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Had a wild idea to clear a clogged pump with a bag of frozen peas
We were dredging a silty stretch of the Ohio River last month and the main pump kept getting jammed with this thick, goopy mud. After the third shutdown, I remembered my wife packs my lunch with those frozen gel packs. I grabbed one from the cooler, wrapped it in a rag, and held it against the pump housing for about ten minutes. The cold made the mud contract just enough that we could reverse the flow and blow it clear. Has anyone else used weird stuff from the galley to fix a problem on the spot?
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scott.jana6mo ago
My buddy who works on a tug up near Pittsburgh told me about a time their coffee maker died. They were all going a bit nuts without caffeine. He ended up fixing a loose wire in it with a paperclip and some foil from a gum wrapper, just twisted it all together. I mean, it looked terrible and probably broke a dozen safety rules, but it got them through the trip. Sometimes you just have to use whatever's in the drawer.
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chen.adam6mo ago
We had a similar thing happen on a road trip last year. The hotel room's little coffee pot just stopped heating, and I used a keychain multitool to tighten a screw on the bottom plate. It's exactly like @scott.jana said, you just make do with what you have when you're stuck. That fix lasted the whole weekend.
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faith_carter6mo ago
Honestly, it's just coffee. People act like a broken machine is some kind of survival situation. A paperclip and gum wrapper fix sounds like a great way to start a small electrical fire in a hotel room. Maybe just go down to the lobby or a gas station like a normal person.
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