Posts: 7,067
Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Gender: Male
Country: South Africa
SAK owned: Tinker/Pioneer
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Season: season 1
Episode:The Human Factor
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
1. Unclog a drain
Solution: Next time one of your drains is being a pain, drop three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the sink followed by a cup of white vinegar.
We’re not 100% sure about the science behind this, but we heard when combined together, these ingredients will dissolve grease and other funky things. After about 15 minutes, you can clear the drain with boiling water.
Do not attempt this trick immediately after using a commercial drain opener like Drano or Liquid-Plumr.
FYI, you can also use this exact same solution to clean and freshen up toilet bowls.
Fun MacGyver fact: He mixed it with baking soda to create a smoke screen.
2. Fix scuffed floors Give scuffmarks on tile and linoleum floors the boot using a tennis ball fitted on the end of a broom handle. When rubbed against the floor, the ball will remove scuffmarks.
What, you don’t have a tennis ball? Use a sneaker. The bottom of most clean sneakers can easily buff floors.
Fun MacGyver fact: He once made a missile out of a broom handle.
3. Create more pantry space Small office organizers like the ones used for pencils and pens can turn wasted wall space into room for spice storage.
Look at the photo to see how small desk organizers instantly became mini-spice racks when placed in front of pantry shelves.
Don’t own a few of these clever storage finds? Organizers like these can be found easily at most dollar stores.
Fun MacGyver fact: He once hotwired a truck using a bunch of office supplies including a paper clip, a ballpoint pen, and a rubber band.
4. Keep your fingernails clean when doing dirty jobs
Simply pack clean soap under your talons by rubbing them across a bar a few times. When the dirty work is done, quickly scrub it all out with a nailbrush.
Fun MacGyver fact: He was always armed with a Swiss army knife, which included a nail file, tweezers, and a few other grooming tools.
5. Fix a wall crack Just add a little baking soda to Crazy Glue when filling a small wall crack and ta-da — it becomes a hard plastic you can easily sand or file down.
6. Undo glue joints or remove a pesky sticker Turn a can of air duster cleaning spray upside down and spray your target. Doing so will “freeze” the glue, making it easy to undo the joint or pull the sticker off.
Fun MacGyver fact: He was always working with sticky stuff. Check this clip where he makes homemade Russian Crazy Glu
"The bag's not for what I take, Colson - it's for what I find along the way."
Posts: 427
Joined: 13 Sep 2015
Gender: Female
Country:
SAK owned: 5 x lge & small
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Season: season 3
Episode:The Widowmaker
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
So stuff in squeezy bottles like ketchup and mayo is so convenient. I love mayo in squeezy bottles (I can make it, but its fattening and I can get low fat mayo in bottles in the store) - I can squeeze just a little everywhere and it probably causes me to eat less of the delicious, but fattening, dressing. However, I don't like to throw bottles away that aren't completely empty. Sometimes a little vinegar can be added to ketchup and salad cream to thin it up a bit when it gets stuck around the edge of the bottle, and of course a good 'flick' of the upturned bottle in your hands will shift some of it to the end for squeezing out.
However Mayo is real sticky stuff and isn't improved by thinning with oil. In the finish I usually chop the bottle in half and scrape out each bit with a spatula. The drawback of this approach is that there is often far more on the sides of the bottle when you need to do than you need on your plate and either you chuck the rest or have to keep two sticky half bottles around for a day or so until you've used it up.
So lunch today and the mayo has reached this 'stuck to the edges' state and too much obviously left to do one days plateful. Ideally I need get some more to squeeze out, but a good downwards 'flick' isn't doing it. So I raid my poly bag store and find a big tall one that some clothes came in. Place bottle downwards in a corner and fold the bag lengthways around it to keep it there. Then took a couple of twists of the folded bag above the bottle to tidy it up. Out in garden and 'whang' (that's a 'technical' term you understand ) the bottle in the end of the bag around my head a few times and let centripetal force do its job. Brilliant result within a few minutes (it probably took longer to type it) all the mayo is down the correct end of the bottle where standing it on its head for a couple of days and a good 'flick' had completely failed previously.
Rather pleased with that one, felt like a solution in the true MacGyver spirit of using what I had quickly to hand.
Posts: 7,067
Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Gender: Male
Country: South Africa
SAK owned: Tinker/Pioneer
Favorites
Season: season 1
Episode:The Human Factor
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Adding a teaspoon of of baking soda when you boil eggs and the shell will come off easily.
Pinching the end of a banana is a far easier way to open it
How to find the hole in your tire
If you are losing air in your tire, but can't find a nail/screw/hole: fill your tire full of air, take off your tire and get some dish soap and water. Bubbles will develop where ever there is a leak. If the hole is in the middle of the tire (like seen here) you can get it repaired for a few dollars. If it's on the sidewalls, you're not so lucky.
Perfectly cut cherry tomatoes all at once
"The bag's not for what I take, Colson - it's for what I find along the way."
Posts: 427
Joined: 13 Sep 2015
Gender: Female
Country:
SAK owned: 5 x lge & small
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode:The Widowmaker
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
My car gets through 'screen wash' in the winter like its going out of fashion - every 5th squirt and it decides to expend extra quantities on cleaning the lights. It's also an estate and their rear windows tend to get filthy very quickly in poor conditions. So I always try to carry a big full bottle with me - chances are t will always expire when I'm miles from a garage and who wants to pay top notch at a garage in the winter? I buy large highly concentrated containers of 'gloop' ("technical term!!") in the summer, and carry it a bit diluted in the winter (we don't often get -40C here). The trouble is that its such a huge tank you need about 3 litres per fill - big bottle full needed.
So where in the car can you keep a 3 litre plastic container without its weight causing any velcro-ed or other mechanism to fail? Last year I tied the top of the tipping handle on the bottle to the luggage tie point, and it worked after a fashion, but this year the old bottles are getting older and I don't want to chance to much weight on the old handles by tying through them again.
So I puzzled it for a few minutes and then procured an old onion net from my dad's shed. Bottle in net and then loosely tie the top and hook through the mesh over the grocery bag hooks in the boot/trunk. It seems to be working a treat.
We received 12 inches of snow last night. Trouble is that after I snowblowed the driveway in March of last year, I left the gas in it and parked her for the Summer. Not a good idea because the gas will gum up within the little carburetor bits and it won't allow the gas to burn. I pulled that dang thing for a good hour with nary a spark. What to do?
Find your (approx.) model on youtube and follow the teacher in doing a carb.job. Found several and it's a bit of a nightmare with nuts bolts and then about 5 little bits fall out onto the ground which you clean and then try to put back together. All the videos said that this is the only way to unclog it, save taking it back for service.
But wait, it's just a little gummed up, so I went to the bathroom reached around behind the toilet and grabbed the plunger. Then I topped the gas up to the top of the snowblower fuel tank and starting pumping the open fuel hole with the plunger. Nothing. So I rocked the snowblower a bit up and down and banged it a bit on the concrete floor, then I plunged it again. Brrrrrnggg! It started right up!
Okay that's the good news, then about half way through cleaning the driveway, I inadvertently sucked up some gravel while having the blower shoot pointed towards the house ........ ermmm to make a long story short - I blew out the dinning room window.
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.
Whether you think you can or you can't .... you're probably right!
"Nature often addressed our problems much better than the doctor." - Henry Miller
"So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry." - Jack Kerouac
"No one is remembered for being normal" -- Albert Einstein
Wow Joe!! Some days, you're just better off staying indoors
Ha, ha agreed .... but on the more positive side ... sucking up and propelling stones with that monster makes one hell of a macgyverized Gatling Gun. (window fixed ... $100.00 )
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.
Whether you think you can or you can't .... you're probably right!
"Nature often addressed our problems much better than the doctor." - Henry Miller
"So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry." - Jack Kerouac
"No one is remembered for being normal" -- Albert Einstein
So stuff in squeezy bottles like ketchup and mayo is so convenient. I love mayo in squeezy bottles (I can make it, but its fattening and I can get low fat mayo in bottles in the store) - I can squeeze just a little everywhere and it probably causes me to eat less of the delicious, but fattening, dressing. However, I don't like to throw bottles away that aren't completely empty. Sometimes a little vinegar can be added to ketchup and salad cream to thin it up a bit when it gets stuck around the edge of the bottle, and of course a good 'flick' of the upturned bottle in your hands will shift some of it to the end for squeezing out.
However Mayo is real sticky stuff and isn't improved by thinning with oil. In the finish I usually chop the bottle in half and scrape out each bit with a spatula. The drawback of this approach is that there is often far more on the sides of the bottle when you need to do than you need on your plate and either you chuck the rest or have to keep two sticky half bottles around for a day or so until you've used it up.
So lunch today and the mayo has reached this 'stuck to the edges' state and too much obviously left to do one days plateful. Ideally I need get some more to squeeze out, but a good downwards 'flick' isn't doing it. So I raid my poly bag store and find a big tall one that some clothes came in. Place bottle downwards in a corner and fold the bag lengthways around it to keep it there. Then took a couple of twists of the folded bag above the bottle to tidy it up. Out in garden and 'whang' (that's a 'technical' term you understand ) the bottle in the end of the bag around my head a few times and let centripetal force do its job. Brilliant result within a few minutes (it probably took longer to type it) all the mayo is down the correct end of the bottle where standing it on its head for a couple of days and a good 'flick' had completely failed previously.
Rather pleased with that one, felt like a solution in the true MacGyver spirit of using what I had quickly to hand.
if you are going to commit to cutting apart a mayo container do it when you know you can use it all, for a family lunch or in a recipe. Have a fresh bottle on hand just in case you need even more.
If you really want to get the most for your money you can still use the parts. The top half of the bottle can be used as a funnel, after you've cleaned it of course. As to the bottom half, a crude bowl or cup is always handy for sorting and holding bits and bobs.
You can always make your own low fat mayo and put it in a squeeze bottle. You can pump it into the bottle by loading it all into plastic bag and squeezing all through a small hole cut in a corner. Don't want to waste the mayo residue in the bag, just invert the bag and wear it like a glove while a wiping off the excess on the bread for your first sandwich.
I don't know if this counts as a MacGyver trick or not, but I can tell anyone how to get the plastic thing off a library DVD without breaking the DVD like the carton sometimes says removing a DVD by yourself will do. Of course I won't do it for nothing. I'd like information about how to set up ammonia, napalm, and wires to do that UFO hoax I'm obsessed with.
I'd like information about how to set up ammonia, napalm, and wires to do that UFO hoax I'm obsessed with.
Dangerously obsessed I'd say.
Napalm has been internationally outlawed by the UN since the 80's and the fact that you have ignored my previous communication that we are not going to help you make dangerous and/or illegal devices leaves me with only one option.
Posts: 427
Joined: 13 Sep 2015
Gender: Female
Country:
SAK owned: 5 x lge & small
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Season: season 3
Episode:The Widowmaker
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
So I've been doing a little Macgyvering today.
We are relatively new owners of a new telescope (I think Mac would have liked a telescope) and I am still tying to sort out the bits and bobs for it. Eyepieces fog up and you can by an electrically heated strip to help with this. I got one, but didn't realise that it would come with a jack plug type connection - with these you apparently have the opposite connection linked to a car style 12V connector in a separate lead - I think its so can you run a large number of dew leads plugged into a single power source via just the jack plugs if you need to. So I've only got one so I bought the 12V lead adapter - when this arrives I've got the wrong jack plug connection on it - who knew they make more than one type?! I don't know what type I have or even what type I've been sent. They cost a little bit, but not enough to worry about sending back.
So I've been sitting on two perfectly functional items that just won't work together and won't work apart. I am always reticent to destroy things that are perfect, but neither worked together or apart. I could see that one lead had a two part cable in it, and the other had a switch in it so I took that apart and could see that also had two sub-cables in it - by chance each item also had the same two colours in it. So I found some neat connectors on ebay - little heat shrink sleeves with a crimpable join in the centre that looked easy enough without messing around with solder and these were only pence to buy so I got a dozen of these useful looking objects. I then sat and looked at the job for a week LOL
Today I was bored and had the time to look at the job. Sod it - they don't work at the moment and I don't know what to buy to make them work - the wire cutters called and one quick snip later and I was committed. Ten minutes later and all the wires were stripped and joined with the neat little joining gadgets, I borrowed dad's heat gun and sealed the heat shrink ends and then for good measure wrapped the entire package in electrical tape. Pluged into my 12V source the little wires warm up a treat and the switch is still in place so I turn it one and off as needed. Job one MacGyvered.
Now when we were away in Austria I took my nice spiral bound European map book - I'd only used it once previously. It had a lightweight cardboard cover secured to the spiral binding through an expected series of holes. Even used carefully the holes that close to the edge of the card were never going to hold long term and it wasn't long into the journey that the back cover ripped off the back of book when it wasn't put down squarely. Rats! The book only had thin pages and wasn't going to last without the cover and its a nice book, with half a mind that I might mend it I saved the cover safe until we got home. Today I thought I'd look at the project.
So I got out the laminator (I've got most useful things here). The A4 sheet didn't go over the entire old cover, but it only left about 1/4" uncovered, so I made sure I enveloped the old punched edge and the laminator just about swallowed the card. I now had a nice hard plastic where the wholes once were. By taking the plastic 'bits' collector off the back of a two hole punch I found I could see where the old holes had been to use one of the of the punches to add holes in the right locations into the new plastic. So far so good. Then I realised that the spiral binding could only really be accessed from the front and this was the back cover, but it was wire......The Leatherman long nosed pliers........ I painstakingly eased each spiral out then around the respective hole and back through the pages. Took about 10 minutes and the back was on the book again. It looked that good I thought 'why wait for the front to come off?' So I repeated the process on the front - easier as the spiral binding finished on the front.
I'm really pleased with the result - much stronger than the original and it will really add to the longevity of the map-book. What I can't understand is for a the cost of a couple of laminated sheets why the printers don't plasticise the covers in the first place knowing the punishing situations map-books find themselves in - often reduced to kicking around in the foot-wells of cars.
So there we go two items made useable again with a little bit of effort and MacGyvering :-D
Posts: 427
Joined: 13 Sep 2015
Gender: Female
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SAK owned: 5 x lge & small
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Season: season 3
Episode:The Widowmaker
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
With a little bit of effort and a syringe in the end of the ball inflator it is possible to mend punctured basket balls with OKO fluid that is used to repair punctured wheels and tyres. You have to occasionally flick the larger fibres off the end of the syringe and rinse the ball inflator, but in a few minutes you can get enough of the gunk inside the ball to make it work. Result - with basket balls running at least at £5.50 each a bottle of OKO mending a good number of punctured balls was obtained for £6! It will work on footballs too :-)
Posts: 427
Joined: 13 Sep 2015
Gender: Female
Country:
SAK owned: 5 x lge & small
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode:The Widowmaker
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
So on these occasions of just a few nights or less with just one of the kids such as visiting university open days with my oldest, I got a new tent. A Coleman Spruce 4. It's OK, but despite being a half decent brand it hasn't been without teething problems, I think it must have been e Friday afternoon job! I will leave it to the imagination as to how long it takes to work out that the reason you can't put it up is that one of four sets of shot corded poles is one secton too long! Still at least that is solveable at least I didn't get the one before or after.
Then last night in the dark at 2230 I zip up my sleeping area and the zipper puller leaves the end of its travel and fell off the end of the open ended zip when it wasn't properly sealed off and the zipper and ends up in my hand! After a fight in the daylight tonight I have finally joined it together, the zipper finishes with a bulge of about 8_9 teeth.where it isn't properly aligned, but it functions! I will live with the gap! I did ever expect that I would get it to align and work again. Couldn''t have managed it without my SAK though. Mac would have been proud as I sliced through the broken part of the zip and then tweaked through with the tweezers and pliers. I even deployed my sewing kit and have sewn some cotton over the free end to stop it happening again!! Currently waiting for the next 'disaster'.