Ran into a guy at the flea market who fixed my janky solar charger with a paperclip

I was at the Austin flea market last Saturday with my busted DIY solar phone charger that wouldn't hold a charge. This older guy named Frank walks over and asks if he can take a look. He points out my solder joint was cold, then pulls a paperclip out of his pocket and bends it into a little jumper wire to test the circuit. He said half his builds use stuff from junk drawers and old electronics. Showed me how to reflow the joint with just a cheap iron and some flux I already had. Got it working in 5 minutes flat. I felt like an idiot for not checking that first. Has anyone else had a random stranger fix your project with something dumb like a paperclip or twist tie?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_hart3126d ago

Oh man, "janky solder joint" might as well be the name of my autobiography at this point. I once had a guy at a bus stop fix my headphones with a twist tie while I was just standing there looking like a tourist with broken Beats. He even used a lighter to shrink the heat shrink tubing he had in his pocket, some MacGyver nonsense. Now I keep a random paperclip in my wallet just in case I run into someone cooler than me who needs to fix their stuff. Frank sounds like a legend, I bet he's got a whole tool kit hidden in his truck somewhere.

the_vera26d ago

Know a guy named Derek who once fixed a busted speaker at a house party with nothing but a staple from the kitchen counter and some electrical tape he found in a junk drawer. It was one of those big old boom boxes, the kind from the 90s, and the wire had snapped clean off inside. He just stripped it with his teeth, wrapped it around the staple, and taped the whole mess together like it was no big deal. Thing worked the rest of the night, sounded better than before somehow. Some people just have that weird magic in their fingers, you know? Makes you wonder what else they've fixed with gum and a prayer.