My Lil' Mule

June 10, 2026

Union Pacific #4014 – Big Boy

Got to experience the worlds largest operating steam locomotive this past weekend as it passed by a friends property in NE Ohio. It was huge and loud! Quite the sight to see.

#bigboy #trainspotting #steamlocomotive #unionpacific #4014

June 7, 2026

King of the Way Alignment Tools – Part 1

I’ve been wanting to build my own version of a King Way Alignment tool for some time. I took inspiration from the original patented tool, as well as examples from several YouTube videos, and came up with my own.

Special thanks to PCBWay for helping sponsor part of this build: https://www.pcbway.com

Anchorlube: https://amzn.to/3Y8LmLz

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May 31, 2026

Black Diamond Drill Grinder Repair – Making the holder for the diamond nib adjuster.

Working on the Black Diamond Drill Grinder this week. Getting the piece prepped that will eventually hold the diamond nib adjuster.

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May 24, 2026

Black Diamond Drill Grinder – Progress on the Wheel Dresser

Making some slow but sure progress on the Black Diamond wheel dressing mechanism. I have some CRS that is perfect for the pivoting section of the dresser, and a surprise eBay find made a part of this build considerably easier!

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May 17, 2026

I attended a Keith Rucker Hand Scraping Class!

I recently made the long drive from Ohio down to Tifton, Georgia to attend one of Keith Rucker’s hand scraping classes, and in this video I take you along for the entire experience. Over several days we covered spotting, sharpening, scraping technique, precision measurement, and machine rebuilding concepts while hand scraping cast iron straight edges using traditional methods. This wasn’t my first exposure to scraping, but spending several full days immersed in the process gave me a much greater appreciation for the skill, patience, and consistency required to do it well. Along the way you’ll see demonstrations of power scraping and flaking with a Biax scraper, discussions on rebuilding machine tools, plenty of cast iron chips being made, and even a visit to the Georgia Museum of Agriculture where many of Keith’s earlier videos were filmed.

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May 10, 2026

Machining Cast Iron Straight Edges on the K&T Horizontal Mill

In this video I machine a pair of cast iron machinist straight edges from VintageMachinery.org
on my Kearney & Trecker 2HL horizontal mill in preparation for an upcoming hand scraping class with . These are the 9″ and 12″ Rucker Tool Co. straight edges that will eventually be hand scraped for precision work, but first they needed to be machined true and cleaned up from the raw castings.

Things did not go entirely according to plan.

Partway through the machining process I started fighting chatter problems that had me scratching my head, and I later discovered I had made a pretty significant setup mistake — the milling head wasn’t properly tightened. To make matters worse, after finishing the machining work, I managed to drop one of the straight edges and ding the freshly machined surface. Fortunately, everything is recoverable, but it definitely means more work when scraping begins.

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May 3, 2026

I Had to Step Away From YouTube

I had to take a break. And this video explains why.
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April 1, 2026

April Update

Just a quick update for channel members on the “progress” on the 13″ South Bend Lathe restoration.

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March 29, 2026

Odds and Ends – Episode 13 – Using a gear tooth vernier caliper and other shop projects

No machine work this week. Just some glimpses into the smaller projects that don’t get the full video treatment. Plus some cool new tools.

https://www.hudsonmachinerepair.com/shop
https://gridfinitygenerator.com/en/editor

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March 23, 2026

AI Is Collapsing the Trust Layer in Hiring

A friend of mine—let’s call him Kevin—was interviewing a developer candidate over Zoom.

The candidate joined the call and opened with something unexpected:

“Before we begin, I need to tell you—I’m not the person on the resume.”

He explained that he’d been hired by a placement company to impersonate someone else. The resume was fake. The identity was fake. The entire process was engineered. His job was simple: show up to interviews, get hired, and collect a cut while the agency pocketed placement fees.

And here’s the part that should concern all of us:

He was getting through interviews.

Not because he was qualified.
Because he had help.

The New Interview Assistant

This wasn’t someone memorizing answers or bluffing their way through.

He was using AI.

Tools now exist that can:

Listen to interview questions in real time
Analyze the question against a resume
Generate polished, conversational answers instantly

Not after the interview. During it.

And it’s working.

Roughly 39% of candidates are already using AI in the application process, and 6% admit to outright interview fraud—impersonation or substitution

What used to be preparation has quietly become augmentation.

And in some cases, replacement.

From Optimization to Exploitation

For years, we’ve encouraged candidates to “use the tools available.”

Use AI to refine your resume
Use AI to prep for interviews
Use AI to practice coding problems

That was the shift.

But now we’re seeing the next phase.

AI isn’t just helping candidates present themselves better—it’s helping them be someone else entirely.

AI-generated resumes tailored to beat screening systems
Deepfake video and voice to pass interviews
Synthetic identities built in minutes
Real people acting as proxies for fake ones

What used to require a coordinated fraud operation now requires… a browser and a prompt.

This Isn’t Edge Case Behavior

It’s becoming systemic.

Experts predict 1 in 4 candidates could be fake by 2028
AI-powered hiring fraud is now described as “scalable” and industrialized
Organizations are already reporting fake applicants successfully landing jobs

And this isn’t just about bad hires.

In some cases, fake candidates are being used to:

Access internal systems
Steal intellectual property
Deliver malware during technical interviews

Let that sink in.

The interview process itself is becoming an attack vector.

The Real Problem: Trust Is Breaking

For decades, hiring has operated on a set of assumptions:

The person on the call is the person on the resume
The answers reflect the candidate’s knowledge
The interview evaluates the individual

Those assumptions are no longer safe.

AI has quietly eroded each one.

We didn’t just introduce a new tool into hiring.
We introduced a way to bypass its core premise.

The Tension No One Talks About

Here’s the uncomfortable reality:

We want candidates to use AI.

We expect it, even.

But we don’t want:

AI answering instead of the candidate
AI masking a lack of competence
AI enabling identity fraud

So where is the line?

Because right now—it’s blurry.

So What Do We Do?

This isn’t a call to panic. It’s a call to adapt.

Some shifts are already becoming obvious:

1. Interviews need to evolve
Less trivia. More reasoning. More “show me how you think.”

2. Identity matters again
Basic verification—something we took for granted—is now critical.

3. AI use should be surfaced, not hidden
The best candidates won’t pretend they aren’t using AI. They’ll explain how.

4. Trust needs to be rebuilt intentionally
Because it’s no longer implicit.

The Part That Stuck With Me

Back to Kevin’s story.

The candidate—“Steve”—had a choice.

He could have continued playing the game. He could have taken the job, collected the check, and moved on.

Instead, he told the truth.

And he said he’d started doing that in every interview.

Because even he realized something was off.

Final Thought

We’ve spent years optimizing hiring for speed, scale, and efficiency.

AI just optimized it for deception.

The question isn’t whether candidates are using AI anymore.

It’s whether you’re still interviewing a human.