A farm-born phrase for equipment kept running with whatever was at hand: wire, tape, zap straps, hose clamps and hope. It is used admiringly for resourcefulness and critically for a shop that never fixes anything properly. A machine described this way is one bad day away from a breakdown.
Heard on the job
Coolant pump's held together with bubblegum and baling wire, order a real one before it quits on second shift.
Also heard as
- baling wire and duct tape
- chewing gum and string
Related terms
Bodge
A crude, makeshift repair or piece of work that does the job, but only just.
Zap strap
Canadian shop name for a plastic cable tie, the one-way locking strap that holds everything together.
Fabricobble
To fabricate something by cobbling it together from scrap and whatever is lying around.
Dog's breakfast
A complete mess: a badly organized job, a tangled setup or a botched piece of work.