I was thinking about how so many people just instantly crapcan something when it breaks and run to Walmart for a new one. Apply this to everything. I really admire those redneck duct tape fixes people post pics of usually to mock. Here's three little "redneck remedies". I just stitched these great hiking shoes on the right because of a tear on the side (leather tools come in handy). And added years to the life of my patio chairs. I know many here also refuse to live in a disposable world.

I hear ya, brother.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Super glue and duct tape are indispensable items around my house!
Jim

One man's junk, is another man's treasure.

My wife chastises me when I mend my socks.

Shoe goo, zip ties, gorilla tape and a stitching awl.

Oh, let’s not forget Sugru.

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Not in jail.

Super Glue was indispensable. I would fill the slots in worn down top nuts and recut them. I often used it to fix dings and divots on polyester lacquer finishes. It was also great for torn Tolex on amps.

Whenever I cut myself on a protruding fret it was my go-to stop leak.

Free tip: if you only have one hand available think before you remove the cap with your teeth.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I find recycling fun. I have a couple of belts that broke. The buckles and keepers will go into new belts, I already have ideas for the leather.

Depending on what it is, somethings simply aren't worth the time/effort especially a lot of the newer products - especially automobiles with their integrated electronics. Give me mechanical anything, and I'm happy.

Add a little bit of backing soda to super glue and the repair will, likely, be stronger than the original part.

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Thread Killer.

Since I was forced into early retirement after bunches of doctors bills, a mortgage and 2 car notes, we can't afford to throw things away and buy new ones.
When our ancient microwave quit working, I took it apart and found a burnt fuse. Replaced the fuse and it's working again.
Our heater's approaching 60 years old, I've taken it apart and spread it out across our basement floor a few times to repair/replace worn components.
Found my leatherworking work bench in a dumpster at a factory I usta work at. Looked like it was hit with a fork lift. I pounded it back into shape, tightened all the fasteners and it's been working great.
We recycle to the point of having just one bag of trash every coupla weeks or so.
Since I was a maintenance tech at the RubberMaid Commercial Products factory in Winchester VA. I've got lotsa training in keeping things working. Sometimes it takes wire ties, duct tape and super glue.
I don't even like disposable lighters.


I made the shelf too.

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Keep on Chooglin'

"Free tip: if you only have one hand available think before you remove the cap with your teeth." (Rusty above)

Been there-done that. Had the presence of mind not to close my mouth. It do take a while to wear off though.

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On the whistle draw and fire 6

Tis good to recycle. I repair things best I can if the product is worth it. On the same note I try my best not to buy worthless junk or "useless pieces of plastic". Sadly we live in a throw-a-way world. One of my biggest complaints is disposable razors have taken over. Yes the new 6 blades razors shave great but to toss out 90% of it when it needs a blade change is not ecologically good.

In the past I have had some good leather belts that somehow grew shorter while hanging in the closet. What do you recycle gurus do when that happens? Of course I may be the only one that that has had that problem.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Bore patches compliments of Fruit of the Loom.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I am not mechanical at all, but the blender my wife got in 1966 started spewing smoke last year. I threw it away then got it out of the garbage and fixed it, minus 1/2 of the fried speeds we didn’t use anyway. And my portable leather bench is a heavy stand topped with a big square chunk of wood we found camping. It doubles as a reloading bench. Being retired on fixed income is for sure a big motivation to fix stuff.

y'all related?

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God spelled backwards is dog.

Wikipedia get’s it right for once:

“Baling wire, otherwise known as bale wire, farm wire, or soft wire, is a type of wire used in agriculture and industry for everything from mending fences to manually binding rectangular bales of hay, straw, or cut grass. It is also used to band together corrugated cardboard, paper, textiles, aluminum and other materials that are processed in the recycling industry.

Baling wire is sometimes used in an informal, make-do manner as an easy fix. It is frequently referred to as one of the basic repair materials. Typical uses range from supporting loose mufflers to patching chain-link fences. Common phrases often include baling wire as an ad hoc, fix-anything material, alongside chewing gum, duct tape, and the cable tie.

In the United States, Australia, and around the world, baling wire was used in mechanical hay balers pulled behind a tractor. The automated balers used a wire twister that first cut then twisted the ends of the wire such that the bale kept its shape after the baler had pressed the hay into a tight rectangular bale. These hay balers were in common use up until the late 1980s. When the hay was fed to livestock the wire was cut and often hung in bundles or stored in barrels or metal drums around the farm. Farmers used the soft wire for temporary repairs of almost everything you could think of on the farm, from fences, old leather horse harnesses, head stalls and bridles, to pins to keep castellated nuts in place on the tractor. Even tiny screwdrivers were made by cutting a short length of wire and looping one end for grip. The other end was then flattened and shaped to make a screwdriver for specialized tasks like replacing the tiny screws in reading glasses.

Baling wire was a commonly used product for many years before it was replaced by baling twine in the late 1970s. Small rolls of soft iron wire are readily available and used for tying rebar together and for general utility use.“

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Possum—The other white meat!

Guilty:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Paper clips and coat hanger wire. I've done lotsa repairs with both.

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Keep on Chooglin'

And Vise-Grips. Don't forget the Vise-Grips. Can't count the times they've bailed me out.

Every old t-shirt becomes a rag. We had a fire in the house, lots of soot. Now I have rags for life.

Keep fixing my leather belts and shoes, my wife makes fun of me (anyone notice how fragile those ladies high heel shoes are ?).

I keep some broken stuff, like mags, as they can be used for spares when another one goes wrong.

I recycled an airline goodie bag in a sandbag for the range.

When I was a kid, "gone haywire" meant, among other similar concepts, having come apart so badly that only the baling wire held you together.

My daughter, now in her 40s, recalls a trip back in late 70s when I pulled the car over straddling the road ditch, hauled out the possibles box, and fixed the exhaust pipe with a couple of juice cans and some haywire.

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de minimus non curat lex

I heat our house all winter with scrap lumber scavenged from construction dumpsters, always with permission of the workers on site. Saved enough dimension lumber to build workbenches, shelves, reloading bench, potting bench, shooting bench, simple chairs and side tables for the porch.

Had an electrical problem with a '99 Buick. Used a beer can from the roadside to shim the battery posts and clamps. When I took it to our mechanic, an older guy who knows how to work on my 1987 Chevy pickup, he called his younger crew over, pointed to my battery, and said: "We call that a farmer fix."

To the fix-it materials listed above - bailing wire, duct tape, zip ties, and super glue, I add homemade rawhide. Fixed a lot busted horse gear over the years, wrapped the saddle horns for dally roping. I've seen a lot of old firearms that have broken stocks mended with rawhide.

Never throw anything away,but I should,always think I may need it later. Was raised by depression era people and never got past it. Have started just throwing things away the day they pick up my dumpster and hope I can get rid of all the junk while I am still able.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

I'm bettin' there ain't ranch in the U.S. that ain't half held together with balin wire.

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Eccentric old coot

Having grown up with a Dad who lived the depression I learned to fix things, when the old man finally decided to pitch something I had to take it apart and save the nuts, bolts and screws.

Frugality, a lesson once learned is a hard one to forget.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As a kid, I spent many of my weekends during the winter in our shop by a wood stove straightening fence staples that we had pulled out wooden posts when we had to replace them with a hammer and an anvil.

I started out with several 5 gallon buckets of bent ones and by spring I had several buckets of straightened ones ready to go.

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Eccentric old coot

I am waiting for the answer to Ole Joe Clark's post concerning belts growing shorter. Going on a diet is not a good answer.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

Pa would be proud :-)

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For 42 years I made a living by fixin' stuff. I have the same attitude at home.

If ya can't fix it, with a hammer, baling wire, duck tape or super glue, ya have an electrical problem.

Put in hardwood floors last year. Had almost a full bundle of wood left over and a whole lot of short cut off pieces. Its beautiful wood and way too expensive to just throw away. Now we have a bunch of things made out of Brazilian Cherry. Going to have a fancy computer table pretty soon.

I keep half a dozen of each size radiator clamps for Frankensteining my world back together. My father-in-law has a tool that makes non- adjustable clamps out of wire. Be sure to use new wire, and the repair will outlast the Sun!

When I started in Apartment maintenance in 1974, furnace gas/control valves would leak out the control stem. A grey grease was used to fix this problem. I started for a company in 2007 ant their heating and cooling specialist threw away Thousands of dollars worth of control valves for that problem. I had a hard time finding the correct grease at the suppliers, but a $25, 4 ounce tube would do 800 to a 1000 valves. It take 3 to 5 minutes and you usually leave the valve in place to repair it! So it saves lots of time too!

Most furnaces with A/C, have multi speed fan motors, I often ran heating and cooling on the same speed after the heating speed (low) burnt out.

Pants belt too short? I spliced a strip of leather in 2" holster belts several times. I've sewn them in, and used copper rivets, and used sex bolts! Same technique to replace a thumb strap on dozens of holsters!

Ivan

In the years after my Father died, my Mother managed to acquire two lots and we built a house on them from ammunition boxes. I remember tearing the boxes apart and straightening the nails for reuse. You could get a truck load of the boxes for a dollar or two. Not pleasant memories, but it is what it is.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Unfortunately WE DO live in a throw away world. MANY things are designed to be replaced, NOT REPAIRED. Noticed how the SAMS fixit shops have disappeared? Being the son of a depression era father, I throw away as little as possible. It's amazing how many things I have made from "scraps" & how many trips to the hardware store I have saved by searching through my used hardware collection. PET PEEVES: use once & dispose cups/ water bottles/paper plates/P towels. My Mantra is "what did they do/use in the olden days. (< 1950)

Interesting story. I'd like to see a picture of that house . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Up until 4 years ago, I heated with wood. The final resting place for any failed combustible, was the wood stove. Books by themselves don't burn well, but add one with a log or two on a cold afternoon and you get free BTU's. All the boxes and cellulose packaging went in the stove, if there was no other use for it. Of course appliance boxes, make great entertainment for kids from 3 on up! Then they become target backers, then they become heat! I would bring home broke furniture from the apartments. The legs went right away the table tops became all manner of things, and then they became heat!

Ivan

My Aunt that owned a stationary store invented (?) the greeting postcard. Saving ALL birthday/Christmas/ congratulation/get well/ sympathy cards she EVER received, you simply cut off the side with the writing & dispose of that 1/2. The side with the picture is now a postcard. No envelope, the postage is app 1/2, a drawer full of them saves many last minute trips to the store. ONE WORD OF CAUTION, splurge for a real card for the wife's B-day/anniversary cards.

That's a whole 'nuther problem. I've lost about 80 pounds and gone from an extra large to a medium. Nothing fits right. At least it gives me an excuse to make that Ranger belt I've been wanting.

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Keep on Chooglin'

Pop and his cronies were all depression era immigrants.Nothing was wasted or tossed out.His friend Leo,who died quite wealthy,Built himself a beautiful chalet in the mountains using nothing but salvaged materials and the employees from his catering business.Pops own chalet has quite a few doors (all oddball sizes) that came from an 1880s mansion :-)
God forbid I were to drop a nail and ignore it or toss a 2x4 longer than 18" :-o

For the belt that became too short, you need a second belt and sew an extension on the first. Lately I have been having the opposite problem, I'm to the last inner hole, if I lose another 20 lbs I will need a hole punch, (I use a .223 empty case with the edge sharpened by my deburring tool).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have to confess, I'am a "pack rat" to the dismay of my wife. Sometimes I'm surprised my garage celling doesn't fall down because of all the odds & ends I have kept over the years. However, when something breaks, half the time I have something up in the attic that will probably fix the problem.

Definitely Too Much Information

Of course. And if you believe that I have a bridge for sale in New York City.

[QUOTE=peterGun;140141185]Having grown up with a Dad who lived the depression I learned to fix things, when the old man finally decided to pitch something I had to take it apart and save the nuts, bolts and screws.

Frugality, a lesson once learned is a hard one to forget.[QUOTE]

I have a theory that the generation born after the baby boomers was the first generation not raised with the backdrop of the Great Depression. My parents, grandparents and some of my great-grandparents were alive during the Great Depression. I was born squarely in the middle of the post-World War II baby boom and have some of the same outlooks described above.

I wonder how the Great Recession that started 10 years ago will affect the outlooks of the next generations.

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Keep on Chooglin'

[QUOTE=peterGun;140141185]Having grown up with a Dad who lived the depression I learned to fix things, when the old man finally decided to pitch something I had to take it apart and save the nuts, bolts and screws.

Frugality, a lesson once learned is a hard one to forget.[QUOTE]

I have a theory that the generation born after the baby boomers was the first generation not raised with the backdrop of the Great Depression. My parents, grandparents and some of my great-grandparents were alive during the Great Depression. I was born squarely in the middle of the post-World War II baby boom and have some of the same outlooks described above.

I wonder how the Great Recession that started 10 years ago will affect the outlooks of the next generations.

Doing some blacksmithing, I save any iron, steel or other metals which I may use, "someday". Also have clear plastic jars full of bolts, nuts, screws, nails and other odds & ends. Wife says I'm a hoarder.

Sometimes ya just gotta use what's at hand:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

So that's the reason they call them slab guitars! :-)

Have a blessed day,

Leon