Innovative repurposing "Gambiarra" (fun topic)

[Joel_BC]

Considering my interests in how creativity and ingenuity can make adaptation and innovation possible (in a DIY way) I'm very surprised that my combing through the internet hasn't turned up this 'rich vein' before. There's no doubt that this is the stuff of self-reliance.

Maybe some of you already know the term: Gambiarra. It's a Portuguese word, and here's the meaning "A Brazilian expression. It basically means to use improvised methods / solutions to solve a problem, with any available material."

Concept sounds familiar, right? What's cool is that if you put it into Google Images, you get...
https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&...0.msedr...0...1ac..64.img..0.1.84.4hS-w78refE

Scanning through the results is stimulating, amusing, informative. Some of it's fun, some is a little scary (hazardous). I think people here will enjoy this

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow, lol. Like you said - some scary, some humorous...and a lot of inventiveness!

 

[Britesea]

Wow. It was hard to stop looking at them. The horrified fascination.

 

[Denim Deb]

I didn't look at all of them but some of them look like things we've done!

 

[Joel_BC]

I didn't look at all of them but some of them look like things we've done!

I'm intrigued, Deb! Anything in particular that you recall?

 

[Denim Deb]

Right now, we have a pair of pliers on the hot water in the shower, and use another pair for turning on the toaster oven.

When the exhaust pipe came off my motorcycle on Saturday, first they tried a piece of a leather belt w/a couple of zip ties to hold it in place. That came off once we got on the road. So they grabbed a couple of soda cans by the side of the road and used that to hold it together so I could get back to where we had just stopped. I didn't trust it for the rest of the run, nor the ride home, so I left the bike there and had hubby come and pick it up.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Necessity is the mother of invention!