What was the best MacGuyver moment you actually saw on a job site?

Yes, thats a good one. I've seen that work around several times using a small wash tub and a sump pump.

This was not me but another employee. He went to a large hotel building in central Pennsylvania fora no "heat call" on a cold winter's night. The Honeywell motorized gas valve did not work and a replacement was not available. He removed the valve actuator, allowed the pilot to light and used a "C" clamp to open the valve. He stayed there all night watching the boiler fire so there was heat. Our boss was furious due to the size of that boiler running with no safeties devices.

Here is one more: Shanksville, Pa. The oil tanks at the old high school became plugged with an oil bacteria until the oil pumps could no longer pump the oil to the burners. I installed 2, 55 gallon oil tanks as day tanks for the burners to use to heat the school. The local oil company came daily to resupply those 2 tanks until the underground tanks could be pumped out, and the tanks sanitized and refilled with new clean fuel oil.

@EBEBRATT-Ed My boss was concerned about the potential liability in case of an accident.

I think I might be related to MacGuyver somehow.

No heat call on a cold Saturday night. Church with one boiler and gas power burner will start but trips off after a few minutes. Pulled my analog flame signal tester out and found my plug in 'Y' adapter failed. Ran out to the truck to get my soldering iron and learned I did not have it with me. I was pretty sure the flame signal was weak. Found a pair of cheap headphones in the lost and found basket. Cut the male end off of the cord and plugged this end into the Honeywell programmer. Taped the test leads to the earphone cord and read the flame signal. Dialed the flame in and the church was warm for Sunday service.

Another weekend call on a cold winter Friday night. Local public school has two Mills hot water boilers, both fitted with Industrial Combustion D series burners. Principal calls me on my cell phone and claims heat was off for two days and the company that won the contract for the heating work cannot send a senior technician for at least two more days. In the company's defense they did send someone. Both boilers are down. I graduated from this high school twenty years earlier and the principal was one of my former teachers. I made no promises, but agreed to take a look. The custodians tried everything they could, but did not find anything wrong.

One of the boilers was off due to the manual reset aquastat being tripped (this was hidden on the top of the boiler). I pushed the red button and the burner came to life. Thankfully, I had a replacement for the operating aquastat that failed in my truck and replaced same. The second burner needed to be reset, but the reset button was missing on the Fireye E series programmer. Apparently, the custodians were told to hit the reset button by the company that was servicing the equipment. I checked stock on the truck and shop that was at Dad's house two blocks away from the job and learned we did not have the card with the reset button in stock. However, I did find a momentary push button switch. I soldered the momentary button to one end of a piece of two conductor thermostat wire and soldered the other end to the Fireye board. My wire soldering skills are not great by any means, but it worked and we got both burners firing for the long weekend. I wrote a long winded note for the other contractor that they need to replace the Fireye card asap. That summer we were awarded the contract for boiler maintenance again. The MacGuyver reset button was still dangling from the control. Yes, we picked up the new card and replaced the old one.

In a very rural town on call on a winter evening. I'm working for a new company. Arrive at an old farm house for a leaking oil tank. What I find is a pretty good stream from and end seam of a very old tank. Magnetic patch won't work and no phone. I used a small piece of gasket and a Sheetmetal screw to driven in to the hole to stem the flow. Worked like a charm. tank was replaced in the morning. The tank guys didn't know the story and thought some nut had stuffed the screw in there. They might have been right.

Well, Ed, it appears that he wasn't all that smart……………….:)

@LRCCBJ

Why do you say that? That's and old trick that was commonly used. Better than letting the place freeze up.

Here is a real Macguyver story. In my early days I replaced a B&G prv on a hot water system in the middle of nowhere. Without thinking, I cut the 1/2" copper supply since there was no union. I went to my truck to get a union or coupling but had none. I cleaned the copper and used silfoss silver solder to butt solder the 2 ends together You do what you have to do to finish the job. .

you must've had a tee and a cap or a male and female adapter or something. the galvanized in my mom's house had a tee and plug for a 90 where there would have been no other reason for it other than they were short a 3/4 galvanized ell.

I imagine not around at the time but is an good example where Shark-bite coupler and stops would be useful to keep on truck for the “oh poop” jobs 🫠

If you've got a paperclip, a match, some duct tape, and a piece of string, you can conquer the world.

residential gas valves once commonly had a smaller version of that

Geeze Ray, that looks like a B50 General Controls gas valve. Very old but very reliable.

i mean bailing wire or probably even a twist tie or paperclip would work

I meant more the original repair, replacing the clip in some fashion is easier than the contraption with the sticks

@paulmassie

a little knowledge is dangerous!!

mcgyvered would be if you used garden hose.

@epmiller typical of management.