# Tool Ingenuity



## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

What is the craziest substitute that you have used for a proper tool (that worked)?


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## charles1198 (Mar 10, 2012)

Not really a tool, but I was changing out the oil pump in my car. Didn't have any grease, so I used peanut butter -- chunky. No problems at all, and the car was running good when I sold it 12 years later. 

I'm stocking up on wire coat hangers and duct tape presently.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Anything heavy can be used for a hammer, i.e. a short chunk of pipe. We use screwdrivers for all kinds of stuff-prying, poking, etc.


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## arrow2012 (Mar 27, 2012)

I have a friend who had the fan belt on her caddy break out in the middle of nowhere. She took off her pantyhose and tied them around the pulleys for a temporary fan belt. It got her to the nearest gas station!


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

Butter knife makes a great flat screwdriver, turn it over and use the heavier end to tap in small nails. I have also used an oyster knife the same way. Oyster knife is great for getting grass out of cracks in the sidewalk. Those metal squeeze type nut crackers are handy for opening a 2 liter bottle that was tightened too much.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

arrow2012 said:


> I have a friend who had the fan belt on her caddy break out in the middle of nowhere. She took off her pantyhose and tied them around the pulleys for a temporary fan belt. It got her to the nearest gas station!


I won't tell my story(long), I'll pm if you want details. I'll just share the formulas: 1(little truck)+1(big puddle) = 1(seized smog pump pully) + 1(spare belt)=zero+1(panty hose)= 1(bypasseed pulley)+ 1500(sustained rpm)=zero+1(tow)= $-60. 
FYI-Autozone sells adjustable belts for your roadside emergency kit. They are more forgiving to the idiot by taking the "1500 rpm" out of my equation resulting in $-0. You can take the belt apart and put it back in your kit, too.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

mdprepper said:


> ...Butter knife...oyster knife...nut cracker...


Great fixes!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

How about a pressure cooker for a still!

That is with a little copper tubing added in.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

Davarm said:


> How about a pressure cooker for a still!
> 
> That is with a little copper tubing added in.


Now, that's multitasking at its finest.


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

Davarm said:


> How about a pressure cooker for a still!
> 
> That is with a little copper tubing added in.


I have one it works great. When I get it back out and set up again (when berries are ripe) I will take some pics and post them.


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## Diego2112 (Aug 18, 2010)

I've used 12AWG as tiedowns, shoestrings as fishing line, netting as bedding, towels/extra clothes as blankets, and guitar strings as snarewire. 

They don't call me MacGyver for nothin'-hell, I PAY 'em to!


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## fedorthedog (Apr 14, 2011)

md1911 said:


> I have one it works great. When I get it back out and set up again (when berries are ripe) I will take some pics and post them.


Remember you can distill water that way too.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

fedorthedog said:


> Remember you can distill water that way too.


Speaking of which, is dehumidifier water distilled?


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## Szumi (Mar 10, 2012)

Many years ago, I was driving my 66 plymouth down a two track and managed to get a stick shoved through the radiator core. I took a 1 1/4" 1/2 drive socket to use as a connector to connect the upper and lower radiator hose together.

Then I removed the thermostat housing, and poured water that I had in the car, into it to get the head and block filled with water.

I put the housing back on, watched the temperature gage, stopped a number of times to cool things off and made it back to MCAS Beaufort.

I drove the car for a week or so from barracks to hangar and back without a functional radiator. That was easy, only a mile or so, so temps and pressure never was an issue.

Szumi


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

JoKing said:


> Speaking of which, is dehumidifier water distilled?


here's a thread you might be interested in:

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f20/recycling-dehumidifier-water-619/


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## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

I once used a stick and a tire jack to fix a hole in a gas tank of a Toyota truck i had...


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## pixieduster (Mar 28, 2012)

FatTire; your ingenuity if fantastic! I fixed a hole in my radiator by pouring black pepper in , filling with water and it worked for a year.


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## ms_a2gwus (Feb 27, 2012)

Jeep: broken pitman arm. 
Owner: We have to hike out and get help for his jeep. 
Me: Heck with that, I ain't hiking some 60 odd miles!  Looked around, found old baling wire and wiggled under his jeep to wrap it all up with a thick chunk of juniper limb that fit snugly. :hmmm: 
Owner: Drove it down the mountain road and back to civilization (very slowly) to my house. Then later bragged about how HE fixed it and made it back. :gaah:
Me: Bluntly corrected him in front of his co-workers and boss of who did what. 

Bye-bye Jeep owner, no loss there for that kind of untruthfulness. :lolsmash:


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

pixieduster said:


> FatTire; your ingenuity if fantastic! I fixed a hole in my radiator by pouring black pepper in , filling with water and it worked for a year.


Here's a thread on black pepper and radiators from a few years ago.

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f21/emergency-radiator-repair-1408/

And here's another one on black pepper as a coagulant.

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f3/black-pepper-2964/


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## ms_a2gwus (Feb 27, 2012)

UncleJoe said:


> ...And here's another one on black pepper as a coagulant.
> 
> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f3/black-pepper-2964/


That's one that really works, UncleJoe! I used that one once, just to be able to get out of the backwoods and to the doc to get repaired. He freaked before I could tell him that it was just pepper. So I said I was marinating... :lolsmash:


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

The_Blob said:


> here's a thread you might be interested in:
> 
> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f20/recycling-dehumidifier-water-619/


Just found your answer. Thanks. I took from the thread that it is distilled, subject to contamination. So, if filtered air crossed the coils, the condensation would be relatively pure.


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## netandtim (Oct 8, 2008)

Was at a re-enlistment (out in the boonies) and didn't have a knife to cut the obligatory cake. What else would a bunch of electricians and wrench turners use but a wiped-off-on-our-pants screwdriver!  Not really a huge emergency, but those re-enlistment cakes are pretty tasty!


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