Fix an Umbrella With Piercing Barbells

Fix an Umbrella With Piercing Barbells

Matt Daughtrey fixed his umbrella by replacing the el cheapo rivets with stainless steel barbells he bought off Ebay. Very clever!

We’ve all seen this before – the ‘broken spoke’ which seems to me to be the most common failure of the contemporary umbrella, from the $4 street corner specials to the $20 upmarket models with the ‘lifetime guarantee’, which I assume means the lifetime of the average housefly.

This is particularly aggravating to me because although the metal can be recycled the lifetime of an umbrella is incredibly short considering how often it is actually used. In my case my umbrella had not even been in the wind; it’s just so poorly made that part of it broke.

12 thoughts on “Fix an Umbrella With Piercing Barbells

  1. fairlyuseless says:

    Why fix them? When they make such awesome parachutes!

    http://www.instructables.com/id/Umbrella-Parachutes/

  2. ambiguator says:

    Stainless steel jewelry can get really expensive.
    For this purpose, seems like even some cheaper grade steel would work ok, as long as it’s better than the crappy aluminum.

    Nice fix

    1. Matt Daughtrey says:

      True, but doing it this way means that anyone with a pair of pliers can do it.

  3. Matt Daughtrey says:

    *Matt* Daughtrey, not Mike. Oy.

    1. John Baichtal says:

      Aw, man!

      1. Matt Daughtrey says:

        :) thanks John

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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