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Book/Resource Needed
13 August 2015, 16:44,
#1
Book/Resource Needed
Need the following.

I recall visiting the Imperial War Museum as a kid and was so impressed with the stuff put together by POW's in their camps whether it was radios with a coil wrapper around a piece of cardboard or other stuff they just had to make themselves.

Similar take the case of Cuba which has had to cannibalise everything (not just cars)

After SHTF we may well be left with a lot of scrap and have to cannibalise ourselves to fabricate almost everything.

Does anyone know of any books/resources that show how to make stuff from scrap?

Thanks
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13 August 2015, 18:50,
#2
RE: Book/Resource Needed
The book I mentioned earlier this week is just such a book, The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell tis a taster and a brief explanation of the science, history, making and practical uses of many old technologies , it's not the definitive text on any of it but it's a good taster , I have a borrowed copy in paper back but I've ordered it in hardback for my library.
Nothing is fool proof for a sufficiently talented fool!!!!
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14 August 2015, 07:50,
#3
RE: Book/Resource Needed
Thanks for that. The Knowledge is a good starter - at least it tells you "What" needs to be addressed. I am looking for books/resources that say "How" to use scrap to meet needs.
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14 August 2015, 16:04,
#4
RE: Book/Resource Needed
There are a ton of these. There are some in the file store as well to get you started. To be honest though most of then start from specific scrap such as IBCs, packing trays, etc. so I suspect that you won't get what you actually want here.

Even that book Midnitemo talks about won't be that much of a help.

Adaptability for each situation isn't easily documented.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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14 August 2015, 17:41, (This post was last modified: 14 August 2015, 17:45 by Mortblanc.)
#5
RE: Book/Resource Needed
Accomplishing these projects is as much an art as it is a step by step process that one can write down, and the variations are endless.

Say a project calls for 1/4" angle iron and that is not in your scrap pile. Can you substitute 3/8" flat stock?

That depends on the situation. Perhaps angle iron was absolutely required for that application, but perhaps not. Do you stop work because you have no angle iron?? Not on your life!

I have often been forced to substitute wood for steel when building racks to hold water butts, and I now routinely substitute PVC pipe for galvanized and copper because of cost. I am at the point that I keep a box full of couplings and fittings and 20-30 feet of the pipe on hand for any occasion.

You never know, I might need to make a pvc bow and arrows some day as well as reworking the plumbing!

Say you are building a tractor and the plan calls for a Toyota engine and all you have is a Ford engine and that requires a complete change in the wiring schematic.

What if the plan calls for welding, and since you have neither welder or electricity to run it on you are forced to salvage old bolts and clamp it together. Will that hold under the stress?

I am a big "project person" and I keep some contraption scattered over the grounds almost constantly. Many times they are built just to see if they will work and cobbled together from scrap as it is available. Odd thing is, most of the time they do work! And it always amazes me.

One thing I can guarantee is that you will never have a build go according to plan, even if you buy a commercial kit with the plan included!

Just yesterday I had a collapsible cart delivered to the house. Before I even assembled it I looked at the fasteners and declared them unfit. I drove to town and bought a bag full of 1/4" bolts and washers and the contraption now lives in the back of my SUV, waiting for the proper wing nuts to spin it into use.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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15 August 2015, 12:43,
#6
RE: Book/Resource Needed
it's all in the way you think....some people just aren't wired this way and as has been said already the chances of a book showing you how to manipulate things into a working unit is very unlikely to show it done with what you may have to hand....got to have an idea about tools physic's and mechanic's plus logic and imagination.....I was a king bodger out of nessescity back in the day when I had little money.
Nothing is fool proof for a sufficiently talented fool!!!!
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15 August 2015, 19:56,
#7
RE: Book/Resource Needed
And in a SHTF situation you even have to improvise for tooling, which requires thinking outside the box. Battery powered cordless tools recharged by solar units, but not directly. Solar charges a battery bank which powers an inverter which charges the tools.

Straight solar to tool would take days to recharge.

Even powering the cordless tools right off a 12v car battery will not give them enough amps to drill a hole. Been there, done that.

And not all inverters will power electric tools. It takes a 1200w inverter just to over-ride the surge of starting a drill gun, and more than that for a Skillsaw, or heavy tools.

So, my garden tractor, with 12v battery, suddenly has a 1200w inverter strapped on with bungee cords and becomes a portable generator???

So, even if you have a book with a wonderful batch of goodies to build to assist your survival, you have already defeated the purpose. If you know you will need to build those things after SHTF why did you not buy them before SHTF?

My all time greatest goal is to have a wood gasifier built and ready to install on my jeep. I simply can not justify building it and having it sit in the shed taking up room for another 40 years while I wait for the end of the world.

Some folks tell me just keeping a big honking 2 1/2 ton, 4wd machine, just to drive in the snow and pull my camper and boats is excessive, I can not imagine what they would say if they found a wood gasifier in the shed. They'd probably lock me away in an old folks home.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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15 August 2015, 22:55,
#8
RE: Book/Resource Needed
Have checked out a friend's Cuban book, I think it was called Technological Disobedience. Dedicated to this kind of thing. It was an artist whom dedicated his spare time to collecting the developments and changes to Cuban 'internal engineering'. From what I had read of Sam's book, the Cuban gov sent out a list of books about it, then complied a separate book of their own that was readily available.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
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16 August 2015, 12:12,
#9
RE: Book/Resource Needed
(15 August 2015, 22:55)Scythe13 Wrote: Have checked out a friend's Cuban book, I think it was called Technological Disobedience. Dedicated to this kind of thing. It was an artist whom dedicated his spare time to collecting the developments and changes to Cuban 'internal engineering'. From what I had read of Sam's book, the Cuban gov sent out a list of books about it, then complied a separate book of their own that was readily available.

s13 - thanks - a +1 for that response which got me researching a bit more.

The artist in question was Ernesto Ouza and an interview with him can be found here. http://www.vice.com/video/the-technologi...esto-oroza

He calls it technological disobedience because it goes against all the 'rules' that the object was originally intended for. (It also betrays the artists somewhat marxist worldview imho)

A more western word might be 'disruption'. When the americans left cuba and tried to isolate it, the people had to make do. The situation got even worse when the Soviet Union fell and Cuba entered what was called "The Special Period in Time of Peace".

Fidel encouraged people to bastardize bits and pieces and the Cuban army published a book called "The Book for the Family" which was a compilation of data from around the world.

A couple of years later they published another book of the peoples contributions called "With our Own Hands"

You can download this *rather large item HERE.

Finally in the spirit in which this is intended, a rather young Jeremy Clarkson visits Cuba and finds brake fluid being made locally
HERE

Hope you find these useful
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16 August 2015, 16:00,
#10
RE: Book/Resource Needed
Cool links and good find RS, thank you. I never really thought of it as a prep, but makes total sense.

My Spanish isn't as good as it used to be, and I'm much better with spoken than written, so I must confess to not reading the whole book, as it was in spanish. But the term Technological Disobedience confused me, so I remembered it well. No way I was going to remember Ernest OOwza though haha.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
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