AI6YR BenAha! Found the perfect replacement adjustment arm for this bicycle trainer! #BikeTooter #repair #kludge
Andrew HenryMother-in-law has a bunch of vise-grips she is trying to give away.
You make me think I can’t have too many vise-grips.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.
Joyce Bell 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽🇬🇱🚫🧊
Red Ball Jet of Umbrage@msbellows @ai6yr @AndrewHenry When I was a callow young proto-crone, a wise man once told me that vise-grips are the first step on the way to independence and self-actualization. That advice shaped my entire adult life.
Kee Hinckley@iBlame @NilaJones @msbellows @ai6yr @AndrewHenry When my father bought a secondhand International Scout, he found a pair of vice grips clamped to the frame. Into the glovebox they went.
When the clutch cable anchor rusted through a few years later, so that stepping on the clutch moved the sheathing, not the cable, those vice grips got him home.
Lockpick Extreme@iBlame @msbellows @ai6yr @AndrewHenry When my kids were little I taught them how to bend a penny in half with a pair of vice grips. They were thrilled to have superhuman strength via the power of leverage.
#vicegrips #leverage
#vicegrips #leverage
@LockEx @[email protected] @ai6yr @AndrewHenry When I was still volunteering in Mountain Rescue, a daughter's first grade teacher asked if I could come do a presentation to her classroom. I walked in the door in full winter regalia: mountaineering overalls, big insulated boots, puffy jacket, lobster mittens, goggles, face mask, climbing helmet, wearing my rescue pack and carrying an ice ax. Not even my kid recognized me. Instant attention.
I talked a little about mountain rescue, gave them some age- appropriate tips for not getting lost and wilderness survival, and then explained that school is really important for mountain rescuers because we use math all the time, and to demonstrate I built a 3:1 rope system and initiated a tug of war between the girls and the boys.
Much weakening of masculine self-certainty occurred.
Then I had the biggest boy and the smallest girl do a tug of war.
Yeah, that was a fun day.
(I did explain how a 3:1 worked and that one side had a huge advantage, but it didn't seem to sink in as much as the "boys aren't necessarily stronger than girls!" part, which of course was the most important lesson.)
@ai6yr @LockEx @AndrewHenry (The smallest girl only stalemated with the largest boy even with a 3:1, which I think was actually a better lesson than her winning. Huzzah for equality!)
Sarah E Bourne@msbellows @AndrewHenry @ai6yr The accelerator cale snapped on our VW Fastback. We were able to coast downhill to a typical Maine gas station/store, where we got some picture wire. The vice grips (already in one of the trunks) served to hold one end of the wire and to use as a gas pedal. Worked well enough to drive another 3 hours to Boston. I'll always have a place in my heart for vice grips.
@sbourne @msbellows @AndrewHenry I guess I need to add vise grips to my box-of-automotive-tools-in-the-trunk, lol.
Jeff@sbourne @msbellows @AndrewHenry @ai6yr
If it's being used in your heart, wouldn't it be a locking hemostat? 🤪
If it's being used in your heart, wouldn't it be a locking hemostat? 🤪
Gary @N8DMT@ai6yr Hemostats are the electronic nerd’s equivalent to the mechanical nerd’s vice-grips. Hemo’s are great third hands for soldering stuff - especially if they are the curved tips version.
@n8dmt Particularly important I learned for soldering diodes, which tend to be heat sensitive.
glasspshr
AG7GM Dan@n8dmt @ahttps://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaGxpaTF0OTBjcXQwMDJuNXUyMzJtYnJ1Ymhmb2F1YjZuNTNkNTRvaCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/TSlfgM3dU0VuU/[email protected]
Nazo
CavyherdA small pair of vice-grips was among the tool set my dad gave me when I graduated high school. I still have nearly all of those tools. (I think one screwdriver may have gone walkies.)
My hemostats I picked up more recently. I have two pair in different sizes. (The thing I need that don't have is some sort of non-locking hemostat kind of thing.) Like, needlenose pliers, but with loop handles.
My hardware store also finally stocked dental picks.
Paul Horn@sbourne @msbellows @AndrewHenry @ai6yr Reminds me of the day the same cable snapped in dad’s ’75 Audi Fox.
He pulled the interior trim panel off the front door, pulled out the speaker wire, tied it to the accelerator doohickey and threaded it up through the hood vent.
Drove the stick shift car home with his left hand out the driver’s side window using the wire as a throttle.
#MacGyver before the TV show existed.
Oh, and my inherited tool chest came stocked with a great many vice grips of varying sizes and types. Needle Nose vice grips are a real thing.
Larry Anderson 🕊️@nrohluap @ai6yr @sbourne @msbellows @AndrewHenry And that makes me think of the time I was with a buddy of mine in his 1978 Honda Civic and the accelerator cable snapped. He got out, opened the hood, set the idle screw to about 4000 rpm, and we idled all the way back to his house, rowing through the gears.
@larand @nrohluap @ai6yr @sbourne @AndrewHenry Brilliant solution. I miss manual transmissions sometimes.
@msbellows @larand @ai6yr @sbourne @AndrewHenry If you’re not using the left hand to manage the throttle and the right hand to shift the transmission, maybe.
And he used to give me grief for steering with my knee … yet another useful skill!