hey everybody Adam Savage here with a show-and-tell from my cave and an old
bit of Mythbusters history show and tell it is this is a little sculpture a
little mechanical device that I built while we were filming the Mythbusters
cabin-fever episode this was I believe actually I can't remember if it's the
first or the second time we went to Alaska we went to Alaska twice while we
were making Mythbusters both times to help promote a bunch of the Alaska shows
that Discovery had on at the time they like to do that synergistic thing where
if they have one program that's doing really well they kind of refer to
aspects of that program with other programming we did a Deadliest Catch
episode on Mythbusters you know it is peculiar that we never did a Dirty Jobs
I just feels like I feels like something we should have done Mike
Mike we got to do a dirty job together someday
well you know never say never but it seems crazy that we never did one
however we did do a couple of Alaska episodes to support Discovery's Alaska
programming and both times we went to Alaska in January I have to say Alaska
is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen even in January and I've heard
in the summer it's like you never want to leave the place it was gorgeous
we spent time in both Ketchikan on one shoot and Matsu County on another shoe
and I really really can't remember where we filmed the cabin fever episode but we
found a we found a set of cabins that were for rent in a relatively shut down
cabin rental place and we set out for Jamie and I to sequester ourselves for
something around two to five days we really didn't know how long we were
going to be in since you it was generally expected that Jamie would do
better than I would I mean for obvious reasons it's clear that Jamie does not
need people to function but again I also like the cabin fever episode bears
directly on this moment in time this quarantine it's about how you can keep
your brain occupied and in that regard when we filmed a cabin fever episode
kari byron did mean one of the greatest solids that anyone's done for me on a
shoot which was she left a couple of wire coat hangers in the closet now let
me tell you about wire coat hanger wire is my favorite wire it is just heavy
enough to be mechanically stable and yet it's light enough that it's pretty easy
to bend with your basic tools and to do from fairly precise bending some fairly
nice bending I have fixed so many problems with coat hangers I've broken
into cars that I've locked my keys in I have used it to snake things out of the
sewer the drop down there and I have built devices like this one
the thing about coat hanger wire is it's both structurally it has some structure
to it but it's also really ductile it's very soft
we weirdly mild snot weirdly but it's just a mild steel I think of it as this
like sort of perfect hybrid of rigid and movable and in that regard I think of
coat hanger wire as the fingernail of materials let me explain when you want
to get like a sticker off of something like this there is there are a few
objects better than your fingernail forgetting underneath the thing without
scratching the stuff below it so your fingernail the tightness material your
fingernails are made out of it's like this perfect perfect mid-range hardness
right it's hard enough that you could really get some purchase on a sticker
soft enough that you won't scratch the thing underneath and you try that with a
blade and you're just gonna scratch away so there's this way which a fingernail
is like this perfect bit of material science the coat hanger wire is the same
to me and so as I was settling into my cabin adventure and I noticed there were
some coat hangers in the closet I was like well I know how several hours of my
time spent in quarantine here in Alaska will be spent and I built
this little mechanical arrangement later I found out I said boy it was great
there was a couple of wire hangers and Kerry said yeah I left those for you
so kari byron you did me a solid aye aye you are a what do you call it I want to
say a king among men but let's let's use a gender-neutral term a mensch you're a
mensch thank you so I want to just show you this device because it is a little
bit of a cam it is a oh wow it doesn't quaint oh yeah yeah there we go
that was it right I don't think I ever got it to spin completely but it's a
little mechanical arrangement for tipping this Cup over and I used some
this is a bit of the cardboard tube from the from the coat hanger that the wire
was taken from by the way I was allowed to keep my Leatherman I was allowed to
keep my Leatherman multi-tool with which I could cut and shape every aspect of
this so Kerry knew I was bringing my Leatherman she'd left me the coat hanger
it's so awesome all right let's get some close-ups so you guys can see this thing
yeah there we go I love objects obviously for the stories
that they tell and this one tells a particularly nifty story to me it is one
of generosity and ingenuity and also it reminds me of a couple of amazing trips
to Alaska thank you guys for joining me on this little Mythbusters Show and Tell
have a great day hey go get a wire coat hanger and make something out of a wire
coat hanger I swear to goodness it will will make
your day just a little bit better I have little pokey things I have
kitchen implements I've improved with these things again the fingernail of
materials you cannot overstate the awesomeness of the wire in a wire coat
hanger thanks guys see you next time