Sometimes we’re faced with a situation where … our wits must be quick to overcome mundane obstacles.
This weekend, when I went to shampoo the Old Teenagers’ car, I found that a tiny O-ring was missing where the plastic jet fits into the shampoo head.
I thought about that tiny black piece of elastic, and then … !
I went to Aurora’s dresser and got one of those rubber bands that go on her braces. A twist or two, put it on, and I was soon happily shampooing.
What’s your invention of the week?
I taught an entire team of call centre reps how to pick a file cabinet lock using a borrowed hairpin and a paper clip.
It’s just my little contribution towards the massive crimewave.
I recently had to unscrew a hard drive from a poorly designed mounting bracket. Unfortunately, I had left my set of little screwdrivers at the office, and all I had was the screwdriver bits for my drill. Alas, my drill was too big to fit inside the computer case to unscrew the mounting bracket. I tried holding the bit in my hand, but there was no way I could get enough leverage to loosen the screw.
Duct tape to the rescue! I took the chuck key from my drill and taped it to the side of the screwdriver bit with some duct tape. The chuck key’s right angle provided just enough leverage to get those screws moving. I was really impressed with myself.
Then I remembered the other set of little screwdrivers that I had recently acquired, which was sitting under a pile of junk three feet away from me.
I created a sex toy using nothing more than a Pringles can, a condom, eight rubber straps, four pencils, a marble, some adhesive tape and a knife.
I once broke into my own truck using a dime, a quarter and a sturdy twig. Ah, the joys of locking yourself out of your own vehicle in the middle of the boondocks… 
Being engaged to one of the worlds biggest MacGyver fans, I’m contractually obligated to point out mispellings of THE MAN’s name. It’s MacGyver. Not MacGuyver. And certainly not MacGyuver.
That is all.
(Oh, and I once got myself past my apartment buildings intercom/security door system with an answering machine and a payphone.)
need a tiny screwdriver? straighten then smash the end of a paper clip flat with whatever is handy. great for eyeglasses etc.
need to thread a nut onto a hard to reach bolt? put a small piece of tape inside the socket or boxed end wrench so the bolt fits snug. use the wrench or socket to carefully thread the nut into position.
romantic night with S.O. You can’t find your corkscrew for the wine? use a coarse threaded screw (drywall or deck type). Thread that sucker in there and extract with a pair of pliers.
need to smoke some weed and dont have a pipe? take an apple and carefully… whoa, wait i think i just lost some credibility…
Please tell me the knife isn’t part of the end product! :eek:
This was years ago, but I still think it was cool…
While in the Air Force we landed deep in the jungle of Colombia. When we went to leave we couldn’t start the engines (turbo-props, which are jet engines inside). Short version: we filled a gallon milk jug with jet fuel, duct-taped a 3-foot section of garden hose to it,removed the fuel control unit and stuck the other end of the hose into the opening. When we were ready one guy (not me) turned the milk jug upside down, one guy (not me) stood by with a fire extinguisher and the last guy (me) started the engine from the cockpit.
We were pretty proud of ourselves!
Walked someone through using a paper-clip to jumper an ATX cable to diagnose a motherboard issue.
While traveling down the interstate a few years back during a cold spell my Ford explorer decided to blow the heater core. If you don’t know what the heater core is in a car, its the part where the hot engine coolant is passed through the interior heater to warm the car’s passenger compartment.
Well when the core breaks hot engine coolant comes into the car. In my case on my lower legs where I got some minor scalding. Well the radiator will quickly pump out all the coolant into the passenger compartment if you don’t pull over and cut the engine (which I did).
I was on the interstate miles from any service station but low and behold I had a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe in the back of the car. Well I removed the hoses from the heater input and output ports built into the firewall of the car took the end of the input hose connected it with the pvc pipe using the existing hose clamp then took the free end of the pvc pipe and connected it to the return hose using the existing hose clamp. Voila, instant by-pass! Of course with my many years of experience of driving fords I had 2 gallons of water on hand to replace the lost coolant.
I was back on the road in about 20 minutes although I did not have any heat now. Thats what they make coats and gloves for right?
i’m constantly delivering poorly scripted dialogue to c-grade actresses and engaging in pointless, tacked-on car chases…does that count??
This was pretty easy at my old apt. complex. Without the gate clicker, you had to stop and call the apt on the box out front… it called the apt phone number, and whoever answered the phone had to press 9 to open the gate.
So, call my apt on the mobile phone, wait for the machine to answer, change my outgoing greeting to include a 9 tone, then call back from the box.
Of course 75% of the time the gate was broken or left open all the time anyway.
after fixing my brakes and thus having grease covered hands, and being away from home at school where I don’t have that magical stuff called orange clean to cleam them with.
whitening toothpaste + soap = good replacement.
Precisely. Although for us it was 0. And I didn’t have a mobile at the time, so I had to find a payphone. We had keys instead of a clicker, and my genius landlady changed the locks and left our new keys under the doors of our apartments. :rolleyes:
I had a Mitubishi Eclipse sportscar with popup headlights. The popup mechanism was held togther with a small ball and cap nylon fitting. When one of the cap fittings wore out the headlight would not retract. A call to the dealer informed me that the cap could not be purchased alone, I’d have to buy the entire headlight assembly for several hundred dollars. Instead I went to my local hardware store and bought $0.25 worth of aquarium tubing, heated it to stretch over the ball portion of the fitting, trimmed the excess and viola!
It was kinda strange, though, when the saleman asked me how much tubing I needed and I replied “Well, a quarter inch will do but if you can’t sell less than an inch I understand”.
slight hijack.
I invented/created a new tool to help me acomplish a task. The task was messy and tedious. Now with some simple items bought from a farm and fleet store, cobbed together, the task is simple and clean. I also included a few convience features on the tool.
Do I marketing the item or just sell the idea to Conglomo Corp.
BTW, The parts that I use to make the new tool are completely unrelated to their original intended use.
OK, huge hijack,
sorry.
No, it’s just used to reduce aerodynamic drag. I’ve used the same design myself, but substituted the marble with a '70s GI-Joe doll head…for “her pleasure” you know.