Had to pick between my last wire brush or a shop vac hose, chose wrong
Brush was too worn to do anything but the creosote was caked on bad, so I got the bright idea to just suck it out with the vac. Three feet of hose later it was clogged solid and I spent an hour in a 95 degree attic fishing chunks out with a coat hanger. Anyone else ever gamble on a shortcut like that and lose?
Oh man I feel that in my soul. I tried vacuuming out a dryer vent once with one of those cheap leaf blower/vac combos thinking I was real clever. That thing packed the lint so tight it turned into a brick and I had to pull the whole duct apart anyway. Then there was the time I thought I could skip scraping and just burn off old paint with a torch before repainting some trim. Yeah, that went about how you'd expect and I spent the rest of the day sanding charred wood. Shortcuts always seem to add a step, never skip one. Bet that attic smelled amazing too.