Finger in the pipe

[Chedders]

My worst DIY disaster was a plumbing one several years ago. I was re-decorating and decided to take off the central heating radiator. I turned off the water and dismantled the radiator but water starting spurting out of the pipe. After unsuccessfully trying to resolve the problem I had to get my 7 year old son to stick his thumb in the pipe whilst I called the plumber. Of course we had to wait for well over an hour for the plumber to arrive and so had to take it in turns to plug the pipe. It was very frightening at the time but the vision of the little Dutch boy with his finger in the "dam" came to mind and I used the story to console my son who was complaing that his thumb was beginning to hurt.

Apparently I had omitted to close off the valve on the pipe leading to the radiator and also, of course, didn't shut off the cold water.

We still laugh at the memory - my sone is 23 years old now.

 

[TexMex]

I had to get my 7 year old son to stick his thumb in the pipe whilst I called the plumber.

Dead handy these kids eh? Every tool box should have one. They can also unblock toilets. You just tell them that thier favorite toy is just on the other side of the bend, behind that blobby stuff. You could also get them to unblock a sink. Just suspend them over the sink and get them to suck on the plug hole. You'd have to come up with your own anecdote of a hero that saved the world by sucking really hard

 

[nstreet]

They are a bit like a multi tool, lots of different bits for different jobs. I wanted to do some pipe threading the other day, didn't have a vice handy so put the pipe in my four year olds mouth. Ten minutes later I had finished the job. What would I have done without one.

It would be really great if you could get them from Screwfix.

 

[pipme]

More akin to their own weight in cemtex, I reckon

 

[TexMex]

They can be a bit of a liability at times though. Doing a bit of woodwork at home a while back, I put my tape measure down and couldn't find it. Nothing too unusual in that, after getting fed up trying to find it I went and got another from the shed. Later, I couldn't find that one either. Once the third one had gone missing, I finally asked my 7yr old grand daughter to help in the search.

"Oh, that, I've put it in a safe place so you won't loose it again". She says.
"And where's that then?" I ask.
"Upstairs in my jewelery box with the others!"