What can we make out of junk and tools that will help us survive after the apocalypse?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Suppose everyone in this thread were to survive a cataclysmic event that killed 6.5 billion people on Earth and wiped out civilization. We’re left with rubble and our wits. We all decide that we should hunker down and try to make the best of our continuing existence.

Via scavenging, we’ve been able to find some polluted water, canned food, scrap metal, wire, shop tools, textiles, and assorted other “junk.” Unfortunately, all the pristine stuff has been destroyed or taken already, so we can’t find anything like, say, an intact desktop computer or a functioning rifle.

What can you build to make life more tolerable for all of us? You may use any commonly found items you can reasonably find via scavenging but you can’t use any books or (obviously) the Internet to give you ideas! You must rely on your own head or the group’s collective knowledge to design and build everything.

I can built a water filtration system, but I don’t want to spoil the design in case someone else wants to give a solution. I’ll save it for later in the thread.

I suppose the first thing would be to make a list of things we need to get accomplished?

2

Water, shelter, food, in that order. You got the water angle covered, and there is canned food for a few weeks at least. That leaves shelter as the remaining “Urgent” need. With baling wire, duct tape and a multi-tool I can build fairly secure and snug shelter out of just about anything.

3

Welcome to the camp, silenus. Your expertise is a welcome addition to the crew. What kind of design do you think you’d come up with? A lean-to of cloth? Something more sturdy? How, exactly, would you go about making it?

Frankly, I’m worried about bandits. I don’t know if everyone out there is still playing nice or if they’ve all gone naked-ape and will just take from us whatever they can get.

Do you think we should worry about our fellow humans and build something secure, or worry more about nature and build something to get out of the elements quickly?

4

Something temporary at first, you need to get out of the wind and rain fast. The next more permanent structure depends upon where we are making our camp. Are we going to reamain mobile? Then some sort of teepee might be best.

Are we going to hunker down for the winter? Then we need to know where we are at. In a cold, windy area with few trees we might dig down a few feet below ground to get out of the wind and cover the top area with poles and sod.

If we are in a rainy area with trees we need to get up off the ground and build on planks.

As for filtering water, I would be worried about Giardiasis, cholera and typhiod fever and would either boil, treat, or distill the water.

5

Like Penn and Teller, I’m betting on being one of the 6.5 million already dead. But if I got lucky and survived, I’d start scouting for bomb shelters and grocery stores.

If, in this hypothetical, none of those are left, I’m guessing I’ll go crazy in short order and become a wife/harem member/prostitute to one of the thieving apemen. Better to be at the right hand of the devil than to be in his path.

6

You’re going to need a fire and I know how to start one using only sticks (in dry conditions of course). From there I could build us a stove and a cooking surface. If there is water nearby it can be boiled for drinking. Then I could get started on making some variety of crude fishing gear.

7

Now, now, wishing you were dead has never solved anyone’s problems.

Think of all the positives! There are still half a billion people stumbling around the planet and that is* plenty*.

Global warming? Solved. Industrial pollution? Solved. And after a few guys (it will be guys) get blown up re-learning how to distill petroleum there will be cheap gas for thousands of years. Peak Oil? Solved.

Unless there are Zombies. (God, I hope there are!) :wink:

8

Here’s the problem with that. Wood doesn’t give off very much heat, while water takes a lot of energy to boil. I think it’d take too much energy to gather the wood and keep the fire going to get much use from the water.

So here’s my filtration idea. We get a few porous textiles like cotton or something and tie it between trees in three tiers. Then in order from top to bottom, we put soil, sand, and charcoal. If we have enough left, we can repeat the sand and charcoal layers. We pour water in the top and collect it at the bottom.

That removes all the sediment and gets us half-way there.

If we want to boil it, we’ll need a better energy source than wood. Does anyone know how to make a solar-powered water boiler out of junk? I don’t.

ETA: Oh! And I just remembered that I can make a good compass by using shadows. So maybe I can become the camp cartographer. What good that’ll be, I don’t know.

9

I can build all kinds of interesting trip wires, hunting snares and traps, and a wide range of field-expedient weapons and tools.

It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure I can still whip up some trebuchets or scorpions.

Given the right materials, I can also build a pottery and kiln.

Plus, silenus and I are both fairly empassioned homebrewers, so even if the rest doesn’t work, we can barter with the savages, or just drink til the reavers come.

10

OK, well I’m about to head out on a scavenging expedition. What do you need me to bring back so we can start brewing? I don’t think I’m going to find any ready-made “Brew at Home!” kits out there, so you’ll have to be as generic and minimalist in your description as possible. And when you say “Given the right materials”, what do you need, exactly?

Also, can you give us some instructions on how to make these traps and snares, so the rest of us can replicate it if…um…something should happen to you? The easier, the better. Thanks! Wish me luck!

11

With wire, scrap metal, and hopefully some discovered magnets I could fashion a very simple generator, probably only of the Gilligan’s Island human-powered variety, but it is doable.

We could charge rechargeable batteries and maybe create some electric light right away.

Do we have magnets?

12

I was a bowhunter for many years before I changed jobs and couldn’t devote the time needed to do it right. Then I got into rifle hunting and am fairly knowledgable about firearms. Most bow kills were within 30 yards. But making the equipment would take some time to do right. You aren’t going to make a functional bow out of green wood.This is the sort of thing you make while you are stuck inside wintering.

I dig, clams, mussles, and could get crab with a piece of string. If we are near a temperate coastline I would move there.

I am glad that someone thought of beer, beer is the whole reason people settled down next to fields in the first place.

Will Hunt For Beer.

13

well, for the brewing, we need grains for malting, hops, water and yeast. For the grains - barley of course would be best, but we could technically use just about anything…rice, corn, millet, sorghum, whatever.

We’ll need to malt it, but that’s pretty simple - lay it out in a cool damp area, spritz with water…after a few days and most of the grain showing signs of germination, remove, dry and roast to taste (or recipe).

for the hops - we’ll have to scavenge some rhizomes…pretty easy in some climates, pretty hard in others

we can just use native airborne yeasts if we want to go belgian style, but I’m sure we can find some yeast packets somewhere. Once we have a batch going, we can culture from the dregs of the primary fermenter.

If need be, we’ll also use that for our sourdough.
Depending on where we are, we can certainly whip up some ciders pretty easily (although we probably need a cooper to make some nice large barrels for us), as well as perry or mead as the materials dictate.
For the pottery, we mostly need a good source of clay, some lime or potash and a kiln. The kiln itself can be a wood and cob structure, with additional layers of clay and glazing to insulate and hold heat.

The trick is the wheel. A large flat stonethat is spun with the foot - which then controls the wheel via an axle provides the inertia to keep things moving nicely. I’m betting in a pinch, we could fill a car tire with sand or portland cement and mount a wheel on it somehow.

As for the snares and traps, that’s my insurance policy. Knowledge is power!:stuck_out_tongue:

14

I was going to say beer, wine, or some kind of alcohol, but you all got that already.

I could almost certainly come up with some kind of brick oven, and bread of some sort to go in it. Wild yeast is everywhere; if I can find some flour we’re good to go.

And insulin. I think I could make Insulin if I had enough pancreases and some time. I definitely have a vested interest in that one.

15

If I may. I’d suggest starting with a dugout style house, provided we have a hillside. You can effect a lot of square footage in a day or so and it’s well-insulated, very sturdy, and requires only a modest amount of fabrication for supports, roof etc. Another benefit is that it can be designed so it is fairly difficult to detect, which is a nice passive protection from the other half-billion homeless & hungry primates.

I can turn wool into felt, or spin it into yarn and weave it if someone can get it off the sheeps for me. And I’m a fairly awesome baker and can probably make a working foundry & forge (we can recycle metals, right?) within a year, probably can get us into gunpowder in the meantime as well.

If there are zombies I will demand to be murdered in my sleep at the earliest expediancy, however.

16

I can also spin yarn or thread, and weave cloth (and I can build a basic loom to weave on).
I can make a pattern for any basic kind of clothing to fit whoever, and sew up the clothing, either by hand, or with an old fashioned foot-powered sewing machine if we can find one.
I can remodel or recycle existing worn-out clothing scraps into newer, better fitting, more sturdy clothing (re-cutting the cloth to preserve the good bits and using them to make new stuff).
Hunt for old treadle sewing machines and usable size scraps while you’re out scavenging.
I can train dogs to pull a dogsled, if that’s of any use. Get 4 or so medium/large feral dogs, feed them to make them friendlier, get somebody to build a not-too-heavy sled or wagon, and I’ll train up a team to pull a wagon/sled for you to bring back loot on. That’s only useful if you can’t scavenge a pickup truck and fuel, of course…

17

I can trap animals, process them for their meat and organs, fashion needles from bones, and “thread” from sinew, skin and process their leather or fur either with chemicals or the old-fashioned way with pee and/or brains (no I’m not giving details, I like my imaginary job security).

I can also create non-fatal traps that would work for bandits or larger animals, whom we can fleece of their useful materials and then release, or use as work-crews under supervision if human, or use as component parts or herd animals depending on species.

I can create solar ovens given some shiny metals - just about anything aluminum/stainless steel/chrome/other and flat can be repurposed given enough time. That takes care of heating food during sunny days.

As long as my glasses remain with me, I am a crack shot with anything from a sling to a rifle, and even sans glasses can create my own (or other people’s) slings, atlatls, and really damn crude bows and arrows if necessary.

I also am a trained first responder and lifeguard.

18

My one skill would be gone in the apocalypse. If everything is reduced to junk, my ability to reach things on the top shelf (I’m fairly tall) will be useless.

19

A still.

Alcohol can be used to clean wounds, as a fuel, as a solvent, I’ve heard rumors it has other uses…

20

there’s no argument. you have to go to a place there’s potable water either flowing out or accessible less than a foot from the ground surface. if you can’t find a place like that, you and your family won’t live to see the mac_bolan00 restoration.

all you need are basic hand tools. in my private retreat, i keep two sets of gardening and farming tools (plus a stock of .22 ammo and a few ounces of pure gold.)