My father was very resourceful. I remember every car he owned had at least one tool box in the trunk at all times. The carburetor on our van broke down on vacation one year. No problem, swap in a carb from a speed boat. Nothing like the over sized jets of a four barrel carb lub lubing in a Chevy van at every stoplight. I bet we got good gas mileage on that trip home :)
Not only did he work as inspector at Reynolds Aluminum, his side jobs consisted of landscaper, roofer, automotive body and mechanic work. Oh and overall repair person.
I think some of this just rubbed off on me through osmosis as I was growing up. When it comes to fixing things, I can usually come up with a solution to the problem, maybe (or mostly) through unconventional means. A lot like MacGyver!
Everyone should have a MacGyver box. I have one, and it has all sorts of bits and pieces that I use to fix problems that arrise around the house:
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| My MacGyver Box sits on the back of my tool bench in the garage. |
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I have all sorts of stuff in my MacGyver box, from fuses to bolts, files to latches, clamps and springs.
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| Some things from the MacGyver box: double hung window hinge, bleeder valve for front disk brakes, air filter bolt for a lawnmower, and of course paper clips! |
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My most recent task was to fill our pool for the summer. We live in the country and we have a well. Our water is awesome, especially after it's gone through our water softener. Without the softener the water has a lot of iron in it. Our front and back home spigots are hooked directly into the well, and do not benefit from the clensing properties of the softener. The first time I filled the pool three years ago, I was unpleasantly surprised with brown murky water.
Each year I have devised a new approach to this problem. This year my army against the rust enemy is a five micron filter, fiber fill, a whole house filter, two milk crates, a milk jug, a dolly and a couple of clamps.
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| Fiber fill (used in pillows etc.) etc makes a great rust capturing filter. The five micron charcoal filter was for the whole house filter. |
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I bought a whole house filter and two female brass spigots with handles and assembled an in line filter for my garden hose. The hose water goes from the house to the filter, and the filter to the pool. Here is my little Frankenstein invention:
On the other end of the hose is a milk jug filled with fiber fill, and holes have been drilled in the bottom of the jug to let the water pass through after filtering through the fiber fill. The rig is suspended next to pool with a milk crate and a dolly- another milk crate assists in holding the milk jug "filter" above the water line:
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| The kids watch as the water fills the pool. Yea! |
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So what is the end result? This year I was much more effective at capturing the rust before it entered the pool. In the past, the water was a nice coffee color until chemicals and a week's worth of filtering took the rust out. So far the water is the color of sun tea, and you can see the bottom already! As soon as the pool filter is activated, it should clear up in a matter of days.
I've fixed all sorts of things with unconventional parts. Recently the sway bar for my car was temporarily held in place with hose clamps and a bungee cord until the part came in. I fixed a 100 year old broken tub drain in one of our former houses with two hose clamps and bicycle inner tube. Guess what the professional plumber used to fix it when he came over? A part that looked a lot like a bicycle inner tube and two hose clamps!
Being resourceful and solving problems is a lot of fun, at least for me. Fixing a door hinge here, a lamp there, converting a portable dishwasher into an under the counter model (it was free) to replace a broken one. Flexi pipe and glass packs to replace a blown muffler. New case fans, a USB 2.0 hub, Ethernet card, hard drive and video card to rescue our 7 year old computer (for under $100).
I think even MacGyver would be proud :)
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