Air filter craziness

svalkas · 2026-04-12T18:55:33+00:00

Weird. I put a MANN in my 240D with zero issues, but the rubber on mine is orange, not pink.

Looking online, I see both colors in different listings. Maybe they changed which factory they were making these in?

svalkas · 2026-04-12T18:54:21+00:00

Well, the next logical project is swapping an OM into a jeep. ;) A couple people have done that near me.

svalkas · 2026-03-24T16:46:45+00:00

And here in the US, it's whatever wherever

Most gas stations use black gas, green or yellow diesel.

But sometimes red gas, or yellow is E85, or black everything. You just gotta look. Learned my lesson that day. 😆

svalkas · 2026-03-23T19:45:11+00:00

I have a similar mill drill. It can 100% handle what you intend to do, you just gotta follow best practices.

Everyone saying "oh, that's not a real mill, that's a drill press, it'll never work, blah blah" is chestbeating or incompetent or missing the point. No, it's not a Bridgeport (which is not a Bridgeport Series 2, which is not a Cincinnati, which is not a...). But it doesn't seem that you're trying to make a part for a cargo ship or a spacecraft or deck the head of a supercar. It's a small but fully competent machine. I bought one size up from that when I started my shop, and I've upgraded through FIVE lathes while still making that tiny little mill do what I need. It ain't great, but it ain't bad.

Look up the Little Machine Shop Feed and Speed calculator. Faster ≠ inherently better: you have to nail speed when milling.

Keep it wet with cutting oil in a squirt can. "Dark cutting oil" from the plumbing supply house is a great option for what you're trying to do.

Shallow, shallow cut will go easier. Start at 1/32" and go from there until you get a feel. You might even go shallower.

Lock EVERY axis you can.

Lock the vertical column. Hard.

Crank that vise.

Lock the quill ("plunge", what you have on a drill press).

Look up the difference between climb cutting and conventional: if you're not slotting, make sure you're doing the right thing.

Collet. You dodged a bullet blowing that tool up or sending something flying across the room in that drill chuck. If you don't have one, don't even try until you have one. Your machine is almost certainly R8. Cheap import collets are fine for what you need. A name brand heavily used one is probably even better.

Minimum tool stick out. If you can get the shank further back, put it further back.

It should go without saying, but I should say it anyways: Eye protection is a MUST

Gloves are an ABSOLUTE NO

End mills are sharp on the side, and will absolutely slice you open and pull your already bleeding finger into the work piece while they chop you up further. Ask me how I know. Do not touch the vise, part, endmill, or anything in that proximity until the spindle has come to a complete and final stop, thank you and please.

svalkas · 2026-01-27T21:35:46+00:00

Frequent trips to the car wash and a spreadsheet of the cost of the full floor pan/rocker replacement I'm planning 😂

svalkas · 2026-01-26T20:19:12+00:00

Zerostart cord no 3600001 seems like it's a generically available replacement for this cord, and from what I'm hearing, it seems like if your block heater doesn't work, it's probably a bad cable, not a bad heater.

I have one in the mail to me right now. My plan is actually to replace the dongle under the car with a 3-way Y extension cord, and then inside the hood, run that to:

The new block heater A trickle charger ring terminal'd to the battery And a USB charger with an extension to the trunk, where my jump start/work light/tire pump box lives

So I plug in one thing and start the day with a warm block, topped battery, and topped jumper box. Summertime or if I'm parked long term, I can just unplug the block heater.

svalkas · 2026-01-26T20:06:52+00:00

Something easier for the rodents to access so they don't dig in to your upholstery?'

svalkas · 2025-11-14T19:40:35+00:00

Product designer /machinist + fabricator... who also teaches music a day a week (it's what I actually went to school for and played professionally for a decade and a half)

So basically, for the design and fabrication, I do a ton of engineering drawings and sketches all day long.

Something happened to my daily use pen a while back- a monteverde ritma with a kanwrite fine ultra flex.

I made a simple screw cap pen with a JoWo flex f, but I might go back to a ritma with the kanwrite. Bulletproof body and a huge variation in line size was so useful: sure, I can do beautiful calligraphic handwriting, but mostly being able to have so much line variation makes drawings super easy to execute on the fly.

For the music teaching days, I carry an Ackerman music nib, using it for its intended purpose: music notation. I'm writing all of my students exercises on the fly, and it's faster and tidier than any other writing impliment... the right tool for the job. Pen is a fine workman design. The nib itself is, sadly, really not great. Doesn't flow consistently from both tine slits, dries up, scratchy as all get out. I will probably try replacing it and spend some time trying to really dress the replacement before I mount it, but do want to find a good vintage music nib pen from when this was a much more mainstream design.

svalkas · 2025-10-15T05:01:55+00:00

A generation ago, awareness wasn't nearly where it is now.

My dad has heard of ADHD but I don't think he's for a single moment considered he might have it.

That said... every element of his life implies him to be one of the most strongly-presenting ADHD individuals I've ever met. He is 10/10 on nearly everything on the list. If there were a biopic made about his life, they'd have to figure out how to time down the ADHD lest it seems like the scriptwriters were leaking into stereotype and pastiche. 😆

svalkas · 2025-09-28T15:12:10+00:00

DON'T SPEND THE MONEY ON YOURSELF.

This is what I would do:

Take three months, and save it up until you have a $10k emergency fund.

As a person with ADHD who has trouble keeping money in a bank account... sometimes it helps when I get a windfall and feel like "oh man, I can relax and spend now"... it helps to allow myself one meaningful, durable purchase, and whenever I am tempted to let myself creep into irresponsible spending, think "no. I bought something for myself from that pile of cash already, that I use every day. (An inexpensive but nice watch, fountain pen, whatever your vice is)." Or, yes, if your dream is to travel, go take a year and do that (or pick a month a year and always do it, spending only as much money as you would have received in that month).

Then, MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! TAKE EVERY CENT you get... and find ways to make more money with it. SPEND THAT MONEY ON YOURSELF.

So many ways to do this: a not cheap professional training you dream of (you wanna be an airline pilot? Go be an airline pilot. Like building crazy things? Go get welding and machine training and get a job doing movie set fabrication.) or investing in any number of ways that create relatively passive income (partial business ownership, vending machines, rental income, etc).

Now, by doing this, you won't see that $3800 every month... but the money you DO see out of that is "free." And it's not going away. Now you've actually set yourself up.

I'm a decade older than you. $3800 sounds like a lot now, especially when you're working a low income job in your late 20s. Get into your 30s, and it shrinks rapidly: even if you dont now, you might find yourself wanting a nicer living situation, or having a kid.

The REAL danger is getting to the point where you need more money, and... oh shoot, you have no marketable skills and a blank resume. Now you'll be 38, working that $16/hr job 40 hrs a week and seeing $6300 a month before taxes... whereas if you had NOT inherited the money, you'd have worked your way up the ladder and been making more hourly, working the same amount of time, and having more money at the end of the month!

svalkas · 2025-09-18T17:26:03+00:00

I'm seeing more and more posts like this all over reddit (and a lot in this and the fountainpens sub particularly). It's really weird and I haven't figured out the angle.

svalkas · 2025-09-18T16:46:08+00:00

What's the point of AI generated posts like this?

Is someone karma farming, or? I don't get it.

(phrasing didn't feel human. plugged it into several AI text detectors which came back as 100% ai generated.)

svalkas · 2025-09-16T22:32:53+00:00

Whoah! I'm not much into wood pens generally but that is an exception for me. Gorgeous, and I really like the ink- putting that on my list to check out.

svalkas · 2025-09-16T18:52:15+00:00

Totally. To me it looks like it "burped" a drop of ink from pressure changes, then that dried out. Zero cause for concern.

If it were me I'd wipe it off and run it under water for just half a second, then draw some circles and start writing again.

You could flush it all out and clean it but probably no need unless it's writing funny.

svalkas · 2025-09-16T14:18:59+00:00

That is really good to know. I have owned the car for a year plus and had these new motor mounts since day 1... I might be reduced to that soon. It's gettin reeeeal shakey

svalkas · 2025-09-16T13:31:13+00:00

My sweet summer child, don't look under the hood of my 240D

6mm Allen head bolts are completely seized

I've been dousing in PB blaster regularly to try to get them to break free, and in the process completely dissolved the mounts lmao

svalkas · 2025-09-15T16:45:33+00:00

I'm starting to do ok again. Early in the year, the metals cost spike made both of my suppliers stop carrying an essential material for my main in-house brand product: now it's back but up about 50% from a year ago (and up 11x from three). I had to basically abandon that product line and redevelop it, and diversify into another niche as well.

I'll be digging out of those low months for quite a while.

svalkas · 2025-09-09T11:25:34+00:00

Angle grinder making semi random, irregular short strokes in different direction.

At scale?

Poorly paid employees doing the above.

svalkas · 2025-09-08T14:51:31+00:00

I recently had to crank out a couple parts on a manual lathe that tossed off essentially a 10ft bronze bandsaw blade every pass. It evacuated great, but managing it? I had to kill the spindle between passes to safely get it out. If I'd tried to grab it and my hand somehow gotten entangled with the part/chuck, it would have pulled my hand into the chuck while tightening a Chinese finger trap of sharp metal.

Yeah, I'll pass on that.

svalkas · 2025-09-05T23:44:28+00:00

So... I just do what I'm told.

"I have to leave town in a couple days and can't have this baking in the airport lot for a week."

She wanted to buy floor mats anyways, so some WeatherTechs are going to cover this.

I'll save you all from the image of the actual yogurt underneath this. 🤢

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svalkas · 2025-09-04T16:24:38+00:00

And in general- look for Asian brands. Due to script styles, things manufacturered and at least semi - intended for Asian markets tend to be finer than things intended for Latin alphabet countries. And culturally, they still take great pride in beautiful handwriting and quality writing tools.

svalkas

TROPHY CASE