Your favorite Macgyver moments\tricks

[JTT]

Saw a neat trick the other day by a plumber. I had a leak in a 4" ABS drain pipe inside a wall (as a result of a "misdirected" recip ). Instead of cutting out the pipe, he took another piece of ABS and started sawing small strips off and collecting the shavings. Mixed the shavings with ABS glue on a board making a slurry (as the glue dissolves the ABS), then applied it like putty. Made me think of other applications using this technique.

[small_e_900]

Most motorcycle plastic is ABS.
You can repair cracks in a similar manner, but if you take the shavings and put them in a jar of acetone over night, you'll have a paste that will have a longer working time than if you use ABS glue.

[Poolside]

Originally Posted by small_e_900

Most motorcycle plastic is ABS.
You can repair cracks in a similar manner, but if you take the shavings and put them in a jar of acetone over night, you'll have a paste that will have a longer working time than if you use ABS glue.

Related to that, Christy's, Oatey, and Weld-On each make a black-colored, ABS-filled, medium-body, ABS cement. It sounds a lot like what you're talking about.

[mikesova]

I recently acquired a Honda quad that was missing it's starter button. There was a square plastic pin still sticking out, though. I work with kids in an afterschool program and we were taking old keyboards apart a few weeks ago, to use the parts for upcycling into other items. I noticed the keyboard keys might work ok for the job. I hollowed out the inside portion of the key and it slid over the square pin just about perfectly. So, I used some Goop to glue the new button on. I waited 24 hours and boom, it works perfectly. :)

[indr]

Brake cleaner fumes clear up my sinuses.

[duck]

I wire up an Audiovox CCS-100 cruise control to the K1100LT/R1100RT windscreen switch on my K bikes. Waterproof OEM switchgear w/o the need for an add-on control pad.

[arcanum]

The cracked fuel [suction]draw line/check valve on my Bobcat 853 was just impossibly located to remove and re-install with a replacement. The replacement part fits into a 7/16 diameter hole and when installed,expands the rubber parts to fill the non-threaded hole in the tank.
I tried for hours to figure out how to get the old part off and the new part on.The little beastie was located somewhere under the main hydro drive pump in a[ stand-on your head to get at things and no room for your hands or tools ] cluster fock engineering nightmare.

The fuel tank is made from heavy poly like an ag spray tank. Suddenly it hit me... Drilled a new hole in the tank in an accessible location ,ran new fuel line/check valve to the engine, and plugged the old fuel line coming from the original location.

Half hour job once the "right way to do it" was abandoned.

[taosgsr]

From web

[grizzzly]

Originally Posted by taosgsr

how do you have that camper set up?
any mor pics?

[bwringer]

Originally Posted by grizzzly

how do you have that camper set up?
any mor pics?

Yeah, I really like the idea of a bulldozer with attached camper.

Go anywhere, make your own damn campsite.

[grizzzly]

I am just thinking that he mounted a camper to his tractor to protect himself from the weather

[Geek]

the weather... or flying springs

[Trixie]

Coming home from the airport many years ago in the GF's VW jetta. Headlights just go out, fuses fine, can't find any obvious wiring issues (in the dark) .

Bought a common 110v extension cord at the convenience store, stripped the wires at one end and clamped them to the battery posts. Simply plugged the other end into the backside of one of the headlight connectors. Drove it home 1.5 hrs that way.

[smilin jack]

The driver side wiper arm fell off my 68 VW camper van while driving to Alaska thru the Yukon... at night in a rain storm. Turned around and drove slowly looking for it. Found it lying in the road unharmed but the set screw was corroded in place (steel vs aluminum).

Sat and thought a while, got a beer can from the garbage and cut a 1/2" wide strip, formed a ring to fit over the wiper stud just below the windshield and hammered the wiper arm back in place. It lasted for the life of the vehicle. Sold it several years later with the wipers still working.

My friend had his wiper motor burn out on a trip, so rigged soda straws in the wing windows and strung braided fishing line thru the straws, tied them to the wiper arms and had a loop to operate the wipers. His high school kid worked the wipers as needed.

Fixed my chainsaw wire with a soda straw.

The insulation had worn/burned off the ignition wire and the saw wouldn't run. Ran the wire thru a short chunk of soda straw to use as insulation. It's still on the 031 Stihl saw many years later. The ignition module is outboard on the side of the saw.

Dave

[tgeliot]

Originally Posted by smilin jack

Sat and thought a while, got a beer can from the garbage and cut a 1/2" wide strip, formed a ring to fit over the wiper stud just below the windshield and hammered the wiper arm back in place. It lasted for the life of the vehicle. Sold it several years later with the wipers still working.

Beer can shims. Pirsig would be proud.