Ugh, so turns out that my life is so busy I do not have the time to write these so that they go out on Wednesday 15:00 London time every week. It’s… actually kind of making me rethink whether writing regular newsletters is a good idea or not.

As I have ADHD, every version of “you just need more discipline, bro” is going to be ignored. For the fun of it, I’m going to keep a detailed log of what I actually do between this exact moment that I’m typing these words, and the next time I send it out.

Right, you’re not here to read about my self-doubt though, you’re here to LEARN cool shit.

There are two kinds of cling film

The shitty one that doesn’t stick to anything is the newer, safer one is polyethylene, or PE. The sticky one is PVC, or polyvinyl chloride.

PVC is no bueno for hot and oily foods though, so if you need to store or cover those, use the shitty one for food safety purposes.

My new favourite RFC is 8305

Happy Eyeballs.

Yes, that’s its name.

Porcelain absorbs less water than ceramic

Especially important for tiles in wet rooms like bathrooms or kitchens.

Porcelain absorbs 0%-0.5% water. Ceramic 0.5%-3%.

Floors should probably be porcelain, walls are ok to be ceramic.

Ceramic is also easier to drill into.

Lint free microfibers aren’t lint free

As someone with contact lenses, this is annoying. The solutions are either:

• huckaback towels, or

• glass cleaning polishing microfiber towels

I ordered the latter, huck towels are kind of expensive. Will report back on this.

Machine screw materials are fascinating

A2, A4, A4-80, and 8.8-BZP.

“A” grades are material types, the 8.8 is strength. BZP is Bright Zinc Plated.

A2 - 304 stainless steel (18% chromium, 8% nickel)

A4 - 316 stainless. Same as A2 but with ~2% molybdenum added (more corrosion resistant)

A4-80 is the 316 steel version cold-worked to be roughly 800MPa tensile strength. That’s how much pressure you need to pull with to break the material.

Numbers for metal stock are catalogue numbers

For steel, the 304, 316, etc come from the AISI, SAE J405: https://www.sae.org/standards/j405_201801-chemical-compositions-sae-wrought-stainless-steels

And the A2, A4, etc designations come from ISO: https://www.iso.org/standard/84037.html

There will be more next week, I will have more time. Though this weekend I’m off to do my 5th (?) Tough Mudder, and Sunday is a motorcycle rideout.

As always, forward this to someone who will appreciate the content. And until next week, Loveyoubai! ❤️