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".........

Tune in tomorrow for the answer.....

This post has been edited by Mela_007 on 17 February 2013 - 09:20 PM

ohhh the anticipation!

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

Did it work, well, did it?

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.

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.

Well, it sounds like we will never get to find out if it worked. 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.

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)



Image source: www.waldeneffect.org


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.

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.)

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.

Nice, very creative.

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.

Please feel free to move this into Mac's kitchen if you think it fits better there

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'!

Very ingenious, Rocket!

Love the idea. 😆

Thank you

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...

LMAO! (pun intended)



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BWAHAHAHA! Kudos to them both, Rocket! Sounds like when we were helping our dad cut trees in our backyard this spring. X3

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

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.

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. ......

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. 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!!!!!



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Nice going, Joe! You MacGyver clone, you!

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!

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.

Wow! Scary. Well, looks like you're more than capable!

Nice work!

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.

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!!

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 ;-)

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.

Thank you Henry Jones Sr.

Aha! I knew I remembered that from somewhere!