I don't think we will ever lose all this knowledge altogether. Just that certain parts of the world might be rough for awhile. But I am planning on heading to the easier areas if mine goes belly up due to Nukes. The only thing that worried me about Y2K was accidents, because the people with the skills would still be here to fix it even if Y2K had brought down certain systems. The good thing about picking up as much knowledge & tools as possible that are constantly discussed here is you could ride out a lost in the woods or another Katrina situation with very little pain. Folks at this site would have been on the highway before the levies broke and if that was impossible they would have plenty of water jugs filled up, etc.

Your 1st post wasn't the problem it was people like me that took it down the LTS with the comments about canning, etc.

But regardless if our grandparents were able to do it I don't have any doubt that we could pick up what we needed to as long as we can survive the shortterm needs.

My Grandfather was absolutely never without his pocket knife or wallet. He kept both in his pants with the belt on, ready to go in the morning. When he passed his wallet contained several nice things, like a stashed emergency 50, a couple of bandaids (he was on blood thinner and a small nick, which he got often as a truck driver, would bleed forever), and a few other tidbits. He very often had other tools stashed about himself, such as pliers and screwdrivers.

My Grandmother was never without a mini-flashlight in her purse, usually the handheld size you sqeezed to activate the circuit, but sometimes a bigger model with a switch. She always had candy (diabetic) and nail clippers, and extra cash.

Both, having grown up in the depression, always had lots of food, canned some of their own food from their very large garden, and had many other ETS style backups. When we cleaned up after my Grandma passed we found no less than 12 paper grocery sacks full of canned goods.

Whenever I hear it about spending a little extra for some backups, I just mention my Grandparents and how they would never leave themselves without at least a years worth of supplies.


The square can be made using several methods, but water and a plumb bob will get you a right angle pretty fast. I'm not sure on the flat surface, but since they use molten tin to shape glass, I assume water or some other still liquid surface is involved. But it can't be that simple... I know blown glass was hammered to a semi-flat surface for ages before we came up with flat glass. So I'm curious. Only Idea on thread is to setup a block with a cutter set at an angle with the block set level so the barstock spins flat into the angled cutter. Would be easy enough to do in wood, but metal could be done if you used the right materials.

I'm really curious about the answers now! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If your curious - get a book called "the foundations of Mechanical Accuracy" - tells you exactly how to do it - and the problem with molten tin etc is the actually have things like a meniscus etc - they will gave you a starting point - ditto water and a plumb bob

The short answer is that by taking THREE squares that are basically flat, and touching one to the other, a to b, b to c, c to a and removing the high spots on each in order, rotating 90 degs between sets (the above was one set) will allow you to make a set of plates that is arbitrally flat

The thread is basically - gouge out the best thread you can - say on a wood lathe - but on a metal rod. Cast a lap around part of the rod, say, 1/8th of the rod - lap the whole rod in - it evens the errors out. Now use your rod to create a NEW rod, the way a metal lathe does (rotation of the work also turns the screw, which drives the cutter). repeat this process of averaging the errors by using long laps and cutting new threads. When your done, you will have a threaded rod that is NOT the original spec'd thread, but some multiple of it. Repeat, but with the gear train adjusted to give you the treads/inch you originally wanted...

Being equipped to survive mentally, having common sense, and long-term survival are all intermeshed. Attitude, knowledge and equipment are all important. Missing one can make the others difficult.

Sue

In my defense, there was scotch involved in those posts. I guess I really do get maudlin after only a few ounces. (When I used to get drunk, I'd make Marvin the Robot look like Peewee Herman on speed.) I guess I kinda dragged this over to the LTS side of things.

Micah, I don't know if you realise how sensative the current state of the art is. You mentioned Y2K- I worked the great uncrisis as part of the state team for VT. One of my duties was examination of the degree of interconnectivity, which mostly ment reading stuff from the DoT and the like. Then I was asked to look for a historical paradigm, which leads to such wonderful things as the Black Death, panics and riots in the US and Europe over the past 150 years, the fall of major cities due to invasion, theories about why all the pre-Greek Agean cultures kinda went away at about he same time, ad nasaum. The parallels are there, the equation works in every case, you just have to know the variables.

It's a spiderweb- pluck one string, and it is felt every where, it ripples. No one has days and days of stocked supplies in the retail stream. Two or three, tops. That's assuming normal consumption levels, that's why the shelves go bare when there is a hurricane. What stocks there are are located in urban and suburban areas, they'll be seized by local or state government or by "committees of the concerned" within a few days. Given a week to ten days, without outside aid, and it will be looking very Mad Max for most of us.

But then again, I'm also the guy who has a small wager with someone that our next major conflict will be with Mexico over water. Even sober, I'm depressing. :P

Electronics? Ok, I give you a challange.

Make me a vacume tube. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I can't do it, and don't have to dust off 15 years. :P I know the theories, but thats it. Electronics are pretty far down the line of stuff to worry about, though. I'm more interested in knowing if there is a house for sale in your neighborhood. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Because I was stupid. I drank and posted.

My fault, and I assume full responsability.

Houses for sale? Yep, 2 on my block. Got about 650-700K depending on the house?