This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
Also, this is an old meme, and a bit outdated for our times, but no one has mentioned it so ill do it. The Nokia 3310. Truly the AK-47 of phones.
My 99 honda civic had nearly 250,000 miles on it the day that it was stolen. When it was found, the thieves had gutted the dashboard of electronics and had removed wheels and other parts. When it was discovered by the police, they towed it to the city in-pound lot and failed to contact me for a couple days because the license plate had been painted over for some reason.
Unfortunately the lot and towing fees ended up being more than what I paid for the car. I wasnt very well off at the time, so I surrendered it to the city. I assumed it would be scrapped for parts.
6 months later it was served to me in ad for Facebook Marketplace. Some guy had fixed it up and had been driving it regularly for months with no issue.
I still wish that I had bought it from him. I fuckin loved that car. I used it to deliver pizzas for 2 years, so i wasnt even that easy on it. I never had a major engine or transmission issue with it and the minor issues that I had were easy for me to fix myself. I bet it’s still running out there somewhere.
There’s magic in those old 90s Hondas, I’ve seen it. I had a stripped valve cover bolt and couldn’t figure out how I could fix it short of a head replacement. The answer? Plug it with a rubber and metal washer sandwich and a bolt, and tighten the ones next to it a lil more. Never leaked. Thing was a champ
I think every Swedish household i’ve ever been in has owned the same Moccamaster coffee brewer for over 15 years. My parents have had the same one for over 20 years probably, swear those are indestructible.
The P4$.FL 44 BF.A OBVIOUSLY guys why has no one mentioned it? Jesus Christ it’s like you want them to break!
^The comments in this thread
Sony MDR-V6. I’ve had them for 15+ years, only had to change ear pads to velour ones after the first 5 years of use, after that 10+ years, no issues.
Carolina Outdoor Work Boots.
Like wearing a bulletproof vest on your feet.
Thank you for the recommendation :)
I’ve been searching for steel toes ever since I was burned by Red Wings.
That metal toaster we got for a wedding present. It was apparently someone’s parents wedding present from the 60’s. We had it for several years until a friend jammed a bagel in it and melted the cord. I replaced the cord and we used it for another several years before losing it in a move.
I like to believe someone found it and it is still toasting to this day.
Was it one of those automatic toasters? Technology connections made a video on it.
There is a Sub-Lem for that: https://slrpnk.net/c/buyitforlife
I thought we called them communities, but honestly I like sub-lem better. Let’s switch if we haven’t already.
Aeropress coffee maker.
Its like 20$, works really well, very simple design with few things to break.
What’s a French press? I’ve only seen drip pots in my life so I’m completely ignorant to the coffee world.
It’s like a small pitcher with a movable filter, you put in the ground coffee, hit water, stir, wait, push down the filter with the grounds, pour off the coffee with most of the ground staying in the French press.
So why not use a dripper? I’ve always wanted to get into coffee and want to try an espresso so bad lol
So why not use a dripper?
Whereas a drip just passes through the coffee, a French 0ress is more of a steep. You get a stronger taste from it than you would on a drip.
Espresso is a whole other thing, expensive to get into at home. It uses a much finer grind and (IIRC) the water is pushed through under pressure.
Wild. That’s kinda intricate coffee for most people is just a simple process and keep moving. Thanks for the knowledge! I appreciate the write up.
I switched to a French Press recently-ish. Instead of 4 or 5 cups of weaker coffee from my single serve drip thingie, I have 2 strong cups from my French Press and am ready to go. I’m thinking about trying a pourover to see how that is. Espresso is tasty and strong, but I don’t think I’d want it NEARLY enough to justify a machine. I usually only do espresso when I’m traveling, makes me feel fancy having a latte in the big city haha.
All that said, coffee is very individual. There is no “right” answer. If you’re happy with drip, than drip is the way. :)
Bodum French Press
Dynavap DHV
Buffalo Bicycles
Vitamix Blender
I can’t find “DHV”, I guess that’s an old model? What would you recommend for something modern that “just works”?
Gotta be the KitchenAid mixers no? Especially the older ones. I have a friend that has one from his grandma that’s over 50 years old. If anything breaks, it’s usually a gear or something simple to fix, and the parts are easy to buy and generally cheap.
The mixers are not exactly cheap though… and their other stuff is now mostly made from plastic (like the food processors for example)
I’ve managed to get a hold of 3 of the old ones through garage or estate sales, but yeah the ones that are brand new have plastic parts in them which drives me crazy. But you can at least 3d print what you’re missing
Shure SM58/57
SM57s still can get roughed up pretty bad with the plastic covering on the front of the mic (especially if miking a snare drum with a less than precise drummer). SM58 will survive a nuclear war.
Pre-2010 Toyota Corolla
Camry too.
Concept2 rowing machines. Even if they break, you can still buy spare parts at reasonable rates even for the very first model, which is decades old and only sold a few copies. Fantastic engineering.
Hold their value like crazy too even if you don’t like them you likely lose nothing if not very very little.
It’s a real baader-meinhoff phenomenon: once you notice them, you notice that every gym has them.
Pre GM SAABs. I’ve personally gotten 2 of my 5 to over 1,000,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. Both manual transmission. A couple hundred of them have made it to 2,000,000 world wide. The lowest milage I killed a SAAB at was 789,000 miles. I hydroplaned into a semi on I-75, and the car still technically ran, but I gave it to my parents as a parts car. Just read the owners manual, and be absolutely religious about basic maintenance.
Oh, and the turbos don’t like low octane fuel. It gums them up.
How does a turbo that intakes air get gummed up from low octane fuel? Maybe oil is the issue since turbos have oil seals. Maybe I’m missing some unknown factor on turbos.
It’s not the actual turbo that gets gummed, the fuel system is what gums up, but for some reason it’s far worse on the turbo versions of the cars. I could put low octane into the non turbo SAABs I had, and it didn’t gum up the intake the way the turbo versions did. I don’t know why.
Fuel lines degrade under lower octane perhaps. Sounds like a design flaw. I’ve always heard from my car auction and dealer friends that SAABs are junk through and through. I’ve heard it countless times. Hmm…
Nah, Americans just don’t like to read the manuals, and they got a bad reputation in the late '70s and early '80s when they first put turbos into the cars, because you had to pull into the driveway, and let the turbo spin down for at least 30 seconds to a minute. If you didn’t, the turbo would seize and then shred itself when you turn the car back on.
Also American mechanics don’t like the fact that the engine is not in the configuration they are used to. It’s rotated 90° on the z axis and 45 on the x axis. Absolutely solid tanks if you actually read the manual, and followed the routine maintenance recommendations.
Sounds like a giant pain to work on but I’m interested in doing some reading just to learn about something that can potentially contradict what I’ve always heard. Thanks. I’ll look into this.
Once you wrap your head around the new orientation of things, it’s actually really well designed to work on. I figured the mechanics just didn’t want to learn anything “new”
I’m just interested in super high mileage capable vehicles. For instance my cousin has a 12v Cummins diesel and it has over 1m miles. 750k ish when he got it 10 years ago.