Hello every body<br>i just finished my kit, but theres lots-o-room left over, and i need some suggestions for space fillers<br>KIT :<br><br>- small knife ( texas toothpick style but better)<br>- Spark lite fire tabs and striker ( 7 tabs 1 striker)<br>- 50 ft. fishing line (25 lb test)<br>- various fishing hooks<br>- heavy duty awe<br>- light duty awe/needle<br>- p-38 can opener<br>- 4 sq. ft. of heavy duty aluminum foil<br>- water purification tablets ( small vial full )<br>- 2 "Band-Aid" band aids<br>- disenfectant wipe thingy<br>- button ( for sewing repair)<br>- various medicine ( 4 tylenol, 4 motrin pain killers) 4 pepto bismo just for eating the wrong berries and what not :)<br><br>- (blank)<br>- (blank)<br>- (blank)<br><br>i figure i could fit 3 more small usefull thing's in but having trouble on what.<br>maybe a condom for water transport ( being since i live in desert )<br>Any suggestions or commets welcome

Great to see another getting prepared! looks like you have a great start going there!<br><br>check here first<br><br>http://www.equipped.org/survlkit.htm<br><br>Let us know what size kit you are working on, what you are preparing for, is this kit for daily carry, personal, auto .... <br><br>Detailed questions produce detailed answers.<br><br>My daily carry kit - in an altoids tin:<br><br>sewing kit<br> HD awl<br> medium sewing needle<br> HD sewing needle<br> 20 yards (or more) nylon upholstery thread<br> 5 small safety pins<br> 1 large safety pin<br>Fishing kit<br> 20 yards fishing line<br> 5 small hooks<br> 1 large hook for gaff<br> 5 swivels<br> 5 split shot<br>Hunting kit<br> 1 small thompson snare<br> 10 yds brass snare wire<br> 1 spring return cable keychain ( used to spring traps and snares)<br>various tools<br> button compass<br> wire saw<br> 2 xacto blades<br> 1 straght razor<br> 1 spark lite and 5 tinders<br> 5 matches with striker ( these are paper book matches dipped in wax and sealed into polyethylene pouch)<br>containers<br> 1 13 gallon trash bag<br> 1 balloon<br>medical<br> 10 aspirin<br> 25 iodine tablets ( sealed into a 1/2 length section of a bic stick pen which seems to be impervious to the reactivity of the iodine and doesn't leak fumes to discolor the rest of the contents of the kit.)<br>Cordage<br> 10 yards of nylon twine<br> 10 yards of 550 paracord<br>Tape<br> 10 feet of medical adhesive tape<br> 10 feet of duct tape<br>Misceleaneous<br> 1 tube wood type krazy glue<br> several "ranger" bands. ( sections of innertube from a bicycle innertube. These are secured around the kit.<br>1Altoids Tin<br>4 square feet HD foil<br><br>This is a daily carry item and is always in my front left pocket. I also carry an altoids tin in my front right pocket with first aid supplies as follows<br><br>Bandages<br> 5 medium "band aids"<br> 5 butterfly "band aids"<br> medicines<br> small tube triple antibiotic gel<br> tools<br> folding scissors<br> xacto blades<br> tweezers<br>Miscellaneous<br> more Ranger Bands<br><br>This first aid kit is new to me and I am still working on it. I expect that I will augment the medicine section and replace the folding scissors with a small SAK with the handle modified to make it thinner. (removing the plastic side pieces and sacrificing the toothpick and holder for the tweezers)<br><br>I would be interested in hearing more about what might fit into an altoids sized first aid kit. being in the US where the FDA makes it difficult to acquire medicines I would be interested in suggestions about what could be added for best effect to that category and how to package them.

A small oven roasting bag (easier to fill than condom, longer shelf life, no latex allergy issues, more rugged and holds more water)<br><br>A tiny (3/8" or 1/4") binder clip to hold bag shut<br><br>8-12" of surgical tubing (for sucking water, making slingshot, restricting band for snake bite or OS tourniquet, et al) - it's all latex, so the allergy issue is still there. This can be wrapped and tied around the seam of the kit for extra waterproofing.<br><br>As much paracord as you can wrap around the thing. Makes it less likely to fall out of pockets.<br><br>BTW- if you are using an iodine based water purifaction tab, make sure you are using containers that the iodine won't eat. Doug talks about them a couple of places. Definantly worth it.

You don't mention the size of your container. Make sure you cover the big 6 first.<br>Knife, Fire, Water, Signal, Shelter, First Aid. Then think about food gathering and equipment repair.<br><br>I don't see any signalling equipment. Whistle, mirror, notepaper/pencil, surveyor's tape, smoke, flare, etc.<br><br>I only see one mean's of making a fire. Waterproof matches and striker, Magnesium bar and striker, ferro rod, magnifiying glass/fresnel lens (good for desert), disposable lighter, etc.<br><br>I would recommend trading the Immodium Ad for the Pepto Bismal. One immodium-AD every 12 hours or 2 Pepto Bismal every 1/2 hr. Your results may vary but Immodium stops me up within 10 minutes. PB I can eat all day and still feel uneasy about being more than a few steps away from a bathroom.<br><br>- Whistle and/or mirror<br>- Snares or snare wire<br>- Lawn sized trash bag/space blanket<br>- Container to hold your water so you can use the purifiation tabs.<br>- Couple sheets of notepad paper and pencil stub<br>- Button compass<br>- Duct tape<br>- Paracord<br>- Knife sharpener<br><br>P38's are cool things to have and useful if you have cans around. For a PSK, they usually are not as useful as some of the other items listed above. If you want to carry one, put it on your keyring with a wrap of tape around the opener to keep it from opening and poking holes in your leg.

Nice selection. <br><br>How do you get 10 yards of paracord into an altoids tin? Then how do you get all the other stuff in also? Maybe it's a typo and you mean 10 feet?

Paracord is wrapped around the outside as is the foil and the ranger bands. I was working from memory when I made the first post. Probably more like 10 feet of paracord. I also forgot that I have:<br>- a p38 which I sharpened on the long edge. Doesn't hold too well but it is something. I keep it wrapped in the cardboard that usually wrapps straght-edge razors. <br><br>- a small tubular aluminum whistle about the size of a fat golf pencil.<br><br>How do I fit it all? Well if I didn't have paracord and ranger bands around the outside it might spring out. No really, It is just a matter of stuffing and cramming. It all really fits in the altoids tin <br><br>One of the things that I found took up unecessary room in others kits is extra packaging. In my first kit I made a little pouch for the fishing kit from heat sealed polyethylene and same for the sewing kit. I looked for a small vial for the iodine as well. With these in the kit I couldn't fit near as much. Now the fishing kit is a spool of line with split shot and swivels in the core and a piece of adhesive tape folded over with hooks inside the whole kit wrapped in another piece of adhesive tape. The sewing kit is the three needles with upholstery thread wrapped arround them until they are rather fat. The tapes are folded upon themselves to a thickness that lines the floor of the tin over the garbage bag. The spring key cable is about the same diameter as the button compass and the photon all of which stack within the coil of the snarewire, snare, and wire saw. The whistle, matches, aspirin, twiine, p38, straight razor and ballloon fit the short dimension of the kit on one end bring the interior space down to a square. The Krazy glue, sewing kit, and sparklite fit the long deminision of the kit on the hinge side. The remaining square space holds the fishing kit, button compass, spring key cable, photon II stacked and surrounded by snare wire, snare and saw. The other items fit stuffed in the spaces between round and square things. Mostly what is left is the sparklite tinder and safety pins I find that the large safety pin serves a vital purpose of spanning the top of the photon to prevent anything from compressing the switch and lighting up the interior of my kit and draining the battery. <br><br>Yes it is difficult to pack and easy to drop things on the ground when opening but something on the ground at the scene is more likely to be usefull than something back at home.<br><br>The garbage bag is selected as the thinnest that I could find. It is not at all durable. I expect to use it for one of two things. If for shelter then It will be sandwiched between local material - pine boughs and other stuffing to prevent it from recieving much direct weathering. If for garment then it is single use - one storm and I expect it would be badly tattered. Still better than nothing and seeing as it takes up so little room.... <br><br>I am thinking of exchanging the balloon for a condom but with those ranger bands in the way I am not encouraged to open it unless an emergency is upon me. I expect that once opened in an emergency the contents would be distributed throughout the pockets of whatever I am wearing since using things from the kit very rapidly distributes the contents of the kit across the ground. <br><br>I don't have a web page to post pic's to so I can't show you how this fits. It is "dense packed" for sure.

mebrad<br>Sounds like a great kit! So that really all fits into an altoids tin?<br>I'd love to see some photos of it.<br><br>If you have digital/scanned photos, you can email them to me (mrunyan@usa.net) and I will post them for you if you like.<br>red_jeep

Thanks Matt, I will send them to you this weekend if I can get them together. Included will be:<br>contents spread out,<br>several assembly shots<br>completed as carried.

Pics are up at:<br>http://www.employees.org/~mrunyan/survival/mebrad/<br><br>Nothing fancy (no thumbnails or index page) but you can see what's in there.<br>

So here it is with pic's thanks to Matt.<br><br>The Kit:<br><br>wrapped in ranger bands and paracord.<br><br>Outer layer:<br>tidying layer:<br><br>Cord and foil<br><br>Water Proofing<br><br><br>That's a lot of ranger bands and the really long one covers like a sleeve in the long direction. That is about 4 square feet of foil and about 12 feet of paracord. The kit is still sealed with electrical tape.<br><br>The Contents:<br>tightly packed<br><br><br>1/2 packed<br><br>unpacked<br>Closeup1:<br><br>Closeup2:<br><br>The Kit Contents:<br><br><br>From top to Bottom:<br>Balloon; twine; potable Aqua in bic Pen tube; whistle<br>Sewing needles and upholstery thread; safety pins; fishing kit; Xacto blades and sheath; p38<br>Matches and striker in polyethylene; snare and Photon; Krazy glue; adhesive tape; duct tape<br>Sparklite and tinder; cable saw and sprung key cable; snare wire and compass; trash bag.<br><br>Missing items: aspirin, straight razor, pencil<br><br>The dark line to the right is the electrical tape used to seal the kit.