After getting repeatedly outclassed on the What was the last thing you MADE thread, I thought I would try one closer to my skill level.

So what have you made / done to get a job done which might not have been orthodox, used the correct equipment or even been vaguely safe but it succeeded in getting the job done?

The only rule is that it must have worked for long enough to actually get the job done.

I will start with my custom alloy vacuum extension to get the dust out from inside the table saw through holes too small for the vacuum pipes I had.

Needed to do some tilling around my rebuilt fireplace
Could i find my notched tile adhesive spreader?
Nope
But i did find a big ring of a compact chainset.
Ok so it wasn’t quite as good, but it did the job over a slightly narrower area
Tiles are still on the wall. So it must have worked.

A linkage broke in the flush mechanism of our toilet. Bodged a repair using thermosetting plastic granules to give something for a small screw to bite into. Still eorking a few years later.

Er

The list is long. I’ve so many temporary fixes still going strong I’m bit sure what’s the last.

Bicycle puncture patch to fix a split in a washing machine door seal. Was only suppose to hold till the new seal came. New seal remains unfitted since January. 😁

I made the one-way valve on my packraft actually one-way with the careful application of a slice of dish sponge. Works a treat.

Inside cage plate of my XT mech inexplicably snapped on a ride a while back. No impact, no idea how or why.
So I glued it, made a thin steel plate, then pop riveted it. Works fine*
*it was working fine before I noticed it had broken, actually.

Two spring to mind.
1. Our last washing machine had a hole in the drum housing, I suspect a screw left in a pocket exited at high velocity.
Rather than strip it down and replace/repair I cut a hole in the side of it and patched the damage with fibreglass.

Pushed under the counter the hole was invisible and it ran for years.

2. The bog flush button broke around ten years ago.
I made a temporary new button from a stem top cap glued into the back of a Porsche headlight switch.
It fitted perfectly and is still there.
Added bonus, you can adjust the size of flush by turning the light switch.

Repairing dented fork lowers- exhaust pipe expander

Hole in a stainless steel sink caused by an over zealous knife – blob of black sticks like shit – lasted for months – that stuff is amazing. The builders baler twine.

Blocked the toilet last weekend. Hot water / washing up liquid not working, no black bags left in the house. DIY plumber snake out of old gear cable outer did the trick!

Had to dismantle the washing machine, removing the rubber boot thing from the sump. It was held on with a special jubilee clip thing that point blank refused to go back on (suspect you need a special tool).

Normal jubilee clip leaked because pressure wasn’t applied evenly to the rubber. “Fixed” it “temporarily” with a wee roll of inner tube in the weak spot which then kept going for the next few years until terminal bearing collapse wrote the machine off.

This is basically how I run my life – I don’t think I’ve ever fixed anything ‘properly’. Recently I’ve:
Fixed a mudguard with a couple of washers and some superglue
Cut up an old inner tube to replace rubber ‘feet’ on a speaker
Used a toy plastic cup to replace a door/seal on a washing machine
Used a 5 pence peace inside a shower hose to stop water coming through, as something is leaking somewhere. The hose has to be unscrewed and the coin removed each time a shower is needed, then replaced when the shower is over.

Washing machines and toilets seem to be the most common bodge fix.

Ooh loads of car ones. Hmm, back window popped out when I was moving a fridge for a mate. Bit of bathroom sealant, jobs a good un, Just had to remember not to drive fast with the windows open.

Brum Uni minibus loaded with the bike club dropped its exhaust on the floor going up Bristol road on the way to a BUSA event. Bodged it with a can of beans and some index cable I had in my toolbox. Lasted the whole weekend.

Pulled the same trick with a mates car in Innerleithen car park. Except we didn’t have a can of beans. Quick rummage in the bushes and found a dumped tennants can to bodge it with. Survived all the way back to Bristol.

You can bodge loads of things around the house with p38 filler.

The plastic cage(?) that holds your head on my Propero commuting helmet got broken somehow, meaning that it wouldn’t tighten or stay in place. I like that helmet, it’s great for commuting.

I narrowed down my stickiest duct tape to hold the broken end in place and then clamped the tape down with heat shrink. That was six months ago. It is still in place.

I really should buy a new helmet though, but that one is just perfect for the job.

Day before our holiday the shop toilet stopped flushing. The plastic push diaphragm had perished.
Cut a plastic milk bottle to shape and 2 years later still flushing perfectly.

Repaired a crack in a water butt with a plastic milk bottle and a heat gun

https://failblog.cheezburger.com/thereifixedit

Turns out that my old ice axe pick is just thin enough to get weeds out of the drive gets some funny looks mind

Repaired a crack in a water butt with a plastic milk bottle and a heat gun

that’s not a bodge that’s hdpe welding, a legitimate repair using sustainably sourced filler.

at work, the fan blade came off.
it wasnt replaced the next day so I found the nut that holds it on had broken
Its a left hand thread insert set in plastic so we dont have anything like that, but the industrial glue stuck the plastic back together in 5 minutes
much better now

so the new carpet and underlay meant that the door would not open without a big push
the new cordless angle grinder came out and sliced 10mm off the bottom of the door
no problem now

Not my bodge but christ

That reminds me of the mains pressure cold pip[e I found under the floor boards a couple of houses back. It had been blocked off when a downstairs toilet and sink were removed.

I say blocked, there was a sparkplug hammered into the end of the pipe and then the pipe bent into a sort of spiral so the kinks stopped the flow I guess.

That reminds me of the mains pressure cold pip[e…

…that was stoppered with a wine cork and pvc tape. They’d moved out and needed the washing machine so it was easy to see; where’s the removal box with the plumbing kit in?

Hot shower

Not my bodge, but this was the shower in a place we stayed in on our honeymoon. Heater element in the shower head, complete with exposed mains connection… I wonder if the galv water pipe is the earth, or the water running over you while you shower.

Fairly common ‘life-hack’:

Magnets on either side of a shower curtain. Allows you to attach the shower curtain to something metallic, thus avoiding the inexorable inward creep of said shower curtain.

Not my bodge, but this was the shower in a place we stayed in on our honeymoon. Heater element in the shower head

If it makes you feel better, there isn’t actually a heater element as such in that shower-head. It just passes electricity directly through the water and relies on its own resistance to heat it up.

Never sure whether the people who install these shower heads are just ignorant of the risks, or are aware of them and lazy/sociopathic.

that’s not a bodge that’s hdpe welding, a legitimate repair using sustainably sourced filler.

That sounds like the words of a man who is used to justifying his bodges as proper repairs by using technical sounding words. Or a salesman by profession?

Most used bodge item in my garage is the garden sprayer – used to mount tubeless tyres, pressurise the solar thermal system, had a shower head/brush attached to provide dog washing facilities, pressurise buoyancy tanks in my dinghies to detect leaks and….oh yeah….. spray weeds.

edit: Also sprayed the garden fence with it.

Those shower heads are pretty common in South America/Brazil. Came across loads when I was over there.

Does using a strap wrench to fit a BB count? Shimano in their infinite wisdom changed the cups so my old BB tool didn’t fit.

Those South American showers often had a rubber mat on the floor as well, which I told myself was saving my life. The only control of the heat you had was the amount you turned on the tap. The choice was a decent shower with cold water or a warm dribble with chance of instant death.

Managed to use part of the ink pipe from a biro pen to hold my brake lever and the return spring together. To my amazement it lasted 150km over the weekend!

Had a rack on the back of a road bike, used to have it on the back of a 26″ hardtail for commuting. Unfortunately it didn’t fit my current 26″ hybrid I use for commuting. The probability seemed high that it could be fitted backwards so I did this:

I’ve since taken the angle grinder to it and cut/ground more away. It fits very nicely now, albeit in reverse and with less support for panniers (which I don’t have). Functions perfectly for my drybag of work clothes however.

Changed the car so new roof bars needed. Went with Yakima rather than Thule. Now the roof box won’t fit as the u clamps aren’t wide enough. grrr.

Off to the internet and someone saying Thule t track adaptors will fit my Halfords roof box. Ordered and arrived 2 days before due to go on holiday. However the interior clamps don’t fit.

Quickly dismantled the old u clamp interior part, drilled out some plastic widget to shim the hole and some washers and it’s on. Survived the test run down the long bit of country road nearby and then all the way up past Inverness and back sticking solidly to the roof and never loosened in the multiple times I checked it.

My tumble drier currently only works with judicial use of a sash clamp placed just right to lift the door enought to satisfy the latch sensor.

https://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/2200089/82462320.jpg
I have a selection of these