Had a stuck junction box in an old house near Portland...

Tried everything with a flat bar and it wouldn't budge. Then I remembered a guy on a jobsite saying to heat the screws with a torch for 10 seconds each. Worked like magic, popped right out. Anyone else do this or is there a better trick?

3 comments

3 Comments

viola_garcia565d ago

Is it really that big of a deal though? I mean, half the stuff people call "hidden tricks" is just common sense once you stop and think for a minute. Maybe we overthink these things and a lot of it isn't as secret as we make it out to be.

cora_west55d ago

Funny how the simplest tricks like that end up being the ones nobody teaches you, you just stumble on them through trial and error or a random tip from a stranger. Same thing happens in my line of work, sometimes the most basic fix no one thinks of saves you an hour of frustration. Makes you wonder how many other life shortcuts are just sitting out there waiting for someone to pass them along.

victorhernandez5d ago

Man that's exactly it though, what's the one trick you always tell newcomers that nobody ever taught you formally? I feel like everyone's got at least one of those hidden gems they just picked up along the way and now they pass it down like a secret handshake. Makes you kinda paranoid wondering what else you've been doing the hard way for years just because nobody bothered to mention it in a YouTube video or a manual. Like who decides what tips make it into the official instructions and which ones stay word of mouth? Bet there's a whole underground economy of simple fixes that could save everyone time but we just don't share them unless somebody asks the right way.