Showerthought: That time a spilled coffee in a server room taught me a new trick

I was doing a late night upgrade at a small law firm in Albany, and I knocked a full cup of coffee right onto the floor next to their main server rack. Panic mode! I grabbed the shop vac from my truck, but it was too loud and bulky to get into the tight space. Then I remembered seeing a keyboard cleaning putty in my kit. I used a whole pack of it, rolling it over the wet tile to grab every last drop and coffee ground. It worked perfectly and was way faster than trying to mop up a sticky mess with paper towels in a cramped area. Now I always keep a few packs of that putty in my bag, not just for keyboards but for quick liquid spills in tight spots. It's saved me a couple times since. Has anyone else found a weird use for a common tool like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

anthonymurray1mo ago

Damn, that's genius, I'm grabbing some putty for my kit now lol.

kai_butler831mo ago

Yeah, that stuff is a total lifesaver for quick fixes. Kept a small tub in my bag for years after a hinge snapped mid-trip. Just packed it around the broken part and it held until I got home for a real repair. Honestly feels like half my gear is held together with the stuff now.

the_evan20d ago

And here's the thing nobody talks about - that putty is actually better than a lot of "real" repairs in some situations. I've got a cracked plastic housing on a power tool that I fixed with the stuff three years ago and it's still holding better than the original weld. The way it bonds to rough surfaces and flexes slightly under load means it can outlast the proper fix in some cases. Not saying throw away your soldering iron or epoxy, but for certain applications like handles and casings that take constant vibration? That putty might be the permanent solution.