Just Call Me Persephone MacGyver!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today when my husband came to pick me up from work, the first words out of his mouth we’re “Can you PLEASE get THAT out of THERE???”

I looked to where he was pointing. One of the kids had gotten hold of his string winder (my husband is a guitar player) and dropped it into this little crevice between the emergency brake and the console. It wasn’t jammed in there or anything, but it was far enough down to be a problem, and the space was too narrow for anyone to reach in there. Not even my five-year-old could fit her hand in there.

My husband was distraught. He’s had this string winder for years and years and years. Probably the only piece of equipment he’s got that he’s never once replaced. He loves it so.

So, I started thinking. Maybe if I had something to grasp it with…pliers? Tried those. Didn’t work. Couldn’t grip quite enough of the string winder to pull it up. Scissors? Nope. Kept slipping. It was kind of an awkward reach. Hm. What to do, what to do…sticks? Two sticks, maybe? I could maybe do a chopstick thing here? Hey…knitting needles! Yeah! I could use those! I’ve got some of those!

So I go get my knitting needles. They fit into that little space just fine, but they kept slipping off the string winder, because they’re round & metal. So I’m thinking…sticky. I need sticky. Something I can stick on the end of the needles, that will also stick to the string winder. Tape? Maybe, but I have no idea where the tape is, and he’s got to leave for his gig in just a little while. Hm…what else…gum? How about gum? Yeah! That’d work! And I’ve got gum! In my purse!

So, I go get a stick of gum, chew it up, split it in half, and stick a wad on the end of each knitting needle. I slid the needles back into the crevice…worked them a bit…got them stuck to the string winder…and voila! Out it came.

My husband was amazed, impressed, and very, very grateful. And I’m a hero. Woo! Yay me!

Share your MacGyver stories with me!

2

well, Mac and I were in the woods and we fell into this river, and it was cold, like, so we had to remove our clothes and…

seriously - great job Persephone!

3

Not my story, but I once read about this guy that was driving his Citroen 2CV across the Sahara, and ran out of oil. He purchased some bananas off a passing group of nomads, crammed them into the oil carter, and carried on for 300 kilometers to the next city.

No engine damage.

Both pure MacGuyverism, and a tribute to the sturdy 2CV engine. :slight_smile:

4

My McGuyver Moment:

Years ago I was getting off a train (not a subway) and my (really expensive) walkman fell outta my pocket. I had my headset on and the weight of the walkman unplugged itself from the headset wire and it fell between the gap of the train and the platform and on to the tracks . :frowning: Of course it was a rainy evening.

There was no way I could jump on the tracks to retrieve it, cuz it was at least 5 feet down and it was rush hour and RAINING.

I ran to the nearest grocery store and asked them for a high shelf item grabby thing. <—yes, that’s the technical name for it :stuck_out_tongue:

I was able to retrieve my walkman, and due to my quick thinking, it still worked despite sitting in the rain for a while!
:smiley:

5

Darlin’, what you need is a hemostat for these little emergencies. I will get you one. They are extremely handy for crafts, too. [sub]always thinking, that’s me[/sub]

Oh, and Persephone McGuyver doesn’t scan well, hon…

how about PersephoneSolverOfLife’sLittleCatastrophes? Naw, that doesn’t sound right either. Oh well. And one of us “speelled” it wrong, and it was probably me.

And BTW…you ROCK! Bet MrPers kisses the ground you walk on for awhile. If not, he SHOULD! [sub]feel free to tell him I said so[/sub]

6

Persephone, this reminded me of some of my exploits back at my old workplace… I used to do science demonstrations at a science discovery centre (kinda like a hands-on museum) for kids. We used to blow up a lot of hydrogen balloons in there, which was lots of fun (hey, the kids liked it!). But, being a bit of a klutz, I had a bad habit of letting my hydrogen balloons go after I’d filled them up, so they’d float up and sit on the (rather high) ceiling, right near a light fitting. I lived in constant terror of one of my balloons being lit up by the heat of the light fitting, and blowing up, and setting the ceiling on fire. [sub]Hey, I got in enough trouble the day the van de Graaf generator set off the smoke alarm.[/sub]

My solution was to grab a broomstick, put some bluetack on the end of it, and stick a pin, pointy end out, in the bluetack. Then I could get up on a chair, reach up and pop my hydrogen balloon with no harm done.

We all got pretty good at the MacGyver stuff around that place. We could fix just about anything with some velcro strips, a bit of fishing line, and a roll of gaffer tape :slight_smile: We once rigged up a tornado machine using a metal dish and a couple of old hairdryers, and we used to do all sorts of cool stuff with liquid nitrogen and rubber duckies…

7

Coldfire: Bananas in the Sahara? How far had those nomads wandered with their load of tropical fruit? :slight_smile:

8

I had a small McGuyver moment today. It was chilly down one hallway near my office, and one of the nurses showed me a broken thermostat on the wall. It has a round themstat dial inside a box, normally connected to an external adjustment knob through a common hub, but the dial was set to 55 and the knob was broken off.

I could reach in though the hole in the box and touch the dial, but I couldn’t move it. Tried a key and a pencil, but not enough leverage. Finally, I bent a paper clip, and the edge was sharp enough to dig into the plastic dial, and I could put it up to 70.

9

While flying the old Lockheed Loadstars, always carry a pair of vice grips as the fuel handles broke off with depressing regulairity and it was silly to have to make emergency landings with several full fuel tanks that were just sitting there laughing at you.

10

You’re not fooling anyone, you know.

Joke! Just kidding! :smiley: [sub]don’t throw anything![/sub]

11

My trousers kept falling down one day earlier this week. There was no loops for a belt so I got them to stay up with a combination of paperclips and masking tape :slight_smile:

12

I had one a couple of weeks ago. One of my kids locked the main bathroom door (it has the kind of doorknob that stays locked even when you shut it) and a cat was inside. We had lost the little gizmo that unlocks the door, it looks like a piece of thick wire with a flattened tip and a loop at the other end. What I really needed was a really tiny flathead screwdriver. Of course the kids have lost mine a long time ago. Icepick didn’t work. Solution: Unwound a wire coat hanger, took it to the garage and pounded the end flat with a hammer against the concrete floor. I bent the wire with 2 right angles kind of like a Z so we could turn it once inside the lock. Worked like a charm and it’s nice to know I can replace the little gizmo any time.

13

Well, I read it a long time ago, so the details are sketchy. Perhaps he was more Southward, and perhaps they weren’t nomads - but you get the idea. It was definitely bananas, though! :slight_smile:

14

I am in awe, Perseph.

My daughter may be a kick-ass, rockin’ princess, but you are the Goddess of MacGyver!

I am duly impressed! Clever gal.

15

I grabbed the wrong set of keys & locked my self out of my apartment the other day… :rolleyes:

Not an unusual thing for me, but this is the first time I haven’t lived on the 1st floor & been able to pop open a window to get in. :smack:

So… here’s how I got in.

The key to my art supply chest is pretty flat & happened to be on the key ring I did grab. So, I pried that half inch thick piece of wood that runs around the inside of the door frame away from the frame just enough to slide my license between them & jimmy the lock open with it.
It’s a good thing the deadbolt lock doesn’t automatically lock when you close the door. I’d still be outside. :smiley:

16

No.
The correct name for 'it" is a Pantograph Arm or, in some areas, a Pantograph Hand .

They are keen, though.

17

Yeah, Bosda, but ‘high shelf item grabby thing’ sounds better :smiley:

A friend of the family once got our car started with a ball point pen - I forget the details but it had something to do with the carbeurator.

18

[johnnycarson]

I did not know that.

[/johnnycarson]

19

Last July 4th, we decided to BBQ at this park near the Port of Oakland, from there you can see the fireworks in SF, Oakland and Berkeley, sort of surround sound but with lights :smiley: Anyway, we packed up the car, but remembered the park had very limited seating. No problem, I have a folding card table and chairs. Problem, no where to put the table and chairs.

I had just about decided to load them in the Escort and follow my wifes car when I remembered I had all these industrial ties. (kinda of like heavy duty garbage bag ties). So I started using the ties to belt the chairs together really tight. I then used more ties, to lock the chairs to the table. Then more ties to lock the the table to the roof of my wifes car. The result was much better than rope. Plus the added bonus that I could drag the table and chairs to our sweet spot all at once.

20

Once I made a fully-functioning supercomputer out of a half-eaten twinkie and some belly-button lint.