Ship of Fools: 1001 Uses for Wire Coathangers

Thread: 1001 Uses for Wire Coathangers Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

Posted on the Get Into Heaven Free thread:

quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Wire coathangers, for when you need a more robust and longer piece of bendy wire to fasten bigger things, break into the quarter light of the car when you have lost the key, invent a fixing to prevent someone breaking into the quarter light, make an Advent wreath, hook something out of the drain, replace the radio aerial on the car...

Bend one into the shape of a star and place it on top of a burner on the stove. A pot placed on top of it will stay warm, whereas without it even the lowest temperature setting will make the pot boil.

So what do you use wire coathangers for?

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

I use them for roasting marshmallows at the beach, as God intended, of course.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

I use them to clear the drains!

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

They are an extinct item at my house, but once upon a time I would snip the middle, curl the ends and use that to hang plants from tree limbs.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Hanging up dead cats.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I was watching "Cry Freedom" last night, and in the early Soweto scenes they showed a kid pulling what looked like a toy truck made out of coat hangers.

Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :

When I lived in Zambia in the mid-60s, I saw a lot of those--but the wire was a bit thicker. I'm not sure what it came from, but not coat hangers, I think.

However, I used a coat hanger, a tea strainer, and a carpenter's clamp to make a very effective pop filter for a microphone.

Posted by Reuben (# 11361) on :

In the good old days you could break into a car with one by popping the door lock mechanism.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

A much-loved maori comedian some years ago gave us the maori word for a car radio aerial: kotanga.

GG

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

When I've been poor at Christmas, I've bent the bodies of wire hangers into circles and twist scads of white, fluffy rectangles of tissue around them to make fluffy wreaths. Add red bows and and some red sequins and you've got decorations galore with their own hooks. [Smile]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I have made these before. They are fun.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

Here in Oz the coathanger (or kotanga) can be shaped most appropriately

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Many cars down here used to have a coathanger twisted around and ends jammed in aerial socket for the car radio. A bit of experimenting showed the right shape. I haven't seen these nearly as much since aerials were made retractable.

Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on :

I do wish I'd known a few years ago that wire coat hangers were on the way to extinction, after dry cleaners went over to plastic ones. We only have one left in the house now and are preserving it for a job where it's really needed.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

When we were children we used to straighten them, leaving a loop at the bottom with a diameter off about 4 to 6inches which we would dip in dishwashing detergent, the swish in the air to make really bpg bubbles.

I think i might rescue a couple when I go up to clean out my father's house, there are heaps there.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

unblocking the vacuum cleaner hose

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

Long ago when gas furnaces had pilot lights, our pilot light kept going out. Someone from the gas company always came to fix it free, but meanwhile we were cold.

The technician had a device for reaching a lighted match into the proper place. My husband made a similar device by soldering an alligator clip onto the end of a straightened coat hanger.

Mo

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Blocked overflow pipe.

Reaching something that has fallen down the back of the bookcase.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

As part of mobiles, actually I do one with two of the fishing wire and unwanted freebie cds or dvds. It is simple and because the light reflects off the cds and dvds it entertains people (I was going to say babies but my Mum made sure she had one as well because she liked them so much).

Jengie

Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
As part of mobiles, actually I do one with two of the fishing wire and unwanted freebie cds or dvds. It is simple and because the light reflects off the cds and dvds it entertains people (I was going to say babies but my Mum made sure she had one as well because she liked them so much).

Jengie

I'm sure I can recall vaguely making mobiles out of wire coathangers when I was about 5 or 6. I think they made good Christmas decorations if I remember rightly.

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

The uk children's programme Blue Peter, used to make an advent wreath out of coathangers every year..

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

I've used them (pulled out and hooked at one end) to discreetly tinker with the entrance reducers in our beehives without getting the inhabitants too irritated.;-)

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

the best thing for blocked toilets

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

Or, more seriously, and genuinely horrifying, David Mach's larger-than life sculpture of Jesus crucified made entirely of coathangers.

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

the obvious, yes? a little bit of B&E. I'm really, really skilled at locking myself out of my car or house.

Posted by kaytee (# 3482) on :

Yes I remember making mobiles with them, also hooking something out that was stuck behind the radiator.

Also dowsing rods. I don't remember whether they worked, so probably they didn't!

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Oh, they work as dowsing rods. That trick I've done.

I was given them as an experiment as a teenager. "Just hold these like that and walk across there and see what happens". It's very spooky when they just move in your hands and cross. It's even spookier to be told that with me (and it was only me in the crowd I was with) that I was finding the underground pipes accurately.

We all had a go and then were told by the farmer what we were doing. He'd paid a dowser to come in and find out where the pipes ran under his farmyard before having some work done and wondered if anyone could do it. He couldn't and was wondering how common it was. Apparently not very.

One of the others had the wires move in their hands, but not so definitely and not this very clear crossing over, apparently in exactly the right places. He had me check them all out to see if I was consistent.

I was a school friend of his daughter.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:

I was given them as an experiment as a teenager. "Just hold these like that and walk across there and see what happens". It's very spooky when they just move in your hands and cross. It's even spookier to be told that with me (and it was only me in the crowd I was with) that I was finding the underground pipes accurately.

Yes, it works every time for me too - supersensitive to water?

Posted by Jahlove (# 10290) on :

DIY abortion

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Turning on a broken computer switch. (A broken coathanger has made me the SoF poster I am today....)

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

If you have enough of them you could build a Faraday cage and escape from the internet and mobile phone signals.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

Put a wiener or marshmallow on it and roast it over an open fire. A standard Canadian use.

[caution]
But do not heat up the coat hanger to red hot and then inadvertently brand the person beside you. Many tears have been shed over sticky marshmallow containing burns.
[/caution]

Posted by Cryptic (# 16917) on :

Use them for anytjing except hanging a coat - a nice broad shouldered hanger is much better for your coat... [Big Grin]

As wire coathangers become less common, it's well worth keeping a roll of wire handy, and a good pair of pliers which will make the manipulation ar any wire so much easier!

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Cryptic:
As wire coathangers become less common, it's well worth keeping a roll of wire handy, and a good pair of pliers which will make the manipulation ar any wire so much easier!

Would that be Number 8 fencing wire? It is a fundamental belief here that a New Zealander can fix anything with a piece of #8 wire.

GG

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

We used so much of that stuff we built our own spinner for it. Very useful. It's much better quality than a wire hanger. The thought of food being roasted on one makes my stomach turn.

[ 18. June 2012, 10:28: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]

Posted by Nanny Ogg (# 1176) on :

No=one has mentioned the Blue Peter advent crown yet

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

Two hangers bent into wing shapes and covered with white fabric add a tutu and white T-shirt for a fancy dress fairy outfit.

The easiest hanger conversion is to use it as a hanger. Sew up the bottom of an old T-shirt, put a hanger in as usual and you have a peg bag for hanging the washing out.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nanny Ogg:
No=one has mentioned the Blue Peter advent crown yet

Actually...

Posted by Cryptic (# 16917) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
Would that be Number 8 fencing wire? It is a fundamental belief here that a New Zealander can fix anything with a piece of #8 wire.

GG

Not fencing wire specifically, just the rolls of general purpose wire that can be bought at hardware stores. A small roll is cheap so you can afford to keep a few different thicknesses on hand.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

My daughter had to dress as a squirrel (don't ask). I bought a man's large brown sweatshirt from a charity shop for £3, and adapted. The tail was the cut off hem of the sweatshirt stiffened with a bent coat hanger. Result!

The other squirrel's mother had carved a loofah into a perfect squirrel-tail shape, and then knitted a made-to-measure cover for the said loofah out of fluffy wool the perfect shade of squirrel.

I had the last laugh. By simply removing the coat hanger and adding plastic teeth my outfit became a Hallowe'en werewolf, and by rebending the coat hanger to fit round the head and adding ears, it became the Christmas Nativity play donkey.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

Scratching the part of your back you can't reach.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Scratching up inside plaster casts (that goes back a while though)

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

Before I finally found some wax incense burners (to use for burning resin incense relatively smokelessly), I had found - I think through help from the Ship! - websites saying how to make incense burners out of coat hangers. It didn't work, but in the process I was told this is also a common drug paraphernalia. Basically, the idea was to bend the coat hanger so there are 2 loops on either end, then bend it so that one loop is the stand and the other loop is positioned above it. Then you place foil over the top loop, and a votive candle in the bottom loop. IME, it just caught the aluminum foil on fire!

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Polly Plummer:
I do wish I'd known a few years ago that wire coat hangers were on the way to extinction, after dry cleaners went over to plastic ones. We only have one left in the house now and are preserving it for a job where it's really needed.

Are they? My drycleaner still uses them and I have a wardrobe full!

Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
My daughter had to dress as a squirrel (don't ask). I bought a man's large brown sweatshirt from a charity shop for £3, and adapted. The tail was the cut off hem of the sweatshirt stiffened with a bent coat hanger. Result!

The other squirrel's mother had carved a loofah into a perfect squirrel-tail shape, and then knitted a made-to-measure cover for the said loofah out of fluffy wool the perfect shade of squirrel.

I had the last laugh. By simply removing the coat hanger and adding plastic teeth my outfit became a Hallowe'en werewolf, and by rebending the coat hanger to fit round the head and adding ears, it became the Christmas Nativity play donkey.

Recycling ...!... [Big Grin]

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

Just came across this - it doesn't seem remarkably useful to me, but you can make shoe hangers - scroll down to #16. (There are some cool ideas on that page!)

Posted by Paddy O'Furniture (# 12953) on :

When I was fifteen or so and couldn't afford real drum equipment, I fashioned a cymbal holder out of a coat hanger and some metal bits and pieces. I found an old pie tin at a yard sale, punched holes in it and hung it from the coat hanger which was attached to a rickety cymbal stand... some of my found objects actually sounded decent.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Bend one into the shape of a star and place it on top of a burner on the stove. A pot placed on top of it will stay warm, whereas without it even the lowest temperature setting will make the pot boil.

You have an all-electric kitchen don't you? A gas cooker would make it red-hot or burn it up, I would think.

When I was a kid and cars had frameless door glass, you could easily get past a side window to break into your car and retrieve the key you had locked in it! (You couldn't do that in the last car I drove but did not own: the Jaguar senses the presence of a key fob in your pocket, lets you in and you push a big red button to start it. Then the gear selector rises from the centre console so you can put the car in gear automatically or select the flappy paddles on the back of the steering wheel for even more supercharged fun!)

Posted by ProgenitorDope (# 16648) on :

Here's a use, even though I don't recommend or condone hangers being used this way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUkE9qaVgmo

(Oh, don't act like no one saw THIS coming.)

Posted by Paddy O'Furniture (# 12953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Or, more seriously, and genuinely horrifying, David Mach's larger-than life sculpture of Jesus crucified made entirely of coathangers.

Reminds me of "Pinhead" from the Hellraiser movies. Dreadful! Thanks for potentially giving me nightmares!

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Paddy O'Furniture:
When I was fifteen or so and couldn't afford real drum equipment, I fashioned a cymbal holder out of a coat hanger and some metal bits and pieces. I found an old pie tin at a yard sale, punched holes in it and hung it from the coat hanger which was attached to a rickety cymbal stand... some of my found objects actually sounded decent.

I'm a big fan of that sort of ingenuity!

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

There is an emporium chain in the UK called The Range which sells wire coathangers. Plastic coated. Should anyone have run out.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

Looks like todays's "Zits" comic strip is the first of six on this subject.

Posted by Janine (# 3337) on :

I remember a story, Heaven knows who wrote it -- You know how there always seems to be a huge over-supply of wire coathangers... until one day, mysteriously, you can't find a single one?

It's because there's a breeding-through-nymph-stages larval process going on with them.

There is the same abundance-to-zero phenomenon going on with cups and dishes of paperclips and safety pins... and ricketty "Where did that come from?" bicycles piling up here and there.

Pins and clips -> wire coathangers -> bicycles.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Janine:
I remember a story, Heaven knows who wrote it -- You know how there always seems to be a huge over-supply of wire coathangers... until one day, mysteriously, you can't find a single one?

It's because there's a breeding-through-nymph-stages larval process going on with them.

There is the same abundance-to-zero phenomenon going on with cups and dishes of paperclips and safety pins... and ricketty "Where did that come from?" bicycles piling up here and there.

Pins and clips -> wire coathangers -> bicycles.

In order to mutate from paper clips to hangers to bicycles they need to eat a lot of socks -- but only one sock from each pair.

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned wiring up dropped exhaust pipes. We used one many years ago to hold the exhaust on my mini, which had collapsed at a very inconvenient time, and the repairman used one to wire up the exhaust on Lord P's friend's car when it collapsed after she'd visited us when we were on holidays.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

To rescue things that fall down the back of the radiator.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

I've got a new one.

Planted out cabbages on Saturday. Sunday lunch time, a pigeon had most of the leaves. I protected the rest with pyracantha prunings. Monday morning, it uprooted them and had the rest.

I now have a long string running from my top floor spare room window to the fence at the other end of the garden, down which will slide a cutout hawk, stuck to the base of a wire coathanger, so it moves in the breeze. The hanger is a right angles to the string, and the head and tail in line with the string. I've almost closed the hook so it doesn't fall off, but I can still detach it if necessary.(Needs refining, as it doesn't run all that smoothly at the moment.) I can haul it back in at night, or if too wet, and change its position so the pigeons don't get too used to it.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:

quote:
Originally posted by Janine:
I remember a story, Heaven knows who wrote it -- You know how there always seems to be a huge over-supply of wire coathangers... until one day, mysteriously, you can't find a single one?

It's because there's a breeding-through-nymph-stages larval process going on with them.

There is the same abundance-to-zero phenomenon going on with cups and dishes of paperclips and safety pins... and ricketty "Where did that come from?" bicycles piling up here and there.

Pins and clips -> wire coathangers -> bicycles.
In order to mutate from paper clips to hangers to bicycles they need to eat a lot of socks -- but only one sock from each pair.

There's another theory that coathangers are the adult form of biros - which explains why you can never find a biro when you need one.

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