samantha90 Loc: Fort Worth,Texas

I thought the guys here would appreciate this. My Dad is an engineer and he always told me two things to have in your tool box are WD-40 and duct tape.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Now that’s creative. Amazing, an engineer with a great sense of humor. I say that because when I was taking structural engineering the guy was as dry as Death Valley. But, he did know his subject! Thanks for sharing.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

Add baling wire (if you can still find it) to the necessary items in the box. Love this!

Dannj

Somebody raided my tool box!

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

As my son has pointed out "It ain't broke. It just lacks duct tape!".

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Have you noticed that some engineers can work all week with a single toolbox and others have so many tools they can't find the right one...

I remember the old gray Massey Ferguson tractors. They came with one spanner (it fit everything and was heavy enough to act as a hammer)

Rose42

I was told duct tape is for things that move but shouldn't and WD-40 is for things that don't move but should. I always have both.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Did you see the post about the engineer comic? It was clean and hilarious.

cdayton

A coat hanger will do in a pinch.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Cute!

Rose42

The picture didn't show up the first time I opened this. That is great! I'm saving this one.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

A stroke of genius!

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Weren't the grey Fergies made by Ford, I heard them referred to as Ford Fergusons???

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Baling wire is still available at agricultural supply stores. I generally use baling twine, which comes in jute or plastic. I prefer the jute because it's biodegradable although the plastic will stand up to the elements better. Depends on what you want to use it for. In small quantities, baling twine costs around $45-50 for 9000 ft. It comes in a bundle of two 4500 ft rolls since the baler uses two wires or strings to hold the bale together. That refers to the old small rectangular bales, not the big round bales which which I have no experience. I find that one of the 4500 ft roll fits nicely in a 5 gallon bucket, which makes it easy to carry around. The roll of twine is enclosed by a paper sleeve, and you can keep a knife stuck between the twine and the paper sleeve so you have something to cut the twine when you need it. The twine is pretty strong and will probably survive around 200 lb of tension when new. The biodegradable twine will weaken with exposure to rain and sun so that at the end of a 4-month season it will probably only be good for 40-50 lb of tension.

I expect that baling twine was probably originally hemp until it became a controlled substance. Now that growing hemp is becoming legal again there may be changes in the composition of baling twine.

And I always considered duct tape was used to hold ductwork together. I did see something on the internet (so it must be true) that there's some discussion on whether it should be "duct" or "duck" tape. "Duck" refers to a cheap cloth that was used in some of the early tapes. The old duck/duct tape was pretty flimsy stuff and did not hold up well when exposed to the elements. It has improved somewhat with time but it still isn't much good for permanent outdoor applications. When I was working with rocket scientists, they had "rocket tape", which was very similar to duck/t tape but was made from much higher quality materials. It was used to hold rockets together, which was purely a temporary application since the rockets were not designed to be in the local environment for very long. But it did last longer than most duckt tape.