How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ?

[forgeblast]

You can use charcoal it works fine, Just does not last as lone as coal. Even hard wood can be used. I have an old hand cranked forge, but a bellows or most anything to blow air is fine.

For flux plain old "Borax" will work fine. Boric acid crystals may work better, but have never tried them.

Fully agree. I have a big container of Borax it works great. Hardwood charcoal...when one of my buddies who is a professional smith (makes functional armor from vikings and romans) was low on $$ for coal, he would take all the charcoal lumps from any cookouts we would have.
I heard also with the tattle dont use a knife to open them otherwise you can damage the seal.
We made pemmican (or something like it) when I was working at a middle school and we had a unit on louis and clark. They make and burried supplies to see what they would look like by the end of the year. It was a great hands on unit.

 

[Jesse masterson]

Nothing wrong with a scientist , were would gilligans and the crew been without the professor? Joking but serious too!

 

[Rob-D]

Not familiar with those seals. We do a lot of canning n that is the one hitch having to buy new lids all the time:thumbdown:

Just googled them, they look good, think I will order a trial pack, thanks:thumbsup:

Rick,
I've heard these seals fail after time. If they work for you let us know.

 

[Egon]

Is that with or without flies? :laughing: Well, it's all protein.

Watching Preppers the other night, I was wondering how many would be killed by botulism. Hot water bath canning of low-acid foods would be the thing that worried me. A good pressure cooker would be worth having.

Egon- Do you know if black smithing can be done with just a bellows-fanned hardwood fire? Or, does coal and coke make life much easier, maybe a fluxing agent too for welds?

Primitive Blacksmith in Malawi - YouTube

Present day Primitive Backsmithing.

 

[Soundguy]

anyone use powdered lime / limerock for flux? sawdust?

 

[Rob-D]

It is difficult to decide how dependent it is smart to be on complex technology. On the other hand, the more access to and use of technology you have, the better your chances of surviving would be my guess.

Anything electronic can break. With schematics, replacement parts, diagnostic tools (which can fail too) and training and practice, you could fix most problems. There are a lot of co-dependencies in that process which means it is more risky to rely on. Things needing batteries would be a weakness. You could have a solar powered VOM. An oscilloscope would be a nice thing to have if you have to maintain electronics.

Even the simple things wear out and break. Spades get worn to a nub if used enough, ax heads can split, shoes wear out, clothing disintegrates. Once the high tech clothing is gone, without a loom and wool or cotton, I think you are down to skins and leather. Same for shoes. You need to shear, comb and spin wool before making clothing. It is easy to overlook how much older basic technology is needed to supply the simple things that may get taken for granted.

There should be a good supply of scrap metal laying around for the taking. With a forge, hammers and anvil of some kind, tools can be made or repaired. Not sure about fuel for the forge, some coal would be nice I think.

I have a large cash of electronic parts along with all the instruments as I use them in my designs. If I had to give up my electronics or my machine shop I think the electronics would go but I'd hate to give up either.
Both run off my PV (photo voltaic) and with the machine shop I can make and repair windmills and microhydro. Even welding I can do with alternate energy and that's handy for adding hard facing to shovels for instance.
A lot of things depend on the 'degree' of self sufficiency we'll be faced with. If the power grid goes up and down and you have power on and off for periods the more technology you have the better off you are. I'm wondering if that is what we are going to be faced with and I'm more inclined to see that as the scenario.
As I watch things evolve it seems like we are going to gradually face more and more events that will continually limit our resources, access, energy, etc. Bigger storms, terrorism, higher and higher fuel costs, etc. as opposed to one large event that stops the world cold.
Now I'm building and restoring electric tractors to run off my solar. (I've even asked for a new forum to be added for electric tractors) If you know how to set up algorithms and charging circuits batteries can last over ten years. The other thing I'm doing is going to supercaps to run micropower circuits. I'm halfway through a driveway alarm that runs on caps, no batteries and will last indefinitely. I also use a lot of rechargable batteries. I just looked out at my PV arrays, it's 9:15 am and my house is running with power to spare and part of my array is running electric heaters. That technology is hard to beat, too bad big energy has flooded the market with bad info to stifle the industry.

 

[Soundguy]

. Even welding I can do with alternate energy and that's handy .

yep.

i think most people don't realize you can do GOOD DC welding with 2-3 truck batteries and a set of jump cables essentially. Not as much duty cycle as land line.. but still decent welds.

add in a solar cell for recharge.. and you can actually keep going for the life of the batteries at least...

 

[Car Doc]

I need a neighbor like Rob and quite a few others on this thread I would welcome as neighbors. We all do as long as we are the helping working kind and not the needy do it for me type of which I see there hasn't been one post here from one as of now. :thumbsup:

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

I have a large cash of electronic parts along with all the instruments as I use them in my designs. If I had to give up my electronics or my machine shop I think the electronics would go but I'd hate to give up either.
Both run off my PV (photo voltaic) and with the machine shop I can make and repair windmills and microhydro. Even welding I can do with alternate energy and that's handy for adding hard facing to shovels for instance.
A lot of things depend on the 'degree' of self sufficiency we'll be faced with. If the power grid goes up and down and you have power on and off for periods the more technology you have the better off you are. I'm wondering if that is what we are going to be faced with and I'm more inclined to see that as the scenario.
As I watch things evolve it seems like we are going to gradually face more and more events that will continually limit our resources, access, energy, etc. Bigger storms, terrorism, higher and higher fuel costs, etc. as opposed to one large event that stops the world cold.
Now I'm building and restoring electric tractors to run off my solar. (I've even asked for a new forum to be added for electric tractors) If you know how to set up algorithms and charging circuits batteries can last over ten years. The other thing I'm doing is going to supercaps to run micropower circuits. I'm halfway through a driveway alarm that runs on caps, no batteries and will last indefinitely. I also use a lot of rechargable batteries. I just looked out at my PV arrays, it's 9:15 am and my house is running with power to spare and part of my array is running electric heaters. That technology is hard to beat, too bad big energy has flooded the market with bad info to stifle the industry.

With a grist mill small grain plots .sheep herd and trout pond ,solar power set up .machine shop and electronics shop ,electric tractors and food stores along with vegetarian living bug out bags and medical stores I'm sure I and everyone else would love to see some pictures so we could gain Ideas and knowledge ! :thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

<snip>

A lot of things depend on the 'degree' of self sufficiency we'll be faced with. If the power grid goes up and down and you have power on and off for periods the more technology you have the better off you are. I'm wondering if that is what we are going to be faced with and I'm more inclined to see that as the scenario.
As I watch things evolve it seems like we are going to gradually face more and more events that will continually limit our resources, access, energy, etc. Bigger storms, terrorism, higher and higher fuel costs, etc. as opposed to one large event that stops the world cold.
Now I'm building and restoring electric tractors to run off my solar. (I've even asked for a new forum to be added for electric tractors) If you know how to set up algorithms and charging circuits batteries can last over ten years. The other thing I'm doing is going to supercaps to run micropower circuits. I'm halfway through a driveway alarm that runs on caps, no batteries and will last indefinitely. I also use a lot of rechargable batteries. I just looked out at my PV arrays, it's 9:15 am and my house is running with power to spare and part of my array is running electric heaters. That technology is hard to beat, too bad big energy has flooded the market with bad info to stifle the industry.

Good stuff, Rob. I'm getting just over 3.6 kW AC right now from my solar array, it's a good morning

Your post made me think that a meltdown might be the best thing that ever happened to the electric grid. Think of all the small distributed sources that would be built over time.