Comments on Bear Ridge Project: Budget Survival - Window Box Room Heater

You funny ...thanks for the tip!

2009-11-12T11:38:57.567-07:00

You funny ...thanks for the tip!

Burning old vinyl siding, plastic bags, or similar...

2008-07-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

Burning old vinyl siding, plastic bags, or similar petroleum-based materials will also quickly produce a carbon-heavy soot. Unfortunately, the smoke is also toxic and carcinogenic.

Judy of the Woods is on to something regarding the rusty nails and vinegar. In fact, any steel product soaked in any mild acid for a couple of days will then produce a black smut which can be applied to many things (a kind of black oxide).

Final choice is crushed and powdered acorns soaked in solution....produces a dark brown stain strong enough to stain concrete and most any other semi-porous material (a common dye for cloth and leather in the middle ages).

Solid ideas for urban salvage and recycling, this is my planned career post TEOTWAWKI (engineer turned salvager/tinkerer).

Here is a good site with some solar energy ideas. ...

2008-07-12T20:12:00.000-06:00

Here is a good site with some solar energy ideas.

http://www.builditsolar.com/

Some are more expensive than others.

Great idea. I might give it a go soon. For a flat ...

2008-07-12T16:43:00.000-06:00

Great idea. I might give it a go soon. For a flat black absorber surface which is not exposed to wear or damp one could hold the metal over the kind of fire which gives off black soot. Candles would do it, held close, but would take too long and waste a lot of candles. Maybe a waste oil fire (vegetable oil or animal fat).Burning bones also produce a black, so there may be some use of all those bodies lying around. I tried a simple recipe a while back for staining oak black. I am fairly certain it was done with steeping old iron nails (or other iron bits, maybe filings) in vinegar for a while, then brushing it onto the oak which turned almost black - I think the reaction was with the tannin in the oak. It does not work on pine, for example. So maybe mixing tannin into the brew might create a black stain. Worth an experiment.

Link to some black pigment info.
Whilst checking links also came across an interesting use of charred bone as a substitute for activated charcoal - Link.

Excellent ideas! I think most folks will realize t...

2008-07-12T09:16:00.000-06:00

Excellent ideas! I think most folks will realize their dreams: turning their hobbies into careers! Though not quite in the way they imagined.... But once again, wood working will become a very necessary skill, and high in demand too! As will sewing, home brewing, back yard tinkering, candle making, soap making, basket weaving, pottery..... And the "recycling" you mentioned. Damn good post!