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Measure without tape measure.

HOW many can YOU do? (From Popular Mechanics)

As Glenn Reynolds writes in his new PM column, traditional knowledge of how to build and fix ordinary things-around the house and in a jam- might be on the decline. With our lives becoming more driven by technology, blue-collar labor has been replaced with more white-collar employment, and teenagers are becoming better at programming Web sites than swinging hammers.

Here at PM, where we at least try to do everything, we spent weeks fine-tuning our list of "25 Skills Every Man Should Know," debating over whether certain items were too basic, too challenging or just too obscure. You can find a full how-to rundown of each one in the October issue of Popular Mechanics, which just hit newsstands. But for now, check out our carefully selected list below, then offer your own arguments and suggestions in the comments section below, or tell us how to perform your must-know skill by writing to us here...

The List: How to...

  1. Patch a radiator hose
  2. Protect your computer
  3. Rescue a boater who as capsized
  4. Frame a wall
  5. Retouch digital photos
  6. Back up a trailer
  7. Build a campfire
  8. Fix a dead outlet
  9. Navigate with a map and compass
  10. Use a torque wrench
  11. Sharpen a knife
  12. Perform CPR
  13. Fillet a fish
  14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
  15. Get a car unstuck
  16. Back up data
  17. Paint a room
  18. Mix concrete
  19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
  20. Change oil and filter
  21. Hook up an HDTV
  22. Bleed brakes
  23. Paddle a canoe
  24. Fix a bike flat
  25. Extend your wireless network

Well...shit....I can do all of those......( I must admit that hooking up The HDTV has a fair bit to do with WHAT protocol...yeah, I hooked up mine... 1080i and all that...)

Reply to
Robatoy
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Sharpen a knife fast so you can fillet a man to perform open chest cpr? Frame a photo? Retouch a trailer? Paint concrete? Where is build a 36x72 pole barn? Tile your bathrooms, install hardwood floors, hang cabinets? Install a mile of wire fence? Castrate pigs? Sharpen the hoe and hoe the corn?

Reply to
Jim Behning

I cook minute rice in 30 seconds!

Reply to
Robatoy

I can still remember the first time I did that one, a friend's boat trailer while he waited in the boat.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Cook a meal (using a stove, not a grill)

Reply to
Doug Miller

Wed, Sep 12, 2007, 5:27pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@topworks.ca (Robatoy) doth mumble: HOW many can YOU do? (From Popular Mechanics)

  1. Patch a radiator hose
  2. Protect your computer
  3. Rescue a boater who as capsized
  4. Frame a wall
  5. Retouch digital photos
  6. Back up a trailer
  7. Build a campfire
  8. Fix a dead outlet
  9. Navigate with a map and compass
  10. Use a torque wrench
  11. Sharpen a knife
  12. Perform CPR
  13. Fillet a fish
  14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
  15. Get a car unstuck
  16. Back up data
  17. Paint a room
  18. Mix concrete
  19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
  20. Change oil and filter
  21. Hook up an HDTV
  22. Bleed brakes
  23. Paddle a canoe
  24. Fix a bike flat
  25. Extend your wireless network

All, with the below exceptions:

  1. Don't got no computer. Anyway, no definition of 'protect'.
  2. Don't take digital photos, and wouldn't care about retouching them if I did.
  3. You do know that this is not a guaranteed driving maneuver, don't you? Expecially on ice, or packed snow.
  4. You do realize that this could take the combined efforts of multiple persons, and perhaps one, or more wreckers, do you not? And, if you get stuck during a thaw, in wintertime, and then a freeze, you could be there until the spring thaw.
  5. Being as I do not have a computer, I backup up any files I want to be sure are saved by printing them out..
  6. I tend to stay out of boats I cannot confidentially stand up in.
  7. That would depend on what you mean by 'extend'. I regularly add numbers on my cell phone, but as I only have it for emergency use, I only call to tel a doctor's office I will be late for an appointment, etc. But, to actually use it to call people, just to talk to them? I don't call people on my house phone, so no way I'd be interested in talking on my cell phone.

How about adding some more 'lost' skills?

  1. Change a tire.
  2. Drive a stick shift.
  3. Replace burnout lights on a vehicle.
  4. Replace a window pane.
  5. Re-roof a house (used to be common for people to do their own, instead of paying someone else to do it)
  6. How to look for information, whether on a computer, or in a library, instead of just asking someone else to provide them an answer. The list goes on. And on. And on.

JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?

- Peter Egan

Reply to
J T

As the the fictional Lazerus Long said (Robert A. Heinlein):

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

That may be one of the toughest on any list, the way cars are designed today. Depending on the light, it may take an hour or more to remove all the panels and covers to get to the bulb.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski
  1. Replace burnout lights on a vehicle. That may be one of the toughest on any list, the way cars are designed today. Depending on the light, it may take an hour or more to remove all the panels and covers to get to the bulb.

When I wrote that I was thinking of head lights, tail lights, etc. - amazing how many people can't even do that. When dash lights burn out, that's one reason flashllights were invented - I believe manufactures may purposely make those so hard to change so you'll want to buy a new vehicle..

JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?

- Peter Egan

Reply to
J T

3 man and 1 woman were talking about this on CNN the other day...just the Top 10.

re: Use a torque wrench - None of them had any idea what a torque wrench was. re: Fix a dead outlet - One guy commented - "Oh yeah...a great way to burn the house down!"

Reply to
DerbyDad03

JT clarified: "When I wrote that I was thinking of head lights, tail lights, etc"

Sorry, but on many cars, headlights and tails lights can be just as difficult to replace as a dashboard lights. Tail lights can be especially difficult in vehicles without trunks - SUVs, vans, etc. In many cases, gone are the days of unscrewing the assembly from the vehicle and removing the bulb. Now, interior panels and trim may have to be removed to get to the bulb.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Bring a women to the big O is sorely missing from the list.

Reply to
Frank Drackman

On my full-size van it is a *major* project to change a headlight, requiring extensive removal of parts and the skill of a contortionist to reach the bulb. I also have a mini-van that has a burned out clearance light on the back. I'll be darned if I can figure out *any* way to get to it short of removing the entire headliner. Some of these things are major mysteries. The same mini-van has a couple of burned out lights in the dash and the dealer doesn't know how to replace them, he claims that they really aren't supposed to burn out in the normal life of the vehicle.

It's a strange, strange world we live in nowadays.

Tim Douglass

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of a teenager: God's punishment for enjoying sex.

Reply to
Tim Douglass

To replace a rear tail light on the company Silverado pickup I drive you have to either remove the "Fibre Body" cap/box or chop a hole in it to get to the lens cover screws. See:

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Reply to
Nova

Nova wrote in news:iQDGi.286$Lm2.103@trndny09:

Strange. In California, in 8 years of driving my Sierra, I've never needed to change a taillight in it. Daytime running lamps, on the other hand...

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

Check the lamp socket. You'll probably find it's scorched and the socket needs replacement. Five trucks in one office, all with the same trouble, and GM says "What problem?".

Reply to
Nova

DerbyDad03 wrote in news:1189781801.152333.94460 @k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

Electrical work is being mystified and mythified out of the realm of home owners. Yes, you can burn your house down with an electrical fire. That doesn't mean you have to live with a bad switch (more of a fire hazard) that you don't want to pay an electrician $50 to come out and replace. (This is the way it usually happens.)

People are scared because of all the fools out there that don't take the time to learn how something's supposed to be done and plan it all out.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

My Subaru Outback was cake, as is my Tacoma. AFAIR, I didn't need a single tool on the Subie. My Nissan pickup needed a 4" thick NASA procedure and room full of engineers to figure out.

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Reply to
B A R R Y

Ahhh... Power tool bulb replacement!

The cap was probably designed when bulbs were replace by removing the lens cover.

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Reply to
B A R R Y

So THAT would be why I see so many of the previous version of GM truck with only one DRL?

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Reply to
B A R R Y

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