Redneck Engineering

I have a long history of redneck engineering.

When my old man had me mowing the grass with that nasty lawn mower, I discovered that the little muffler blew the exhaust straight up. I got tired of inhaling that engine exhaust and attached an old can lid to it so that it will deflect that exhaust. It worked really well.

The water recovery bottle in my old pickup truck started to leak. I replaced it with a used anti-freeze bottle. When the anti-freeze bottle started to look old and worn out, I would just replace it with a new one before it would start to leak.

The mouse feet on my mouse started to fall off. One of them folded in half and fell apart as well. I know that people sell new mouse sliders, but I didn't want to pay for them. So I got a hole puncher and used some cardboard and the plastic from a peanut butter jar to make some replacement feet. I had to use the cardboard to elevate the plastic a little higher. The peanut butter jar plastic glides just as easily as the old feet did. I tried Teflon tape at first but the jar plastic worked a lot better.

Most of my redneck engineering comes from repairs. But this time was different. I re-purposed an old PC case into a shelf. The wife is glad that I finally got rid of one of those old behemoth computer cases. I plan on using the side panels as magnetic boards.

The center screws are mounted to a stud in the garage, so that it hopefully won't fall off the wall.

I have done other horrible acts of redneck engineering. I have used plastic tie wraps, duct tape, paper clips, and cardboard to improvise other repairs. These are the only ones that I could fine pictures to prove it. I am a redneck engineer! What kind of redneck engineering have you guys done?

Ha ha ha! Thanks for sharing those Xpirate, those are awesome! That computer case shelf is pretty amazing for its sheer simplicity while being really effective. Wish I had something to contribute in terms of photos, but my SO is pretty effective at keeping me from fixing things with duct tape. Something about the couch just isn't comfortable as a bed... :D

Haha. These are great.

The solenoid that locks the key in the ignition of my car is more or less shot. We removed the shroud around the steering wheel and found where the manual release is. We took it in to be replaced, but were told it would be a few hundred dollars. They said that we seemed to have been capable enough to find the release and that it might just be in our best interest to not worry about it. We didn't replace it.