The Playa MacGyver's list of 101 "Things-2-Bring" to Burning Man. I brainstormed this list in one sitting, but every item on it has proved its value as something worthwhile to pack for our upcoming trip to the desert. I will elaborate further as we go. The essential quality of everything on this list is that it can be resourcefully used in some other way than commonly expected. This is the essence of what it means to be a true "Playa MacGyver."
I hope to craft this list into an essential document for all burners. This thread will allow me to edit it with others in our community as a feedback loop. If you have found a specific application for an item you wish to share, please use the item name and # in the post title. This information will help me rank them in future editions. Please feel free to add new items, numbered in sequence starting with #102.
101thngs2brng2BM first edition 8/8/05
1 rubber bands
2 twist ties
3 clothes pins
4 binder clips
5 paper bags
6 plastic bags
7 magnets
8 rope light
9 5 gallon water jugs
10 kiddy pool
11 orange cones & caution markers
12 garden hose
13 umbrella
14 The Club
15 newspaper
16 bagged fliers
17 extension cord
18 wheel block
19 futon frame
20 bricks
21 scuba booties
22 bathrobe
23 flags
24 milk crates
25 2x4s
26 plywood
27 ironing board
28 boxes
29 frisbee
30 crowbar
31 multi-tool
32 coat hangers
33 bungee cords
34 fan
35 drop light
36 cable ties
37 work table
38 plastic tarps
39 clothes line
40 Romex
41 water dispenser
42 neck lanyards
43 city map
44 megaphone
45 walkie-talkies
46 shopping cart
47 tape
48 glue
49 mirror
50 binoculars
51 jumper cables
52 funnel
53 maps
54 sharpie
55 coolers
56 paper plates
57 towel tubes
58 plastic wrap
59 sand bags
60 tennis balls
61 barbell weights
62 magnifying glass
63 envelopes
64 address book
65 power strips
66 christmas lights
67 work light
68 metal garbage can
69 plastic garbage can
70 key rings
71 folding tables & chairs.
72 flag stakes
73 flashing light
74 flashlight lights
75 c-clamps
76 tool box
77 tool belt
78 gloves
79 florescent string
80 black wrap
81 9-volt batteries
82 old socks
83 barbeque grill
84 candles
85 saw horses
86 ladders
87 stakes
88 tins
89 boom box
90 camera
91 bubble wrap
92 belts
93 broom & dustpan
94 light and speaker stands
95 detergent jug
96 plastic ale yard
97 screen
98 heater
99 tires
100 posters
101 matresses & cushions
I hope to craft this list into an essential document for all burners. This thread will allow me to edit it with others in our community as a feedback loop. If you have found a specific application for an item you wish to share, please use the item name and # in the post title. This information will help me rank them in future editions. Please feel free to add new items, numbered in sequence starting with #102.
101thngs2brng2BM first edition 8/8/05
1 rubber bands
2 twist ties
3 clothes pins
4 binder clips
5 paper bags
6 plastic bags
7 magnets
8 rope light
9 5 gallon water jugs
10 kiddy pool
11 orange cones & caution markers
12 garden hose
13 umbrella
14 The Club
15 newspaper
16 bagged fliers
17 extension cord
18 wheel block
19 futon frame
20 bricks
21 scuba booties
22 bathrobe
23 flags
24 milk crates
25 2x4s
26 plywood
27 ironing board
28 boxes
29 frisbee
30 crowbar
31 multi-tool
32 coat hangers
33 bungee cords
34 fan
35 drop light
36 cable ties
37 work table
38 plastic tarps
39 clothes line
40 Romex
41 water dispenser
42 neck lanyards
43 city map
44 megaphone
45 walkie-talkies
46 shopping cart
47 tape
48 glue
49 mirror
50 binoculars
51 jumper cables
52 funnel
53 maps
54 sharpie
55 coolers
56 paper plates
57 towel tubes
58 plastic wrap
59 sand bags
60 tennis balls
61 barbell weights
62 magnifying glass
63 envelopes
64 address book
65 power strips
66 christmas lights
67 work light
68 metal garbage can
69 plastic garbage can
70 key rings
71 folding tables & chairs.
72 flag stakes
73 flashing light
74 flashlight lights
75 c-clamps
76 tool box
77 tool belt
78 gloves
79 florescent string
80 black wrap
81 9-volt batteries
82 old socks
83 barbeque grill
84 candles
85 saw horses
86 ladders
87 stakes
88 tins
89 boom box
90 camera
91 bubble wrap
92 belts
93 broom & dustpan
94 light and speaker stands
95 detergent jug
96 plastic ale yard
97 screen
98 heater
99 tires
100 posters
101 matresses & cushions
posted by:
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Los Angeles
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#1 Rubber Bands
08/09Pic is posted of RUBBER BAND VARIATIONS for the Playa MacGyver. At top are two rubberbands joined by passing one band's loop through and around the other, then back through the loop of it's own tail. Repeat the process
to create an ELASTIC LANYARD for lighters, pens, keys, bottleopeners, etc.
Also shown are different types of RUBBER BAND BUNGEES, made my tying a thick knot on one end of the rubber band, leaving a small handling loop at the knot head. Extend the length of the strapping loop as needed. Wrap both strands of the rubber band around the objects to be bound and use the knot head as a knob to hook the open end of the strapping loop. The tie is easy to hook and easy to release, but for added security, wrap the small handling loop on the knot head around the strapping loop then back over the knot.
Photos illustrate how I use this device to gather the curtains on the galley windows. Also handy for wrapping rolls of light gel, dressing cables to structures, and binding a pony tail. I discovered this trick after using those great bungee cords (#33) used for party rental tents that have one plastic ball connecting both ends of an elastic loop.
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#2 Twist Ties
08/09Twist ties have more uses than you could imagine, from fixing a split shell necklace or binding a flailing parachute shroud to repairing a pair of eyeglasses or completing an electrical circuit. Playa MacGyver loves this humble thinly drawn strand of strong and flexible metal wrapped in paper or plastic. Used twist ties are not MOOP (matter out of place), but MAAP (matter available for another purpose) and should be salvaged and stored when adventuring in the desert.
Twist ties are found in several variaties and while Playa Macgyver will attempt to adapt any type on hand to solve a problem, each kind has positive and negative qualities to consider when applied to a specific function. The simplist tie may be recycled from a bread bag, but is short and weak. The paper coating will wear off quickly leaving a less managable twisted wire that is fragile under stress. Efficiency can be improved by twisting several together for increased thickness or length.
Different colors offer opportunities for strategic concealment, aesthetic enhancement, and function coding. Produce often is sold with foot long fat green ties that are extremely tough and tightly looped in small circles can join two rods together securely. Packages of garbage bags come with nice new shiny white ties with edges connected in perforated sheets. Playa Macgyver's favorite twist tie comes in one continuous roll, drawn out to a custom length and trimmed with a blade on the hanging dispenser. Pick some up in the garden supply section of the hardware store.
Playa MacGyver does not recommend twist ties for cable wraps. The coating sheds quickly and wire twisted together enough to hold a loop is often a pain to untwist when you need to uncoil the cable. Still, I could easily make a list of 101 uses for the twist tie beyond closing a plastic bag.
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#3 Clothes Pins
08/09On film sets, they are called "C47s," a handy shorthand for a simple tool with many uses beyond hanging wet shirts on a clothes line (#39). Whether attaching colored gels to a light fixture or resealing a bag of chips, the wooden clothes pin's clamping action is invaluable to the Playa MacGyver. Since the area of applied force is less than 1/2" square, the usefulness of the C47 as a tool increases with the number available. Pack a large quantity in a bag (#5&6), metal tin (#88), or plastic jug (#9) with a hand-sized hole cut opposite the handle.
Posted is a photo of Playa MacGyver's C47 VARIATIONS. The two wood sticks and metal spring can be reconfigured for different applications. Try cutting away sections of the wood behind the spring or truncating the clamping tip. Also shown are three methods of altering the spring action and clamping surfaces of a clothes pin by nondestructively reconfiguring the three basic parts. Each assembly changes the clamp's contact points and pressure distribution, ready to be deployed for the job at hand.
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Re: #3 Clothes Pins
08/09More Playa MacGyver's C47 tricks:
1. Pull the sticks apart from the spring. Presto, you have a new set of tools and expendable parts. Forget what it was, it is now two small pieces of wood and a short coil of stiff wire.
2.The tapered wood pieces make excellent shims for leveling AV gear, wedges to gap structure joints, and ground marker stakes when plotting an installation layout.
3. Thread a string or wire through the center of the springs on a series of clothes pins, then anchor the ends to a structure. Mounted flat against a wall this C47 STRING is used to collect, organize, and display greeting cards or any other paper media. Use strong wire drawn taught between points overhead and hang a sheet from evenly spaced clips to make a Playa MacGyver drawable curtain system.
4. Write on the wood. Be creative with a pencil, pen, sharpie, or wood burning engraver. Serves both form and function as art piece and/or ID tool. Stylishly mark in the natural boxes your name and camp info and clip on your camera strap, bike seat, or beer cup. Like airline luggage tags, a personalized clothes pin can bring a lost thing home on its own.
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#4 Binder Clips
08/10The metal binder clip (#4) is cousin to the clothes pin (#3) and often grouped together as equivilent options in Playa MacGyver's problem-solving mode. Either of them might work for the same clamping application, however if both types are available to use, the specific conditions will invariably suggest the superior choice. Metal vs. wood is always an issue that Playa MacGyver will stop to consider.
One superior quality of binder clips over clothes pins is their variety of scale. A posted PHOTO places basic C47s alongside three sizes of binder clip, black triangular clamps flexed open by shaped wire handles on single axis of free rotation . Also shown is tube-type metal clip from the office supply store family, a style that is also available in small, medium, or large. As a class of Playa MacGyver tools, they are all CLIP CLAMPS (as opposed to C-Clamps (#75)), movable pressure points released with a squeeze of the hand.
Included in the CLIP CLAMPS photo grouping are a pair of industrial strength spring clamps, Playa MacGyver has found invaluable in the desert. Do not confuse these with the 'grip clips' used by gaffers on film sets: I'm sure those are expensive and these two were free, more acurately, stolen. This is the style of clip clamp used to seal the seams along the edges of thick plastic panels draped over domestic structures that get filled with poisonous gas for the purpose of termite erradication. By attempting to dismantle this exterminator's tent of insect death, one can justify such a low-impact act of vandalism as a liberation action of the animal rights movement.
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#14 The Club
08/20Instead of using a padlock to secure the rear door of a truck, I use "The Club," the familiar auto security devise designed to restrict the movement of a vehicle's steering wheel. "The Club" has two U-shaped hooks joined to sliding pipe which lock them in place at a fixed distance. Fit the hooks between the door's handle bracket and latch mechanism and lock it down.
Advantages over a padlock: 1) Easier to attach, remove, and lock 2) Use as a hammer to close the last few inches of a stuck sliding door 3) Rounded tips of front end good to shove cargo out of the closing gap blocking complete door seal 4) When not locking the door, is conveniently stored on points on rear corner of vehicle. 5) Can be used as a weapon if threatened.
No pictures to illustrate this Playa MacGyver techique, but trust me, it works. If you have a truck with a slide-up rear door and "The Club," try it yourself. Padlocks only provide you with peace of mind in anticipation of theft. "The Club" provides both superior security and additional utility. -
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Re: #14 The Club
08/20Yo Admiral,
I think it may be illegal to reply to your own posts as many times as you do...at least in CA.
Be very careful. 'They' are watching you.
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