Tools that have specific or singular purpose are useful tools indeed. The one that does just about everything is a requirement. Sitting on the bottom shelf of the rolling tool cart for over five years now is an well-used spool of baling wire. From a roadside repair made to hold up a teetering muffler and tailpipe, to more driveway-based uses such as suspending brake calipers out of the way the while hammering on ball joints, the trusty spool of baling wire is unparalleled in its utility. While the warm days of summer may bring with them the revelation the only thing holding that old jalopy together was baling wire and large chunks of ice, a tool collection without baling wire is simply incomplete. It won’t solve all problems, but can eliminate quite a few. The best feature of baling wire is that it’s a tool of a thousand purposes as yet undiscovered! Think of all those eureka moments that have yet to come.
In all fairness, a good substitute for baling wire happens to be coathangers. The GMC Slownoma I used to have was mostly held together with coathangers…and hose clamps.
Slight correction. This wire is useful for lots and lots of things, it is true. But, you won’t “bail” anything with it. The name comes from the wire that was used to bind hay bales together on the farm, hence “baling wire”.
My car isn’t too badly jury-rigged – but my bicycle is held together with random nuts, bolts, pieces of wire, whatever I can find. There’s naturally some baling wire there somewhere – I think.
The thinking wrench’s duct tape. I also am a firm believer in zip ties.