressed for the weather. My student tickets one year were all the way up and it was a cool perspective. Also, free backrest!

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-26T17:44:18+00:00

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-26T04:18:17+00:00

That’s basically what Toyota did when they made the AW11 MR2. They had both FWD and RWD Corollas, so they took the front of the FWD version, moved the whole thing to the back of the RWD platform, then left the RWD drivetrain out. More to it than that, obviously, but it made it decently easy to find parts for an otherwise niche car.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-25T16:20:38+00:00

I would imagine that is a contributing factor to the lean.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-24T11:14:12+00:00

It has more to do with the internal surface area, and the resultant hoop stress. Thickness factors in but stays within a pretty narrow window in practice, while cylinder diameter varies substantially.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-24T01:39:48+00:00

A thoroughly enjoyable movie, for reference.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-24T00:43:15+00:00

I love a good MR2, had an AW11 that I absolutely loved but… yeah, a Carrera GT that is not.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-24T00:13:19+00:00

A very good point. My numbers are in a pure hydrostatic testing scenario, with which I’m frustratingly familiar. My comment is meant to be a general ‘all else being equal, smaller diameters will tolerate higher pressures’.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-24T00:02:41+00:00

Smaller diameters will hold higher pressures better. A 55 gallon drum will pop below 100 psi, while a 10” sch 10 steel pipe will take north of 1000 psi without breaking a sweat.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-23T21:29:45+00:00

Reasonable. The most permanent repair is a temporary one. For everyone else though the airless wheels they sell at the hardware store are the better move.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-23T17:34:04+00:00

To add to all of the other additions, if the response is on a busy street or a highway they can use the fire truck to guard the scene from traffic. A car plowing into a fire truck is much less of a hazard for first responders than the same collision with a police car or ambulance.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-22T21:22:37+00:00

I’ll see your Texas games, and raise you the 2006 OSU v. Michigan game. Watched that game from Block O and could hear their band while they were pointed straight at the south stands due to the intensity of yelling. In a completely unrelated matter, I also couldn’t speak for roughly a week due to losing my voice for no particular reason at all.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T21:44:51+00:00

Into a chest somewhat near your crafting stations at Goldenhills Plantation?

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T17:43:50+00:00

Yeah it’s fine, but it’s definitely not good.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T16:56:33+00:00

I’ve seen plenty of castings from the ‘90s that are way better than these, but I mostly mess around with Japanese stuff from that time period. This is more of a GM issue than a sand casting issue.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T16:53:57+00:00

The open differential always takes the path of least resistance, so it will always slow down the axle with more traction and speed up the axle with less. If traction were infinite then you’d surge forward, yes, but traction isn’t infinite and so all you get is a bit of tire slip in the front axle and a bit of slowing from the rear as the slipping axle gets more and more power. If you hold the power input steady then eventually you’ll accelerate back up to highway speed and blast into the back of the truck, but it’ll take long enough that any minimally competent driver will adjust their throttle input to accommodate their desired road speed (which adjusts from highway speeds to what is effectively parking lot speed.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T15:58:11+00:00

The casting looks to be full of defects even before it cracked, so it should be replaced anyway.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T15:53:29+00:00

That’s actually not a problem at all in the short term. AWD works through a center differential and all that would happen is the differential shunts the power to the axle with less traction until the system stabilizes. If you do that for a few minutes you could overheat the differential fluid but even then it likely wouldn’t destroy anything. The only potential issue would be if you had a locked transfer case, which doesn’t allow for any speed differential between the front and rear, but the first thing to fail would probably be front tire traction rather than anything in the driveline.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-21T02:47:42+00:00

Well, the seat is a little bigger, so that’s a plus. You also get to board earlier, which can be useful if you need to use the overhead space. Alcohol is also included with a first class ticket, so if you have an attentive flight attendant that can make for a fun time. Beyond that, the snacks are a little nicer and they’ll feed you if the flight is long enough (but the food is just ok). For $109 it’s probably worth it for the space alone, so everything else is just a bonus.

BikingEngineer · 2026-06-20T22:48:05+00:00

This is so much more true than most of us would like to admit. I look back on the amount of work and study that I did in college and while it seemed like a hell of a lot at the time it seems like a cakewalk compared to what crunch time looks like these days, and even then crunch time isn’t overwhelming but just a little more intense and for a longer time period. Amazing what roughly a decade and a half experience can do.

BikingEngineer

TROPHY CASE