So instead of buying more stuff, hows about some ideas of cunning things you have done with joe basic equipment that others might learn from or be excited by - and save some money!!

{MOD EDIT : SP : Fixed underlining issue}
common sense is not very common
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You can use two old teabags and a rubber band to make a realistic and low-cost pair of swimming goggles
Yeah tinkering is excellent therapy, the only problem is getting really good stuff to tinker with - and convincing he owner to let you keep it if you fix it! Maybe we could have a thread about those "quick fixes" that shouldn't really work but sometimes do. Like the good old days of putting butter in the pocket watch or thumping the telly....
For example, friend of mine had a laptop that suddenly wouldn't boot. All symptoms pointed to a defunct HDD and he was upset that he'd lost all his data (no backups!). So I removed the hard-drive, gave it a few sharp "twists" back and forth, making sure to keep it in the horizontal plane. This is sometimes enough to free off a platter spindle if it's not spinning up. Anyway, we popped it back in and the laptop booted and stayed running for long enough for him to suck his data off onto a USB drive. He went off with a smile (well a half-smile - he still needs to buy a new HDD of course). I've used this trick before as a last resort (what have you go to lose?) and it sometimes does the trick, but beware, it's often a "one shot" fix if it works at all. {edit} Had a call from said friend last night - he's living dangerously; it's still working two weeks later!{/edit}
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