Not it's Intended Purpose, but . . .

[MrNewportCustom]

. . . I use a prospector's pan for popcorn. Probably the closest to gold this pan has ever been.

I will, occasionally, entertain random thoughts regarding less than conventional employment of everyday items. (Consider the symbiotic relatonship between diapers and polished cars. No, that wasn't my idea.) Naturally, those thoughts often leads to my wondering just how unconventional I can be compared to others. . . . Or do I fit right in?

So today I'm asking: What do you use daily - or not so daily - or have used in an emergency situation - in a manner that is, shall we say, "inconsistent with labeling"?


Lee
___________________

Please pardon my greasy fingerprints, but the bowl is emptying as I type. lol

 

[Samsa]

Hardly an original usage on my part, but I have been known to break a beer bottle and use the broken neck of said bottle to play slide guitar.

I have also used buckets of water in lieu of dumbbells.

And, of course, there's the good ol' beer for breakfast. (Not recommended.)

 

[Sefton]

Hardly an original usage on my part, but I have been known to break a beer bottle and use the broken neck of said bottle to play slide guitar.

Also comes in handy for silencing music critics...permanently!

 

[Samsa]

Also comes in handy for silencing music critics...permanently!

Reminds me of an anecdote from one of the first rehearsals The Doors ever had....Krieger opened his guitar case and pulled out a broken beer bottle neck (for guitar, obviously) and Jim Morrison was rather taken aback, thinking that Krieger was some kind of street tough. He had to explain to Jim that it was, in fact, for guitar.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

And, of course, there's the good ol' beer for breakfast. (Not recommended.)

lol Reminds me of Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H pouring beer on his Rice Crispies. "Snap crackle and burp. The breakfast of exchampions."


Lee

 

[Diamondback]

Laptop as lapwarmer qualify here?lol

Or paperclip or keychain as zipper-pull? (I had a windbreaker where after the zipper-pull broke, I replaced it with a keychain-sized version of an aircraft "Remove Before Flight" streamer--very risque of me, I know!lol )

 

[Feng_Li]

I saw a fellow use a tampon to clean a shotgun once.

 

[Diamondback]

And I know they use Kotex for leak protection in the U-2 spyplane's oil-cooler... lol

 

[Harp]

Oil from a can of tuna used for lubricating oil with M-16 rifle.
And a condom for the barrel.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Back when I used to give parties, I'd use the wringer washing machine in my kitchen as a beer cooler: just dump several bags of ice in the tub and add the beers. And the guests could use the wringer to dry out their napkins...

When I was a clueless little girl, I once greased my bicycle with Crisco.

 

[farnham54]

16 foot boat as a beer cooler.

Great for parties--Ideally use the proceeds of the beer sales to pay for a new boat, then raffle it off at the end of the night.

I think it's some kind of rule around Marinas in Canada--"A boat shall be priced based on how many bottles of beer it will hold"

Cheers
Craig

 

[Quigley Brown]

Laptop as lapwarmer qualify here?

I use my lava lamp as a hand warmer!

As a news photographer I've had to improvise by using notebook paper or napkins to put over my flash and soften the light. I've even had someone in a white shirt stand close by to give me something to bounce my light off of.

 

[52Styleline]

Electric drill and spade bit for coring apples. (Hint: use a low speed)
Shop vise for cracking nuts.

As my hero Red Green (A great Canadian) always says "Any tool can be the right tool".

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

I use a green bakelite handled angel food cake cutter as my daily hair comb. Best darn comb EVER for me because brushes do not get through the mop very well. I have backups too, in different colors. I have been using it for so long that I can't even remember when I started doing it!

And I do have one that STAYS in the kitchen and JUST gets used for cake.

 

[Diamondback]

And a condom for the barrel.

Didn't General Vandegrift have his Marines on Guadalcanal use that trick, too?

Oh, great, I can see a new tool for the MallNinjas in maritime climates: the "Tactical Condom", in high-speed-low-drag tactical black.

Sorry, gunnie humor...lol

 

[Twitch]

Old cotton underwear also makes good gun cleaning patches

 

[Shimmy Sally]

Laura gave me a dainty little tea cup that is too pretty to be put in a cupboard, but doesn't match my Belleek china set (or anything else for that matter. So I keep it on my bedroom dresser to hold bobby pins.

When in college we used to sanitize the kitchen sink to use as a huge punch bowl.

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

An abandoned cassette case makes a great ice scraper.

 

[Paisley]

Old Panty Hose/Stockings

Check out this thread.

 

[CharlieH.]

I've often used Tic Tac boxes as photographic filters.
And when you're a modeller, lots of common items tend to have some pretty odd uses- Scrubbing pads as tree folliage, fake fur as field grass, pencil caps as barrels and kegs, sandpaper as tar roofing, thumbtacks as benches, corrugated cardboard as a base for a miniature victory garden, painted tinfoil for sheets on a clothesline, toothpicks as building material, ordinary steel wire as all manner of pipes and ducts, old watch parts as tools in a hardware store (picked that up from someone else), staples for railings, pink chewing gum as meat in a butcher shop, to name a few.