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.
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.
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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.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein
The stuff is already here, I just find a different way to use it. MacGyver
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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!
Mac
"John Sheppard (writer) sent Richard Dean Anderson to Atlantis on MacGyver and Richard Dean Anderson sent John Sheppard (character) to Atlantis on Stargate. My fandoms are getting to be confusing."
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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!
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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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?
I haven't done anything clever in the last three years!
~ MacNymph ~
Sometimes the uncontrollable urge to mess with people outweighs the millstone of humility.
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.)
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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.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein
The stuff is already here, I just find a different way to use it. MacGyver
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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!
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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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.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein
The stuff is already here, I just find a different way to use it. MacGyver
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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.
Straining my brain here, cuz I can't remember the other one. I'm not very clever most of the time...and then when I am, I can't even remember it! lol.
"It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one can't do." Garfield the Cat
"Another day, a whole 'nother set of fresh possibilities. I'm a sucker for mornings." MacGyver
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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 . . .
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.
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 . . .
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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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?
I must have missed that lesson . . . I was probably too busy fixing problems to pay proper attention to the swearing mandate. 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).
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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You know I was being sarcastic, right?
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.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
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QUOTE (MacsChick)
You know I was being sarcastic, right?
Of course; and I was being silly.
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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.
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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.
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.
[No wilderness] is so dangerous as a city home "with all the modern improvements". One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else. -- John Muir --- LOLMac daily: lolmac.livejournal.com icanhastofu.tumblr.com
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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
MacGyver: What do you want from me? Zoie: To help me find the holy grail! MacGyver: Indiana Jones already did that, I saw the movie!
Hello 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)
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.