Your MacGyver tricks

I know I've pulled a few tricks out of 'my bag'....things like using a brown papre bag as (approx) 220 grit sandpaper.....using a pencil as lock lubricant (graphite)....using a 16 oz coke bottle top as a red lense for my minimag.....what are some of yours???

Well one I picked up from work is using some kind of cordage or tape and a plastic spoon to make a tool that can hold up a t-shirt easily to rope, or to an air vent.

All you do is break the spoon in half, and then using something to hold the two together secure the two halves tightly. You then use the scoop end, and the very top (non broken ends together, secured) to hold things up. I'll try to get some photos up later.

I've never tried this, but if you find yourself out in the middle of the night without a flashlight, but you have a pencil...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/726251/turn_a_pencil_into_a_light/

My son-in-law earned a MacGyver badge not long ago. Went ATV riding at 5.am. to beat the desert heat. Both ATVs on his SUV/trailer (but usually I take my Jeep/trailer). Roll my ATV off the trailer. It won't turn over. Dead battery (even though I rode it onto the trailer under power 45 minutes earlier). My jumpers are at home ... in the Jeep ... he has none.

About ready to head back home, until he got the bright idea to pull the heavy-gauge wire off the after-market sub-woofer he'd recently installed in his SUV. Ergo! Emergency jumpers.

Here's another one that I just recently used....a coworker was drilling and tapping his exhaust manifold for a computer probe...the problem was that the 'tap wrench' (for those who are not familiar with them) holds the tap in the middle of the wrench. This forms a sort of "T" setup with the top used as the handles to twist the tap, which extends down from the center. Unfortunately there was no room for the tap handle to turn in......the top of the tap was a 1/4 inch square. It would hold the 1/4 inch sockets but we didn't have a way to turn the socket....until....we used the 1/4 inch socket to hold the tap and the socket we used was the one that would hold the screw driver bits. We took another socket handle and socket and used them to hold the 1/4 inch hex bit that turned the 1/4 socket that held the tap....They were careful to maintain the tap perfectly straight and ratcheted the handle in its limited space to get the job done.....

Does using a empty soda or water bottle for a pee toilet when the kids have to go count?

(Wifes Idea)

Zip lock bag for boys peeing. Zip it up and dispose at earliest convenience. For girls peeing and for more solid matter, plastic bag with a disposable diaper or feminine napkin inside. We keep an inflatable potty in the car and carry it deflated while hiking along with several bags with diapers inside. I am thinking of getting an adult duty inflatable potty to replace our kiddie one that we have had for years. Then the kids (and wife) can use it in the tent when it is raining cats ands dogs and they don't want to venture out.

Pee to treat stings when nothing else is available.

Enough of the pee.

Carry a SAK with some cordage as a fob as EDC. That has saved the pinata portion of a kid's birthday party once when the mom and dad couldn't hang up the pinata. The fob was unraveled, the pinata was jung, and MacGuyver saves the day.

Also saved my butt, err feet, when I was showering in camp and my slipper broke. The string made a good field expedient repair to get me back to my tent.

This works better with older vehicles that have more metal on them, but if needing to jump start a vehicle that is stopped on the shoulder of a busy freeway (or other location), and there is no way to get alongside, or make a u-turn to be nose to nose, park close behind the disabled vehicle, separate your jumper cables, connect them together, and connect them to the positive terminals on both batteries. Then use your crowbar (you do have one of those, correct?) to touch both metal on both vehicles. That will connect the circuit, and you should be able to now start the disabled one...

Ah, the memories...

My mom had a similar idea when my brother and I were both little kids. I was sitting in the front seat of the car, and my brother was in the back seat. Mom was driving. We're on the highway in traffic that was moving at barely a crawl through an extended construction zone. There were Jersey barriers on either side of the road, and no shoulders. My brother starts complaining that he has to go to the bathroom. My mom tells him there's nowhere to pull off, and he's just going to have to hold it until the next exit. My brother says that he needs to go NOW, so my mom hands him a paper cup from a fast food joint, and tells him to pee in that. So, my brother does as she says, and a couple seconds later starts shrieking hysterically -- "Mom! Mom! It's going to overflow!" So my mom is screaming, "So STOP PEEING!" while simultaneously trying to drive and evaluate the situation in the back seat. My brother: "I CAN'T STOP!" (Meanwhile, I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.)

The moral of the story is: make sure you MacGyver yourself a large enough bottle.

I use a pencil and chewing gum to get guitar picks out of my guitar.

One time I used an open umbrella lined with aluminum foil connected to the antenna of a weather radio to improve reception.

Just came up with another idea....I have an SAK and needed to us a hex bit but don't have a EDC carry tool that has a holder....If you have a 1/4 inch drive socket that holds the 1/4 inch hex bit, then use the (large) flathead/bottle opener....the flat head will fit the 1/4 inch drive and the socket will hold the bit.....nice in a pinch.

Hey, nice one there CJK! Worked real well with my oldie goldie SAK as soon as I tried it out. Kool! Thanx buddy!

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