I was watching Nightmares last night and that one fishing hook idea always interest me. A lot of macgyverism interest me but the fishing hook always catches my eye. Anyway I was trying to look up whether or not the hook idea really works. Have any one here ever tried the fishing hook idea and if so, does it work or is it just TV magic. Feel free to disgust other macgyverism. I'm interested in learning.

Hi Joseph,

This little spiel from our MacGyverisms page might help you somewhat.

As for the fishing MacGyverism. That one would work because he basically made a lure. Any small shiny object in water will attract fish because it resembles a smaller fish (their pray).

Generally (as the Mythbusters proved) MacGyverisms will work, but not the way (or within the time) we see them in the show.

That exploding water bottle couldn't blast through the wall.

Exactly.

It did make an explosion, but not like what we saw in the episode, so the science was right, they just exaggerated it in the show.

I test some of the MacGyverisms that I come up with in my stories -- in fact, one of the ones I used in "Aftershocks" didn't work quite the way I thought it would, and I had to change the scene to accommodate how the thing actually behaved. I was still able to make it work in the story, though.

I did test the effectiveness of cheap booze as a solvent for duct tape. It was a little painful, but it worked.

I did not actually test making an electrical prod out of pennywhistles, nor have I ever actually vandalised a concertina. And so far, I haven't needed to blow anything up. But my sister gave me an A+ for authenticity in my abuse of Uzis.

You do have a great imagination!

The funny thing is that it doesn't really feel like imagination. It seems to go along with working with Mac's character. I get inside his head, look around, and there's the stuff. It's all there; half the time, he seems to be the one figuring out how to use it. After all, one of the best tricks in "101 Uses for a Dead Uzi" didn't even involve an Uzi; I had not planned that one in advance.

For my first story, I did have to make a special effort to arrange for some items to be naturally available when he was going to need them, but when you get right down to it, we live our lives constantly surrounded by Stuff. The resources are omnipresent; it's a case of remembering to look and see what's available.

Of course, the Power of the Script makes it easier to guarantee that the MacGyverisms will work . . . except when they don't, that is.

I've only tried a few worth reporting, but one that I know for sure works is the gum wrapper to re-route a fuse (I think that's right) used in Hell Fire. I used it on a inverter for my laptop on a long trip my family was taking.

We plugged my laptop in and used it for about a half a day. Later that night we tried again and it didn't work. We had blown a fuse. My sister said something like: "Hey, didn't MacGyver have the same problem on one of the episodes and fixed it with a gum wrapper?"

So we used part of a gum wrapper (it was a small fuse) and the Macgyverism lasted us 'til we got home (about a week and a half later).

The only stipulation is it has to be a silver gum wrapper. The colored ones have some kind of coating that doesn't allow electricity to flow.

With a toy crossbow/gun and a rubber bullet I could do the escape from Deep Cover. Just tie it around a ladder with round steps with a string or cord attached to it cock the trigger and then pull the cord.

If I did that with a real flare gun I probably blew up my room.

Ths isn't a macgyverism taken directly from the show, but it involves tape (not duct tape). I operate a die press at a printing company. We manufacture single-serve, peelable aluminum lidding. The machine is high speed with multiple punches. Sometimes the lids want to hang out the backside of the cavities. I had one particular cavity that had been doing this for days. We have maintainence guys who are paid to fix these issues and they had been working on it for days with no positive results. I cleaned the cavity out and applied strips of thin tape to the area where the lids were hanging out. It worked like a charm and left the maintainence guys feeling a bit sheepish. Sometimes the solution really is the obvious; it's easy to over-think dilemmas. BTW, I'm a female and Mac is my hero!

i accidentally did the light buld and glass cleaner one, i was cleaning the lamp and forgot to turn it off, i squirted and pop glass wa everywhere, but i didnt get cut

I haven't tried this, but I'll bet the vinegar/pepper combo we saw in both Invisible Killer and Blowout would work pretty well as a homemade (read cheap) substitute to Mace or commercially available pepper spray. If you could just find a small spray bottle that would squirt the stuff some distance (in stream form), you'd be in business. I would think the proportions wouldn't matter all that much, as both ingredients are incredibly irritating on their own.

This is something I just might fool with when I have some time...

The one that I find silly to the point of ridiculous is the parachute with motordrive he makes in 'The Wasteland'. It takes him a lot of time to make it, in the meantime the kids could have shot his father ten times over, but also when the thing is finished it looks like coming right out of the store. Way too perfect. That pushes me right out of the story, which I find a pity, because I like this episode a lot.

I can hardly watch it without feeling embarrassed for RDA for having to do this.
My remedy is fastforwarding until it's passed (except for that one time I did the hand double search). Phew!

Sorry, I meant the kid could have shot his father. Now it looks like it's about Mac's father. Who is dead anyway, but..
Never mind...

This topic is not for discussing what you think of the MacGyverisms from the show.

Please take note of the topic title and what's being discussed.

Sorry. Will keep silent for a while.
Learn to read first.

Well, I tried to light pine chew (the yellow stuff that comes of it at summer and spring) and Mac's right, it burns a lot better than it tastes (I couldn't take the taste out of me for days!!) Didn't wait for it to explode though, people here are very touchy about hom made experiments!

Mac seems to be pretty good at hotwiring a car when it refuses to go - is it as easy as he makes it looks? It seems to be a matter of pulling out some wires and touching them together.

I'm also curious to know whether anyone has actually tried the MacGyverism from For Love Or Money...where he crushes the Nitro tablets and soaks them in alcohol, then the window explodes when he throws the stainless steel bowl at it.

I haven't tried any MacGyverisms - if I had the right equipment I would!

But that's the magic of macgyverisms!!!! You use what's around, ordinary stuff!! I wish I coudl upload the pictures of the experiments I do about geology. I use Corn Starch, honey, bird seed, lavander flowers, twigs, anything that I think will imitate a determined part of Earths crust, or Earths dinamic forces!

I haven't tried any of the show (as far as I remember), but I agree with MacBeth; after watching MacGyver (a lot!!) you kind of start thinking alike!

But I remember having read somewhere that the producers/writers of the show always changed one (or more) of the ingredients of the somewhat more explosive MacGyverisms, to prevent people creating these things and cause hazardous situations, anybody know whether this is true?

You probably read it on our MacGyverisms page

It is absolutely true.

And as far as making dramatic explosions and fires for TV and movies goes ~ shows like "Mythbusters" have recently shown just how much extra C4 explosive, and often extensive modifications (like cutting 70-80% through an axle or chassis-rail..), can be necessary to make a real-world copy of many film S-FX (special effects..).

I've only tried one MacGyverism. I attempted the light bulb and spray cleaner explosion from "Murderer's Sky" and it worked.

I am 40 years old, and watched MacGyver when I was a kid, and have been a fan ever since. I have been inspired by his creativity and have always tried to be like him. Between learning from my dad who is gifted mechanically, I have been able to dream up many things that have gotten me out of a pinch or has made me look like a hero among coworkers. I do maintenance work and get to play MacGyver everyday. One of the luckiest tricks I ever did was when I worked at a YMCA and a lady had locked her keys in her minivan. I went out to help her try to get it open. It had power locks. I had a thin piece of flat metal that I stuck down inside the door and the window. It happen to short the connection and unlock it. It happen quickly and it was pure luck and I probably could not ever do it again, but I looked good on that one! Haha!

The lock on my car door had frozen so I couldn't unlock it. I took a cigarette lighter, heated up the key, inserted the key and gently turned it from side to side until the ice inside the lock melted and I was able to unlock the door. I've done the same at work. It worked every time.

I would love to try the fire hose on the locked door handle trick using an elevator like on Twice Stung! I did try heating my key to get into my frozen car and it worked like a charm!