I think Homer Simpson said that Beer is the cause and solution to all problems.
And no mention of WD-40 would be complete without some tedious wanker of a pedant pointing out that it’s truly objectively a horrible lubricant and should never be used for that.
It has lousy lubricity and evaporates relatively quickly leaving a gummy residue that attracts dust, sand, etc., from the air. Slippery for seconds, then slowly jams up the works for the rest of eternity. Until you use some better solvent to rinse it all out of there, and all the debris it attracted, then start over with a real lubricant.
At this point, I’d say that most people who buy WD-40 intend it as a lubricant, and that it’s its water displacement use that’s the use that’s better than intended.
My dad was an electrician, and found that a vegetable peeler was perfect for stripping insulation on Romex wire. But that’s not a better use, just a different use.
I think I may have the perfect antithetical example to this thread: Vise grips. A tool with the intended function of fixing things that are fucked up beyond repair. Not sure that can be improved.
As a kid they were the channel changer on the TV, and I was the remote.
This is probably in the “alternate use” category rather than “better use”, but those large alligator-type paper clips are ideal for resealing many types of food bags – potato chip bags, frozen french fry bags, soda cracker packages, etc. In fact that’s all I ever use them for. Very handy kitchen gadgets.
Are you talking about these?
I do the same thing
Yes, exactly those clips. Don’t know what I’d do without 'em!
Oh yeah, binder clips make excellent clamps for gluing small pieces of wood.
YMMV for better and intended is Ballistol. Sold in the US mainly for cleaning and maintenance of guns, though the US site also lists dozens of other uses. It also can be used as a disinfectant. There are variations sold in Germany (Neo-Ballistol) that have gone though governmental approval for such use.
As I understand it, if it was officially approved for medicinal use, then it could no longer be sold as a lubricant/maintenance product.
Advertised intended usage is seen at top right. Actual better usage is left as an exercise for the reader.
Lipton French onion soup mix has always been far superior for mixing with sour cream as a chip dip than as a soup mix.
or in meatloaf and hamburgers
I use them to clamp rolled up plastic tubes of toothpaste and similar as they get used up. Very rarely for holding papers together as I guess they are intended. Paper clips are usually better for that.
Though I despise it, I think don’t think cream of mushroom ‘soup’ is eaten as a soup very often.
Minoxidil (aka Rogaine) was originally intended to treat high blood pressure. Men taking it suddenly discovered that it helped regrow lost hair, which has since become its primary use.
Pipe cleaners these days are used much more for crafts than for cleaning pipes.
id say computers i mean they’re better as a world library, game system ,news paper … than the calculator and file cabnients they were supposed to be
in fact, I used to have a college teacher acquaintance that said " the internet is the modern library of Alexandria… and just as full of shit as the original …
I did a whole thread once on whether cream of mushroom soup was a soup or an ingredient. I believe the consensus was “neither”.