You know who I'm talking about - the guy that could use some string, a piece of dried window putty, and a broken eyeglass lens to make a perfectly functional satellite phone.  Basically, take items you have at hand and use them to make something to get a job done.  It may not be pretty or efficient, but it works.

My example - tonight I get into work and find out that I am working a special detail that basically amounts to watching a door for about six hours.  Hey, no big deal, I grab my briefcase full of reading material and my PocketPC and head out.  Three hours later I run out of reading material and break out the PPC to play some Tetris and Solitaire, only to realize it has been a week since I put the unit in the charger.  The batteries are not just weak, the are DEAD.  The PPC takes a 5v DC input from the AC adapter, which is currently sitting on the desk at home.  So I scrounge through the briefcase and come up with my four spare AA's for my scanner, a roll of black electrical tape, and some bits and pieces of telephone wire (don't ask).

15 minutes later I have a 6v power source wired into the PPC, which powers up with no problem.  In fact, the unit shows that the internal batteries are actually CHARGING while I am playing games.  The AA pack was still going strong at the end of the detail, and just for laughs, I left it attached just to see what would happen.  20 minutes ago (about 4 hours after hooking it up), the system no longer showed a charging light.  The AA's are dead, but the internal rechargable in the PPC now shows about a 75% charge.

So what is the best thing you have ever "MacGyver"ed together on short notice to get a job done?


Dave

I once built a crack pipe out of a coke bottle and a pen once.

Quoted: I once built a crack pipe out of a coke bottle and a pen once.

i know potheads at the dorm that could blow macgyver out of the water when it comes to creativity.

however i liked the one with the vacum sealed bomb where once opened the two chems would make a boom.

he took a neon sign and cracked one end of the tube and corked it. then inserted the tube through the sealer and sucked out one of the chems. saved the boat and everybody on it.

know you know how to disable this type of vacum sealed bomb.

good luck

Quoted: I once built a crack pipe out of a coke bottle and a pen once.

My experience At McGyvering is limited to this type of situation...bongs out of bamboo, pipes out of coke cans or paper towel rolls, dissasembled pens to make stems.


-HS

Damn, this thread took an unexpected turn.

Tj

Quoted: Damn, this thread took an unexpected turn. Tj

While not entirely what I had in mind when I started this thread, I do have to admit, I have seen some damn good drug related MacGyverisms.  And as an LEO on a college campus, I have seen more than my fair share of drug apparatus (and those are just the ones that get caught).

Dave

Quoted: Damn, this thread took an unexpected turn. Tj

the episode where macgyver was lost in jamaica and his only way home was to help the locals construct a megabong out of a 49 Ford and a lawn chair was pulled because the test audiance felt it was inappropriate.

im sure thats what they were all refering to as thier favorite episode.

im suprised,,, i thought i was the only one who saw it.

I find pot head chem majors come up with the best stuff. I think it is the access to all the lab glassware. Add in a few art major friends and badda bing.

I took my grandma's station wagon to a desert party one time while in high school.

After the party the car was loaded down with so many people that it scraped the bottom of the car going over a hill.  This in turn punctured the metal fuel line.  Gas was spilling everywhere.

I looked in Grandma's glove box and there was one of those roll up tape measures and a box of band aids.

I took the tape measure and rolled it around the leak in the line.  I then taped it all up with band aids.  It got me home about 10 miles away.

Gosh, high school,  those were the days.

I farted and sneezed at the same time once.

Does that count?

I took cermic classes in highschool...I made some seriously creative smokeware.

We did the coke can things some simply a dent with holes punched in it, others more elaborate with water and tubes.

Best I can think of is a burst radiator hose on a Suburban, I fixed it with some electrical tape and a soda can.
I was able to get the hose clamp off with a screwdriver. The hole in the hose was right by the clamp. I tore the soda can in half, and used the edge of the aluminum as a knife, carefully sliced the hose to create a new cut hose end. Put the hose back on, clamped it, and for good measure, wrapped the clamp in electrical tape. All this took place at about 3 in the morning, raining, in the middle of nowhere.

I've pulled many everyday MacGyvers...just a fact of life. Make do with what you have at hand.

My best one was when called on a Sunday, to repair a 120000 btu/hr AC unit that cooled a computer room.  This old mainframe ran the Corning plant nr. Chambersbug, and without A/C it din't run, and when the puter didint run, the plant didint either.  Itook parts and pieces from both half dead A/C units (yes they had a backup and it died too) and had the AC going by shift start at 7 AM.  Nothing like $300K per hour to be an incentive to keep ya going.   My chance to be the hero.   Ops

Decades ago, the big cheese can open his presentation slides on his HP Touchscreen. The fault was the dongle which was not working. He brings it over to me and says I've got to get it working as he needs the slides.

With a Fluke multimeter, I test his dongle and mine (the boss was notorious for borrowing lunch money and never paying his subords back, thus no way am I'm loaning mine). Then I go to labstock and get a couple of diodes, resisters, and an bare HPIB jack. Solder it up and give it to him. He uses and is shocked that it works.

That's what happens to a dumbshit with a high school diploma and nothing more. He is too easily impressed and sees MacGyver everywhere. However, this dumbshit is currently a VP at HP. He still owes me lunch money.

I fixed an old Case magneto on a wood splitter by creatively modding Bendix parts to fit. I've also made brand "A" brake parts fit brand "B". I'm not MacGyver, I just like grinding stuff.

i once built a time machine out of some duct tape, chewing gum, hubcap, and the altenator off of a 1952 buick.

This AM one of our techs calls in to say the data logger he needs to do some sampling will not work.  He can’t help much with the trouble shooting but it seems like the internal clock on a data logger is not working, so it will not log any data.  He needs this to keep his crew working today.  I head out to look at it.

It appears the computers internal batt is dead. Pop the covers and low and behold a batt made out of about 10 little watch type batts heat shrinked together.I call the company and YES THOSE ARE CUSTOM made and you will need to send the data logger back in to have it replaced. How long, I ask ? 10 days she says. Just make me one and send it to me I tell her.

I took apart the heatshrink and added up the volts on the batts, comes to 3.5

I took apart my mini mag light. I striped wire from an 110 volt extension cord. I used the two AA 1.5 volt batts that are wired in series already in the mag light to produce 3.0 volts .  Then I snipped the old batt. out of the circuit board with my trusty leatherman and wired the mini mag light in to the board. Used a zip tye to hold the mag light to the outside of the case. Reboot and BANG computer would now talk to data logger.

Crew of 3 working again.

Edited to add : McGyver is/was a pussy

These are pretty good.  I have a reputation as a bit of a "McGuyver" myself.  I don't feel all that exceptional just imaginative.
Here's kind of an easy one but....

My daughter and I were driving up Mt. Washington and the damn car overheated and blew the return line to the radiator.  So i pull over into one of those lay-bys to  let it cool and to ponder options.  
Another tourist says to me "I think your car is overheating"  (no shit, is that what that big white cloud means).
I was lucky, i had my electricians knife and not much else.  I lossened the clamp and the hole was close to the therostat end so i cut the hose and reclamped.  They keep water in cisterns up on the Mt just for these types of things and we were up and running and at the top in no time.

Quoted: i once built a time machine out of some duct tape, chewing gum, hubcap, and the altenator off of a 1952 buick.

Go anywhere cool and did you live?

Tj

I had a heavy, 3-pronged snagging fishing hook I made into a grappling hook, then loaded into its launcher: a potato cannon.

Quoted: Another tourist says to me "I think your car is overheating"  (no shit, is that what that big white cloud means).

Wait a minute!  I'm supposed to be Capt. Obvious!  That bastard stole my lines!

I'm no real MacGyver, but the best I've seen was a friend of mine, who will remain nameless, figure out how to get into a wiring closet (also happened to have the VCRs for the security system) using nothing but a piece of a spoon and about 6ft of crappy string.

I think the best I've MacGyver'd up personally would probably be duct-taping a bunch of D batteries (from a mag-light) along with some coathanger wire to make a radio work....nothing real special, and if you bumped the thing, you knocked pieces loose, but it DID work.

 MacGyver has nothing on a woman who has just found a fresh roll of duct tape. Trust me, I've seen it all.

Not my work, but . . .

My Dad's 69 Chevy.
Paper Clips, cut to the right length and polished with sandpaper to replace missing needle bearings in the U joint.
Larger paper clip to replace cotter pin in transmission linkage
Coffee Can, cut open to replace metal that had rusted out causing windshield wiper motor to drop into front floorboard.
Rawhide strips ran out vents to work windshield wipers when motor and coffee can dropped into front floorboard after more metal rusted out.
I used to laugh my butt off when he was driving in a rainstorm and one hand was on the wheel and the other was moving back and forth working the wipers.

I once built a fire out of an empty coke can and toothpaste.

I once made a bomb out of a tube of toilet paper, Scotch tape and a stick of dynamite.
Kidding.

Once I made a smoking device at a friends house out of an empty plastic bottle, a pen, a piece of metal and, of course, duct tape.  Worked really well, too, until everyone got drunk and tried to smoke and the works got gummed out and everyone was too wasted to know what to do about it.  Oh well, long live improvisation.

I fixed the motion sensor at a Taco Bell with just electrical tape and my Micra

Quoted: Not my work, but . . . My Dad's 69 Chevy. Paper Clips, cut to the right length and polished with sandpaper to replace missing needle bearings in the U joint. Larger paper clip to replace cotter pin in transmission linkage

Glad to see I'm not the only one to do the MacGyver bit field expidient transmission linkage.  I used coathanger wire though.  2nd only to duct-tape in "make it work now! importance.  Essential in every jackleg mech's toolkit.

Coffee Can, cut open to replace metal that had rusted out causing windshield wiper motor to drop into front floorboard. Rawhide strips ran out vents to work windshield wipers when motor and coffee can dropped into front floorboard after more metal rusted out. I used to laugh my butt off when he was driving in a rainstorm and one hand was on the wheel and the other was moving back and forth working the wipers.

 I've been there, done that.  Wiper linkage went tits up on my old beater Dodge....during a winter ice/sluch storm no less.  Motor worked, but the armature was fvcked.  Dug around in the trunk, found my 'yardwork/muddy condition' spare pair of Converse AllStars & snitched the laces.  Tied the laces together & both ends to the wiper arms looped thru the passenger compartment like a clothesline.  Worked well enuff until the linkage part shipped to the local Mopar dealer..for some reason they don't stock every part for 23yr old Magnum XE's <'78/79 only>.

Visegrip window crank handle
Bungie cord brake pedal return spring
several plastic fast food cups & coathanger wire to replace a blown carrier bearing on my truck...just had to last 15 miles home though.

Buddy used some kite string as a pull throttle cable on his VW for a week while waiting for parts.
His little brother fixed a nonfunctiong horn switch by using a "Frankenstein" style knife  switch he found in his parent's garage taped to the dashboard of his old '65 Mercury Comet.