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MacGyver Online Forums > MacGyverisms > What Would MacGyver Do?


Posted by: Amy 2 November 2006 - 01:18 PM
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Here're the posts! First post was on January 1, 2005!

PepperTech:
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Here's one MacGyverism that saved my hide. It's one I used while out camping. I was out by my family cabin and couldn't remember which way to get back to the cabin. I got hiking up behind the cabins and zig-zag'ed all over the place. It was getting late and I wanted to head back and I didn't have a compass. Instead of just wandering aimlessly trying to find my way I used a few things I did have in my back pack. I knew the winds only blew north/south due to the valley shape and my wind vane at the cabin when I'm there. Finding the sun at my 3 o'clock position helped me figure which was east/west. Now to figure out if I was north or south of the cabin lots. Following my shadow east I found the lake but didn't quite recognize the area. Using my binoculars I was able to find an island I do remember taking my boat out to once before with my parents, it was directly across the lake from our cabin. I found the island in what appeared to be south of me on the opposite side of the lake. I used a gauze pad as a writing pad and a felt to do a little calculations to make sure. I wasn't able to figure out the distance but had an idea of where I was going. An hour of walking south I was back to the cabins. A little luck and geometry and I was home safe.


Phoenix:
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truly, mac worthy, indeed! didn't panic; used your head and available tools. congrats (clapping.gif!) on the safe return and being able to share the tale with us! biggrin.gif laugh.gif clapping.gif

ciao!

phoenix wink.gif


PepperTech:
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I can tell I've seen all the MacGyver episodes, I've even taken a liking to chemistry, physics and playing around with various things to get the job done. SAK's come in very handy for fixing almost anything.


I Love Penny Parker:
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My Macgyverism ... It's not very complicated, but the other night at a party a girl cut her finger and there weren't any bandages around to cover the wound ... so I grabbed some streamer wrapped it around her finger and tied it on with a trash bag tie.


Rockatteer:
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ahh.. a true macgyverism... making use of whatevers around to do the job


PepperTech:
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I'm even a MacGyver when it comes to cooking, ya never know what will end up in the pot.


Rockatteer:
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No thats just male cooking.


Tomms247:
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hey thats great pepper - tech

if i could re live the last 26 years of my life knowing what i do now id learn everything MacGyver know's. Id do public and emergency services at college instead of the lame stuff i did. I get more into the outdoors and build my life like MacGyver's. although there is a couple things i wouldnt do unfortunatly, and thats jump out of a plane or hand gliding, rock climbing maybe, on an indoor one but unless its absolutly necessary thats my limit. I like my feet on the ground, saying that so did mac.


WhiteDragon:
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Here is a real MacGyverism that I did last year.
I was riding my snowmobile in northern Quebec when the trailing arm broke. This meant that I had no steering on the snowmobile. I was also about 50 miles north of any sort of town-in, as you would say, the wilderness.
What I did was use some rope to tie the trailing arm to the body of the snowmobile so that the steering would work after a fashion. This gave me enough directional capability to allow me to get back to the nearest town. I then was able to get the trailing arm fixed so that I could continue my trip.
Not pretty, but it worked.


Rockatteer:
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although there is a couple things i wouldnt do unfortunatly, and thats jump out of a plane




I'm with you ont hat one... I cant see the point in jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.


MacGirl:
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Me either. I just don't get the attraction. I guess some people are just adrenaline freaks. But especially after that story this fall about that woman who jumped out of a plane and her parachute didn't deploy properly... no thanks. She lived, but was *really* beat up.


MACGYVERISMYDAD:
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one time i was driving down the road at night and my headlights shut off. i pulled out the headlight switch and smelled a wire burning. i used the flashliight i had with me to see inside. one of the ground wires had shorted out and was melted. i went to the trunk of my car and pulled out some jumper cables, then i trimmed the negative wire till it was just the good non melted end. i took 1 negative terminal from the jumper cable and clipped it onto the wire, then i took the other end of the negative jumper cable and clipped it onto the steering column on the underside of the dash. then i used my trusty duct tape to tape the remaining termnals up onto the dash so they didn't get in my way. the headlight worked and i got back to my house in one piece and i hardwired a new ground in the next day. if i only had a paper clip!


WhiteDragon:
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QUOTE
My Macgyverism ... It's not very complicated, but the other night at a party a girl cut her finger and there weren't any bandages around to cover the wound ... so I grabbed some streamer wrapped it around her finger and tied it on with a trash bag tie.



This is similar to what I did in Elliot Lake, Ontario a number of years ago. I had slashed my fingers on my snowmobile, and could not get any bandages-all the stores were closed. What I did was use some electrical tape to close up the slashes. Could not tell the differences-no bleeding once I put the tape on.
I guess you would call that another Macgyverism.


rossfrye:
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i like to work on cars in my spair time but since i away at the university i didnt bring any tools. but the only tool i need is my SAK tinker boyscout edition (ive had it 9 years)

so the guy that lived next door to my had his window fall off track on his car..(to make it worse it was a power window)...so with only my knife i was able to take the door and tracks apart replace the window and put the whole thing back together and it only took the large screw sriver, small screw driver, philips driver, and small blade.


rossfrye:
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just though of one more

i changed the door handel and the lock cylinder on our VW with nothing but my Tinker SAK

all's i had to do was, pop off the cover of the handel with the large blade, use the philips driver to take the left side of the handel off, and the can opener driver to take the other side off, then one more bolt holding the lock cylinder in was taken off....then i held the cylinder spring in place with the tooth pick when i replaced the old cylinder and fastened it all back together and with the new parts the handel worked great and with the old lock cylinder in the car i did not need to get new keys made


Rockatteer:
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Now thats what you call Mac-thinking.

Hey you got VW beetle? and if so... does it look like this?

(IMG:http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/yourmonster/gallery/monkey_hzoom.jpg)


rossfrye:
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lol, no its a VW GTI 1991 its not mine is just a old car i was working on...the window trick i did was on a civic that was a friends...but knew how it worked cuz i have a 2000 civic si


BeefyBoyGod:
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Wow, that's some nice modification work. What all was used?


Kate MacKay:
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If it comes to a MacGyverism when you are cooking, do you use potatoes for your timer? . . I hope it is not those runny tomatoes you are using?!?!
Sincerely,
Kate Mackay


Amy:
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I've recently gotten a good friend hooked on MacGyver...In fact her whole family is devouring my dvd's! Even her 3 year old chooses MacGyver when he wants to watch something on TV. laugh.gif

Anyway...she just called me from a cell phone at a park to tell me she did her first MacGyverism! She had a flashlight for which she knew she needed batteries, so they stopped at the store and picked some up. At the park she was putting the batteries in and the flashlight still wouldn't work. She discovered that the little metal contact was missing. She also had just bought her hubby a pack of DoubleMint gum...

So she took the gum wrapper and folded it up to replace the contact. She put the batteries in and it works!

happy.gif I'm so proud...


MacDriver:
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Speaking of which, Kate, do you know if a bettery operated clock can even run on two potatoes? Seems like I might've messed around with that MacGyverism a little a few years ago but couldn't get it to work...


Rockatteer:
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No. You need to use 1 potatoe.

you need two different types of metal for the "contacts" and they need to be close together.

If yoru interested in this kind of thing theres a book in our store called "sneaky uses for everyday things", which explains and shows how to do simply science experaments such as the potatoe battery, coin batteries and the such.


Firniswin:
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LOL! I got one!

So, some boy's came over to have a meeting with my mom about Jr. High Sunday School class becuase they were teaching that Sunday. Well, the meeting was over and the two boy's asked my brother's to join in on some video games. Trouble is that on the certain TV they chose to play at, the cords always get in the way of the screen.

So, they were really frustrated by this. While I was standing there watching, an idea totally popped into my head.

Quickly I ran and grabbed some wall tacky and a paperclip. I fashioned the paperclip so that it would act like a hook. Then, I stuck the blue tacky to the TV's side and stabbed the paperclip into the tacky. Then, to test the "design" I put the cords in. It worked perfectly! It kept the cords out of the way and I was thrilled. My mom thought I was brilliant. LOL! I just told I'd watched too much MacGyver... biggrin.gif

Blessings!

Firniswin


OK...Think I'll do another post...for the rest!

Posted by: Amy 2 November 2006 - 01:45 PM
Here's more!

MacGyverGod:
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I tried to fix a laminator, unscrewed the thing, pulled out the plastic which was obviously stuck, screwed the thing down and result... they're going to get a specialist to fix it. Still I was on my way.


Old Fan:
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I once fixed (well... put a temporary patch) around a leaky faucet on a sink with chewing gum because we didn't have any putty or silicone. When the plumber arrived and saw the repair job, he was impressed - but he had a hell of a time getting the gum off because it had hardened.

Does that count?


Stupid Little Genius:
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my macgyverism didn't really serve any life saving perpose... but it'll save my art work from nasty tutor men who doesn't like me

what i want to do was take photos of aminals andbugs and stuff that were engangered or really common^^ well the big animal were fine and i got loads of photos of tigers and stuff but when it comes to taking a flys photo... well even on super macro it still looks lik a little tiny spec... not much of a photo...

so what i do is simple wink.gif i take my digital camera (canon S2 IS if any one is interested wink.gif ) and the taped on the 35mm lens back to front over the lens. then i zoomed the digial camera all the way in and got really close to the buggies^^ then focus and click! and wow oh wow then photos are amazing^^

the lens is used the wrong way round and is definatly not meant for this perpose but thanks to MacGyver i gave it a go^^ and i'm really glad i did

oh i'll add the photo here so you can see the result^^ i'm sooooo pleased with it wink.gif and now i know what i'm doing the next photo will be even better


Sorry, couldn't find the photo!

Mac's Lab Rat:
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Hey that’s really cool Sluggy! Wow!

That photo reminds me a little of an ex boyfriend - except the bug looks cuter!  Its those hairs around the eyes - reminds me of his eyebrows. I'm sure he actually combed them!


Stupid Little Genius:
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Kewl photo



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Hey that’s really cool Sluggy! Wow! 



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Wicked kewl photo... disgusting... but kewl



thank you guys^^ i was really proud of it  although i did look like an idiot stand rund the bin waiting for the file to land....


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That photo reminds me a little of an ex boyfriend - except the bug looks cuter!  Its those hairs around the eyes - reminds me of his eyebrows. I'm sure he actually combed them!



hahaha you sure he was a guy?? mind you you were lucky... my exboyfriend was hairy all over wink.gif you couldn't see the skin on his arms or legs or back or anywhere... and i would insist on waring shorts.... i think he must have had to comb his whole body wink.gif mind you he didn't have eye brows.... maybe on thinking about it i got off lucky


QUOTE 
"help me! help meeee!" 



hahaha yeah^^ saidly the poor little guy died right after this was taken... so 'help me' was probably what he was thinking wink.gif

if any of you wanna see the photo in it's big glory  plus all my photos and paintings and drawing and stuff.... well you can find it all here:

-----> http://stupid-little-genius.deviantart.com/


silenk:
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Onto the macgyverisms:

1) Made a guitar amp out of an old ghettoblaster, by de-soldering one of the record heads and replacing it with a 6.25mm jack connector. Then just press play and hey presto; play it again sam!!

2) I used to do a lot of music recording and the particular software I used was able to be controlled by the keyboard, stop, play, rec etc. So I took an old computer keyboard and combined it with a lond piece of ribbon cable and an old tv remote control, to make a small recording remote control.

3) Used two pieces of card covered in aluminum foil, seperated by some thin strips of card, to make a floor sensor for a burglar alarm.

I'll post more when I remember them.


silentk:
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Ahhhhh, the Rubanto. How could I forget. Whilst working in a supermarkets, I used to get rather bored of an evening. Being musically minded I decided to make a musical instrument from what was lyin around.

Take on card tube from the little grocery bags, add an elastic band, and top it off with cable ties, the plasric locking ones. The ties made great frets, just like on a guitar. The only drawback was the non linear nature of rubber. The harder you played, the more out of tune it was


Rockatteer:
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I just remembered something I did when I was about 13 or 14.

I pulled a computer gaming joystick apart, cut one of its switches off the circuit board and taped it to the inside of my bedroom door so when the door was closed it would press against the switch and send a signal to the computer.

I used lots of bits of speaker, wire to extend the cable to run around the edge of my room and back to the computer, where I had written a simple program to timestamp when the switch was opened and closed… thus giving me a log of when and if my room had been entered while I wasn’t in it… in effect.. a “MacGyver made” security system

Later on I got adventurous and set the program to make an alarm noise when the door was opened.

It looked very MacGyverish.. with lots of bits of wire all joined together simply by twisting the ends together and then covered with bits of electrical wiring and a circuit switch cut out and taped to the inside of my doorframe.


Stupid Little Genius:
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hey rockateer silentk id the some kinda thing... acept he used two pieces of card and some tin foil and made a presusre pad that made an alam ring when someone steped on it^^ he also had a key pad on the door.... so that if you wanted to get in there you had to tyope in a 4 digit number.... but that's a whole different kettle of fish.... (hahahaha fish^^)


silentk:
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I once used a nerf gun, remember those, that shot the foam darts, attached a blue tack o-ring to the end, and finished it off with a pea-shooter. With a few dried peas I ended up with something more powerful than a bb gun. It would shatter cds at a distance of around 2 metres.


Yuri Demetri:
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Some interesting macgyverisms here, I'll keep a note of them, because you never know...

Mine was a few years ago where I fixed a floppy disk drive by replacing the drive belt that had broken with a rubber band.

My other one is a bit of a cheat as it wasn't my design but it used parts that were lying around so it's quite MacGyver like. I was at work completely bored and someone had instructions in a magazine on how to build a device from office stationery that fires kitchen roll tubes. Well, being in an office with all that stationery lying around looked like an invitation to me. It was basically a poster tube, with a trigger system made from pens connected to a paper clip that held a stretched rubber band in place. Pulling the pen trigger unhooked the paper clip from the rubber band and the rubber band would then force the kitchen roll tube out of the poster tube. I can't guarantee that it'll get you out of a difficult situation, but it sure fixed the boredom problem we were having that day.


Yuri Demetri:
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QUOTE
I once used a nerf gun, remember those, that shot the foam darts, attached a blue tack o-ring to the end, and finished it off with a pea-shooter.  With a few dried peas I ended up with something more powerful than a bb gun.  It would shatter cds at a distance of around 2 metres.



Hey silentk, both our posts are making me wonder now. What is it with us guys doing macgyverisms that involve firing projectiles? Boys with their toys I guess.


Stupid Little Genius:
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Boys with their toys I guess.




i have to say here that it wasn't just by brother.... i was in on it too^^ not to mention firing corks out of bottles using vinigar and bicarbonate of soda laugh.gif that was fun fun FUN!!

my point is anyway girls like boys toys too wink.gif


Yuri Demetri:
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QUOTE
not to mention firing corks out of bottles using vinigar and bicarbonate of soda



laugh.gif
Yuri sneaks off to try out a new toy...


Stupid Little Genius:
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QUOTE
Yuri sneaks off to try out a new toy... 




i knew i shouldn't have given you new ideas....


Astra:
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Hi guys!

I just recently found this forum and I read about all your MacGyverisms. I think they are all very cool and I wanted to tell you about mine:

The lock of my letter-box was frozen and full of ice so I was not able to put the key into it. I thought about thawing it with a hairdryer but there was no socket around. So I really stood there and thought: What would MacGyver do? Then I went into my flat and after a while came back with a pot full of hot steaming water which I held under the letter-box and after a while I could put the key into the lock since the ice was melted.

Of course I also could have used a spray to de-ice but I don’t have a car and therefore no spray either and where would have been the fun in that at all?


Greetings from Germany

Astra


Mac:
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Very good idea!

I just blow on my mail box lock to get to deice it, but I like your idea better. As long as you're just using the heat from the steam (ie. not letting the steam touch the lock) you're not adding new moisture that'll just freeze again.

Oh, and welcome!

Mac


Amy:
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I doubt this is the most impressive MacGyverism posted here, but....

One of my 7 year old's toy John Deere tractors had a tire that came off and we couldn't find the pin that held in it place. So until I have time to make a more permanent fix, I used a piece of one of those plastic coated round twisties that they use to keep toys in place in the package...you know, the ones it takes forever to take out because I don't want to cut the twisties...they're pretty nice after all and you never know when you'll use them! ( unsure.gif yes, I'm a twistie junkie) It's diameter was perfect to stay in the hole left in the axle by the pin and once I put the tire on, I just gave it a little twist and cut it off. So far so good!


Astra:
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QUOTE
I just blow on my mail box lock to get to deice it...


Oh, and welcome!





Thank you! That didn't occur to me, though...


I do have another one: My friend and I were in a hotel room where the shade at the window only could be fully closed (which was pitch dark) or fully opened (which was too bright because of the lantern at the street). So we had to secure it halfway down.

We looked at each other and said at the same time: "Shoelaces!" But since she did not want to have to put the laces into the shoes the other day again we just used the whole shoe to fix it. Looked really silly, but worked


Pseodonym:
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I used a paper clip to fix my watch after the metal piece that held the metal part,the one that has the thing that goes through the holes, to the band (that sentence was full of really obscure words...but i have no idea what to call the pieces...), fell out. I still use the watch, and it has held together with no problems (although it requires a little more work to take on an off...at least I know that no one will be able to steal it off my wrist...not like I worry about that anyways...*shrugs*). So if you understood that at all, that is one of my tiny MacGyverisms.


Mac:
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I think that these are all excellent examples of 'MacGyverisms.' MacGyversims aren't about gimmicks or using strange objects. They're about finding a quick and dirty way to achieve your goal. At least, I think so....

In addition to duct tape, SAK, and WD-40, I never leave home without those plastic ties that make a loop and go "krrssssh" when you tighten them (if you can envision such a thing...). I was camping once with friends when the canvas chair I was sitting in gave way and dumped me unceremoniously in the sand. It turned out that one of the corner pins had snapped. Without a word, and ignoring the gaping maws around me, I went to my kit, pulled out three of those ties, then used them to repair the chair. It's still holding five years later!

Mac


Last post was October 9, 2006

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 11 November 2006 - 01:29 AM
Hi all. I recently discovered this forum and after reading your MacGyversims, had to include my own.

The fan belt broke on my truck one day when I was miles in the middle of nowhere. The truck wouldn't run without the fan and there was no way to call anyone for help, so I made a temporary fan belt with the leg from a pair of pantyhose. The patch held long enough for me to get to a garage and have a new fan belt installed. The look on the mechanic's face was priceless. ohmy.gif

I also have used leather boot laces to repair a horse bridle, duct tape as a bandage for an injured horse and PAM cooking spray on the horse's feet to keep ice from building up on their hooves in the winter. The horse's that had shoes had a problem with snow packing inside the hoof and freezing to the metal shoes. The ice balls would get very slippry and the horses would have a hard tiome walking around. The PAM prevented the snow and ice from building up in the hooves.

My sister also taught me that a double handful of pennies in a tube sock makes a very effective weapon.

Posted by: Macs Lab Rat 11 November 2006 - 03:51 AM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl @ Nov 11 2006, 09:39 AM)
My sister also taught me that a double handful of pennies in a tube sock makes a very effective weapon.

Yes, I can vouch for the effectiveness of the "lots of small hard things in a sock" weapon. Though in my case it was marbles. Lots of hard marbles. Ouch.

Welcome to MOL MacGyverGrrl! biggrin.gif happy_dance.gif


Posted by: Amy 11 November 2006 - 04:03 AM
Yes! Welcome Grrl! Glad to see you jumping in!!

QUOTE
The fan belt broke on my truck one day when I was miles in the middle of nowhere. The truck wouldn't run without the fan and there was no way to call anyone for help, so I made a temporary fan belt with the leg from a pair of pantyhose.


laugh.gif I knew a lady who was a missionary in Africa and she kept spare panty hose in the her Volkswagen Beetle for just such an emergency! she also informed me that Beetles really do float relatively well in water...she floated hers many tmes across washed out roads during rainy seasons. laugh.gif


Posted by: MacGirl 27 December 2006 - 08:58 AM
Mine seems to have been lost, so here goes... I have two, one by me and the other by my mom.

Mine was about a year ago. I was backing out of the garage one night on my way to work, and was too close to the side... and proceeded to take the right side mirror off my car. doh.gif Fortunately, I remembered that I had a roll of duct tape in the back seat, so I just taped it up. It held (for a couple of months, actually!) until I had the money to get it fixed properly.

Earlier this year, we were having issues with our sump pump at home. The pump would kick on every half hour or so, and the hose would spray water all over the laundry room floor (the water was *supposed* to go down the drain, but the pressure was too high). It was driving me and my mom completely nuts. Finally, one night, my mom woke up in the wee hours with a brainstorm. She grabbed a bundt cake pan from the kitchen, and a roll of packing tape. She put the cake pan on the floor over the drain, threaded the hose through the hole in the middle of the pan, and used the tape to secure the hose to a nearby pipe! It worked... a little water still got on the floor, but the vast majority of it went down the drain like it was supposed to. When we finally managed to get a plumber out here to deal with it, he laughed out loud when he saw what my mom had done, and said that was probably the best seat-of-the-pants fix he'd ever seen.

Posted by: Lothithil 27 December 2006 - 09:55 AM
Toward the end of Xmas weekend, one of my beloved beasts decided to up-chuck in my sneakers... one of my work sneakers, mind. I washed them but worried that they would not dry quick enough for me to wear them to work. So I decided to get creative...

I bent out two wire coat hangers (like Mac did in 'Everytime She Smiles') and then bend them so that they shaped a sharp L angle. Stuck the half of the hanger that doesn't have the hook on it inside the shoe so that it held the tongue, and fitted the other half of the hanger over the toe of the sneaker. Turned the hook out and hung my sneakers on the shower rod. A well placed fan and a nearby airvent blew the sneakers dry in time for work!

It also kept the cat from yaking on them again! (no more turkey for you, Xaphod! Bad Kitty!) tongue.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 27 December 2006 - 12:43 PM
Xaphod??!!

It doesn't have 2 heads does it?

Posted by: laarell4241 27 December 2006 - 12:53 PM
My latest one was two weeks ago. We've just re-routed the cables of the hubby's recording studio and the way they ended up entering the control room from the sound booth was just fine for me, but way too low for him to go under. We kind of left those until a better solution would present itself. Well, that weekend he dropped me off at home and went to the gym and somebody must've been torturing their car or something earlier, because there were a couple of radiator hose clamps on the ground. Well, I just couldn't resist. I took the clamps, washed the grime off of them, got on the tallest chair and mounted one high on the door frame to the control room. I fed all the lines through, the diameter was just perfect to feed the fat XLR plugs through. That raised the cables by over a foot, which was enough so not even the hubby's tuft gets fluffed now when he goes under the lines. One of the lines turned out to have an attached velcro strap, so I strapped all the lines together in the middle of the run, so they would not hang at different heights. The other clamp is in my junk crate, where I store useful things that I find, eagerly awaiting a home.

Although what'll probably happen is my best friend from work will steal it. She's just as junk-creative as I am. Scares me to think where some of her junk ends up though. My random bits of garbage tend to stay on the ground at least or at most get up in an airplane. Hers are orbiting this lousy planet.

Posted by: Lothithil 27 December 2006 - 02:22 PM
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ Dec 27 2006, 03:53 PM)
Xaphod??!!

It doesn't have 2 heads does it?

Hee hee! No, but he was named after that famous Galactic President.



I like your new icon, Rocky! Shiney!!

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 5 January 2007 - 11:33 PM
I'm using my latest MacGyverism right now. I have an old injury in my knee that tends to flare up and hurt like hell when the weather turns cold. It is supposed to be 6 degrees tonight and my knee is aching like crazy. Heat helps ease the pain, but I can't find the heating pad. My solution. I have the the battery charger for my laptop sitting on my knee. The charger gets really warm, so I sitting here typing and got to thinking, why not. Its working like a charm. the battry pack is quite warm and is relieving the pain. Yeah, drug free relief and I will be able to sleep tonight.

Posted by: Old Fan 6 January 2007 - 05:48 PM
Hummm... a multi-tasker. Mac would love that!

cool.jpg jeep.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 8 January 2007 - 09:30 AM
I have to place a warning before this MacGyverism, if you are a squeamish person, skip this one.

My husband and I were training for the One Day Hike last spring (www.onedayhike.org). It's an extreme hiking event, three concurrent events, the largest one is 100K, as it says, covered in one day (start at 3am in Downtown DC, finish in Harpers Ferry, WV, 21h45min later (at least that's what we got clocked at) ). This is not the crazy part though. I told my husband not to do anything crazy and especially not to play pick-up basketball while we were training. Wearing size 15 shoes, he's somewhat of a target for jumping jackalopes.

This is a story about a smashed toe, a paper clip, a candle, a match (or lighter) and a pair of pliers. Yep, two days before an 18-mile training hike my hubby got his big toe smashed. The real problem was that he's smashed the nail before and it grew to be roughly 1/4" thick, so I don't think the emergency room nail punch would've worked to relieve the pressure. And he's a real fan of needles to boot. I improvised. Here's a funny thing about nails and hair: when sufficient heat is applied, they melt. So I got him in the bathroom, lit a candle, secured a straightened paper clip in the pliers, heated the paper clip, held it up against the middle of the busted nail and let the heat do the work. Repeat. After about 10 minutes I burned a hole through the nail, didn't hurt, because there was a big bunch of liquid underneath. Stuff came gushing out and the nail went back in its place. How well it worked? We hiked that 18 miles the morning after I did that. It continued to drain for the next couple of days, but kept clean with peroxide poured on it, did just fine. The hole eventually grew out and simply got clipped off.

So this is a sure cure if you happen to smash your finger or your toe with something heavy.

Posted by: MacGirl 8 January 2007 - 02:41 PM
Yikes! Sounds messy, but hey, in a pinch, you gotta do what works...

Posted by: laarell4241 9 January 2007 - 06:20 AM
Fun with pennies (gotta use them for something, right?)


This is one you can actually do at home or at a party for fun and profit. My own personal recipe.

Ingredients: 8 pennies, salt water, some denim or other thick fabric, an LED or some other low-current bulb.


Take 8 pennies, at least 4 of which should be dated after 1982. Place four of the pennies (late dated ones) between the heel of your boot and concrete and strip them. They should turn nice and silver. After all the copper is only on the surface. The inside of a late model penny is almost pure zinc. Anyone see where I'm going with this?

Cut the denim to somewhat smaller than a penny. Dip the denim in salt water. Make four penny sandwiches by placing a stripped penny down, then denim, finish with an unstripped penny. Make sure that the outsides of the sandwiches are dry, stack them up, so top of one is in direct dry contact with the bottom of another sandwich and hold the leads of the LED to the top and bottom of the stack. You've just made yourself a pretty decent flashlight.

With this setup, you should get about 2.5-2.7V. An AAA battery gives 1.2V, an average LED comes in two varieties: 2.4V and 5V, so do the math what you can run with this. Main advantage over the potatoes? You WON'T get bugs. ("Out in the cold"). If said alarm clock doesn't run right, you don't have to dispose of the tomatoes, just reduce the power by using fewer penny sandwiches. You can duct tape the setup together if you want to. If the battery runs out, just replace the unstripped pennies with new ones and strip the stripped pennies some more to remove oxidation.

If the LED doesn't light up a couple of things may have happened.

1. You got the outsides of the sandwiches wet.
2. You didn't strip the pennies enough, so not enough zinc is exposed.
3. You reversed the LED leads (flip the LED)

I did this trick for a five year old son of a friend of mine over the weekend and the kid almost went into orbit.

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 12 January 2007 - 11:33 PM
My husband MacGyvered the snowblower tonight. It has been snowing since Thursday morning and we have about 16 inches of light fluffy powdery snow. Its great for the skiers, they're loving it. I'm not. We have to move the snow out of the driveway so we can get in and out. We also have to move the snow from in front of our mailbox if we want the postal service to deliver the mail. Apparently mail trucks are not designed to drive in snow. The easiest way to move the snow is with a plow or a snowblower. We don't have the former so we use the blower.

Anyway, our snowblower has a mind of its own. It starts when it wants to and and works as long as the snow isn't too wet and heavy. It also has some sort of pin that holds the auger assembly in place. Every now and then, the snowblower shoots the pin out of the assembly and we have to replace it to make the thing work again. It happened again last night after the second pass down the driveway. Only this time we didn't have a spare pin. My husband badgered about in the garage until he found a bunch of wire. He found a length of wire in a gauge that was slightly smaller than the pin. He cut the wire to the length he needed and the wrapped the wire with a much thinner guage of wire for strength and to make it fit in the assembly. It fit into the hole and the auger assembly is working fine. It seems to be holding up ok, which is good, at least until we can get to the hardware store for a replacement pin.

Hope this fix lasts awhile, its still snowing.........

Posted by: MacNymph 13 January 2007 - 09:35 AM
You need to post a picture of your husband standing triumphantly over the snow blower. biggrin.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 29 January 2007 - 09:50 AM
I never had a cell phone, figuring the darn things are an annoyance and cause brain cancer. Well okay, maybe with a headphone they don't as long as the thing stays in my bag and doesn't come anywhere close to me.

Now going out and buying a cell phone was just too lame as I had a perfectly good broken cell phone laying around the house. Sure it's a brick that I had in the old Corolla, charged so I could call 911 in the likely case that a wheel would fall off or the car folds in the middle or something like that (yes it was getting to be this bad). The phone stopped working after a while, maybe coming into too close a contact with soaking wet and muddy hiking boots in the back of the car had something to do with it. Now three years later I found myself actually needing a phone and before running out and buying one I decided if I could get this one working again. I took it apart, couldn't really see much wrong except some mud on the contacts. Cleaned it with some nail polish remover, screwed it back together and it came back up. Sure the battery compartment is held together with duct tape, but guess what, pinking shears can do wonders for the look. Now I have a thoroughly MacGyvered cell phone. Now the beauty of the old brick is that it picks up a signal just about anywhere where other people's phones are dead. I guess that humongous antenna is worth something after all. :-)

Posted by: tandt14 7 February 2007 - 08:07 PM
Okay, here's mine. About 8 years ago, my husband and I were camping in northern Arizona--in the middle of nowhere. I accidentally locked the keys in our 1987 Honda Accord hatchback. Well, like I said, we were in the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark and cold, fast. Actually, it had started to snow. So, my husband was getting ready to bust the window out so that we could get out of there before it got too cold (We weren't prepared for that kind of cold.). We were getting desperate. I couldn't let him break the window. It was a 6 hour drive back to our home. Then it came to me...two boot laces and two underwires. Yep, the underwires from my bra. blush.gif So, I took the laces from my hiking boots, tied the laces together and wrangled with the underwires to make a hook then I attached the hook to the laces. I used a tree branch to pry open the driver's side window lowered my "MacGyverism" down to the handy trunk release and voila!! An open hatch! I crawled in the back and unlocked the car. I saved the day!!! My husband was impressed and amused all at the same time.

I was a little embarrassed....but for once soooo grateful for an underwire bra. biggrin.gif

Posted by: Amy 8 February 2007 - 04:19 AM
QUOTE (tandt14 @ 7 February 2007 - 11:17 PM)
....but for once soooo grateful for an underwire bra. biggrin.gif

So that's what those annoying things are for... laugh.gif

Great stories here lately! smile.gif

Posted by: MacGirl 11 February 2007 - 01:30 PM
LMAO!! Yeah, I always wondered too... tongue.gif

Good one!

Posted by: MacGirl 11 February 2007 - 01:38 PM
Here's one I thought of. It was a long time ago, and it was extremely simple, so I'm not sure it would count, but here goes.

My dad and I and a friend of his were doing something that required a bucket. All we could find was an old dishpan with a hole in the bottom. Dad was out of ideas, but I said, "Why don't you just use some duct tape to fix it?" Dad looked at me (his expression was priceless!) and then said to his friend, "This kid knows stuff!" (I was maybe ten at the time.)

And this was before I'd ever seen MacGyver. biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGreenhalgh 16 February 2007 - 07:47 PM
This summer, I went camping with two of my friends, we decided to take an impromtu road trip to the woods (about 4 hours away from home) and our friend Merri's ONLY job was to bring the tent, Kelly and I took care of sleeping bags, food, everything else. So we get to the campsite, I go to set up the tent, and MERRI FORGOT THE TENT POLES! Now, how do you make a tent without poles? Well I did! Using the tree as leverage, some nylon rope to make a pully system, and duct tape and knots to keep everything secure, I managed to make a 8 person tent perfectly sleepable without a single tent pole.

Posted by: Amy 4 March 2007 - 04:32 AM
laugh.gif This probably barely counts...and it's....gross, kind of....

I was on a ladies retreat over night on Friday. I wear contacts. I forgot contact solution. Since mine aren't the kind you can leave in over night, that was a problem. Nobody had any I could use.

Flashback to about 5 years ago: I'm in a car with a couple of teen girls and the one driving (who is notoriously not a great driver) started having an issue with her contact. So (while driving) she takes it out....and sticks it in her mouth. And then puts it back in her eye! Of course we had a grand old time with that! She said...why not?...it can't be much different than being in your eye!

Back to the present: I remembered that. So....I worked up enough spit in the case to at least keep my contacts from drying out. They didn't make it back into my eyes the next day (contacts and I don't get along after a very late night), but I cleaned them real well after I got home and put them back in this morning....they don't seem any worse for the wear! wink.gif

Posted by: tandt14 4 March 2007 - 06:44 AM
QUOTE
I worked up enough spit in the case to at least keep my contacts from drying out.


EWWWW, that *is* gross! roller.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 4 March 2007 - 09:56 AM
QUOTE (tandt14 @ 4 March 2007 - 09:54 AM)

EWWWW, that *is* gross!

I second the gross factor. I did that once when I was a teenager and I did stick the contact back in my eye. I ended up with a raging case of pinkeye. You know human mouth is septic, right? ohmy.gif

If you washed it real good before wearing it again, it'll probably be fine. :-)

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 4 March 2007 - 11:51 AM
QUOTE (Laarell4241)
You know human mouth is septic, right?

Listerine

Posted by: laarell4241 4 March 2007 - 02:32 PM
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 4 March 2007 - 03:01 PM)
QUOTE
Listerine

I don't know what Listerine would do to contacts. It's a fairly noxious substance (at least to my taste buds) biggrin.gif

Posted by: Devon636 5 March 2007 - 09:37 AM
Don't worry Amy, if I had a nickel for every time I've spit on my 'tacts, I would probably have enough money to buy a jumbo bottle of ReNu sterile contact solution... biggrin.gif

Posted by: Macs Lab Rat 5 March 2007 - 10:08 AM
The only time I’ve been unlucky enough to be stuck without the solution for my lenses was when I had to unexpectedly pull an all nighter at work. Luckily for me there was some eye wash bottles that were out of date that month and were due to be thrown out as we had bought replacements. They are basically sterile saline solution in a sealed bottle in our lab first aid kits for chemical splashes in the eye. Personally I think you’d be better off sticking your head under the tap to get a proper rinse out rather than squeezing bottle after bottle of eye wash in your eye but never mind. unsure.gif
The solutions were perfect for a rub and refresh of mine and the managers contact lenses. He treated me to a bacon buttie for breakfast for the suggestion. smile.gif

Posted by: Devon636 5 March 2007 - 10:39 AM
What on earth is a bacon buttie??? I'm so starving right now!
We all just need to ditch our grodie old contacts and get Lasik surgery- now that's a real MacGyverism cuz it's so high tech and utilizes lasers.

Posted by: Macs Lab Rat 5 March 2007 - 10:47 AM
QUOTE
What on earth is a bacon buttie???
Sorry, I mean a bacon sandwich. Yummy! tongue.gif

QUOTE
We all just need to ditch our grodie old contacts and get Lasik surgery- now that's a real MacGyverism cuz it's so high tech and utilizes lasers.
ohno-smiley.gif I don't think I'd trust anyone enough to burn my eyes in to shape with lasers!

Posted by: laarell4241 5 March 2007 - 11:40 AM
QUOTE (Macs Lab Rat @ 5 March 2007 - 01:57 PM)

I don't think I'd trust anyone enough to burn my eyes in to shape with lasers!

I second that wholeheartedly.

There's no way anyone getting close to my face with one of those things! When I was in high school a friend and I built a working laser that cut metal after scrounging a local junk yard and borrowing some things from the physics lab. We pulled rough schematics out of some of my dad's books and made up the rest. Well, we had a minor accident and my wrist bears the result of that. Left a pretty good scar and I still occasionally have trouble moving my first three fingers. Would I want something like that anywhere near my face? No way! Now these lasers are all fancy and high-tech and all. Tell you what, the more complicated something is, the more likely it is to have an unfortunate accident. Besides, nobody knows what'll happen to your eyes 30-40 years down the line once you have this thing done.

A much safer way of fixing your eyes is doing eye exercises. Really works too. I kept my old glasses just for comparison...

Posted by: Astra 5 March 2007 - 02:08 PM
QUOTE (laarell4241 @ 5 March 2007 - 08:50 PM)
QUOTE (Macs Lab Rat @ 5 March 2007 - 01:57 PM)

I don't think I'd trust anyone enough to burn my eyes in to shape with lasers!

I second that wholeheartedly.


Me too! I don't even wear contacts, I never could bring myself to put them in. I have enough trouble with eyedrops. Just a few days ago the doctor put some of them in that did sting very much and then demanded I should keep the eyes open! Turned out to be very difficult!

When I first heard that Rick had Lasik surgery I did not know whether I should admire him for being that courageous or think that he was crazy. But when I later heard about how much trouble he had all the years I thought more among the lines "Why did he not do it years ago?"

But then again - why did he not just wear glasses? I think this questions belongs to the "What if MacGyver was ugly"-thread. Though he doesn't have to be ugly when wearing glasses, some people look better with them than without them. And he could have fooled the bad guys much better in case they thought he was weak and then he could surprise them even more.

Posted by: Amy 5 March 2007 - 02:29 PM
laugh.gif Didn't expect my improvisation to spark so many responses! smile.gif Believe it or not...my contacts seemed better off after the spit soak! lol. The right one had been bothering me the last few times I put it in and after that incident...it was fine again. Don't ask...I dunno. lol... maybe I should bottle my spit and sell it for contacts. Nevermind...maybe not. Yuck.

Posted by: MinstrelMike 8 March 2007 - 10:37 AM
Well, I have to admit, it's been fun reading all these, I just had to create myself a new account just so I could mention my own minor MacGyverism ...

Not sure exactly WHICH existing post I'm going to wind up replying to, really need a "new" post, but I don't see away to DO that without starting a new topic ...

Similar to a few others posted, but haven't seen this exact application so far.

My Mom's eyeglasses seemed about to bite the dust, had two screws, one on each site holding the main frame together (I bet you see where I'm going already!). One site had lost it's screw so often that the threads were about worn out, and/or the current screw wasn't the original, and didn't fit well enough. Got to the point where she couldn't keep the screw in and/or keep the side of the frame together, therefore the lens wouldn't stay in.

So, I put everything back together except for the reluctant screw, lined up the holes in the frame, and started looking for a twist-tie! All I could find at the moment was a rather large garbage-bag tie, which I couldn't get to fit through the holes well enough to pull through the other end, so I stripped off the plastic/paper cover to get the bare wire. Then I just put it through ONCE, twisted it tight, and clipped it off, trying to get the short twisted ends bent out of the way.

I had done exactly the same trick once before when one of the nose-pieces on my own glasses lost a screw and I couldn't find a spare. Not to mention, with screws that small, my bigger problem is finding an appropriate screwdriver, even if I *do* recover the original screw! Usually easier to find a twist-tie!

What surprised me both times, was that the twist ties, after application, STAYED without breaking, pretty much as long as necessary. Can't recall exactly HOW long, but at least long enough to get "professional" repairs, and/or new glasses! I'd always thought of those twist-ties as relatively "weak" because most of them can be broken with your bare hands by bending for less than a minute. But I guess once they're "in place", they're stable enough without being bent, so they don't break ?

Since we're talking "MacGyverisms", I should mention, that I'm not sure if a SAK would have assisted in this situation. I have had one or two in the past, both "clones", but the latest was lost in a recent move (they just seemed too bulky to be comfortable in my pocket). Don't know if any current models include a screwdriver appropriate for common eyeglass screws. And both times, I stripped the coating off the twist-ties with my fingernails easily enough (that's saying a bit, since I'm a non-classical guitar player, I keep the fingernails on both hands trimmed pretty short).

That's about it. Thanks for reading!

I have an in-law who used to work off-shore a lot, and his buddies wound up calling him "MacGyver" because he'd usually find a way to make "whatever" work well enough to get by until the next supply run on-shore. Maybe I can talk him into contributing some stories. He's not particularly 'net-literate yet.

Mike

PS: Sorry I tend to get a bit verbose!

Posted by: Lothithil 8 March 2007 - 12:21 PM
Welcome to MOL, MinstrelMike! With all your craftiness, you are going to fit right in here!! biggrin.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 9 March 2007 - 02:27 PM
Welcome to our discussion group, MinstrelMike! You'll totally fit in clapping.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 15 March 2007 - 05:43 PM
Hi MinstrelMike!!!

I am a jewelry designer and I know why your twisty wires break so eaily. When you bend metal back and forth, the molecular alignment of the metal is altered. Initially the metal gets harder and stronger, but if you keep bending it, you go beyond the tensile tolerance of the wire and it becomes brittle. Once the wire becomes brittle it will snap easily in your hands. I have ruined more than one piece of jewelry by over working the wire.

I have another use for those twisty ties that I discovered at 5:30 this morning. I was getting ready for work and had what could be termed a "plumbing mishap." The chain on the flush mechanism in the toilet managed to tangle around itself and shortened itself to about an inch long. This caused the water in the tank to run continuously, not a good thing since I live in the desert and water is a scarce resource. I had to fix the chain but when I tried to untangle it the damn thing broke. Niether piece was long enough to repair the toilet. I have lots of chain, but I didn't want to use sterling silver to repair the toilet. Inspiration!!!! the wire from a twisty tie. I connected the two peices of broken chain reattached them to the flush lever and SUCESS! The toilet is fixed, no more running water, no more wasting resources.

Considering all of this took place before I had my AM caffiene, I am pretty impressed with myself. clapping.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 3 April 2007 - 05:50 AM
A couple of days ago I needed to run a garden hose out of my second floor apartment. The trick of course was connecting it to something. After looking around and trying a few things that didn't work, the bathtub faucet was going to be it. Now the thing about that faucet is that (as all of the other ones in my place) you can't screw anything to them. You can't snap anything onto them either. Well, the hubby just finished slurping down a half-gallon bottle of grape juice and I had duct tape and my SAK. I cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic bottle, fed the garden hose through the bottle so the end that's supposed to screw into the tap was stuck on the inside of the bottle. I duct-taped it in place so it wouldn't leak too much. I cut the top of the bottle off in order to make the hole bigger so that the end of the faucet would fit inside the bottle. I padded up the opening with duct tape to make it square, to fit the shape of the faucet better. I taped the whole contraption to the faucet itself and turned the water on. Sure it leaked somewhat and the water pressure could've been better, I guess, but it worked perfectly for what I needed it for. Gotta love those plastic Ocean Spray bottles. There are so many good uses for them smile.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 3 April 2007 - 01:42 PM
laugh.gif excellent smile.gif


Posted by: Devon636 3 April 2007 - 08:00 PM
This is so clever and resourceful *and* a double MacGyverism for the recycling a plastic bottle! biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 6 April 2007 - 03:55 PM
My latest MacGyverism involved failed.

Last Saturday my ever loving adorable little boy superglued a Girl Scout cookie to my living room sofa. (No I'm not making this up) There was only a small nuclear explosion in the Utah west desert last week. blowup.gif



I found the cookie before the glue had completely hardened, so I was able to remove the cookie. Unfortunately the glue and the acetone I used to remove the worst of the glue left a big bald patch in the nap of the upholstery of the sofa. Since the only thing that can truly fix the sofa is re-upholstering it, I just flipped the cushion over.

Good thing its an old sofa.

Please????????? Can somebody explain to me the logic behind superglue and cookies??? I mean, these just aren't things that go together. My friends keep telling me I need to have another kid. I think I need a vacation. blink.gif


Posted by: Old Fan 6 April 2007 - 04:52 PM
Gee... I wish I could help you out here, but it sounds like you need a chemist to explain how the superglue, cookie and upolstery material's chemicals all intermixed. I haven't a clue - my rememberance of high school chemistry is too far in the dim, dark past. Perhaps you could inquire at a local college/university. Mac, being the chemist that he is, could probably have cleaned it up with a few household cleaning products.

sad.gif jeep.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 6 April 2007 - 05:49 PM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl)
My friends keep telling me I need to have another kid.

These wouldn't be male friends would they? roller.gif

QUOTE
Can somebody explain to me the logic behind superglue and cookies???

There is no logic... other than its better then gluing your hands together with the stuff. laugh.gif

Maybe you need to re-think your position on kids being allowed near super glue. wink.gif


Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 6 April 2007 - 10:10 PM
Rock--the superglue was in a cabinet in my art studio. Logan knows that he is not supposed to go in there. He was totally on a mission to find the glue. I ususually don't leave chemicals around where he can get to them. I teach way to many safety and health classes to leave things around where Logan can get to them.

The chemistry of the superglue is such that it is not too soluble in most organic solvents. I have yet to find a cleaning product that will remove it from anything. Acetone works best by softening the glue and then you can peel it off. acetone is flammable and in high concentrations, not so good for your skin.

Flipping the sofa cushion seems to be the best option for now. I am so glad I opted for the week long vacation in California instead of new furniture last year.

And yes, most of the friends advising another kid are male--go figure. dry.gif


Posted by: MacGyverOnline 6 April 2007 - 10:32 PM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl)
the superglue was in a cabinet in my art studio. Logan knows that he is not supposed to go in there. He was totally on a mission to find the glue.

Oh.. well maybe you should superglue his hands together as punishment then laugh.gif


Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 12 April 2007 - 10:24 PM
Superglue has become a bansihed substance in my house, although I should probably keep some in my work office desk drawer. I could have used it a couple of days ago.

Tuesday I wore what my son calls my GI Joe pants to work. They're a camo print canvas and totally cool with a long sleeve white henley shirt and brown leather bomber jacket. Anyway, I digress. The pants have a large sturdy metal button closure that cut the thread holding it in place while I was sitting at my desk. Going home to change clothes wasn't an option and I had a meeting later in the day. I had a WWMD moment (what would MacGyver do?). No duct tape, stapling the pants together wasn't going to work, paper clip wasn't strong enough to hold. Ah ha! Those black binder clips however were perfect. I used a small one to hold the pants closed, untucked my shirt to hide the clip and went about my business. No one was the wiser to my situation.

If I had superglue, I could have jsut glued the button back in place. Instead I will need some Kevlar thread to put the button back on.

Posted by: MacNymph 13 April 2007 - 05:52 AM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl @ 13 April 2007 - 06:54 PM)
Superglue has become a bansihed substance in my house
laugh.gif

QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl @ 13 April 2007 - 06:54 PM)
The pants have a large sturdy metal button closure that cut the thread holding it in place while I was sitting at my desk.  Going home to change clothes wasn't an option and I had a meeting later in the day.  I had a WWMD moment (what would MacGyver do?).  No duct tape, stapling the pants together wasn't going to work, paper clip wasn't strong enough to hold.  Ah ha!  Those black binder clips however were perfect.  I used a small one to hold the pants closed, untucked my shirt to hide the clip and went about my business.  No one was the wiser to my situation.


laugh.gif clapping.gif BRILLIANT! cool.jpg notworthy.gif

Posted by: Astra 16 April 2007 - 03:09 AM
Well, I don't know whether you can count this a MacGyverism, but at least I actually thought about what to do and then solved the problem.

We were going back from holiday yesterday by car and I happened to sit at the side where the sun was shining. No sheets at the window, no air condition. The sun was shining at my dark jeans and you can imagine it got very hot, almost burning.

So I thought about what to do and then put my white woollen jacket over my knees. You'd assume that it became even hotter but of course since white doesn't collect the heat as black it became much cooler actually and I wasn't roasted anymore.

*looks pretty pleased with herself*

Posted by: Amy 16 April 2007 - 04:18 AM
hehe...love it MacGyverGrrrl! LOL. And good thinking Astra!

These are hardly genius, but...I had a couple of paperclip adventures this past week.

Monday, hubby and I borrowed a Ford Expedition (I think...it was humungous) to take 5 teens to a concert because our car wasn't big enough. So we're under way, and one of the teens thought to bring one of those tape adapter things to convert a tape player to play an iPod. No CD player. So we stick the tape part in, and nothing happens. None of the buttons do anything, including eject it. So, luckily, it had that little cord attaching it to the iPod to pull it out with. So we root around and find some cassettes in the console and put one in to be sure it's not the converter. It's not. The tape is stuck. And of course THAT one doesn't have a cord. So paperclip to the rescue...I bent it out and hooked one end in the reel hole of the tape and was able to get it out. wink.gif

Next paperclip adventure...We're at church yesterday and Isaiah decides that it's a terrible emergency that he didn't put a belt on and even though he's sitting down his pants are in the process of falling down. *rolls eyes* EVERYTHING'S an emergency with a 7 year old. So anyway, I made him tough it out till church was over and before Sunday school I raided the office for a couple of paperclips. I looped each one through an adjacent beltloop and then hooked the clips together. It pulled in just enough of his waistband that he survived Sunday school AND a potluck without embarrassment... LOL.

Posted by: laarell4241 23 April 2007 - 09:50 AM
My husband has one of those digital pen and pad devices. It looks like a regular clipboard with a regular paper notepad on it, except that everything that's written on the notepad with an ink pen gets digitally transferred into memory and then handwritten sheets can be transferred to the computer like that. The ink pen writes like a regular pen and also has a digital sensor (like a pen digitizer that most artists probably familiar with) It's a neat device and also greatly cuts the clutter as the hubby was liable to take notes on pieces of junk mail that I then would be unable to dispose of.

Well, he needed to buy ink refills for the pen. This was the first time him buying those and he brought the pen with to the store to check that the refills would fit. Now in order to remove the ink stick you need to use a special little grabber tool that grabs the nib and pulls the whole thing out through the front. We got to the mall parking lot and he realized he forgot the tool. It was also one of those rare occasions I didn't bring my SAK. The nib was too small to grab with fingernails. He tried a number of things to hook the cartridge with and nothing worked as there is hardly any clearance between the cartridge and the pen itself. Too tight for even a paperclip. Then my eyes fell on a sticky sock wrapper from a new pair of socks that I somehow missed and he managed to write on (making it indisposable. His excuse for using it was that it's so convenient, he can just stick it to the dashboard if he needs it handy. Right...). I took the sock wrapper, wrapped it around the nib, squeezed it with my nails and the cartridge came out stuck to the sock wrapper. Problem solved. biggrin.gif

Posted by: Tygr 24 April 2007 - 08:19 PM
This is a prank I hope to use at summer camp this year. I have a battery-powered noisemaker that makes the most horrible buzz you can imagine, so I'm going to take a few batteries, duct tape wires to them with one going to the buzzer, and then to a small metal plate, the other placed over a piece of ice, so that when the ice melts, the circuit will be completed, and the buzzer will go off. This is somewhat like what Mac did in the Escape in season 1 with the PCP bomb. The whole thing will be placed in the vent of another cabin in the middle of the night (I'll make the whole thing on a piece of wood, so it won't fall apart. Ice will be easy to procure).

laugh.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 24 April 2007 - 11:08 PM
roller.gif cruel and unusual punishment.

Posted by: MacNymph 26 April 2007 - 09:19 AM
huh.gif A premeditated MacGyverism? dry.gif Isn't that an oxymoron? laugh.gif

Posted by: Tygr 26 April 2007 - 02:23 PM
QUOTE (MacNymph @ 27 April 2007 - 05:48 AM)
huh.gif A premeditated MacGyverism? dry.gif Isn't that an oxymoron? laugh.gif

I was planning on doing this in the middle of the night, and there's not too much to make a buzzer out of in those cabins... laugh.gif

Posted by: MacGirl 28 April 2007 - 06:15 PM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl @ 13 April 2007 - 06:53 PM)
Tuesday I wore what my son calls my GI Joe pants to work. They're a camo print canvas and totally cool with a long sleeve white henley shirt and brown leather bomber jacket. Anyway, I digress. The pants have a large sturdy metal button closure that cut the thread holding it in place while I was sitting at my desk. Going home to change clothes wasn't an option and I had a meeting later in the day. I had a WWMD moment (what would MacGyver do?). No duct tape, stapling the pants together wasn't going to work, paper clip wasn't strong enough to hold. Ah ha! Those black binder clips however were perfect. I used a small one to hold the pants closed, untucked my shirt to hide the clip and went about my business. No one was the wiser to my situation.

If I had superglue, I could have jsut glued the button back in place. Instead I will need some Kevlar thread to put the button back on.

laugh.gif Now THAT'S creative!! I'll have to file that one away for the next time I lose a button off my pants in the middle of the day.

Posted by: laarell4241 30 April 2007 - 12:44 PM
QUOTE (Tygr @ 24 April 2007 - 11:48 PM)
This is a prank I hope to use at summer camp this year. I have a battery-powered noisemaker that makes the most horrible buzz you can imagine, so I'm going to take a few batteries, duct tape wires to them with one going to the buzzer, and then to a small metal plate, the other placed over a piece of ice, so that when the ice melts, the circuit will be completed, and the buzzer will go off.

A friend of mine and I did something similar to drive our literature teacher up the wall only with a mechanical noisemaker. I had this large plastic horse that 'sort of' neighed if you pulled the string. In reality it simply made a very obnoxious noise that maybe in a drug-induced coma would sound remotely like a neigh. One fine day we got really tired of listening to the teacher wax poetic about "War and Peace" (we don't patronize literature written by child molesters, that's true about Tolstoy by the way) and decided to drive her batty. We got the 'neigher' out of the horse, took some duct tape and fishing line and attached the 'neighing box' to the back of a bookcase in the classroom. We ran the fishing line from the pull string to our desk and waited for a moment to strike. We struck with great success again and again, yanking the fishing line and making this most obnoxious noise in the middle of the teacher's monologues, causing a general uproar in the classroom and indignation for the teacher who couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. We carefully did not sit next to the bookcase. The coverage of material about Tolstoy was successfully ruined and she never figured out who did it.

Posted by: Tygr 1 May 2007 - 04:49 PM
clapping.gif laugh.gif roller.gif

Posted by: MacsChick 21 May 2007 - 08:58 AM
My purse strap broke today, so I used a small keyring to connect the strap loop and the loop on the purse. It works really well! biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacNymph 21 May 2007 - 09:14 AM
clapping.gif

Posted by: laarell4241 29 May 2007 - 10:01 AM
I was making a pie yesterday. Well, it was going to be a blueberry pie, but I was short on blueberries, they somehow found their way on top of hubby's cereal. I did have a box of kiwi fruit though. Now the eternal problem with the kiwi is how to get the skin off quickly. I had a steak knife, but that was taking forever and it wasn't working very well. Then I decided to try a modification on how I normally eat a kiwi: cut it in half and scoop it out with a teaspoon. Well, I needed a whole kiwi though, so I cut the tip off of it and used the back side of a teaspoon to peel the whole kiwi the same way you'd peel a hardboiled egg by sliding the spoon underneath the peel. So it ended up a kiwi-blueberry pie. It's actually pretty good, next time I'll use a bit more sugar though. smile.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 29 May 2007 - 01:32 PM
Potato peelers do the job quick and easy.


Posted by: laarell4241 30 May 2007 - 06:56 AM
My potato peeler checked out a few years ago. We got it from my mother in law and I could never really use it as in the task of peeling a vegetable I am left-handed (I am neither left nor right-handed, but rather task-handed). As handedness and tools don't seem to align for me most of the time, I improvise.

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 30 May 2007 - 01:30 PM
you need a bi-peeler like this one... goes both ways

user posted image

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 4 June 2007 - 07:22 PM
My husband's latest MacGyverism involved making a tumbler polisher operate properly. The polisher is old, but it is very useful for polishing chain maille jewelry and this is what I use it for. The problem is when I load the tumbler drum and place it on the machine it causes the free spinning spindle to bend slightly so the tumbling drum doesn't rotate freely. I tried taking it apart and cleaning it and gave it a generous lube job with WD40, but it still wouldn't support a load. My husband started fooling around with it and tipped it at a 20 degree angle. The drum started spinning perfectly, just like new. So now when I want to polish chain, I just slide a small block (a Lego works great) under the frame to tip the weight off the free spinning rod and the whole thing runs great.

Posted by: MacsChick 4 June 2007 - 07:26 PM
Good job! biggrin.gif

Posted by: Mac 9 June 2007 - 05:58 PM
QUOTE (laarell4241 @ 3 April 2007 - 10:19 AM)
A couple of days ago I needed to run a garden hose out of my second floor apartment. (snip)

Hey, I once did something very similar!!

It just goes to show--watching MacGyver makes you smart! laugh.gif

Mac

Posted by: MacBeth 6 September 2007 - 03:43 PM
I'm surprised this thread has been gathering dust -- with a crowd as inventive as this lot, hasn't anyone done anything clever in the last three months?

Well, I was MacGyvering last week in the office – my boss’ office to be precise, where the geniuses who installed his Shiny New Workstation had given the usual complete absence of thought to such trivialities as, say, leaving enough room to get cables and power cords between the back of the desk and the wall so that I could actually hook up his computer, his phone, peripherals, etc. The desk did have cable ports (the round openings you feed the cords through), but actually getting anything through them looked like requiring telekinesis, which is not on my resume.

Not really a problem, although I must have looked pretty silly getting the cabling done – I used a couple of rulers, paper clips (of course), a extra-long spare USB cable and yes, some duct tape. I contrived myself a “fishing pole” and got the spare cable threaded through the ports and along the wall to the corner with the outlets, pulled it round into a loop and taped the cable to itself so it wouldn’t pull all the way through. I had no string or yarn or twine, so the USB cable was my best bet.

I made a kind of “cable car” setup – attach a phone line or power cord, pull it one way till it reached the port and I could drag it through; then pull the “cable car” back and reload. I ended up with everything nice and pretty and tidied away out of sight behind the Immovable Heavy Desk.

The funniest part is that, not that long ago, I wouldn’t have called it “MacGyvering”, having long since forgotten the term – no-one’s called me that for several years, although it did used to happen! I would just have called it contriving as usual . . .

Someone else's turn now!

Posted by: MacNymph 6 September 2007 - 03:52 PM
QUOTE (MacBeth @ 7 September 2007 - 12:18 PM)
I'm surprised this thread has been gathering dust -- with a crowd as inventive as this lot, hasn't anyone done anything clever in the last three months?

huh.gif I haven't done anything clever in the last three years!

Posted by: ravenxau 1 November 2007 - 07:11 PM
While in a bar, I used a some latex rubber from a beer bottle holder and a coaster to patch a hole in the sole of my shoe (actually remember hawkeye doing the same thing with frank burns' birthday card in an episode of M.A.S.H.) biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 4 November 2007 - 07:58 PM
We were in Moab this weekend and went for a short hike. When we got back our friends discovered they had locked their keys in their truck. They didn't have a spare key so we had to break into the truck.

I gave them my handy SAK and they tried to pry open the little tab in the back window of the truck. They weren't able to get it open. My husband suggested we use a piece of wire to try to open the lock. I got a heavy gauge wire hot dog cooking stick. We slid it throught the crack in the window and tried to push the door latch open. No luck. We bent the end of the hot dog cooker into a hook, slid it through the window, hooked the door latch, rotatyed the hook 90 degrees and pulled the handle. Unfortunately, Toyota truck locks donb't pop open when you pull open the door handle.

We tried pulling up on the lock mechanism, but it was too straight.

Back to the back window. My husband used my SAK and a screwdriver and was finally able to pop the locking tab off the back window, slide the window open and reach in and unlock the door.

So one hot dog cooker + one screwdriver + one SAK + lots of ingenuity = one unlocked truck and a round of cold beers for breaqking and entering crew.

I'll post the pictures of us trying to break into the truck sometime later this week.

Posted by: MacBeth 7 December 2007 - 03:38 PM
QUOTE (MacGyverGrrl @ 4 November 2007 - 07:58 PM)
I'll post the pictures of us trying to break into the truck sometime later this week.

Ahem . . . we're still waiting for the pictures!

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 7 December 2007 - 10:15 PM
Check out the gallery section........Adventuring MacGyver Style. I posted both the MacGyvering of the truck and our general Moab pics. Hope you enjoy them.

Posted by: Amy 8 December 2007 - 05:07 AM
Let's see...I know I've got a couple here.

The cats have this bad habit of chasing each other up and down the basement stairs, and they have to rocket through the cat door to do it. And they go pretty fast! Well, they broke the door one day. I tried supergluing it, but they broke it again. So, I had a wooden dowel about the right size to fit in the hinge notches and I cut a clear window out of one of the many packages for GI Joe's I've got lying around (hey, you never know, right?), glued it on the dowel and now we have a new door. wink.gif

Straining my brain here, cuz I can't remember the other one. rolleyes.gif I'm not very clever most of the time...and then when I am, I can't even remember it! lol.

Posted by: MacBeth 10 December 2007 - 07:01 PM
During the weekend, I was doing a volunteer shift for one of the non-profits I'm involved with; we were processing membership renewals and creating new memberships cards, which involved printing out the cards on an inkjet printer, cutting them out, and then running them through a laminator.

Like most non-profits, this one doesn't have much money and has to make do with what equipment it can afford. The laminator's pretty decent quality, the inkjet printer . . . well . . . wacko.gif

When the printer choked up violently on an outgoing sheet of paper, I caught myself having a "MacGyver moment" -- I just looked at the problem and then looked around the immediate vicinity to see what I had to work with. hmm.bmp

Then I picked up the card I had just finished laminating and used the edge of it to free the jammed paper and ease it out without damaging the printer mechanism.

The whole thing was fixed before my working partner had had time to swear properly at any of the equipment (which she considers an essential first step prior to problem-solving).

Thanks, Mac . . . smile.gif

Posted by: MacsChick 10 December 2007 - 08:45 PM
Good job! Oh, and swearing is the first step to solving any problem, along with crying. Didn't you know that? wink.gif clip.JPG

Posted by: MacBeth 11 December 2007 - 02:14 PM
QUOTE (MacsChick @ 10 December 2007 - 08:45 PM)
swearing is the first step to solving any problem, along with crying. Didn't you know that?  wink.gif

I must have missed that lesson . . . I was probably too busy fixing problems to pay proper attention to the swearing mandate. biggrin.gif Actually, some of the problem items in my life have historically responded poorly to swearing (sewing machines, children, volunteers) while others are much better for it (computers, traffic, actors).

Posted by: MacsChick 11 December 2007 - 05:11 PM
You know I was being sarcastic, right? wink.gif

But, it is true that sometimes I lose patience and swear at something first...then I try to figure out how to fix it once I've properly vented my frustrations. happy.gif

Posted by: MacBeth 11 December 2007 - 05:19 PM
QUOTE (MacsChick)
You know I was being sarcastic, right?  wink.gif

Of course; and I was being silly. biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 12 December 2007 - 08:26 PM
I swear by and at my computer in roughly equal proportion. biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 15 January 2008 - 03:45 AM
Background:

About a year ago my faithful old digital camera took a nose dive from a shelf and landed on the corner of its battery cover precisely breaking the corner of the cover, which as fate would have it, was also the latching device to hold the spring-loaded cover down on the batteries to make the camera work….Meaning I had to hold the cover down with my thumb to use the camera.

About a month or so ago, it occurred to me that duct tape would hold the cover in place for me, provided I had a long piece of tape which would stretch along the bottom of the camera so it had plenty of grip, otherwise the pressure of the spring loaded batteries would slowly push the cover open again.

So anyway this worked fine, except I needed to open the cover every time I wanted to get the memory card out to plug into the computer.. This was basically anytime after I’d taken some photos. (I like to get the photos into the computer ASAP.) This meant that the tape soon lost its grip from being pulled off and reapplied all the time.

Solution:

A few days ago it occurred to me that if a piece of the cover was removed I would have an access slot for the memory card, without having to open the cover all the time... So I whipped out to the garage, grabbed the Stanley knife and scored a nice deep cut to mark the piece of battery cover to be removed….grabbed my trusty pliers, got a good grip on said piece of cover and *snap* instant access port.

So now I have a battery cover held in place with a good strong bit of duct tape and I can easily get the memory card in and out without removing the tape.

It also gives the camera quite a rugged adventurous look too.. Like its seen a few adventures of it’s own.

I just wish I knew why it took me so long to think of doing it… maybe it only just started to bug me enough to actually want a solution to it.

user posted image

Posted by: MacNymph 15 January 2008 - 08:58 AM
Oooooooh Nice Work!

Almost looks like it was meant to be that way. laugh.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 15 January 2008 - 12:15 PM
laugh.gif yeah almost

Next time I replace batteries I'll go for a thinner strip of tape so I don't get the bunching at the corners. wink.gif

Posted by: MacBeth 15 January 2008 - 06:21 PM
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 15 January 2008 - 12:15 PM)
Next time I replace batteries I'll go for a thinner strip of tape so I don't get the bunching at the corners. wink.gif

Try mitering the tape -- cut a two slits in it most of the way to the corenr, so tyou can overlap them and have the tape lie flat.

I love how it looks -- it definitely has the MacGyver touch.

Posted by: A. MacGyver 28 January 2008 - 08:46 PM
Um, lately... I've replaced the missing spring/contact in my tv remote with foil. I also made a Wall Mount for my LCD TV using 2 "U" bars. Both work like a charm biggrin.gif

Posted by: Dreadsteed 29 January 2008 - 04:38 PM
Hello biggrin.gif I'm a forum drifter, just thought i'd share a MacGyverism I did 2-3 years ago.

When I was 12 (Not less than 12 could be more though) I had do a MacGyverism of my very own.

Pretty much I was going downstairs about to get a haircut when a person (would later find out he was also a barber) had some car trouble (got his keys stuck in the car) and the window was slightly open.

First he was just pulling and pushing on the window trying to get it open. Then he called me over he asked if I could reach into the car and open the door. (arms were too short and it was a bit painful) Well funny enough I noticed he took off the car's grey insulation strip that goes on the windows (you can guess where i'm going with this) I asked him to use the insulation strip to open the car door 10s later open.

All I heard from the guy was "Smart kid" "Smart kid" he payed me 5 dollers and would also cut my hair; Next time I needed it. (What a good guy)

Oh and a bit of a Random one my computer tech teacher had to see if the hard drive was spinning up so he cut the (I think It was a wire for an old hub he longer had) plugged it into the wall it was 12v he was able to get it to move but not spin (it would flicker but not move) I asked if it would work if he used a 15v transistor he gave it a thought first he said no but gave it a second thought he said he could try sadly we had no 15v transistors we didn't need. (wonder if it could work)

Edit (had to add the hard drive one was actually recent oh and my teachers military experience must have taught him something)

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 30 January 2008 - 07:46 PM
Hey that first one with the car window certainly has a ring of MacGyver to it smile.gif

Nice work wink.gif

Posted by: Astra 22 February 2008 - 01:42 PM
Yesterday I macgyvered my TV-remote. It had fallen down and was totally in pieces. When I attempted to put it together again I saw the backside of the keys. I had it in reparature before since some keys didn't work anymore. Seems the guy from the shop was a MacGyver-fan himself, he just had put a little piece of tinfoil to make contact again.

So I thought, what he can I can do also! Since some keys again did not work well and not all the times. I especally missed badly the teletext.

So, I put in some more tinfoil pieces, and then tried to put it all together. Turned out, there were two plastic handles broken and the electronic part didn't stay where it was supposed to be, but slipped around. So I got my tape out (not duct tape, but TESA) and fixed it at the right place before I put the back part on.

Well, it works!


Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 24 February 2008 - 01:06 AM
clapping.gif Excellent Astra...........BTW, I really enjoyed the report you went me. Thanks. biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacWheels 25 February 2008 - 07:03 AM
I have used the body of a Bic Pen,a couple of small hoseclamps and a bit of DuckTape to repair an airline leak on my semi a few times.

Does that count and would anyone like to know how.

macwheels

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 25 February 2008 - 11:28 AM
yep that sounds like a MacGyverism to me. smile.gif

What happened?

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 3 March 2008 - 03:40 PM
I was just sitting out on the front step enjoying the sound and smells of the rain and watching the clouds roll in over the mountain in front of my house and my mind drifted back to a summer vacation I went on as a kid with my parents and a simple MacGyverism from my mother.

We where staying in a tent in a beachside camping ground with some family friends and I guess it started to rain on this particular day, which caught most people off guard without wet weather gear (why would you take wet weather gear in the middle of summer right?).. anyway.. my mother grabbed a large plastic trash bag (clean unused) out of somewhere, cut a hole in the bottom and a hole on each side of it.. turned it over and pulled it on like a shirt.. Instant rain coat!

It was long enough to hang just below her shorts, so kept her dry; I think she may have had some kind of sleeveless top on too, so it was a perfect makeshift rain coat and allowed her to carry doing whatever it was she was doing outside.

The other people we where staying with found it a great source of ribbing and joking for the rest of our holiday. smile.gif

Posted by: MacNymph 3 March 2008 - 05:07 PM
Awww Mum happy.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 4 March 2008 - 08:30 PM
My sister made something very similar when she was playing Strip Poker in college. For years her nickname was Hefty.......... laugh.gif

Posted by: The True MacGyver 9 March 2008 - 03:55 PM
This may have been posted before, but bare with me. Although it is rare, on some sticky situations we don't panic. We don't give in to fear and assume the problem is unavoidable. We think W.W.M.D? (What Would MacGyver Do?) and scrape together a solution ( sak.gif clip.JPG matchs.JPG duct.gif ). As the makeshift plan works, we feel like MacGyver MacG.gif . Please share your most spectacular Mac solutions. My personal moment of greatness was a few days ago when I fixed a copy machine with a piece of tape and a paperclip.

Posted by: MacBeth 10 March 2008 - 04:07 PM
Hi, True -- if you look back through this thread (always a good idea before posting) you'll note that when we describe our MacGyverisms, we generally say something about just what it was that we did. Would you care to tell us how you fixed the copy machine? There's also a special MacGyverism thread just for moments of paper-clip ingenuity.

'Beth

Posted by: The True MacGyver 10 March 2008 - 04:35 PM
Oh sorry! This was meant to be a new thread but I didn't know we had one already. The Moderator combined them. Anyway, the paper was pulling into the copier the wrong way. It should have been slid into a small slot. But it kept curling up. I needed to make the sheet slide flat. So I grabbed a paperclip and some tape. Bending the clip into a shape like this [_] I taped it above the paper holder so that the sheets would slide up against it and continue into the slot. That's another point for MacGyver MacG.gif

Posted by: MacBeth 10 March 2008 - 04:40 PM
The current version of this thread has been running since November of 2006, and is on its fourth page. And this is a reseurrected thread from before the crash; the first post contains salvaged items from earlier.

You can navigate to earlier pages by following the breadcrumb links at the bottom of the thread pages.

Posted by: The True MacGyver 10 March 2008 - 04:41 PM
Thanks for the tip.

Posted by: Issus 19 March 2008 - 09:50 AM
Hi everyone!
Found this forum while trying to discover how to make a clock work from two patatoes and after various tests, i concluded tjat im just not able to do it. So i tried a different thing: making a hot air balloon, like the one in "The escape" (1 season).
I'm using news paper, spellowtape (cause i dont have any ducktape), wire, your medikit alcohol, and cloth. However, as we all know, alcohol + paper + macht= fire. I need to fix that. Can anyone help???


Posted by: Issus 19 March 2008 - 10:28 AM
Back again. I haven't said a macgyverism, so here goes.
There was once a forest fire right next to where i lived. I had two options, either call the fireman, and get out of there, or call the fireman, and try to do something about it. I chose the second. So i arrived at the fire site, and thre was another 2 people trying to cool the the trees and wet the ground. Their hose wasn't long enough, so they were using buckets. I knew that the fireman would get there in 10 minutes, which we didnt have. So i rushed to the house, graved a couple of aluminium brooms, ducktape, and another hose. I took the broom of, keep the stick, which was hollow. I stuck one end of it into one hose, and the other end into the second hose. I used ducktape to secure the extension, so that it wouldn't break with the presure. The result, a hose that reached the flames.

Not sure this counts, but its the only one that has come to my mind.

Posted by: Macs Lab Rat 19 March 2008 - 01:00 PM
QUOTE (Issus)
make a clock work from two patatoes and after various tests, i concluded tjat im just not able to do it.
Using a potato as a battery does work...I wonder what went wrong with yours. May be something in the way you connected it to the clock? hmm.bmp

QUOTE
I'm using news paper, spellowtape (cause i dont have any ducktape), wire, your medikit alcohol, and cloth. However, as we all know, alcohol + paper + macht= fire. I need to fix that. Can anyone help???

We did something similar to this once, but we were using material lighter than newspaper so we didn't need much heat and could move the heat further away from the "balloon". Not sure if you can get the lift you need from the heavier newspaper while moving/reducing the heat source.

QUOTE
I stuck one end of it into one hose, and the other end into the second hose. I used ducktape to secure the extension, so that it wouldn't break with the presure. The result, a hose that reached the flames.


Not sure this counts, but its the only one that has come to my mind.

That counts. Good job and welcome to the forum. biggrin.gif

Posted by: Issus 20 March 2008 - 03:09 AM
Thanks for the welcome.

As for what i did with the patatoe clock I used 2 patatoes, 3 cables and an alarm clock. I made sure the clock works using a battery. Next i placed one cable to the positive spring of the clock in the battery compartment. Did the same with negative spring. Next I placed the positive calble into 1 patatoe, the negative one into the other patatoe. I used a third cable (neutral) to link both patatoes.

As for the balloon, I think I may have come up with the solution. An aluminium box. It's not too heavy and i can put it right inside the balloon, although I still have to cope with the pores of the paper.
Just out of curiosity, what did you use to make your balloon?

Posted by: Macs Lab Rat 20 March 2008 - 01:20 PM
QUOTE (Issus @ 20 March 2008 - 12:35 PM)
Just out of curiosity, what did you use to make your balloon?

We were just fooling about with some water-soluble wax sheets left over from something. It pretty much looked like a sheet of plastic until you got up close to it.

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 20 March 2008 - 01:58 PM
QUOTE (Issus @ 20 March 2008 - 07:16 AM)
Hi everyone!
Found this forum while trying to discover how to make a clock work from two patatoes and after various tests, i concluded tjat im just not able to do it. So i tried a different thing: making a hot air balloon, like the one in "The escape" (1 season).
I'm using news paper, spellowtape (cause i dont have any ducktape), wire, your medikit alcohol, and cloth. However, as we all know, alcohol + paper + macht= fire. I need to fix that. Can anyone help???

what about using Aluminum foil?


Posted by: Issus 20 March 2008 - 02:34 PM
Aluminium? Instead of newspaper? Maybe, i could try... hmm.bmp
Thanks for the idea, it'll keep me doing something tomorrow! biggrin.gif

Posted by: Issus 21 March 2008 - 07:53 AM
Ok, I finally remembered how to make sulfuric acid. All you need is the oxygened water from a medikit, sulphur and H2O. You had to mix the sulphur with water, then add the oxygened water. If you do it in reverse, it'll explode. This recepie makes sufuric acid up to 65%, so it's nasty.

Posted by: MacBeth 21 March 2008 - 04:41 PM
QUOTE (IssNotSuchaGoodIdea)
There was once a forest fire right next to where i lived. I had two options, either call the fireman, and get out of there, or call the fireman, and try to do something about it. I chose the second.

Just a note -- speaking as someone who grew up in forest fire country. I hope you also called the firemen before you went out to try to put out the fire!

Posted by: SAK 22 March 2008 - 12:53 AM
Okay, so I'm not really sure if this counts, but here goes.

My "normal" shift at work is two third shifts, followed by three second shifts, with 8 hours in between the third and second shifts. We call that a roll-over shift, because you go home, get in the bed, roll over, get back up, and go back to work. My home is about an hour from my work, so that leaves me 6 hours of home-time. Factor in settle-down time and wake-up time, and I'd be doing well to get 3-4 hours sleep, if that. So I devised a plan. user posted image

All it took was four curtain rods, one piece of plywood, some scrap wire, 5 yards of fabric, a dozen binder clips, some velcro strips, some sticky-back velcro, and bedding.

Oh, and one car. user posted image

First, I hung the curtain rods on the grab handles inside my car, using the velcro. Then, I clipped the fabric to the rods, using the binder clips. For the back window, I applied the loop portion of the sticky-back velcro to the inside of my hatch, and the hook portion to the fabric. Easy up, easy down. My husband made a steering wheel shelf for the heater by cutting a slot into a piece of plywood, drilling holes on either side of the slot, and tying some scrap wire through the holes. I folded down the seats, put in the bedding, put up the sunshade, plugged the heater to the outbuilding in the parking lot (only necessary in winter, of course), and voila! A portable hotel room!

user posted image

('Scuse the mess; I neglected to make my bed for the picture. whistle.gif )

user posted image

It's quite cozy, and there's even enough room for me to change into my pajamas in there.

The result? I get between 6 and 7 hours of sleep during that roll-over period, and I save fuel by not having to make an extra trip back and forth! biggrin.gif

Now, I just have to figure out how to do this with my motorcycle. hmm.bmp

Posted by: Issus 22 March 2008 - 10:21 AM
QUOTE (MacBeth @ 22 March 2008 - 02:07 PM)
QUOTE (IssNotSuchaGoodIdea)
There was once a forest fire right next to where i lived. I had two options, either call the fireman, and get out of there, or call the fireman, and try to do something about it. I chose the second.

Just a note -- speaking as someone who grew up in forest fire country. I hope you also called the firemen before you went out to try to put out the fire!

I'm mad, and happy to be so. I find it I can always take things with a bit more humor if you're mad. Despite this, yes, i did call in the fireman, mainly because there is no way yo can put out a forest fire without some sort of high presure water pump, and theres the water itself. There is a small water current, but it's a kilometer away. I think it was, despite being a forest fire, one the most pleasant activities I've ever made. You know what they say: Where's the fun without a little bit of risk??
Plus, I got to have a nice chat with them fireman and a ride on their truck, helmet on and off I went. They do know how to party!


By the way, SAK, I like what you've done with the place. Just add a couple of posters and you've got a home made bedroom, in a car! For the motorbike, just bring a big tent.

Posted by: SAK 22 March 2008 - 08:59 PM
Posters! That's what is missing! Great idea! Anyone know where I can find some Mac posters?

And I do have a tent big enough for me and the motorbike. I don't know what my coworkers would say about me pitching in the parking lot, though. Then again, they probably talk about me while I sleep in my car.

Thanks, Issus!

Posted by: Agent MacGyver! 26 March 2008 - 10:23 AM
I'm freshmen in college, and I've been lurking in the forum for about 2 years, but now I'm getting around to posting.

a nickname my friends in the dorms call me is Macgyver Jr. because I am always building something out of nothing, so I have a bit of a list.

it all started a few months ago, when I needed to charge my cell phone on the go, so I decieded to unscrew my Dynamo flashlight, which runs off cranking, and stripping my cell phone charger cord. I attached the cord to the rechargable lithium Ion battery, the voltages almost matched up perfectly, and now cranking the flashlight gives light OR charging my cell phone. it, however, needs like 30 minutes of cranking to charge one bar, but it's the principal of the thing, and my friends love it.

then, some prankster put a masterlock on my RA's locker, and he couldnt open it. he openly said he needed help, but me jobshadowing in a locksmith (and seeing a bunch of youtube videos) knew that cutting open a soda can, you can make a shiv that opens masterlocks. so one morning before everyone got up, I took a can out of the trash and within 3 minutes opened the lock. no one knows for sure if I did, because I dont want my powers used for evil.

also, I lost my Ipod case, so using duct tape and the plastic lining from a cigarrete case, I created my own case!...

...along with the classic handmade duct tape wallet I use

and just for fun, I take apart clothespins to make toothpick launchers, along with blowguns. (never had to use them though, its just a fun macgyverism.

my greatest feat yet, was when I dropped my xbox controller just before a crucial need for speed tournament. what happened was one of the trigger buttons was stuck on. thinking fast, I took apart the controller. I saw that the right trigger "H" bar, which controlled sensitivity was snapped and looked more like an "L". after about an hour of thinking, I figured it out! what I did was bent a paperclip into a small "Z" shape, which worked as well as the "H" but it was too skinning, so I cut open a cue tip which was the perfect width, and put it into place. it does not work as well as before, but I can adjust it if I need be. saved myself 30 $ and everyone is amazed.

those are just a few of my ventures over the past few months, and I'll be sure to post even more later! I hope you enjoyed them.

Posted by: The True MacGyver 26 March 2008 - 11:31 AM
A pal of mine had broken her folder. It was of the three ring variety, although with plastic snaps. She pulled one of the rings out too fast and it snapped in half, part of it inside the other. Knowing me as the MacGyver fan, she entrusted its repair to me. It didn't seem too hard to fix, although it stumped several others. I pulled out a paperclip and went to work. The underside had the tip of the stick just visible in a small, cylindrical chamber. The paperclip wasn't strong enough to push it out alone. So I rebent the clip and fashioned some tweezers. I held open the other end of the cylindrical ring as best I could and reached for my trusty compass (the kind for drawing perfect circles, not directions). I unfolded it and eyed the pointed end with a sense of MacGyver-like inventiveness. At this point she asked "Should I just throw it out? (She is an impatient person)" I flashed her a grin and shook my head. I turned back to work and inserted the point into the end with the visible tip. I cautiously slid it in, still holding the paperclip. Soon the plastic, jagged top of the snap appeared. I pinched it with my fingers and pulled it out. I held it to her as if I just pulled off the world's greatest magic trick. She smiled in awe and hugged me. I'm proud to say that I saved a binder from certain compaction. She now asks me everyday what I MacGyvered.

Posted by: The True MacGyver 27 March 2008 - 03:20 PM
Just pulled a more meager trick today. I was partaking in a friendly game of darts with my brother and cousin (three MacGyver fans, a video camera, the set of DVD's, and a WHOLE lotta time) of course discussing MacGyver. Well it was my turn and I tossed the plastic dart. The dartboard was resting on a workbench beneath a window. In other words, aim too high and you'd be buying a new pane. So I instinctively threw low, the ray of daylight illuminating the green flash of the dart. But the clang of metal told me that I had lost the dart to the labyrinth of paint cans beneath the bench. It is BLACK down there. You cannot see the wall a few feet back. No flashlight was around and trying to find one would take too long. I noticed an extra tin oven tray. It was slightly pliable. So I snatched it and strategically bent it to face the window and the underside. The light reflected and bounced into the cans, making the cans appear. I eyed the newfound illumination worked beautifully and I quickly retrieved the dart. I set down the pan to cries of "Awesome! Nice MacGyverism!"

Posted by: MacBeth 27 March 2008 - 05:38 PM
Love the lair, SAK!

When I was growing up, my family went on long car trips, and camped; but my father also rigged up our van (a Chevrolet Greenbriar) to be an ad-hoc motor home. He built a portable kitchen into the back, with a fold-out counter; rigged hanging bunks for himself and my mother; and built a table that fitted between the second and third seats, which were bench seats. The second seat could be unbolted, turned around, and bolted back in place the other way, turning the interior into a booth table. On really long trips, we could pull the van over and park, cook and eat dinner, and sleep.

He also built a 'car-top carrier' -- a wooden box with a hinged side that went on the roof. It had room for sleeping bags, tent, duffle bags, and other gear, and had a trough that held shovel, rake, broom, and anything else longitudinal that we might need.

The only thing he couldn't do was make the van wider so we could actually stretch out while sleeping. It was easy enough when we were little -- and my mother was never tall -- but I'm not sure how he managed himself. His own bunk must have been really cramped!

Well . . . he was a physicist, not an engineer.

Posted by: Issus 5 April 2008 - 05:31 AM
I made an alluminium hot air ballon, I put a heat source under it, and it flew... a bit, but actually flew... Now I got to find a way to climb up the tree wher it's stuck... headbutt.gif

Posted by: MacsChick 5 April 2008 - 07:58 AM
Mythbusters made a lead balloon fly, using lead foil.

Posted by: Astra 12 April 2008 - 08:19 AM
Today my laptop shut itself down again while I was working on it (the screen just goes dark and leaves me sitting stunned). A few weeks ago I had it for cleaning for this problem, because the ventilator was full with dust and could not suck in air anymore.

So I turned it and yes, there was already dust all over the wire covering the ventilator again. How to get it off, without it falling inside through the holes? I wetted some toilet paper (only slightly damp) and carefully put it onto the dust layer, and so it stuck to the paper, and the airway is free again, as you can see, otherwise I would not be able to post this biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 12 April 2008 - 01:18 PM
A good way to clean dust out of your computer is with a vacuum cleaner.

Just turn it on and hold the nozzle against the air vent so it sucks all the dust out.

This works on all variety's of computers.


Posted by: Astra 12 April 2008 - 03:02 PM
Yeah, but where's the macgyverism in that? biggrin.gif

Of course, but I was too lazy to heave the heavy thing into the air and hold it up there for quite some time, since the laptop was laying at the table (yeah, I know, I could've put it onto the ground instead).

But what's with the motor? Somewhere in my laptop book it says not to have big magnetic fields around, isn't a vacuum motor a magnetic field? If it can clear video-tapes? Or is that only an urban legend?

My brother has one of those mini cleaners, that works with USB, but of course the computer has to be on for that.

Posted by: MacBeth 2 June 2008 - 08:24 PM
During my trip to Colorado the weekend before this, I ended up having to MacGyver my way out of a wardrobe malfunction -- a real one.

I had just tucked myself, my bag, and my laptop case into a seat on the shuttle bus to get from the Denver airport to Boulder, when I felt something give way -- and discovered that part of the hardware in my bra, a small plastic ring, had snapped. That's one thing Mac never had to worry about . . . And I had to deal with it, while still wearing it, without leaving my seat, in a very bouncy shuttle bus. unsure.gif

I spent a moment staring at my luggage, trying to think through what I had on hand, and then fished out an elastic hair tie -- and my SAK, which I had dug out of the checked bag as soon as I was reunited with it. I used the screwdriver blade to poke the hair elastic through the loops where the plastic ring had been, and then tied the thing together. My dignity suffered slightly, but my modesty remained more or less intact.

Five minutes later, I had to repeat the process when the plastic ring on the other side broke in exactly the same way. Maybe Victorinox would consider making bras . . . they'd last longer!

I remember that I had been rolling my eyes at myself for taking the time to get my SAK out of my luggage right away and have it easily available -- I won't be so hard on myself next time!
sak.gif

Posted by: Lee Nole-Isil 3 June 2008 - 10:00 AM
*Salutes* You are most clever. Excellent job! I probably would've just hugged a piece of luggage over my chest til I got to the car...

Posted by: MacGirl 3 June 2008 - 02:09 PM
Here's a stunt I pulled at work recently.

I work security at a shipping company distribution hub. Part of our job is to put what are called kingpin locks on incoming trailers during non-sort hours, to mark newly arrived loaded trailers. They have flags on them that hang down well beneath the trailers so you can tell at a glance whether the trailer is full. These locks are big and heavy... and they're usually covered in axle grease (ick!) so we wear latex gloves while we're handling them. (Axle grease is a nightmare to get off your skin, not to mention out of your clothes!) We keep a couple dispensers of gloves in the guard shack.

Last week, I was about to go out and put a lock on a newly arrived trailer, when I realized that I had just used the last of the gloves. That meant I had to go inside and find where they keep the gloves (the dispensers of gloves come about twenty or so to a box). Not a problem. What WAS a problem was that when I found the box of gloves, it was on a shelf well above my head... and there wasn't a ladder to be seen. (I stand about 5 feet, 3 inches tall, and this shelf was probably 7 to 8 feet off the ground. The hazards of being short... dry.gif ...)

I was nearly stymied, but then I saw a shovel nearby. (It gets used mostly in the winter, to spread salt on the truck lot.) It looked long enough to reach the box of gloves up on the shelf. I used the business end of the shovel to nudge the box off the shelf. The box broke open on the floor, and I was in business. I picked up a couple dispensers of gloves, stacked the rest on a *low* shelf, and off I went!

Unfortunately, no one was around to witness my brainstorm!

Posted by: MacBeth 3 June 2008 - 04:15 PM
QUOTE (Lee)
I probably would've just hugged a piece of luggage over my chest til I got to the car...

My car was a thousand miles away, and the shuttle bus ride was going to be an hour! It would have been a very long hug with a very unresponsive and lumpy object.

Posted by: SHEILA 3 June 2008 - 11:46 PM
I had a macgyverism last night a work.I was opening a can of root beer and the tab broke off.I do not owen a SAK yet.So I looked a around on my desk to see what I could use to open the rootbeer can with.I keep a P38 can opener on my name badge and I used it.I do highly recommand that eveyone should have one on there key ring.You can get them at any army/navy store.That's just in case you are without you SAK.

Posted by: laarell4241 23 June 2008 - 11:39 AM
A couple of weeks ago I opened my hiking season again after a year and a half break, only these days I have a wee pest riding on my back while I'm hiking. Last weekend we were going out to a hike in Virginia and it was going to be a hot day. I was bringing a bottle of milk, but I had to keep it chilled somehow while I was out. Well, I didn't have one of those fancy bottle chillers, besides, weight is an issue when you are already lugging 20 pounds on your back, but I did have a couple of those gel-ice packs in the freezer and duct tape. I taped the ice packs around the bottle, stuck all that into a ziploc bag and went. The milk stayed perfectly cold and was enjoyed greatly in the end of the hike by my son. duct.gif

Posted by: Astra 23 June 2008 - 12:48 PM
Nice idea!

When I was a kid it usually was the other way round, though. My parents had to find a way to make the milk warm...

Posted by: MacBeth 23 June 2008 - 04:51 PM
When I went out to Colorado for the wedding last month, I ended up re-using a MacGyverism that I picked up so long ago I don't even think about it any more. It's handy, though.

At one point, someone was trying to open a bottle of beer, and there was no bottle opener to be found. Way back when I was in grad school, a friend of mine taught me to use an ordinary house key to remove beer caps -- basically, you carefully use the teeth of the key to loosen the crimped metal, working your way around until the cap is loose enough to remove manually. With a little practice, it's not difficult and doesn't harm the key. And it makes you look amazingly facile to your friends.

The joke under this is that the old slang term for a bottle opener is a "churchkeys" -- and the guy who taught me this trick went into a Catholic seminary. So I had a future priest teach me how any key can be a churchkey.

Posted by: laarell4241 24 June 2008 - 07:44 AM
This is kind of an ongoing MacGyverism for me, I'll keep using this trick I came up with most likely for the rest of the summer. The horse rescue that I volunteer at has recently moved to a new, MUCH larger (and much needed) location and I got talked into painting a mural on the office building. There are six panels that I came up with pictures for and I already finished three, so this is moving along nicely. It wouldn't be going anywhere without this image transfer trick. Now many have heard or played with enlarging pictures by using a grid. You draw a grid on the original image, then draw a big grid and draw in each square the little piece of picture that fits into it. Well, drawing a grid on a not very even cinder block wall wasn't going to work, besides, I would have to then cover the grid lines up with paint and keeping them straight over 5x5 feet of wall space wasn't going to happen, at least not easily. So here I was with my first panel printed out of Photoshop on a piece of paper and my work bucket. I did happen to have duct tape and a nice fat spool of sewing thread. So I came up with this idea. I marked just the grid spacing on the four sides of each panel and attached sewing thread with small pieces of duct tape at those points to create the grid. I then easily drew in the image with a permanent marker and was done before I knew it. Removing the grid took a total of like 10 seconds, I just ripped it off and threw it all away. I was left with a perfectly clean wall with just my picture on it. As I worked on my first panel, I found out just how useful making a removable grid turned out to be. Darned exterior paint is somewhat transparent (the light colors in particular) and I actually ended up needing to attach a sander to my drill and buff the little marks off the wall before painting the edges. They kept showing through. If I actually spent the time drawing in the grid and making sure it was even and everything, I would be in big trouble as I don't know how many coats of paint it would've taken to completely cover that up.

Posted by: Issus 24 July 2008 - 12:29 PM
Hi everybody. It's been a long time since I've been around here.
Not sure if this counts as a MacGyverism to you, but it sure got me out of trouble.
I was working on checking the garden pipes to make sure there was no lleks, cause water ain't chhep these days in Spain, so everything had to be perfect.
So, I checked and fixed anything that leeked, and was very happy until I decided to make a test run. I had turned the water main on and you i went round looking very fast, because I had about 10 minutes to check everything and turn of the water main before the pipe exploded with the pressure( I had to install a presure regulator, but i didnt have one).
So i finished looking around and went to turn of the water main, and then SNAP!
The key had snapped leave the valve open and water flowing in a pipe with no water exits or hoses. I had about 6 minutes to find a way of closing it. I coulnt change it because water was flowing in, so I had to find a solution, and fast.
I found in the garage some wire used in fence walls and a torch. I uried back to the broken key and melted the wire so that the broken key wasnt broken any more, used a bit of water to cool it and closed the water main.
My handy work is still there, working perfectly.

I got a question: Does anyone know how to fis a playstation disc thats scrached?

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 24 July 2008 - 12:59 PM
QUOTE (Issus @ 25 July 2008 - 08:29 AM)
I got a question: Does anyone know how to fis a playstation disc thats scrached?

Apparently car polish is good for fixing CD's.

It has to be a polish which is a cutting (or rubbing) compound. The kind you would use to remove small scratches from your car.




Posted by: Issus 25 July 2008 - 02:36 PM
Thsnks, ill try as soon as i find car polish. biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacBeth 25 July 2008 - 04:41 PM
Is it still a MacGyverism if you have to go get the supplies you need, instead of finding them at hand? biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 25 July 2008 - 06:49 PM
I think so if you are using it in a new way.

Here's my latest Macism:

Its very hot right now where I live and the air conditioner in my car is working intemitently. Sometimes it blows cold air, sometimes it blows hot air. Not good when the temp is 100+ ohmy.gif I haven't been able to get the AC fixed, so I have to rely on other means to avoid MacGrrl BBQ.

I have a lightweight denim shirt that I take with me. I run the shirt under cold water in a bathroom sink, getting it nice and wet. I then wear the shirt while I'm driving and I have the car windows rolled down. The wind blowing on the wet shirt=instant air conditioner.

I get some funny looks, but at least I'm not burned to a crisp or melted. It doesn't work for long distance drives, but its enough to get me from my work site to my home in the evenings.

Posted by: MacBeth 25 July 2008 - 10:57 PM
The wet-shirt technique is a great one -- we used to use that when I was growing up, and we did use it for long trips! Family vacations usually meant four or five weeks driving through the country, tent camping . . . in a Greenbriar van with "6/60 air conditioning" (all six windows open at 60 miles per hour). We stopped and re-soaked the shirts at frequent intervals.

The real test of the wet-shirt technique was when we crossed the Mojave desert, in August, in the afternoon. Whew.

Posted by: Astra 26 July 2008 - 12:17 AM
Not sure if I had told you about this one in here before, but the car story reminded me that one year ago I also was driving home with friends, sat in the back and of course at the side where the sun was coming from. I wore black jeans and it was blazing through the window, it really hurt actually on my thights!

So I wondered what to do, and then found a solution: I needed something white, which would not attract the sun so much. So, I lay a white cardigan over my knees, and it indeed got cooler.

Posted by: Issus 26 July 2008 - 08:50 AM
It's above 40 where I live now. I have a mountain dog, and it's surprising that she hasn't melted yet. So I observed her and foud out how she did it. Soak grass or sand (whatever yopu happen to have) and sit on it, drink watter at regular intervals and think cool( I used this instead of panting).

In any case, thats not important here. I had the bad luck to be blocked by a snake on my door a few days ago. I didn't want to kill it if i had to, so i found this black rock, went to pick it up and I almost got burned ( unsure.gif ). praying that snakes liked heat and had thermal vision I tempted the snake with this rock, ehich hopefully was warmer the the door nob and it worked. lobbed the stone into a box, the snake followed in, closed the box and set the sanke loose agin in the country side. hope i never have to do that. Snakes, why did it have to be snakes.....

Posted by: MacGyverGrrl 26 July 2008 - 02:45 PM
Very nice!! I would never have thought of using a rock to lure the snake away. If it wasn't poisonous, I would have just picked it up and dropped it in some bushes.

Yeah, I know, but snakes don't bother me. Spiders and scorpions however, are a whole different story. I think I would have moved away from the house.

Posted by: MacGirl 31 August 2008 - 06:18 PM
Nice!! That's actually a trick that comes straight out of the show. Remember in Final Approach, where Mac used a hot rock to lure a rattlesnake out of the kids' tent?

Posted by: nojj 15 November 2008 - 11:44 AM
I have a recording/graphics studio as well, the whole thing was built MacGyver style with recycled and found materials.
I wanted to float the floor, to sonically decouple it from the rest of the house,
and used strips of rubber kitchen mats,
and sections of those swimming noodles.
then put down the subfloor made of recycled homasote and plywood.

Total Price: less than $20

then I had to address the cabling issues.
I got some vacuum cleaner tubes (like for a shopvac)
cut them down the side, cleaned them thoroughly
and put all my cable runs inside.

Total cost: NADA
The console is made out of old tabletops from a sandwich place, and scrap wood.
It's U shaped and holds a ridiculous amount of gear, including the computer arrays.

Total cost including the Kirk Seat (as DW calls it): around $30

I did have to give up my drum platform to set up a shooting area for my photo biz.
user posted image


Posted by: SMeeceymouse 15 November 2008 - 11:57 AM
My first MacGyverism was when I was in elementary school, I needed a ruler but didn't have one, so I used the stragiht edge of my comb to draw the edge I needed.
Whlie working at an assisted living facility I had a elderly lady that fractured her arm. and nothing to splint it with. So I took a magazine, fitted her arm inside and secured it with kling and white tape. The hosptial told the family they had never seen anything like that before. But it kept her bone from becoming more out of place and they were able to set it.
sak.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 30 November 2008 - 03:47 AM
Here's a simple yet effective MacGyverism I was forced to pull off the other day after my Jandal (flip flop) broke while walking home from school with my kids.

The button on the bottom of the toe strap had broken off so there was nothing holding the toe strap into the base of the jandal so it just fell off my foot. Grrr

SO to replace the button and hold the strap in place I poked a nail through the strap.

Is still working like a charm.

Posted by: MacBeth 5 January 2009 - 07:11 PM
While I was visiting my partner during the holidays, I rewired a couple of lamps for her -- the first time in years I'd done anything of the kind. It was something of a learning curve.

It didn't help that when I went to the store to get the parts I needed, it took me six sales associates to find one who could actually help me (competent, spoke in complete sentences, didn't gawk or vanish). And they still ended up selling me the wrong kind of cord: instead of lamp cord, I ended up with a slightly heavier cord. This wouldn't have been an issue, except that I had to thread it through a metal pipe about 6 inches long, and it was just a bit too fat for the pipe.

I wrassled with the damned thing until Melissa nudged me to remind me that we had to go pick up the sushi we'd ordered for dinner. As I was washing my hands, I was grumbling, "I need one of three things: an non-flammable lubricant, a slightly larger pipe, or a slightly smaller cord."

"Soap isn't flammable," she observed.

I looked at my hands, and grinned from ear to ear. "And metal expands when it's heated." happy.gif

The soap turned out not to work very well, but heating the pipe did -- boiling water from the kettle expanded the pipe just enough that I could get the cord through it. And a chopstick from dinner worked very nicely for lifting the piece of pipe out of the boiling water. sak.gif

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 9 January 2009 - 01:11 AM
So I was mowing the lawns a few evenings ago and had to lift the kids very old water pipe A-frame swing set up so I could get the mower in under it.

This is no big deal, but as I lifted it I noticed one corner was broken away, due to the bolt which held it together being rusted and busted.

So I'm standing there with the arm of the A-frame swinging around when suddenly "What would MacGyver do?" jumped into my head.

I looked around the yard and spotted an old bungy cord hanging on the clothes line.

So channeling MacGyver I walked over and grabbed the bungy cord and without even really thinking walked back and proceeded to tightly wrap the cord around the corner of the frame so it held the 3 bars together.

One day I'll remember to put a new bolt in it.. but in the mean time it serves as a reminder of this one time when I was mowing the lawns, and I channeled MacGyver, and fixed something.

Posted by: MacsChick 9 January 2009 - 08:59 PM
The bottom part of my mouse at work (the piece that holds the roller ball) was broken, and the ball kept falling out of the bottom, so I took (what else?) duct tape and taped the sides of the piece together so that the ball would no longer fall out, and it holds it together just fine. That isn't much, I realize, but it's mine. wink.gif sak.gif

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 21 January 2009 - 12:59 PM
I'm a nurse and I thought of a MacGyverism I did at the same assited living where the lady fell and broke her arm. I had a gentleman who had asthma (COPD). He needed an aerochamber (a long tube used to get the medicine of the inhaler into his lungs). He didn't have one, so I used a toilet paper holder. He had Alzheimers and knew what I was trying to do. Nurse use a lot of MacGyverisms.

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 22 January 2009 - 12:33 PM
QUOTE (laarell4241 @ 5 March 2007 - 10:32 AM)
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 4 March 2007 - 03:01 PM)
QUOTE
Listerine

I don't know what Listerine would do to contacts. It's a fairly noxious substance (at least to my taste buds) biggrin.gif

Listerine would burn your natural lens you have. It is mainly alcohol. When I was in high school, I had a school secertary that would drink listerine like it was whiskey. She lost my transfer papers. When we moved. surprise.gif

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 22 January 2009 - 12:44 PM
QUOTE (Amy @ 5 March 2007 - 12:32 AM)
laugh.gif This probably barely counts...and it's....gross, kind of....

I was on a ladies retreat over night on Friday. I wear contacts. I forgot contact solution. Since mine aren't the kind you can leave in over night, that was a problem. Nobody had any I could use.

Flashback to about 5 years ago: I'm in a car with a couple of teen girls and the one driving (who is notoriously not a great driver) started having an issue with her contact. So (while driving) she takes it out....and sticks it in her mouth. And then puts it back in her eye! Of course we had a grand old time with that! She said...why not?...it can't be much different than being in your eye!

Back to the present: I remembered that. So....I worked up enough spit in the case to at least keep my contacts from drying out. They didn't make it back into my eyes the next day (contacts and I don't get along after a very late night), but I cleaned them real well after I got home and put them back in this morning....they don't seem any worse for the wear! wink.gif

Sounds like the commerical where the younger sister lost her contact lens and spit on it to put it back in. I would have rather used something like eye drops or even a saline nasal spray. Surprised you really didn't get a bad eye infection from it. surprise.gif

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 8 February 2009 - 03:14 PM
I've actually used two straws and tape to connect a PEG tube (tube that goes directly into the stomach) for a patient's feeding; it really didnt' work to well, but I tried. clip.JPG

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 12 April 2009 - 09:41 PM
I used velcro to fix tears in my bed room slippers. Works pretty good. Husband laughted, but I tired, and so far they are holding up. sak.gif roller.gif

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 15 April 2009 - 02:02 PM
My velcro is still holding up. Husband is going to buy some duct tape. Very very soon. I use paper tape and plastic tape in the freezer to seal frozen items it works well, and you can write on them with marker. clip.JPG

Posted by: SMeeceymouse 19 April 2009 - 07:23 AM
I tired to upload a picture of my velcored slipper but it wouldn't come up. It really does an amazing job of picking up dust and dirt. But at least my feet are warm.

Posted by: M.TEX 21 April 2009 - 02:11 PM
OK this maybe be a little silly but everybody will have a chance
to practice.

I had a bad / clogged shower Drain Today and I did try the Plunger first.
Didn't work.

I also used a Metal snake ( was to short ) to pick what ever was in there....
so , What would MacGyver do ???? hmm.bmp

I went to the store and I got some Acid ( Sulfuric to be especific )
after some time , whent to check but NOTHING !!!

Plunger again.....Nothing . Ummmm What Maggyver would do ? hmm.bmp

OK I need a longer Snake. So I used the Garder hose . NOTHING !
because it's too tight to make a 90 angle turn...

Well ....IF it isn't going out I will bring back in ( to the shower )
FIRST : More water and USE a WET / DRY VAC from my shop.
The Vac. Hose is about the same size as the pipe. all I need was a rag around
the hose ( make sure you use MASK and LOTS OF FRESH AIR ! ) to seal
the gap.
TWO : With the hose all the way ( as much I could ) inside the Drain and gap
tight I turned on the Vaccum....

So first time : Only water mix with acid.
Did again...water in the Pipe untill over flow and down the hose again....
BUT THIS TIME !!!!! There we go !!!! I got it !

I found a plastic cap the got stuck inside.... Looks like I need to buy a
screem to keep out all that stuff....

Sorry for my bad English . oooops........

Posted by: Flyboy16 26 February 2010 - 05:20 PM
Today the trash people came, and i guess were mad because of the snow they smashed my trash can , The the wheel and washer came off, my dad wasent home, so i couldnt put a hole in the metal wheel bar to put a cotter pin in. So i had to improvise. First I took one of these clips http://www.exchange3d.com/cubecart/images/uploads/aff586/aa.jpg and 2 paper clips from a desk drawer. i went outside and put the wheel on the bar, the i open the black clip thing on the end of the metal bar. Then i opened the to silver wings of the clip, then i bent the paper clip in the wings then bent them over the wheel.

just in case you are lost this is what i basically did, if the clip gets knocked it is not going anywhere, because the paper clips will prevent it from moving, then after that i duct taped the paer clips so the wheel would roll properly, not bad huh?

not really as good as mac but I thought it was worth sharing

Posted by: MacGyverOnline 26 March 2010 - 08:37 PM
I had a couple of MacGyverish moments the other night.

My brother and had to go visit my mother in hospital the other night. And after we'd been there for a while my mother decided she wanted some more sprite, so we went looking to see if any vending machines had sprite drinks in them.

Now to set the scene this is about 9pm at night, the hospital is pretty much deserted and locked down for the night. So we're wondering around the maze of corridors which own it's own feels somewhat like a MacGyver episode; anyway, we ended up having to go through to the A & E section, but to get there we had to pass through a one-way security door (push the button to open it, but it locks behind you). SO there's a yellow "slippery when wet" sign leaning against the wall on the other side of the door, so I grabbed it and jammed it in the door to stop it from closing. So we're just around the corner buying a couple of cans of sprite and suddenly and alarm goes off at the door and we here a voice telling us "Visitor! Secure the door please!" - oops did I do that?

So after getting a security pass to get back in and returning with requested drinks to said mother we said our good byes and headed for the car park. which is where the next MacGyver moment happened...

As I was feeding coins into the payment machine somehow two coins went in to the slot together and jammed so now we have a machine asking for money and coins stuck in the slot going nowhere. So I pulled out my SAK flipped open the main blade and carefully pushed one of the stuck coins further into the slot until it fell down into the machine, then the second coin just needed a little flick and nudge into the right position and it rolled away into the machine as well.

Posted by: MacFan092985 7 May 2010 - 06:55 PM
Does anyone remember those rubbery sticky novelty toys in the shapes of hands and feet that you could slap down on pieces of paper and other lightweight material to pick them up?

Anyway, one time I was twirling one of those around, let go of it and it stuck to the vaulted ceiling in our living room. Only a small portion was hanging freely from the ceiling and it wouldn't release and fall down. Thinking quickly, just like MacGyver always did, I got a wooden dowel, some tape (it was scotch tape not duct tape), a shoelace and some hot dog tongs.

I taped one of the hot dog tong handles to the wodden dowel, tied the shoe lace around the other hot dog tong handle then got up on a bar stool. Holding the wooden dowel in my left hand and the shoe lace in my right hand, I was able to pull the hot dog tongs closed, pinching the small portion of the sticky hand toy and pulling it off the ceiling.

While my MacGyverism worked just as I thought it would, I hadn't counted on the faint stain left on the ceiling from the sticky hand shaped toy.

To quote Charles Bartowski from the show "Chuck", "I knew seven seasons of MacGyver would eventually pay off".

Posted by: MacGirl 19 July 2010 - 07:15 PM
Not sure this really counts as a MacGyverism, but I have a good brainstorm from yesterday at the gym. I use a padlock with a key for my locker. Only problem is what to do with the key, as my workout clothes don't have pockets. I usually have a large safety pin rattling around in my bag, which I use to pin the key to my shirt. Well, yesterday I discovered that I had lost the pin. What to do with my key??

Then I happened to look down at my sneakers, and I suddenly got the idea to stick my key under the shoelaces. A few tugs on said shoelaces, and my key was secure. I suppose a variation on this would be to thread the shoelace through the hole in the key and then tie the lace, but if your shoelace comes undone, you're up a creek without a paddle (as we say in the U.S.) I checked on my key every so often while I was working out, and it stayed where I put it until I untied my shoes to get changed before showering and heading home.

Posted by: MacBeth 21 July 2010 - 09:27 PM
That's a good one! I'll have to remember that myself!

At cons, I'm often in costume, and my costumes don't always have pockets. I often tuck my room key (which, nowadays, is a plastic card) into the top of my boot.

I leave it to your imagination where I put my SAK.

Posted by: perfectlykevin 3 September 2010 - 01:25 PM
Had to share this...the other day I was working and client explained she couldn't start her car. I thought it was the battery and had jumper cables at hand, but when we got to her car (about a mile away where it stalled out) I saw it had been running but stopped in "mid-drive." We opened the hood and saw the battery connection was dodgy and the terminal was pretty much screwed down all the way but way too loose to make a full contact.

I had a small paperclip in my car, took off the contact and wrapped the clip around it to give it less surface area. Then I tapped it down back on the battery terminal and the car came to life when she started it! biggrin.gif

Kev

Posted by: Geekgirl 5 September 2010 - 05:05 PM
QUOTE (perfectlykevin @ 3 September 2010 - 03:28 PM)


I had a small paperclip in my car, took off the contact and wrapped the clip around it to give it less surface area.  Then I tapped it down back on the battery terminal and the car came to life when she started it!  biggrin.gif

Kev

Kevin,

Sounds like a great idea for a quick fix! very macgyverish

Posted by: bert003 7 January 2011 - 02:00 PM
Hi guys,

At home I have a 2-door sliding cabinet with a lock in the middle that closes both doors. Unfortunately I could not find the keys but wanted something which was inside the cabinet.

So I figured out what tools can I use. This is how I managed to open it in Mac Gyver style:

1. I got a paper clip (which I consider a Mac Gyver multi tool) smile.gif
2. Straigtened the paper clip.
3. Grabbed my tinker swiss knife and used the hole in the awl to bend both ends of the paper clip. Basically my paper clip ended up like this ~~------~~
4. Then I bent the paper clip from the middle in a U shaped form.
5. Inserted the paper clip in the lock so that the bent ends are touching the top and bottom pins.
6. Inserted the SAK's small knife in the middle of the lock (between the paper clip).
7. Jiggled and turned for a few seconds and voila... the lock opened...

Just wanted to share today's experience with you... Hope you find it interesting...

clip.JPG sak.gif happy_dance.gif

Posted by: Artemis Macgyver 30 March 2011 - 03:59 PM
i use mac's very often but one time i used a beach inter tube, a nail, and a piece of duct tape to fix a flat tire. happy.gif and then another time i was camping and i forgot my fork and spoon and bowl so i made a bowl out of tinfoil and for my fork i pulled out my kick awesome wallet and pulled out my mini wrench and nail file and taped them together to make a fork. happy.gif

Posted by: Astra 19 February 2012 - 09:17 AM
On Saturday, I was putting old cardboard boxes into the bin in front of our house. Since the bin is very small, I had taken my cutter to make the bits smaller.

One time when pressing to hard the blade broke and flew into the bin. It was so deep down that I could not reach it. I could have left it, but well.

Instead I got a magnet, put it on a thread and then felt like MacGyver when he fumbled for the medicine after he was poisened wink.gif It even went the same that at first I thought I had caught it but it went off again.

No big MacGyverism, but at least the bin is only full of cardboard and not metal that does not belong into it. Taking waste separation rather seriously wink.gif

Posted by: Bushwalker 19 February 2012 - 05:59 PM
tongue.gif

Astra ~ next time you're in the hardware section, you could get a "magnetic pick up tool" on a telescoping handle for the equivalent of $2 - 5.

It can make life a LOT easier ~ I keep one in the garage, one in the house, one in a tool kit..

happy.gif

Posted by: KiwiTek 19 February 2012 - 09:13 PM
sounds like more fun doing it Astra's way.

Posted by: MacBeth 22 February 2012 - 07:03 PM
I have a new MacGyverism, after a fashion -- high fashion, in fact.

I was at a local store called Tuesday Morning, which specialises in odd stuff at markdown prices. They had a fancy women's compact for sale - the round case with the mirror that's sold to be carried in a purse and used in applying make-up. This one was quite large, had its own little quilted zip bag, and had bright battery-powered LED lights around the mirror.

It was dirt cheap. I bought it and brought it to work.

I never wear make-up.

But it's terrific when I have to crawl under a desk to check out computer problems! The mirror amplifies the lights -- more than enough for tight spaces -- and I can even hold the mirror out and use it to see the back of a computer!

Admittedly, it's the only item in my IT toolkit that's decorated with rhinestones.

Posted by: Traveller 23 February 2012 - 04:13 AM
That is só cool!

Wouldn't it have been fun if Mac had used a rhinestone compact in 'The Gauntlet'?

Posted by: MacBeth 25 February 2012 - 09:02 AM
Ha! Or even "Deathlock". (It wouldn't have made up for the girl's wooden acting, but hey, anything would help.)

Posted by: Traveller 27 February 2012 - 01:57 PM
There was a compact in 'Deathlock' too?
I missed that. Probably too distracted by said wooden acting. Although maybe you shouldn't be so hard on the poor girl. If I remember correctly, she provided you with an excellent subject for one of your ditto stories.

Talking about stories, can't you write another one? The fan fiction thread needs CPR.

Posted by: MacBeth 27 February 2012 - 06:24 PM
At the very end, Mac has Karen get him a piece of mirror, and uses it to watch Quayle in the ambush scene.

I definitely should start writing Mac again. I miss him! I don't think I ever posted the crossover here, for that matter.

Posted by: mgeoff88 6 September 2012 - 06:03 AM
I have three MacGyverisms I pulled off:

1. I used a wire hanger(does it count if my neighbor brought it over?) to help my Dad get back into his truck after he accidentally left the keys inside with the ignition on. My neighbor bent the wire hanger to try to pop the lock from the outside, then he tried to maneuver it through the small opening of the rolled down window to try to open the door handle from the inside.

After he gave it a good effort, he went back to his house. I was thinking about how I could use the wire hanger to maneuver it through the small window opening to somehow open the door. Then it hit me, I could use the wire hanger to roll down the window by hooking it on the handle to manually roll down the car window. So I bent the end of the wire hanger to make it like a hook and I bent it in other places for increased tension. I hooked it on the handle and kept turning it until I eventually could reach inside the car and I pulled up the lock and unlocked the car for my Dad without him having to call a tow truck.

2. I made a pea shooter out of a small pipe, a metal clamp(handle), a rubber finger glove, and two different kinds of tape.

3. I picked a lock using a generic pocket knife and a paper clip.

Posted by: M.C. Wolfcat 21 September 2012 - 02:28 AM
I don't know if any of these qualify as Macgyverisms.

About ten plus years ago my big brother was on his way back from a delivery when the fan belt broke.

He didn't have a spare and it being a big truck he didn't know what to do. Was completely clueless.

Then the guy who were working with him then had a brain storm, he found a piece of wire and rejoined the fan belt where it broke.

It didn't hold for too long but at least he got to move the big blue truck 10km further and another 10 after their next stop to rejoin it once more. They waited 15 mins for me and my mom to arrive with a brand new belt.

And

I met my hubby 5 years ago and met his oven as well (which he still has no clue as to how it works), it's a fairly oldish model and is way to high for eye level so i don't use it much.

One day not too long ago my mom tried to bake a cake in the bottom one that has a fan and because the rubbers by the door slacks from the heat the door didn't seal properly and caused my moms cake to burn.

Then about three weeks ago i noticed that the bottom right corner of the rubber was completely off the frame and was just hanging there. I then noticed the hole where the rubber had been i then went looking for a bolt that would fit the hole.

I hooked the rubber around the bolt and now its back in place.

But i still wonder what to do about the slack on the other sides.

Any suggestions?

Posted by: mgeoff88 13 October 2012 - 05:32 PM
I remembered something else: when I was in middle school, my friend taught me how to make a blowgun with a pen, scotch tape, a nail, and the tip of a shoe lace.

@M.C. Wolfcat That's awesome how your brother was able to fix the broken fan belt. macsak.gif
If the oven is that old and hard to use, maybe it's time to get new one? And trying to fix an oven MacGyver style may not be the safest solution.

Posted by: cirubit 20 October 2012 - 11:51 PM
Months ago, I had to fix my satellite dish in the terrace upstairs.
I had lost the signal because the wind has moved the dish.

So, if my tv was downstairs and the dish was upstairs, how could I to fix it without run up and down from a floor at the other?
(I do not have the tool to check for signal)

The terrace is near the room of my sister in law, and she was connected on Facebook, so I went in to my place, I took my pc and I pointed at the TV, with the webcam on.

When I'm come back upstairs I could watch my tv screen in the pc of my sister in law by webcam and skype and with a few moves in and out to the terrace I adjusted the dish.


Posted by: M.C. Wolfcat 22 October 2012 - 12:08 AM
QUOTE (mgeoff88 @ 14 October 2012 - 01:35 PM)
@M.C. Wolfcat That's awesome how your brother was able to fix the broken fan belt. macsak.gif
If the oven is that old and hard to use, maybe it's time to get new one? And trying to fix an oven MacGyver style may not be the safest solution.

I totally agree.

But hubby, not so keen.

He doesn't even know how it works,
didn't have any manual,
so i had to learn the hard way.

took me a month dry.gif ....

Was thinking about removing the other end where it
still slacks and see if i have another bolt or something
to put in that hole.


Posted by: mgeoff88 1 November 2012 - 03:50 PM
QUOTE (M.C. Wolfcat @ 22 October 2012 - 01:11 AM)
I totally agree.

But hubby, not so keen.

He doesn't even know how it works,
didn't have any manual,
so i had to learn the hard way.

took me a month dry.gif ....

Was thinking about removing the other end where it
still slacks and see if i have another bolt or something
to put in that hole.


Oh, well, I guess you could hope it stops working all together and then you would have to buy a new oven. laugh.gif

Posted by: M.C. Wolfcat 1 November 2012 - 09:56 PM
Sounds like a good idea laugh.gif

Posted by: Joe SAKic 16 February 2013 - 08:40 PM
While on 'assignment' in India in 1996 - I used my Swiss Champ to splice and connect my IBM Thinkpad to an ISTD long distance line box (sans RJ-11 jacks) in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. I had been working in Delhi and taken a 3-day vacation to the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

However, there was an urgent message awaiting me upon arriving at my accommodations. It basically stated that I had missed a deadline for uploading some important code to headquarters back in Toronto. And so I finished the code off and set off in a Rickshaw to find a suitable place to transmit the data. Not easy in circa 1996 (remote) India.

As, I remember - I ended up dialing long distance into Compuserve in Delhi, connecting to my account and sending the file to a monitored company address. The sakopen.gif was essential in accessing, striping, and splicing the wires. It was clearly a MacGyver moment and with all the villagers gathered around and watching the event unfold.

Posted by: KiwiTek 16 February 2013 - 10:10 PM
cool clapping.gif

Posted by: Mela_007 17 February 2013 - 09:19 PM
Ha, the phrase "What would MacGyver do?" was uttered by a co-worker of mine just a couple hours ago!! Not sure if he remembered the show and thought of it, or if it was a jab at me...seeing that I have been here on the site a decent amount where he could see the "MacGyver Online" banner. The point is, he said the phrase and he was meaning it.

We have a piece of equipment that was not working that we were trying to "fix". We don't have a replacement part (a new rubber membrane for the pressure sensor), so we tried replacing the old one, but we wanted to make sure water did not get into the repair...it's in underwater unit (think oceanography). Anyway, we looked around the ship for various items (I even checked out the first aid kit) that could help us seal it. We settled on plastic wrap from the galley (kitchen).

As others would say to Mac, "Are you sure that is going to work?"
"Nope"......... unsure.gif

Tune in tomorrow for the answer.....

Posted by: KiwiTek 18 February 2013 - 11:40 AM
laugh.gif ohhh the anticipation!

did it work? huh..huh... did it?


Posted by: MacGyverisms 18 February 2013 - 02:18 PM
Did it work, well, did it?

Posted by: Mela_007 18 February 2013 - 04:48 PM
blush.gif Oh man...you saw the post. lol I figured someone would. Unfortunately my answer is...We still don't know! ARGH! The weather is too rough for us to deploy that piece of gear today. Not too bad, but enough so we cannot use it today. We are still using the standard gears, but that one is larger and more tricky to deploy/retrieve so no luck today. UGH, I was hoping to let you know one way or the other. headbutt.gif

The image that comes to mind is Mac peaking out of the ditch in Humanity waiting for his "muffler rocket" to fire, then ducking and peaking again.

Guess we'll have to wait a little longer, sorry. I hate to tell you it may be a couple days before we try to deploy that one again. unsure.gif

Posted by: Mela_007 19 February 2013 - 10:03 AM
blink.gif Well, it sounds like we will never get to find out if it worked. doh.gif Since it was too rough of weather to use the gear yesterday anyway, we emailed the manufacturer and asked him more about the sensor set-up. Unfortunately the area we were going to seal with the plastic wrap is actually supposed to be filled with brake fluid. We believe the brake fluid would eat through the plastic wrap and make things worse. Since the rubber gasket is compromised we won't be able to use the equipment the rest of this trip. Pretty bummed!

Sorry, next time I guess I'll have to tell you all about it after the fact...when I know whether it worked or not. sad.gif blush.gif

Posted by: KiwiTek 9 May 2013 - 03:32 AM
Here's a quick and easy flytrap I've just finished making tonight. I can't claim credit for this one as the idea has been around for years.

Basically these are made from an old soda drink bottle and work in much the same way as a child's Bait Catch for fish.

1. Cut the top off an olde soda bottle
2. Place bait into the bottom of the bottle
3. Invert bottle top and place into the bottle
4. secure inverted bottle top in place. (easiest way is with a couple of small binder clips)


user posted image
Image source: http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/How_to_make_a_fly_trap/


There is however one downside to these traps that you need to be aware of. As the "bait" in these traps turns rotten the smell becomes very strong. So they really aren't that suitable for inside the house.


Posted by: YopeGyver 17 May 2013 - 11:21 AM
My dad, MacGyver. XD We've been searching the house all morning from top to bottom for the wooden pegs to put mine and my younger sister's bunk bed together. Finally our dad got a brilliant idea. X3 We tried seeing if we had any wood dowels that might fit but they were too big. So taking an already MacGyver-ized broom, a saw andsome duct tape, we have pegs xD.

(Btw, the broom had broken before and was being braced by wood strips and , of course, duct tape.)

Posted by: YopeGyver 13 June 2013 - 05:37 PM
We went for a drive out in the country and we stopped for a while. We had two of the dogs with us like always, but Sherlock didn't have a collar on and we had no leashes. Murdoch has sever seperation anxiety so there was no way on earth he'd be leaving my sister.
Sherlock has good recall but we didn't want to chance letting him walk loose, even though the area was deserted.
Sooo....I used my adjustable purse handle to fashion a collar and leash for the little bugger. macsak.gif

Posted by: Daisy8577 14 June 2013 - 03:25 AM
Nice, very creative.

Posted by: MACGYVERISMYDAD 6 August 2013 - 08:53 AM
I have an old Haddon home sweet home clock with the old lady that sits in the rocking chair and rocks back and forth. My old lady didn't rock anymore because I used the mechanism from mine to fix my mothers who wasn't rocking. One day I was bored and used an electric computer fan to make an old lady rock back and forth. I wired it up to a potentiometer so I could control her speed.

Posted by: Rocket 11 September 2013 - 11:24 PM
Please feel free to move this into Mac's kitchen if you think it fits better there smile.gif

I am making jam. Bramble jelly, to be precise.
I have never owned any proper jelly bags, and humbly submit this MacGyverism for your perusal:

You can make perfectly good jelly bags for straining the fruit using squares of (washed) net curtain, tied up at the corners with shoelaces. Hang them off the kitchen cupboard door handles to drip juice into bowls placed on the counter underneath. Leave them there for 24hrs or so, then collect the juice and either make a pie with the spent fruit or (if it's a bit... exhausted), recycle it as compost.

Works really well, except my husband insists on referring to my (red fruit) jam mking equipment as 'hanging bags of roadkill'! roller.gif

Posted by: YopeGyver 13 September 2013 - 06:22 AM
Very ingenious, Rocket! biggrin.gif

Posted by: Daisy8577 13 September 2013 - 02:19 PM
Love the idea. 😆

Posted by: Rocket 15 September 2013 - 10:14 AM
Thank you notworthy.gif


Posted by: Rocket 20 September 2013 - 11:08 PM
My Mum, also a fan, has been MacGyvering a tree this week...

Tree at the corner of the garden gets too big, Mum decides it has to come down. With this in mind, she gathers the following equipment and sets to:

2 bow saws, one with a blade so dull you could ride to London on it without harm
1 chainsaw with a slightly loose chain
1 drum of orange rope with about 9 ends, appropriated from Grimsby docks by my Dad some time in the 1970s
1 extra senior citizen, of a similar frame of mind. Also likes MacGyver, as happens
1 clapped out Fiat van
1 bottle of Jeyes Fluid (ninja disinfectant)
1 bucket with a split in the bottom

I turn up just too late to prevent what follows. It goes like this:
1. Hack a wedge out of the trunk with the chainsaw, using the blunter of the bow saws to assist whenever the chainsaw gets stuck and needs to cool off for a minute.
2. Because the chainsaw is now proper stuck, use the better bow saw to cut a wedge in the other side of the tree, a bit higher up. Wrestle the chainsaw free.
3. NOW the extra senior citizen climbs up the tree and attaches the knotted length of rope to some of the branches.
4. Fasten the other end of the rope to the van towbar, get the van going (eventually), sound a battle cry and set off across the field.
5. Against all the odds, there is a sound like the world ending and the tree snaps off exactly as intended. Both senior citizens are surprised as well as pleased. I'm amazed!
6. Pour Jeyes Fluid onto the stump to kill the root and cover with the bucket so the rain can't wash it off.
7. Retire to the kitchen to brew tea and plan the next harebrained scheme...
happy_dance.gif

Posted by: Joe SAKic 25 September 2013 - 07:14 PM
LMAO! (pun intended)


Posted by: YopeGyver 27 September 2013 - 06:57 AM
BWAHAHAHA! roller.gif Kudos to them both, Rocket! biggrin.gif Sounds like when we were helping our dad cut trees in our backyard this spring. X3

Posted by: Rocket 28 September 2013 - 10:25 AM
QUOTE (YopeGyver @ 28 September 2013 - 02:57 AM)
BWAHAHAHA! roller.gif Kudos to them both, Rocket! biggrin.gif

Aye, she's pretty cool, my Mum. She's the kind of person who has best wellies as well as mucky ones!

We've MacGyvered all sorts between us - the water supply for the horse field is cobbled together from 2 odd pieces of guttering, a lot of baler twine, a vacuum cleaner pipe, a funnel, some duct tape, a round rock and a bath...
Works a treat biggrin.gif

Posted by: John Litteral 6 February 2014 - 10:58 AM
I did a little MacGyver trick a while back at work. I work maintenance at a school system and it gives me an opportunity to play MacGyver. Hahaha. Anyway, I got a work order from wood shop teacher over a broken off handle to a water sprayer . I searched all hardware stores and nothing would match because it was one of those heavy duty oldy but goody types. So I drilled a hole the same width of a small screwdriver I had and put opoxy on the end of the screwdriver and placed it in the hole. It works great and actually fits right in the shop class environment.

Posted by: Joe SAKic 3 April 2014 - 02:57 AM
We had a massive icestorm over the past Christmas holidays and the ice coating was thicker than birthday cake frosting (see image below!) on everything. I had stopped to get gas at the local service station on the morning of December 23rd and upon opening my car door heard the definite & anguished cry of a damsel in distress.

As it turned out, she(d in d) was late for work, about out of gas and couldn't get the door on her gas cap/fill to open because of thick coating of frozen water encapsulating it. I had to act fast on this one and instantly went into MacGyver mode. unsure.gif unsure.gif unsure.gif ...... macsak.gif

And so I opened my trunk and started rooting around. Aha! A bottle of ethylene glycol (otherwise known as windwasher fluid !). I grabbed it, twisted open off the cap, took it over to the lady's car and started splashing it over the frozen door. 'This oughta do it', I said emulating what Mac might have said. 'Yes,What are you doing', She said, slightly worried about her vehicle. 'Oh, nothing but a little windowwasher fluid to achieve freezing-point depression much the way de-icers work on airplane wings.'

Immediately, the solution started to hiss & crack .... but the door would still not open and the liquid was taking it's time, too long a time. Time for aggressive, tried & true guerilla macgyverism tactics. sakopen.gif I felt for my belt and my leather sos pouch around my waist, flipped open the flap and whipped out my cybertool 41.

The small blade will do the trick, I thought, inserted it into a small crack that had formed around the circumference of the door portal, and started to cut and slice the frozen chain away - it was working and so I instructed her to go and pull the fill release lever again - she did and it sprung open!!!!! macsak.gif


Posted by: denizen 3 April 2014 - 03:23 AM
biggrin.gif Nice going, Joe! You MacGyver clone, you! smile.gif

Looking at that pic makes me feel even more luckier to be living in South Africa. Snow, in this country, let alone an icestorm is unheard of!

Posted by: Joe SAKic 3 April 2014 - 04:05 AM
Haha, yes warmer climes do have their comfort zone & advantages for sure. But cold weather can really force you to improvise, MacGyver style.

The power also went out a few times in that icestorm. That causes problems with the water pipes - especially at -25c temps where the home can cool off exceptionally fast - what to do? If the pipes freeze, they could break and cause serious water damage to the home.

So you've gotta watch the ambient temperature and if starts to get too low - you'd better bleed the pipes of water before they freeze solid. If they do freeze solid, you've gotta thaw them with various means of focused heat sources and, a big and, leave the taps open a tad so the gases from the de-thawing ice have an ability to escape.

There's also ice damming that can happen on the roof - this occurs when snow melts and then freezes along the edges forming ice that if not dealt with has the strength and the ability to literary lift you roof and cause major leakage. There are ways to deal with it including strategically placed heated wiring, channeling cutting and complete removal of the icy layer. All need constant monitoring and often MacGyver like timely action - if you will. biggrin.gif

Posted by: denizen 3 April 2014 - 05:05 AM
Wow! Scary. Well, looks like you're more than capable! biggrin.gif

Posted by: KiwiTek 3 April 2014 - 11:51 AM
Nice work!


Posted by: Joe SAKic 7 April 2014 - 01:17 PM
One thing I've learned from MacGyver and photography - is to simply take a look around before you mentally draw any conclusions on what is doable .... or not.

In photography, I used to see something interesting to photograph, snap it and move on ... with very average results. Nowadays, I'll see something, spend about 10 minutes walking around it and to find the best possible point of view, angle and most favorable lighting position before shooting. Often much better results.

Similar to MacGyver, who you'll always find having a studied look around, scanning the potential useful 'tools' and clearly performing some mental gymnastics in the process. A simple, cognitive step that works.

Posted by: Mela_007 11 April 2014 - 11:16 AM
I had to think like MacGyver a second time on that same research cruise last year. We had a fish stuck in the tubing of a piece of gear that we use for much smaller fish. It was clogging the pipes. After taking the gear apart, we still couldn't get our hands down to the fish (think relatively small fish ~3 inches long). I put on my MacGyver thinking cap and tried to think of what we might have onboard the ship to get it out. So, I went to the galley (kitchen) and rummaged around until I found the ship's BBQ stuff. With the long grilling "fork" we were able to skewer the dead fish out and get the system working again! Thanks again for Mac helping me think outside the box!! biggrin.gif

Posted by: Marcin 16 May 2014 - 02:43 AM
Yesterday, I saved my day with MacGyverism :-)

I've decided to mow my lawn, and then after few minutes of mowing, my “ancient” lawnmower lost it’s one wheel. Ok, it happens from time to time, but this time – I couldn't screw it up again. The metal plate with screwed holes in it was permanently damaged. When I started to thinking about ordering new parts, money I’ll have to pay for it (to my “ancient” lawnmower), and time it will take (2 weeks maybe), I've looked on my lawn, holding my hand in my pocket… then my fingers fund my SAK – Spartan :-) and… you know what happened next ;-)

I’ve took my lawnmower to my garage, I've grab some wire, some tools, duct tape, some spare screws, and metal plates. It took me 2 hours because I've realized later that I don’t have dill bit for metalwork (I usually use woodwork once and those for cement and stones) – but I made it :-)
It works, and lawn mowing has been successful. I hope that the way I've repaired the wheel is permanent and is totally MacGyverish, because I’ve used only things I've found in my garage – No shopping involved ;-)

Posted by: denizen 18 May 2014 - 08:58 PM
Well done, Marcin. That's fantastic. Precisely what effect the show seems to have played on all of us!

We all think we're MacGyver. And in a way, we are! If we just sit back and think before we do something, a solution will present itself.

Posted by: KiwiTek 18 May 2014 - 09:41 PM
QUOTE (denizen @ 19 May 2014 - 04:58 PM)
If we just sit back and think before we do something, a solution will present itself.

Thank you Henry Jones Sr. laugh.gif


Posted by: denizen 18 May 2014 - 10:57 PM
Aha! I knew I remembered that from somewhere! biggrin.gif

Posted by: blondmama 21 May 2014 - 01:36 PM
Well here is what I did when I didn't have a clamp for a dryer hose that goes to the dryer I thought what would Macgyver do? Well I thought oh a coat hanger it worked I went and inter looped the hanger after bending it so that the hanger was flat it was a wire hanger and it worked I did this trick a few weeks ago to this day it is still on there I love Macgyver and so does my son smallstart.gif I love when we watch Macgyver it brings back memoirs of when I was younger watching the show

Posted by: denizen 21 May 2014 - 09:41 PM
Nice going, blondmama! biggrin.gif

Posted by: blondmama 30 May 2014 - 01:26 PM
OK everyone my name is blondmama. I have created this thing to hook the dryer hose to the back of your dryer but didn't have a clamp the thing I said was what would Macgyver do? And came up with putting a hanger bent into a circle then wrapped it around the hose and the metal piece that you cover when putting on the hose.

The other thing I have done like Macgyver is I created something to keep my covers from falling to the floor I use good old elastic that you use for pants and Ex and safety pins to hold it.

I created a cover for my tablet to keep the flap part from scratching the screen I used felt and elastic and then sewed it on then used another piece of felt to cover the elastic up it was ugly you know but now I can still put the thing in back to pop it up so you can watch news or to type

If all else fails I dream about what I can use if I find myself in a bind

Posted by: blondmama 7 June 2014 - 02:46 PM
Well everyone have to tell u what I did yesterday I was laminating my CD insert s and something so wrong went wrong at the wrong time well I desired that I was not going to buy another laminater so I did another Macgyverisum I guess I was not happy that it jammed up but I had put it back together I thought it was right but my friend and I fixed it I cleaned it all out and so it works but I will make sure I am on the same level as the laminater I was in a kitchen chair doing the laminater on the floor not good so I guess I won't do that again my boyfriend had came in and asked me if I did a Macgyver trick on it I said yes I did he said go figure. Well my friend and I tried it out before she left and it works like new but like I said next time I will not be higher then the machine that is how it jammed up on me. clapup.gif I am so happy I got it back I didn't want to have to buy a new one.

Posted by: Macgyver man 2 January 2015 - 03:54 PM
There was multiple times when the chain that connects the flusher handle on the toilet to the rubber stopper broke. I used a paper clip to reconnect the chain to the bar. clip.JPG

Posted by: Elizabeth MacGyver 29 April 2015 - 10:36 AM
I fixed my sunglasses with paperclips and ducktape

Posted by: denizen 29 April 2015 - 10:47 AM
Nice job! smile.gif

Posted by: blondmama 29 April 2015 - 12:59 PM
Hello All Here are the things I have done and things I did that are ways that Macgyver would do First thing I did was my dryer hose I didn't have a clamp so I used a coat hanger to hold it on it is still working I did this I forgot when I did it.
here is the other thing I did was I Have a dipping kitchen Faucet I have my sons Water bottles I stick a funnel in it and then I let it drip when they are full put the cap on and put them in the fridge
a good friend of mine came up with an Idea which I love she took a small bottle and cut the top off and then cut a U shape in it and then left about 2 inches and used that for her daughter when she washers her hands.

Posted by: denizen 29 April 2015 - 09:02 PM
Great job, blondmama! smile.gif

Posted by: Mac2Nite 20 May 2015 - 04:42 PM
QUOTE (Elizabeth MacGyver @ 30 April 2015 - 06:36 AM)
I fixed my sunglasses with paperclips and ducktape

I'd like to see a picture of those glasses! clip.JPG duct.gif biggrin.gif

Posted by: Kristelle 21 May 2015 - 02:01 AM
Ok, my greatest MacGyverism is probably last time we had a show with my choir. We were supposed to sing "Cabaret" from Liza Minneli, and the 40 of us would wear a hat. The problem was to give each one of us a hat in the 1 and a half minute we had between "cabaret" started and the former song finished. And I do not tell you about everyone finding his spot and position on the stage. It had to go FAST!:o

We tried to make it organised, that 8 persons would take responsibility for sending 5 hats to others. But then, some people got 2 hats, some did not get any, it was a mess... doh.gif For me it was obvious, the hats had to come from the roof and down over each of us, so that we could grab our hat and run to our spot.

Then, I fixed 2 long bars over the stage, with a mechanism to get them down and up fast and safely. So was the problem to attach the hats there in a way that would make it possible to have them there from the beginning of the show without them falling, and to grab them without people having to remove anything or taking the risk of damaging the hats: we had to use them for at least the 5 shows + all rehearsals.

So I used curtains rings with a clip on them, and in the clip I attached a magnet. I had to sew a little metal piece on each hat, and then it was done. It worked. happy_dance.gif

The first evening, we all stood with our backs to the public, in position for "Cabaret", ready to grab our hat. We could hear the public holding its breath when the 40 hats came down, it was just fantastic! And now the choir is expecting GREAT things from me for the next show in January thumbsup.gif

Posted by: Maclover 15 September 2015 - 09:59 AM
I once produced a piece of baling twine from the bottom of a pocket and made functional someone's suitcase handle that had failed with a mile walk in front of them - apparently the repair lasted another 5 trips!! I also fixed a broken ski binding in the middle of nowhere with my Leatherman screwdriver.

I also couldn't put the paperchains up on our 9' high ceilings and do the tree at Christmas without the help of my kitchen tongs (puts the fairy on the top of the 6' tree standing on a 2' table) and my walking poles hook the paper chain ends over the permanent hooks I have in the corners of the ceilings, but which have things like the TV now in the way of standing a ladder where I would want them.

Posted by: Maclover 19 December 2015 - 04:44 AM
Mac always finds loads of ways to cut the rope that he is often tied up with. I was out in the barn the other night faced with a real tightly tied bale of hay that I couldn't flick the string off, no SAK in my pocket (duh!), and not really wanting to walk back to the house, take all my muddy boots off etc. just to get a knife I needed another solution. I looked all around in the finish spied a shovel. Held up close to the bale the edge of blade nicely sawed through the string in true Mac style. biggrin.gif

Posted by: SakLumberjack 19 November 2016 - 12:38 PM
I originally posted this on another forum I'm a member of on a thread called "What is the scariest situation you have been in?", but thought I'd post it here too as it I felt it has some relevance:

First time I went to my (now) wife's home city, it was the first major trip I'd done on my own (I was 22).

On the way back to Moscow, I was waiting in the departure lounge at the airport, when this cop walks into the lounge, points at me and says "come with me".

So, I followed him back to their office, where his colleague invites me to sit down at the desk.

There's one older cop and one younger cop, the older one's sat at the desk and the younger's stood at the door.

My knowledge of Russian's very limited, so I manage to get the gist that they're "foreign coin collectors" (this is back in 1996, so very few foreigners had ever been out there before that time), talking about "oh, your monarch's Queen Elizabeth", and some such.

Anyway, long story short (too late), I had a small amount of UK coins on me, and I managed to get out of there intact after giving them a few pennies (I needed the bigger value coins for when I got back to the UK).

I was scared - Russian cops all carry guns, at least a small sidearm (probably 7mm or 9mm), and I wouldn't have made it to the door if they wanted to shoot me - but I think I kept my cool on the outside and played it like MacGyver would.

Posted by: Joe SAKic 19 November 2016 - 04:06 PM
Great work, Mac!! biggrin.gif smile.gif Corruption is not uncommon in Russia, so I've been told. mad.gif

I worked in Mexico for a large international hotel chain for a year, and our bus was routinely stopped by inebriated Federales who were on the hunt for even more booze. There was one and only MacGyverism too rid ourselves of them at that time .... fork over all our tequila cargo. That's it. That's what they were after. Not nice to have these boys waltz on the bus with their guns have drawn, and half threatening ... even though they were being relatively polite & jovial at the time. unsure.gif

----

My scariest experience was riding the Himalayan roads in Northern India aka 'freefall freeway' - came within a whisker of meeting thy maker too. No Macgyverism was getting me out of it, once I accepted the ride and decided to go on/through with it. It was effing unreal ...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jxggx

Posted by: denizen 20 November 2016 - 07:58 PM
Sounds like something out of a movie SakLumberjack biggrin.gif

Posted by: MacGyverGod 21 November 2016 - 04:07 AM
They blackmailed you into giving them your money? Practically a robbery. Could've reversed that into a bribery and give them money to leave you alone.

Posted by: Scorpion Regent 22 November 2016 - 07:46 AM
I was at a construction site and I needed to open a package, there was mo knife handy, but a saw is a serrated blade. I had to do it carefully, but it did the job. The back side of a handsaw blade works well as a straight edge for marking lines on wood.

Posted by: Barry Rowland 24 November 2016 - 01:55 PM
I used the SAK saw to cut out a Jack O Lantern for Halloween. It worked like the champ it is....the Swiss Champ!!

Posted by: blondmama 10 April 2017 - 04:50 PM
well lets see I have a few things that I have done that are what would MacGyver do well the first one is the dryer hose that has the other end outside well I guess you can say I didn't have a Clamp so I used a wire Hanger then since I haven't been on here I guess I have to I love the music is awesome oh I have to say this is really a good one I guess I was in my van and the sun gets me every time on the left side of my face but I put the visor to the left to help well thought every time I turn right I got hit in the head so I thought I took a piece of elastic and Velcro what I did is I put a safety pin on the side close where the hook was and I put the part of Velcro that was the soft part on the piece right above my seat belt is I then took the other end and had to pin the other part of Velcro to the end that is going to hold the visor in place and it works like a charm I love it no more getting hit in the head so I guess my other things I did was instead of buying a thing to hold all my stamps I got a big ring binder and some cereal boxes cut in half then take fold one end up to make a pocket then three hole punch I punched the holes then I put all my stamps into it the single stamps that I have I took double Sided tape I taped a piece of the covers that my stamps i took the smaller ones and put my stamps in the plastic pockets I have so many tricks that I use everyday I have to tell you that we were staying at a friends house and my son had got a small drone and the fan wasn't on but drone got caught in the part that would be attach to the ceiling well it fell in that part first thing I did was unplug the fan and we were thinking about how we were going to get this done then my son said hey what about a paper clip we had two of them and sure enough we got it I was really happy about that clip.JPG did work

Posted by: denizen 10 April 2017 - 08:03 PM
Welcome back blondmama. Those are some great MscGyverisms! biggrin.gif

Posted by: Barry Rowland 11 April 2017 - 01:55 PM
On a recent hike, my son's boot soles began to separate from his boots. We were miles from home, so a friend para-corded the soles onto the boot body. Not pretty, but they made it back to camp! thumbsup.gif

Posted by: denizen 11 April 2017 - 08:10 PM
Nice one, Barry.

Posted by: MacGyversGirl4Ever 12 April 2017 - 09:45 AM
Here's a little scary one, (at least for me...)

One day I was home alone and I went to take a shower. I dropped my shampoo and it went EVERYWHERE on the shower floor, so, of course, since I'm so clumsy, I slipped on it. I wasn't hurt too badly, but I started having a VVS attack (Vasovagal Syncope). I tried to calm myself down and then I used the towels to hit my phone from the counter and onto the floor, then I unscrewed the pump from the shampoo bottle and used the pump dispenser thing to "hook" my phone and slide it towards me. I called then called my mom and she rescued me. Thanks Ma!! <3 doh.gif thumbsup.gif happy_dance.gif thumbup.gif

Posted by: denizen 12 April 2017 - 08:11 PM
Sheesh! Gotta take it easy MacGyversGirl4Ever

Posted by: MacGyversGirl4Ever 10 May 2017 - 01:56 PM
denizen - Haha, yeah, I suppose I should stop dancing in the shower! Shouldn't I?

Posted by: denizen 10 May 2017 - 08:08 PM
Worth a try. smile.gif

Posted by: Barry Rowland 10 May 2017 - 11:48 PM
thumbsup.gif

Posted by: beth 22 October 2017 - 10:32 AM
My cousin had to bring out his "inner MacGyver" during the recent hurricane in Florida. He and his family had taken safe harbor in his dental office . The generator that they were using for power had a glitchy relay and he used dental wire that he had just used some of the night before to wire a patient's fractured jaw to bypass the faulty relay and get the generator working again. His MacGyverism saved the day! happy_dance.gif thumbsup.gif

Posted by: Sanguine 22 October 2017 - 05:55 PM
That just might be the best real-life MacGyverism that I have ever heard. One thousand kudos! thumbsup.gif

Posted by: denizen 22 October 2017 - 08:53 PM
Sounds great. biggrin.gif

Posted by: Barry Rowland 24 October 2017 - 04:42 PM
Right on!!! Isn't it fun? thumbsup.gif

Posted by: beth 3 November 2017 - 06:09 PM
This sounds pretty simple but my mother has one of those electric stoves with the white glass top instead of coiled burners. She had a scorched area on one of the burners that has been there for about a year. She has tried lots of household cleaners to try to remove it without any success. Tonight I was helping her clean her kitchen and could not leave the ugly scorch mark there any longer. I looked around her kitchen for a solution to the issue when I spotted the salt shaker. I got the stovetop wet, poured a small pile of salt on the stain and rubbed gently. The entire stain had completely disappeared.

Posted by: Barry Rowland 4 November 2017 - 12:41 PM
Beth your timing of this is awesome biggrin.gif I've been trying to find the same thing for our glasstop....saved me some legwork! thumbsup.gif

Posted by: beth 4 November 2017 - 01:38 PM
QUOTE (Barry Rowland @ 4 November 2017 - 12:41 PM)
Beth your timing of this is awesome biggrin.gif I've been trying to find the same thing for our glasstop....saved me some legwork! thumbsup.gif

Glad I could help Barry! thumbsup.gif

Posted by: beth 4 November 2017 - 05:43 PM
QUOTE (beth @ 4 November 2017 - 01:38 PM)
QUOTE (Barry Rowland @ 4 November 2017 - 12:41 PM)
Beth your timing of this is awesome biggrin.gif   I've been trying to find the same thing for our glasstop....saved me some legwork!   thumbsup.gif

Glad I could help Barry! thumbsup.gif

The idea actually came from the salt and ice cube trick for cleaning the glass coffee pot for the coffee maker. Put salt and a few ice cubes in the glass coffee pot and swirl around. It cleans off the coffee residue without scratching the glass and won't potentially leave chemicals in the pot.

Posted by: Barry Rowland 5 November 2017 - 06:44 AM
Learned another new trick then! This thread is great for sharing all kinds of fun solutions thumbsup.gif

Posted by: Barry Rowland 16 November 2017 - 01:02 PM
I had a Mac moment today. I've been having issues with my trusty Subaru hesitating and missing, so I'm trying the cheapest fix first. Ask me how I learned that lesson sometime.... hmm.bmp Anyway, I went and picked up a bottle of fuel injection cleaner from the auto parts store. Wouldn't you know it, but the bottle wouldn't fit the filler of the car. If I tried to pour it in, it would just bypass the tank and straight onto the ground. I thought there was no way I was going to go and buy a funnel, and I went looking in the glove box. I had some envelopes in there and thought: If I fold them in the shape of a funnel, it should hold up long enough for the size of the bottle I had to pour. Sure enough, the envelope had enough strength to push the little flap back and allow me to pour the cleaner into the tank! Not engineering caliber but it felt good! biggrin.gif

Posted by: beth 16 November 2017 - 02:21 PM
Good thinking. It doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to work!

Posted by: Barry Rowland 16 November 2017 - 02:31 PM
So true my friend!!

Posted by: Joe SAKic 2 December 2017 - 08:52 AM
I was hanging the outdoor Christmas lights last week and (inadvertently) left the ladder in the middle of the driveway. And so at dusk, got in the car and side-swiped it(the ladder) with the passenger fender. It didn't 'sound' bad at all and the ladder was one of those superlight fibreglass things. I didn't even feel a need to look at it ..... til the next morning, that is. What I saw amazed me, a large melon sized pock above the wheel base. So I decided to call the insurance co. They said my policy, allowed me one 'mulligan' for a my fault accident. So, I took it to their preferred auto body shop. They took pictures from every angle and in a few days produced a quote. $1200.00 to fix it. No charge to me, but with the usual insurance company repercussions (re: they get back and keep things 'on file').


...... so I decided to check out youtube, to see what was up in the DIYs. Long story short, a dollar store kitchen plunger, and a bucket of hot water - and I defy anyone to find the remnants of the dent.

Posted by: Barry Rowland 6 December 2017 - 08:51 PM
Way to go Joe!! I can't tell you how many times (and how much money and hassles) YouTube has saved me over the years. thumbsup.gif

Posted by: Beaum2000 10 July 2018 - 09:25 PM
I want to add a simple macgyverism that happened to me last week. At least I would call this a macgyverism although it is super simple. I am not used to thinking and seeing the world this way.

When my mom called me up crying I thought someone had died. She said in a panic that Little Buddy (her cat) brought in a snake scream.gif and when she screamed at the sight of it wiggling in his mouth he dropped it and now it's underneath the TV and to hurry please hurry over and get it out! She was crying into the phone. So scared...

I rushed right over. On the way I was thinking that I am no snake catcher. How in the world will I get this job done. Since I have been re-watching Macgyver I thought of him and asked myself what would he come up with. I still had no idea. As I got to my moms house I smiled as a plan suddenly came to me when I saw a simple object on the curve.

A Trash Can.

I grabbed the trash can and a long stick I found outside. Without the influence of Macgyver and keeping my mind open to find solutions I would not have thought of those two helpful tools.

When I got inside... guess what... the snake was not under the tv...it was not anywhere! I spent the next two hours plus searching for that snake. I tore her house apart trying to think like a snake. The first time through I could not find it. I stopped for a few moments as I was tired of looking and was feeling doubtful but I kept going not willing to give up until the problem was solved.

The second time I was like a burglar trashing the place (although a lot more gently) and I was starting to doubt I would ever find it with a million or more places for that sucker to hide. My mom was saying she could not sleep there and had to stay with us. I agreed. I kept looking. I would not give up... Luckily I was not working that night and had nothing to do.

Finally I found it!!!!! I had to take the couch and flip it over and over before it fell out. I had no idea it was in there and looked in the couch the first time with no success. It attacked me with a vengeance. He had fight in him. I got it thanks in large part to the stick and trash can and took it outside. Victory was mine and I let the loser go a safe distance away.

Yes he was hard to find but once found he was easy to catch thanks to thinking like Macgyver. macsak.gif

Posted by: denizen 11 July 2018 - 12:58 AM
Nice workBeaum2000. Sheesh that must have been a little scary!

Posted by: MacGyverGod 11 July 2018 - 03:32 AM
Remember what Mac said about snakes in Final Approach? "It crawled in there for the warmth and that's how I'll take it out." Or something like that.

Posted by: Beaum2000 12 July 2018 - 07:58 AM
QUOTE (MacGyverGod @ 11 July 2018 - 03:32 AM)
Remember what Mac said about snakes in Final Approach? "It crawled in there for the warmth and that's how I'll take it out." Or something like that.


Yeah I just saw that episode last night. I can assure you that Mac was a lot smoother than I was in getting the snake out. biggrin.gif




Posted by: Scorpion Regent 17 July 2018 - 06:50 AM
QUOTE (Barry Rowland @ 16 November 2017 - 01:02 PM)
I had a Mac moment today.  I've been having issues with my trusty Subaru hesitating and missing, so I'm trying the cheapest fix first.  Ask me how I learned that lesson sometime.... hmm.bmp  Anyway, I went and picked up a bottle of fuel injection cleaner from the auto parts store.  Wouldn't you know it, but the bottle wouldn't fit the filler of the car.  If I tried to pour it in, it would just bypass the tank and straight onto the ground.  I thought there was no way I was going to go and buy a funnel, and I went looking in the glove box.  I had some envelopes in there and thought: If I fold them in the shape of a funnel, it should hold up long enough for the size of the bottle I had to pour.  Sure enough, the envelope had enough strength to push the little flap back and allow me to pour the cleaner into the tank!  Not engineering caliber but it felt good!  biggrin.gif


Did the injection cleaner work? If not I know more intensive ways to use injection cleaner to get engines to run smoother. Be sure to minimize your exposure to that stuff through you skin or breathing. It's been linked to all sorts of nasty cancer.

Posted by: Barry Rowland 19 July 2018 - 07:00 AM
I had the exact same problem with mine! I had to devise a funnel using bank deposit envelopes. It turned out my issue was the coil pack, which was an easy fix. Replacing the spark plugs, however, wasn't so easy sad.gif .

Great job!!

Posted by: Tobop 18 December 2019 - 09:03 PM
Sorry for the thread bump tongue.gif

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81gtPDpX0AL.jpg

I found this again recently. Page 150-154 though... I doubt MacGyver would do that. blink.gif

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