What have you unfettled today?

[drossall]

A thread to celebrate the bizarre and unusual amongst all the things that lead us to contribute to this thread.

Such as the time when a 2-inch nail punctured my tyre, tube, rim and rim tape, giving me 37 spokes.

Or today's sheared-off bottom-bracket spindle.

No loose mudguards or blown bulbs please

[perpetual dan]

I may be close to the no loose mudguards rule here, but I tried to tighten Mrs Dan's kick stand earlier. The stand sheared.

[ElyDave]

I once unfettled out kitchen tap.

I thought I was adjusting just the handle, but the whole @$%&ing thing came off in my hand, also highlighting the fact that our isolaters were passing.

It was only on fitting the new tap (couldn't stop the old one leaking and damaged in the process of not stopping it leaking) that the plumber identified the casue of not stopping it leaking as a pingfucket oddly shaped washer that was found on the other side of the kitchen. 

[Morat]

I just unfettled my Jeep
The front left caliper has stuck, leading to some expensive smelling smoke escaping from the brakes. Time for a refurb caliper, disk and pads. Bah. I'm further than ever from my shiny new wheels.

[Vince]

Three disc drives.
Step 1. deleted all of the data.
2. copied random video files on to them
3. deleted files
4. Dismantled drives and removed teh shiny discs
5. Ran a powerful magnet over both sides of the disc.
6. Tomorrow I will put each disc in the vice and hit it wiv a big hammer.
It's tempting to drop the battered remains off the ferry when I cross on Friday, but there are probably rools against that.

[hellymedic]

A 5 metre steel tape measure.
The stop came of and the tape retracted into the case.
Thought I could open case and put a paper clip in hole at the end of the tape but the tab has ripped off and tape is not easily salvageable.
Managed to prevent tape unravelling and put spool in ibuprofen tablet box that was within reach, before binning it.

[Kim]

A tape measure with no end stop isn't much good for measuring things anyway.

[geraldc]

I put an SD card into my iMac's DVD slot (trying to insert it into slot just by feel). Apparently it's a very common mistake.

[Kim]

Like toast in the video recorder...

[Mr Larrington]

With hindsight, it would have been a lot quicker to bypass that backup script and use a USB HDD to copy Stuffs onto the laptop, as it's having to recopy the entire music library, has been at it since teatime yesterday and hasn't yet reached "The" yet

[nicknack]

Like toast in the video recorder...

Our son managed to fill it full of carrots.

[Kim]

Like toast in the video recorder...

Our son managed to fill it full of carrots.

Bloody hippies.

[Jurek]

Like toast in the video recorder...

Our son managed to fill it full of carrots.

M'frend Julie, managed to get two VHS tapes into one machine.

[graculus]

As did my 6 year old son......round at a friends house. Mrs graculus and I were having a drink with them in the kitchen; in retrospect we should have become suspicious when it all went quiet from the front room.

[Vince]

We had a locking device that prevented insertion of unauthorised objects. Completely failed when a little finger pressed the eject button, pushing the cassette into the back of the lock, wrecking the mechanism. 

[Mr Larrington]

Like toast in the video recorder...

Our son managed to fill it full of carrots.

M'frend Julie, managed to get two VHS tapes into one machine.

Managed two CDs at once; improbably the bottom one still played.  Also two contact lenses in the same eye, which hurt.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've spoilt my new, smart, shiny black mudguards by drilling the hole to attach the rear mudflap slightly off-centre. Of course I got the front one, which no one will notice, bang on.

[caerau]

I once fixed a loose floorboard in the bedroom of my house in Birmingham as some prospective buyers came were coming round.


We went out  and came back to house smelling massively of gas.  I'd stuck the large nail straight through a gas pipe - the gas board shut the gas off to the whole house to prevent it exploding. 


Oddly enough, it didn't put them off buying it. 

[hellymedic]

A tape measure with no end stop isn't much good for measuring things anyway.

Indeed. I thought I''d improvise with a paper clip till I found there was no hole to use.

Still think managing to bin 5 metres of unconstrained sprung tape without it unravelling was a triumph!

[hellymedic]

As did my 6 year old son......round at a friends house. Mrs graculus and I were having a drink with them in the kitchen; in retrospect we should have become suspicious when it all went quiet from the front room.

'Darling, find out what Little Johnny is doing and tell him to stop it!'

[ElyDave]

A tape measure with no end stop isn't much good for measuring things anyway.

Indeed. I thought I''d improvise with a paper clip till I found there was no hole to use.

Still think managing to bin 5 metres of unconstrained sprung tape without it unravelling was a triumph!

I once dropped my dad's tape measure in the loo, and then poked the dismantled same whilst it was drying.  It unravelled rapidly.

[ElyDave]

Like toast in the video recorder...

Our son managed to fill it full of carrots.

M'frend Julie, managed to get two VHS tapes into one machine.

Managed two CDs at once; improbably the bottom one still played.  Also two contact lenses in the same eye, which hurt.

Once had a hire swallow and refuse to regurgitate a CD, turned out mine was number 5 in the slot

[Kim]

A tape measure with no end stop isn't much good for measuring things anyway.

Indeed. I thought I''d improvise with a paper clip till I found there was no hole to use.

Still think managing to bin 5 metres of unconstrained sprung tape without it unravelling was a triumph!

I once dropped my dad's tape measure in the loo, and then poked the dismantled same whilst it was drying.  It unravelled rapidly.

I had a similar experience with my Cyclaire bike pump and something-sticky leak in a pannier.  If you're not familiar with them, they use a similar coil spring arrangement to retract a pull cord, with the lawnmower-failing-to-start action operating a small piston pump, which is a neat alternative to the usual pumping action.

I did get it back together properly after a dozen or so attempts.

[perpetual dan]

I've unfettled the bottle trap on our shower. Well, it unfettled itself really - the o ring had perished. But I can't get it back in with a new o-ring on.

[ElyDave]

Lawn mower.

Height adjustment rod sheared mid mow with a noise like a pistol shot, followed by a graunching and then stopping of engine.  Mower sat on its belly and going nowhere.

Somehow the compensating spring (I don't know either) had come adrift and I found it in the grass box.

Despite being a 20 year old Hayter Hawk, the parts seem to still be available.