Getting Real About Bugging Out, by R.G.

Ragnar Benson wrote the book “The Survival Retreat: A Total Plan For Retreat Defense” many years ago, but one of the things he discussed has stayed with me for a long time.  Reading this blog influenced me to read it again recently.  A great many of the things in the book don’t apply to my situation, but his discussion of the insights into the conditions during a disruption of normal society influenced my decision to “bunker in place.”  His descriptions of the situations of refugees especially affected me.  Refugees are basically at the mercy of whichever authority is controlling the area they are moving through, or temporarily residing in, at the time.  More than anything, what I have taken from this section of his book, and I have paraphrased here is, die if you must but never become a refugee.  In the broad sense a refugee is anyone who is not residing in a permanent, sustainable, and defendable location; and has no intention of moving from it in the foreseeable future.  The qualities of your location may be dependent on your means at the time, but they are necessary.  By this definition, if you have to commute to and from work through an area that could become dangerous during any societal disruption, during the time you are moving through this area you are a refugee.  You have limited resources, you have to move through territory that may have unknown dangers from obstructions, you have no fixed defenses, and you may have a limited time to reach your destination.  This is especially true if you are truly “bugging out”, moving you, your family, or your group from an area which is not any of the above requirements for a retreat.    Most probably even though you are a “prepper” and have made many preparations for eventualities you do not live permanently at your retreat location.  Even if you do, most of you have to work somewhere else, and very few of you stay within a few miles away from you retreat every minute of every day.  You take vacations, shopping trips, visits to the relatives, etc.  I don’t think any disruption will be sudden enough that you won’t have 2 or 3 days to get to your retreat, but that doesn’t mean something like a war or major volcanic eruption in Yellowstone can’t happen. Even so, some difficulties will be manifest during a slow slide to oblivion.  Unless you are part of a military armored column with close air support and adequate recon capabilities you are a refugee.  You are vulnerable.  To maximize your chances of reaching your destination safely you have to think and act like a refugee, a smart refugee.

When you are moving you are extremely vulnerable.  Anyone who has hunted knows that the best time to find game such as deer and elk is when they are moving and you can “lieth in wait” as the Bible says.  When they are bedded you have to move to find them, and that gives them the advantage.  Every moment you are on the move or stopped in some questionable camp you are vulnerable to the predators that will be waiting or moving in search of prey, and it won’t take much movement to attract their attention.  In a true “fan” situation, and even in a temporary local disruption if it happens to be your local, every thing beyond your line of sight including intervening obstructions such as gulleys must be considered “Bandit Country.”  If you live in a city this includes down to the corner and around the block.  Any place that could hide a hunter or a group of hunters is suspect.  Your status as a refugee may be extremely temporary, but it can take no time at all to put you in grave peril.  As a refugee you want to be as inconspicuous as possible.  Any attention you attract is probably not good, and in a total meltdown can be deadly.  You need to avoid all contact with anyone outside your trusted group.  This includes the neighbor you’ve known casually for many years.  Trust no one outside your group, and have no one in your group you don’t trust. Everyone must know and act according to plans and instructions.  Bugging out is no place for a debating society.  Since it may not be possible to avoid all contact you want to blend in as much as possible.  Don’t look too rich or too poor.  Most of the people you meet will not be prepared for this and will look rundown, ragged, and discouraged.  If you look too rich by being prepared they will try to latch onto you either to make you responsible for them by association or to steal what they need.  The same goes for looking too weak or too powerful.  The larger the group the more attention it will draw; and the harder it is to stay out of the spotlight as it were.  The individual or single family with a child will be very attractive to just about anyone.  As to the logistics of bugging out there are a number of things which must be considered to maximize your chance of reaching your retreat successfully.  These are based on your having to move after a fan situation, but can be applied any time you are away from your retreat.

If you live east of the Mississippi river your retreat should be on the east side also unless you live somewhere in Minnesota near the headwaters.  It’s a big river and there are a limited number of bridges over it and they are well known to every local.  They make great choke points for movement.  The same goes for any of the major mountain ranges, or other major geographical features which funnel movement through limited avenues.

If you are less than 50 miles away from your permanent retreat, why haven’t you moved there already?  Move now and commute.  Buy a cheap car that gets good gas mileage and never let it get below three quarters full.  Keep good tires on it and keep it in good condition.  It may be a pain to commute, but it is much easier for one person in a small car to negotiate hostile territory than 2 or 3 loaded vehicles to do so.

If you live more than 100 miles from your retreat you should allow for at least one night on the road somewhere.  The reasons for this assumption will be itemized and explained below.  They are based on worst case scenario premises and a realistic assessment of conditions during a total fan situation.

Speed.  

  1. If you are out of fuel you are going nowhere and thence a truly desperate refugee, so saving fuel is a high priority. Drive the optimal speed for fuel economy. (Research this for your particular vehicle.)
  2. Every thing past the end of your block is bandit country even if you were on the same route this morning.  Yesterday was a lifetime ago.  It is a brand new unknown country and you have to treat it that way to survive.  Every blind turn, sharp curve, overpass, underpass, bridge, tunnel, hill, or even stretch of road with dense vegetation close to the edge must be investigated prior to driving through.  Ditty-bopping along at 60 mph and topping an overpass to see a sawtooth log barricade across the road or a massive pileup at the bottom could be very embarrassing.  Might even be deadly.
  3. Any vehicle will be much quieter at 25 or 30 than at 55 or 60.  I live in quiet country away from any major paved road and the whine and roar of a car or truck on a paved road can be heard for quite a few miles.  Remember, you’re a refugee and you don’t want the attention of the hunters.  Also, remember the other really desperate refugees that will also be on the move, going nowhere.  While not that dangerous in themselves, the larger the group the greater the consumption of limited resources and the harder it is to stay out of the spotlight.  Dissension in the ranks can be increased tremendously.
  4. If you have to travel on unpaved roads the dust trail of a vehicle at speed can be quite impressive and highly visible if the weather conditions are right.  If not, say unplowed snow, traveling at speed is dangerous in itself.

Travel time.

  1. You will only be able to travel during daylight hours.  The reasons should be obvious.  If they aren’t you have no business attempting this sort of a bug out.  If you have to travel during the winter you may have only 6 to 8 hours of daylight to travel in.  The following requirements will reduce this to only 4 or so hours of actual time.
  2. Since you will have to spend at least 1 day on the road depending on the distance you have to travel you have to find a safe camp to spend the night in.  Even if you have a number of possible sites picked out which have all the requirements, water-seclusion-defendability-space-accessibility, others may have the same locales in mind.  Desperate refugees hue to the even a blind monkey can occasionally find a banana philosophy.  Local hunters may also know of these locations as good places for harvesting whatever.  You will have to start looking for and find a suitable place long before dark because your camp will have to be set up, members fed, children bedded, defenses and sentries set, and light and noise security established long before full dark, which can be as early as 4:30 in the winter.
  3. In a real TOTWAWKI it will have to be a cold camp.  Cooking food smells can travel for miles and smoke and light from a fire even further.  Even the heat from a furnace in a trailer can be detected, and the noise of a fan can be quite loud if it is the only noise for miles around.
  4. Light and noise security must be maintained until full daylight which is usually 8:30 or 9:00 in the winter depending on the weather.  Patrols must be sent out to determine the operational situation since last patrol the night before.  Only then can the camp be allowed to stir, members fed, and camp packed up for the days travel.  Set up and tear down must be done with the utmost quiet to prevent attracting the oft mentioned attention.

There are many other requirements which could be listed here, where to have the noon meal, how to keep small children quiet, what to do with human waste to prevent propagation of the smells, which roads should be the primary route, when to leave, who and how many to trust, and on and on.  These itemized here should be sufficient to convince anyone intending to travel any distance to a permanent retreat to be “getting real” about “bugging out” before they actually have to.  As for me, I am bunkering in place for as long as I can, and have discussed with my closest neighbor, not too close, how we can support each other.  I may have to die in place also, but I have decided I won’t become a refugee.  My children are all grown, though I don’t think it would change my thinking if I did have small children, or if my grandchildren were living with me.  If you are a Christian death is not the end.  That, and a quick death can be a blessing compared to what some small children have been subjected to.

One other item, and it is off on a tangent towards equipment, but is part of the mindset.  Remember, you are a refugee; if you can hide, hide by all means.  Never initiate contact with anyone you don’t have to.  Especially combat contact.  You will probably be carrying a precious cargo of non-combatants.  If the hunters, or others, are 50 yards away and they haven’t seen you, keep quiet and stay in hiding.  Don’t under any circumstances initiate contact unless you know they have discovered your location and appear to have evil intentions.  You have set up your camp to be as advantageous to you as possible.  You want them as close as possible before initiating an engagement so you can neutralize the threat as quickly as possible with the least amount of damage to your personnel and equipment.  Remember, they have to move to get to you and that makes them vulnerable.  Therefore, the battle rifle in 7.62×51 caliber which can hit a target at 800 yards won’t be of any real advantage.  The 5.56 caliber weapon can be just as effective at 200 yard or less, especially with the XM855 ammo.  You can only carry so much stuff in or on any vehicle and you can carry more rounds of the smaller caliber.  Any engagement will be very short in duration, absolutely terrifying, unbelievably violent, gut-wrenchingly horrifying to your group’s psyche, deadly in effect, and quickly final one way or another.  Number of deadly projectiles downrange per second will be very important and the smaller caliber is easier to fire with combat accuracy by the inexperienced.  Right now you can’t afford to take any casualties since you don’t have a MASH unit traveling with you and you can’t depend on the locals or they wouldn’t be hunting you.  Once you get to your retreat being able to reach out and touch someone or something, like an elk, at long range will be much more important.  I have both for the reasons stated above; and other large bore calibers also. Just because I can I suppose.

Letter Re: The Importance of Food Procurement

 

Captain Rawles,
I just saw a very shocking statistic from the USDA: 50% of the US population resides within two miles of three different grocery stores. There are 150,000,000 people in this country who have never been more than two miles away from three different sources of food.

I have made a career out of the food industry, most recently in the grocery sector. I know first hand how oblivious people are to where food actually comes from, what unsightly things go into the food supply to produce a sufficient volume to keep the shelves of Wal-Mart stocked (think the of horrors of Monsanto, their GMOs and chemicals), and how many resources are actually consumed in getting that carton of strawberries to the shelf of a Whole Foods in New York in the middle of December.

Statistically only 3% of the population works in the farming and agriculture industry, 9 million people grow the food that feeds the other 291 million people (not counting the millions we feed by giving food assistance to other counties). As anyone with the simplest bit of knowledge can deduce, the food supply in this country could very easily be disrupted, and the fallout from a disruption would be disastrous. I feel confident in saying that most of the “prepper” community is aware that when the shelves in the store go bare, many people will starve. I always assumed 30-40% of people would suffer from food shortages, I had no idea that when the shelves go bare HALF of the country would starve to death in month (if they don’t kill each other first to take what’s left of each other’s foodstuffs, but then again the people who are dependent upon a grocery store are the same people who detest firearms, so most likely neighbors will be beating each other to death with tennis rackets and golf clubs, but I digress).

This information from the USDA serves as a sobering reminder of the importance of being able to produce our own food. Wether it be gardening, farming, livestock, hunting, stockpiling, or something else, when the shelves go bare, its going to be an unpleasant time for 150,000,000 people.

My very best regards,

A. CP-FS (Certified Professional in Food Safety)

Letter Re: Microwave Oven Method for Decontaminating N95 Face Masks

Dear JWR:
I had an interesting conversation with a member of the CDC about decontaminating N95 face masks. The study results can be found here.

You’ll notice that the test gives positive results but more research is needed. Here was the conversation I had with Edward Fisher after reading it.

Here are some snippets from our exchange:

Me:
1. Did you remove the metal nosepieces from the masks before sterilization?
2. Any updates to this study?

Edward:
We did not modify any of the tested filtering facepiece respirators
before decontamination. If the masks had metal nosepieces, they were
not removed.
There are no further updates on the study. Currently my lab is
focusing on evaluating the risks associated from handling and/or
reusing previously worn masks.

Me:
OK thanks! I thought perhaps they were removed because of the metal in
a microwave. Did you have metal arcing from the metal nosepieces?

Edward:
We did not experience arcing from the metal nosepieces. The key to
the microwave method is the addition of water. Without water and
steam, the microwave can melt the masks. (See Viscusi et al. Ann.
Occup. Hyg., Vol. 53, No. 8, pp. 815-827, 2009). It should be noted
that the steambags have not been evaluated using Influenza and more
research is required. Currently, decontamination of disposable FFRs
is not recommended. As mentioned previously, we are now trying to
evaluate the hazards associated with handling and reusing contaminated
masks and have moved away from decontamination testing. This
link may be helpful for any information you may be seeking
in regards to respirator research and influenza.

Keep an eye on this topic. If it’s effective it’ll really save on N95 mask costs. I think I’ll chance it if we have a pandemic and I’m wearing a mask but am not around anyone confirmed to be sick. – C.D.V.

Letter Re: Wool Carding Questions

Avalanche Lily & Mr. Rawles –
Just wanted to say that Survival Blog  never ceases to amaze me!  As you may know I’m not a fan of the entire survivalist or “prepper”  craze, but I have to admit the drum carder and angora bunny advice posted today was spot on.  I would not have guessed that SurvivalBlog [readers] would have been as knowledgeable about home textile production. (However I did  take exception to the sheep recommendations.)

You may be interested in my “dish towel” project.  Sometime within the next couple of weeks the flax straw from this summer will be rippled and retted; with scutching, breaking and hackling to follow. Spinning the line should commence by the middle of October with weaving by Thanksgiving.
Again – I’m impressed by SurvivalBlog. All the very best to you and yours, – Granny Miller

Economics and Investing:

CFPB’s data-mining on consumer credit cards challenged in heated House hearing

Gainesville Coins has produced a handy infographic on how to spot circulating silver U.S. coins. (Statistically, your best bet is to search rolls of half dollars. Ask for a few rolls, the next time that you go to your bank.)

Items from The Economatrix:

US Income Gap Soars To Widest Since “Roaring 20s”

August Jobs Report:  Hiring Continues As Unemployment Falls

An Alarming Jump In “Job Losers”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Here at the Rawles Ranch, I use ratchet wire tensioners for building building fence corners and H-braces, as well as for tensioning our solar-charged electric fences. I was recently bemoaning the fact that the only tensioners that I could find at my local feed store and hardware store were made in China, and priced at nearly $4 each. So I did some searching and found a mail order company called Zeitlow Distributing Company in McPherson, Kansas that specializes in electric fence products. They sell the Tru-Test Strainrite tensioners that are made in New Zealand. They had these sale priced at just $2.66 each. They also shipped my order very quickly–apparently shipped the same day. Note that the Strainrite ratchet tensioners (called “cliplock strainers”, in Kiwi parlance) are slightly wider that the typical American ones (such as the old Hayes brand), so you will need a tensioning tool (aka “ratchet handle”) made by Strainrite, or one that is of compatible width.

   o o o

Your drone detector? A clever new sonic radar, using a re-purposed woofer speaker and signal processing.

   o o o

Pierre M. suggested this: Miller: National gun registry gets head start as Maryland compromises gun owners’ privacy

   o o o

Also on the privacy front, Bob J. sent: Your E-ZPass Might Be Tracking You Everywhere, Not Just Tollbooths. And R.B.S. sent: NSA disguised itself as Google to spy, say reports. Ad n G.B. in Texas sent: FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” – Hebrews 13:5-9 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 48 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy. G.) Two BirkSun.com photovoltaic backpacks (one Level, and one Atlas, both black), with a combined value of $275, H.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and I.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P.), E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials F.) A full set of all 22 of the books published by PrepperPress.com. This is more than a $200 value, and G.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security., E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Round 48 ends on September 30th so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

How to Budget for TEOTWAWKI, by Louie in Ohio

Prepping is never far from my mind. A few months ago I was talking with a friend and the subject of TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We know It) came up.
Tom (not his real name) said that he would like to prepare for upcoming emergencies but didn’t know where to start. The answer was simple; start where you are.
Obviously most people cannot start with a full larder and weapons/ammunition cache. That is of course, unless you really do have all of that, in that case…well, that’s where you are.

I asked Tom what scenarios he wanted to prepare for. “Like what?” he asked. You know… EMPs, natural disasters like the Yellowstone Super Volcano, earthquakes, social breakdowns, pandemics…what?

He said, “Yeah. Those things.”

I guess he’s a lot like me. I really don’t know when or why I’ll need my preps…I just know that sooner or later I will!

The only difference in the end will be the timeline of the disaster. It could be years with a war or catastrophic natural event, or just a few days in duration like a blizzard. I wanna’ live through it all and I want all of mine to live, too!

To help Tom get started we did an inventory of what he had: food, medical supplies, stored water, tools, gardening supplies, clothing and shoes, finances, cash on hand, firearms and ammunition, and skill sets. We also took a long and hard look at his home and property.

We then drew up a plan to go from where he was to where he wanted to be. Since he was on a limited budget we needed to get creative.

As we looked at his discretionary income we discovered that he could squeeze about $75 USD per month from his budget.

“Is there anywhere else we can find some money?” I asked.

“I don’t think so”, he replied. Wow, this could take a really long time. Time we don’t necessarily have.

Since Tom and I are really old friends he allowed me to look at his budget. Right away I saw a few places he could cut down to “find some money”.
The following is a running tally of where we were able to gather some resources:
            He, his wife, and daughter all had cell phones. Eliminate land line, savings about $40 USD per month. Total $40 USD.
            Downgrade his satellite TV to basic package. Found money- $60 USD per month. Total $100 USD.
            Shopped for auto /home insurance (I know this guy…) savings $900 USD per year, equals $75 USD per month, total $175 USD per month.
            Take coffee with him eliminating Starbucks, saving $4 USD per day times 20 days per month equals $80 USD per month, total $255 USD per month.
            Tom eats lunch at a restaurant nearly every day. He spends $8-12 USD per, average $10 USD. If he packs his lunch and works through his lunch hour he can leave early and save $200 USD per month, totaling $455 USD.
            He also usually bought a candy bar and a Coke most afternoons. If he eliminated that he would save the money plus cut several hundred calories a week from his diet. I suggested he take a piece of fruit with him.  This cost him about $2.50 USD x 20 = $50 USD / month, totaling $505 USD per month.
            Tom’s wife works about 5 miles from home and her vehicle gets about 32 mpg. Tom on the other hand commutes 80 miles per day and only gets 17 mpg with his SUV. Let’s do some math:
Tom – 80 miles per day x 5 days per week = 400 miles per week divided by 17 mpg = 23.5 gallons of gasoline.
Mrs. Tom – 10 miles round trip x 5 days per week = 50 miles per week divided by 32 mpg = 1.5 gallons of gasoline.
If they trade vehicles Tom would have 400 miles per week divided by 32 mpg = 12.5 gallons and Mrs. Tom 50 miles per week divided by 17 mpg equaling 3 gallons of gas. The savings would be 12.5 gallons (Tom) minus 3 gallons (Mrs. T) or 9.5 gallons per week multiplied by the price per gallon, which was about $3.50 USD at the time we figured this. The savings was $33.25 USD per week x 4 weeks or $133 USD per month.
This added to the $505 USD savings we already had came to$638 USD plus the $75 USD he started with, brought him to over $700 USD per month to start his preps. This totals $8,400 USD per year. Your mileage may vary.

With figures in hand we decided to start a “Prepping Budget”.  We didn’t want to spend all $700 USD on food or guns or on just any one item. We wanted to spread it around so that if TEOTWAWKI hits next month he will at least have a little of everything.

Water storage is probably the least expensive item to complete, and next to air and shelter is the most vital for survival. And so it was easy to get his basic water storage completed.
While normally there are only three members in his household, he also has two grown children; a single son in college and a married daughter who has one child and expecting her second. When TSHTF they also expect to take in Mrs. Tom’s handicapped (wheelchair bound) brother. This brought their total to eight. Realistically they should build in a fudge factor of 50%, or prepare for 12 people.

With this in mind we calculated the minimum amount of water to be stored. At two gallons of water per day per person (authorities recommend one gallon per day per person<remember the Preppers Code: two is one and one is none!>) and fourteen days worth stored equals 24 gallons per day times 14 or 336 gallons.
So off to Pepsi went Tom who bought seven used plastic 55 gallon drums that had been used for soft drink syrup for $10 USD each. (total expense was $70 USD) He brought them home and rinsed them out, drained them, made a solution of 5 gallons hot water with 3 tablespoons of dish detergent and placed it in a drum. We replaced the bung (plug) and rolled the drum between us. After a few minutes we drained the drum through a funnel into the next drum. (We let it drain for several minutes to get it as empty as possible) We continued this system until all drums were washed. We did have to change the water after the fourth drum, as it was pretty skanky! The drums were left upside down overnight so that they might drain well.  The next day we repeated the process, again allowing them to drain overnight. Next about 10 gallons of warm rinse water was placed in each drum, they were rolled again and drained.
The next step was to put about 5 more gallons into each drum with a quarter cup of chlorine bleach. We rolled each drum several times over the next day, after which we emptied the drums.
We removed the drums to his basement storage area, wiped the outsides of the drums and placed them on pressure treated 1×4’s covered with ¼ inch plywood. This was to keep the drums off the concrete floor which could affect the plastic drums.
We then placed about a tablespoon of unscented chlorine bleach into each drum and then filled them through a food grade water hose with tap water.
We date labeled the drums so that they could be used and refilled in a consistent manner.
Total expense for his water storage was about $102 USD plus the actual water from his tap.

Keeping in line with an across the board spending he next purchased a solar battery charger online for around $70 USD. Also in the order he spend around $20 USD on each, “C”, “D”, “9v”, “AA”, and “AAA” rechargeable batteries. Total was ~$170 USD.
The next trip was to the LDS Family Food Storage Center where Tom spent $200 USD on commodities. He placed an online order for plastic pails, Mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers. Cost – around $100 USD, subtotal $300 USD, total $572 USD.
Off to Wal-Mart where he bought a Coleman propane camping stove and a 20 pound propane tank. Total there was $120 USD. Total of all $696 USD.

And so Tom was able to get a good handle on his beginning preps with his water storage well started, as well as batteries and charger, a small stock of essential food storage items, and something to cook it on.

Month 2
After another planning session Tom made his purchases for the second month:
            Another $100 USD in rechargeable batteries.
            An AM/FM/SW/ NOAA radio – $120 USD
            A Big Berkey water filter – $320 USD
            3 Dietz kerosene lanterns, a 5 gallon safety fuel can, and 5 gallons of kerosene – $115 USD.
All of these purchases totaled $655 USD. I suggested that he put his $45 USD away for seed money.
He took me literally and bought a number 10 can of heirloom seeds from Emergency Essentials.

Month 3
This time when I met with Tom his list was already made. After a review I agreed to his plan:
            150 12 gauge 00 (double ought) Buckshot shotgun shells for $99.99 USD (Tom already has a 12 gauge shotgun)
            2 cases of MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) at $60 USD each, $120 USD total – $220 USD.
            2 large and 1 medium “Alice Packs” for total of $95 USD – total $315 USD.
            3 “experienced” USGI sleep systems @ $80 USD each, for $240 USD, total – $555 USD.
            The $145 USD balance was spent on USGI canteens, web gear, and pouches. Total spent $725 USD (Tom went a little over budget).

Month 4
As I write this Tom is purchasing this month’s preps.
As this is canning (bottling) season there are many canning supplies on sale. His goal is several dozen quart jars, extra lids and rings and a pressure canner. I also recommended that he purchase a good reference manual on preserving food.
(Sidebar: Tom did not have a garden this year but plans to purchase some produce at the local farmers’ market and can some vegetables for the experience.)
We estimate this cost at ~$200 USD, although the produce itself will come from his household budget.
Other purchases this month will include:
            4 Family channel radios (2 sets) with headsets and external mic – ~ $120 USD.
            A handheld GPS and USGS maps for each section to the family farm (BOL) ~ $250 USD.
Hiking boots for Mrs. Tom $125 USD.

Tom’s shopping list for the near future include handguns for he and his wife, along with appropriate ammunition, holsters, accessories, CCW class, and CCW. He also plans to purchase three new shotguns, a 12 gauge pump (tactical style) for him, and two 20 gauge pumps for his wife and daughter.
Of course his food storage, gardening tools, medical supplies, solar/generator, tactical clothing, BOV, MBR and ammo, and a myriad of items remain to be prioritized and purchased.

THE MAIN THING IS THAT Tom, et al, has found a way to afford the things they need. If only TIME will allow them to complete the basics they should be all right. If not… well, they’re already better off than they were!
Summary
In summary I would like to add a few observations:

  1. No matter your budget there are almost always some extras you can cut and use that “found” money for your preps. (I wish the US Government would follow this advice!)
  2. It is always better to have 30 days of a wide variety of preps, rather than a year’s supply of any one or two things. Plan accordingly.
  3. Have a plan and for the most part stick to it. An exception might be a really good sale or bargain on something you were going to purchase soon anyway.
  4. Never borrow money to buy preps. If you do use your credit card then pay that purchase off before using it for another prep purchase.
  5. Understand that you will never, never, never be ready for TEOTWAWKI. There will always be one more thing you need, one more skill to hone…

Start where you are, examine your lifestyle and yourself, enlist those who mean the most to you and trust in the Lord. All will be well.

JWR Adds: In addition to budget trimming, to generate cash I would recommend developing a small second income stream, such as home-based mailorder business. And if the inventory that you develop for that business is of items that would be good for post-disaster barter, charity, and your own family’s use, then it is a “win-win.” Excess frippery (such as collectibles) can also be gradually sold off via eBay. Don’t make the excuse of just saying “I don’t have the money to prepare.” The money is there if you just get creative, as Louie suggested.

Letter Re: Preserving a Digital Library

Dear Mr Rawles,
Since I have worked for a few decades now with computers as programmer, installing systems and building/repairing computers, I read last week’s articles/letters on a digital libraries with interest. Though most information provided is correct, some possibilities weren’t discussed, while others may not be entirely clear or confusing to the uninitiated.
So, in addition to the previous postings, here is my take on ‘digital libraries for dummies’:

Putting together a digital library is a good idea and I have one too. It contains everything from books to reference diagrams, user manuals and SurvivalBlog archives. However it can become a needless burden on (possibly scarce) resources if not done correctly. So before you run out to buy things you may not need, lets take a look at whether your intended
approach fits with your other preparations.

– How much storage is required? As much as you need/can afford/deem necessary. I know that doesn’t say much but it is really what it comes down to. For example I have scanned all old family pictures I could find and stored the scans along with newer digital pictures. They are part of the library, together with copies of music CDs and vinyl records, a few movies and family videos. And some games in case people get really bored. The computer says the library has grown to over 150,000 files most of which are compressed by lossless algorithms to around 100GB total required storage space. That’s a small hard drive, average SSD, 4 32GB SDHC cards, 20+ DVDs or 150 CDs.

– How do you manage this much information? I do not use a program to manage the library but simply use a folder structure to keep everything in a place where I can find it. For instance there is a ‘books’ folder, a ‘documents’ folder, a ‘pictures’ folder, etc. Each of these folders contains a tree of subfolders to quickly find items. I know: I’m old fashioned but it works and saves me the trouble of having to learn another piece of software that may or may not work (I still remember losing a number of pictures due to buggy picture management software that came with a camera). Besides, if I really can’t find something, Linux has built-in commands to find (the path to) files and to scan any and all documents for keywords.

– So do you need encryption? Well that depends but, realistically, the answer is probably not. If your library consists of KJV, Moby Dick and chicken coop blueprints published by the government in 1922, then you are better off without encryption since that won’t raise anyone’s suspicions. On the other hand, if you are carrying around guerrilla warfare planning documents … you are probably in way over your head if you are looking for advice here. Please keep in mind that weak encryption is worse than no encryption, because you may rely on the encryption to keep your secrets whereas un-encrypted info won’t give you that false sense of security. FWIW I don’t use encryption on my library except for folders containing personal info and password vaults.

– Should you rely on CD and/or DVD disks for your library? As H335 pointed out you will be dealing with bit rot. This can be somewhat alleviated by storing archival type (= relatively expensive) disks in a cool, dark, dry place but even that is not fool proof according test data available on the internet. Do I use disks as back up? Yes, but I keep three copies of all documents in my library on three different media: a very reliable old hard drive, DVD disks and SDHC cards. Surely something will survive!

– Why SDHC cards? They are small (=easy to hide), cheap and reliable. All you need for them to work is a good quality USB reader. Don’t buy any reader that costs less than $10-$15 or you *will* regret it. For the cards themselves, try to buy units that carry a lifetime warranty [for the best price you can find]. The really nice thing about the cards is that they are re-programmable. Apart from being able to delete unwanted documents this greatly enhances their longevity. Here is how that works: their data retention is usually specified as 5-20 years depending on quality of parts used. They should also allow a minimum of 3000 write cycles before wearing out the cells. So to be on the safe side, I refresh the data (=copy to another card) once every year or so and can, conservatively, do so a 1000 times. I think they will outlast my needs … Because of their small size I am not really worried about EMP damage, but it doesn’t take much to protect them properly. If you want/need something really tiny, get a microSD card. They are about half the size of your finger nails and just as thin and have the same storage capacity as regular SDHC cards. Easy to lose but might come in handy if you want to sew them into your coat. If you don’t mind something bigger than SDHC cards, USB sticks (in many disguises) can be used the same way.

– Do you really need printers, paper, toner, etc.? You might if you plan to be holed up in your fortress and expect to be without power for extended periods of time. In that case I suggest you start printing now when supplies and power are still cheap and plentiful. My philosophy is that I may need to leave in hurry without the possibility of dragging paper around so I have made no provisions for printing large quantities of documents. Nor do I care to leaf through hundreds of printed pages looking for a passage or table when the computer can find it much quicker. However if you plan to be teaching a community group for example, there are legitimate reasons to stock up on supplies.

– By going fully paperless I will need something that can read and display the stored information. A full desktop computer will do nicely, especially on your retreat, but may not be the best solution. Laptops and tablets use less space and energy.

– laptops. I usually keep two of them around. They are identical so if one dies I can use the other one and have spare parts for it. My personal preference is to use Dell Latitudes because they are plentiful (=cheap) and have worked well over the years for me. I also know how to take them apart and fix them which helps. IBM’s Thinkpads also have a good reputation. If you go shopping for a laptop: look for an off-lease business laptop – they are made with premium grade components and all the bad apples have been weeded out long before they come off-lease. Do *not* buy a pallet full of laptops for $50; chances are none of them will work when you plug them in for the first time. 30%-50% of the units should be salvageable but only if you know how. Your $50 is better used for buying a laptop that has been tested and is guaranteed to be not DOA (plenty of those listings on Ebay). As a rule these laptops have their hard drives wiped and a fresh install of the OS. If the hard drive wasn’t wiped there is no real reason to go out and have them professionally wiped. This was a good idea in years past when we had low capacity drives. However hard drives that were build in the last 3-4 years use very narrow magnetic tracks that can be effectively wiped by simply having your computer overwrite them once with new data as shown by blind testing in data recovery labs. Of course there is a downside to this: your own data can be lost that much easier too … Don’t go for the latest and the greatest. Older laptops are built better and have sturdier electronics because they are build on larger process nodes. Single core machines are just fine for what you will likely use it for. I still have a laptop that is over 10 years old. I only use it for programming micro-controllers which means it gets lugged around all over the place, but its doing just fine and I am less afraid of breaking it than the newer ones. It even gets 4 hours run time out of today’s higher capacity batteries. The downside is that I need to run Windows 98 or something like Puppy Linux because its underpowered for almost any other OS.

-tablets. I have been thinking of getting one but have a hard time justifying the purchase. Their big attractions are small, light weight and energy efficiency which is important if you don’t have too much available. But … they are throw-away electronics. Especially the ones where you cannot replace the battery. Under normal daily use/nightly charge cycles the battery should give out in about a year (you might still get 1-2 hrs run time on a charge but nowhere near advertised spec.). So you are either tethered to your charger or can go buy a new one. That’s assuming you haven’t run into any of the wear-and-tear issues associated with today’s high performance/small footprint/passive cooling designs. So if I need to keep laptops around as backup in (the somewhat likely) case that the tablet fails, why not just stick with the laptops. The second thing I am not too keen on is that most tablets (and smart phones for that matter) work as personal tracking devices in their default configurations. And they are really good at it. Having said that, if you already own one and it has an SD card reader or accessible USB port; there is nothing wrong with using it with your library. Just don’t depend on it as your only reader.

-Windows XP. I noticed it mentioned in some posts. This product is fine to use as operating system for your library reader provided you understand the risks. From April 8, 2014 onward Microsoft will no longer support it. Without security updates you will be a sitting duck for viruses and other types of attacks. So you should only use it on computers that are not connected to the internet which may not be a problem when SHTF. However SHTF also means you will not be able to re-activate your copy should your computer crash or need a new hard drive, CPU, etc. For these situations there is a solution. Make sure you have downloaded and stored a piece of software called AntiWPA. You install this right after you install Windows XP. It works by starting windows in safe mode and switching to normal mode once you are past the activation code check. Your windows license is not tied to your activation code but to your machine. Assuming you bought your machine with a retail copy of windows or the machine came with a COA sticker, you are not doing anything illegal by using AntiWPA to start your machine. If your machine came with a COA sticker (likely if its an off-lease business laptop), make sure you make or download your own CD with a copy of windows (or any other OS) and know how to install it or know someone who does. Just adding a how-to document to your library will lead to some very unpleasant moments/thoughts when the computer tells you it can’t find a bootable hard drive. As for me, I still use Windows XP occasionally to reliably run some older programs and create my tax returns. But it lives inside a Virtual Machine (VM) without access to the internet. Its universe is restricted to the 10GB file on a hard drive in which it resides. If you are really concerned with (internet) security, take a look at a program called VirtualBox. It surprisingly stable and easy to use and comes with sane defaults so you can just click your way through the initial setup wizard to get started. And if you mess up, you delete the file and start over again till you get it right … which works great for practicing OS installs too.

– What about data security? There are many aspects to this question most of which you won’t be able or need to deal with. Here I will highlight three: local data storage, cloud and internet use.

– Local storage security. Data security of your locally stored information can be achieved to a reasonable degree if you wish to do so. If you want to add a digital layer of protection to your locally stored information, the most important aspect is your password. It needs to be long, unusual and contain numbers and punctuation marks. Password cracking software tends to incorporate lists of often used passwords or even a dictionary because trying those first yields far better results than applying brute force techniques due to people’s common password choices. It also needs to be long because top-of-the-line graphics cards (think Radeon HD7970 @$350-$400) can find any password of less than 9 characters via brute force in 2 days or less. The next model (due out in October) is expected to do it about 30% faster. At any rate a 12-15 character password should be safe for the next few years. In case the government confiscates your disks to look at them, I doubt any type of encryption available to you will stand up against their attempts. And please give sufficient thought to how and where you store your backups. Under a slab of concrete is far more secure than in a kitchen cupboard.

– Cloud security. Assume it doesn’t exist and that the cloud is as transparent as glass. This goes for both data storage and information processing in the cloud. If you don’t believe me read the fine print in the ‘terms of use’ you are agreeing to. Some companies use OSS cloud software which lowers your risk somewhat but you still have to traverse the internet. For example I saw someone touting the virtues of removing EXIF data from pictures before posting or emailing them. He had the right idea: I never send any picture out without stripping all its EXIF data. Then he mentioned this could be easily done in the cloud: all you have to do is send your picture over and it would come back to you in stripped format. You just have no idea how many copies were made before the exif data was stripped. For real OPSEC you want to download something like ‘exif-tools’ and process your image at home.

– Data security during transmission outside your computer should not be assumed as has been documented by Mr. Snowden et al. However there are a few things you can do to lower your risk because not all software is created equal. Running DOS might be fine because it pre-dates the time that the internet was a household word. Its just that its kind of useless in that it won’t run any program that is capable of rendering today’s web pages. All other Microsoft OS, MS Internet explorer and Apple products are suspect and I don’t use them to get on the internet if I can help it. Unfortunately I feel I also have to put Google’s Android and Chrome OS in this list. So what’s left to lower your risk? Basically something called Open Source Software (OSS); this means that the source code of the programs that you run is freely available for download by anyone interested in improving the code, looking for bugs, back doors, etc.

The premier OSS operating system is Linux. But Linux by itself isn’t much fun: you will also need a desktop environment and apps to do something useful. Examples of Linux based user interfaces are Android, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc. (The reason I mentioned Android as suspect is that its user interface comes with [closed source] binaries that cannot be inspected). If you want to try a Linux flavor for the first time: download a free copy of Linux Mint 13 (codename Maya and supported till 2017) because it has the most windows-like user interface of all Linux distros. It even has the familiar ‘start’ button, though they call it ‘menu’. Burn the iso image on a DVD and start your computer from that DVD – guaranteed virus free for the lifetime of the DVD and also a very useful approach should your system crash after the grid goes down. Alternately you can use a program called Unetbootin to load the image on a USB stick and start your computer from there. Mint comes with Firefox as default browser and includes media players (including VLC), document viewers, pdf readers and an office suite out of the box. It also has a software center for additional app downloads.

I would be remiss if I didn’t explicitly point out that ‘lowering your risk’ is not the same as ‘taking away your risk’. For example using Linux will lower your risk of running into a virus or giving easy access to your documents via a backdoor. Sending an encrypted email lowers your risk of people other than the recipient reading them. The stronger the encryption, the lower your risk. However, in the last few weeks a number of valid concerns have been raised that the NSA has spend a lot of effort making sure that various internet encryption protocols were designed in such a way that their implementations would be easy to crack for them. In such a scenario a properly written OSS app without known backdoor still would not provide adequate protection against NSA efforts. In laymen’s terms: depending on the contents of your encrypted messages you may want to consider using carrier pigeons instead of the Internet. – D.P.

Economics and Investing:

Reader Rick D. spotted this over at Zero Hedge: GLD ETF Investors Unable To Get Physical Gold. Here is a key quote: “[Hedge fund manager Grant] Williams warned that the massive and escalating paper claims on physical gold at COMEX warehouses will create an explosion in the price of gold. Paper claims on gold are now at 55 to 1 meaning that there are contracts worth 55 ounces for every one ounce of actual physical gold in the COMEX warehouses.”

Singer Joni Mitchell foretells an economic collapse. (Skip forward to 4:20.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Employers Hoarding Labor: Here’s Why That’s Bad News $1 Trillion In US Bank Deposits Held Abroad Will No Longer Be Insured

Housing Market Resumes This Damaging Downtrend

Odds ‘n Sods:

Pierre M. sent: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to Coptic Christians: Convert to Islam, or pay ‘jizya’ tax

   o o o

Joanna H. recommended this web page: How to Make a Rabbit Skin Blanket

   o o o

The first Seattle Sustainable Preparedness Expo is scheduled for September 29th, 2013.

   o o o

Boy Scout alternative, Trail Life USA, launches ‘premier’ Christian group for boys. (Thanks to RBS for the link.)

   o o o

SurvivalPrepStore, a new Kansas City area survival store (with a nationwide mailorder customer base) is by offering an All American Deal in remembrance of 9/11.  They are offering sales prices on two America-made products with a special Silver Dollar bonus:
 
1.       The All American Sun Oven (The 2013 version) at their previous 2010 price of $279.99.  This includes free shipping.
2.       Or purchase the Talia Filter System 4.5 gallons at $237+ Shipping. 
 
Bonus offer: Any orders of these two items placed through September 18th will receive a One Dollar Silver Coin.
 
Note: The Talia Filter system is made by an Ohio-based company.  The owner uses these systems for overseas missions in places like Africa.  It is a Christian organization.  Their systems are comparable to Berkey water systems.  They have 440 Stainless steel containers, carbon-ceramic filters impregnated in silver solution and the filters are stainless-steel threaded instead of plastic, making them more reliable and durable. Be sure to use this promotional discount code, at checkout: rawles.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Many of life’s circumstances are created by three basic choices: the disciplines you choose to keep, the people you choose to be with, and the laws you choose to obey. " – Charles Millhuff

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 48 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy. G.) Two BirkSun.com photovoltaic backpacks (one Level, and one Atlas, both black), with a combined value of $275, H.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and I.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P.), E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials F.) A full set of all 22 of the books published by PrepperPress.com. This is more than a $200 value, and G.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security., E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Round 48 ends on September 30th so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

3D Printing: Is it in Your Future?, by Kevin L.

There is a lot of talk in the media these days about three dimensional (3D) printers. For our community there is the Liberator, a 3D printed gun. It is an amazing development but certainly not ready for widespread use. 3D printers also make it possible to print your own magazines, holsters, and just about anything else you can think of that is made from plastic. But how good are these printers? Should they be part of your survival arsenal? If so, which one should you get? You can get used 3D Printers for around $550 without trying very hard but is it a waste of money? I’ll answer these questions and much more in this article.

My Background
I am a mechanical engineer and I design products every day. I use my own 3D Printer regularly, which is a Thing-O-Matic from Makerbot. I bought it for $1,200 a few years ago and I had to build it myself. I have since made my own customizations to it to make it work a little better than it did originally. I use it to make parts, for projects to help me demonstrate a concept to a client, for prototyping an idea, or for fixing my kids’ toys. It costs me pennies to make something on this machine and I can go from idea to finished part in as little as 5 minutes.

I also have access to an Objet 30, a $30,000 machine. I use this machine regularly when my 3D printer isn’t be sufficient. It has a bigger build volume (12″x8″x6″), a better surface quality, higher accuracy, and is a dual material printer (I’ll explain more below). I only have to pay for the material costs and it typically runs overnight.

When I really need a large item printed or a nearly perfect quality part I use a local 3D print house. They can even make molds of my “Master” part and produce replicas using nearly any plastic material. It usually takes a few days for a master part and a lot more money. They have an array of printers but their printers can easily cost $500,000.

How do 3D Printers work?
3D printers all use the concept of building a part in layers. Most machines build from the bottom up. Typically the “entry level” printers build each layer of plastic by squirting a noodle of hot plastic out a nozzle. The nozzle is connected to 3 servos(motors) that control the left-to-right, front-to-back, and vertical motion. There is also a servo to control whether the hot plastic is being squirted out the nozzle or not. These four motors are controlled by a computer that coordinates their actions.

The build process works as follows: if your part is going to be a tube standing on end the 3d printer would squirt material as it moved around a circle on the outside. Then it would stop squirting plastic and move to the middle and draw the inside circle of the cylinder. Next it would fill in the material between the two circles. Then the nozzle would lift a small amount, usually .005 to .020 inches and repeat the circles and fill. It would repeat this process hundreds of times until your part looks like a tube. On a more complex part the inside and outside profiles could be any shape. During the setup process you decide whether you want the printer to create the part as completely solid or internally use a honeycomb structure (which makes the part lighter and saves material).

3D printers are unique in that they can build parts that you can’t build with any other machine. They can create internal features on a part because the nozzle has access to the inside of the part during the build process. 3D printers have created a new market of manufacturing referred to as “Additive Manufacturing”.

If a machine has only one nozzle you can’t build parts that have any sudden overhangs.  If it does the noodle will droop and give you a poor quality part. Another issue with single nozzle machines is that you need parts that have a wide flat base. These are big limitations. You really want a printer with a dual nozzle. On these dual-head machines one nozzle lays down a support structure with a water soluble material and the other dispenses the part material. If your machine is a dual-head printer then when your part is done you need to clean the part in a sink to remove the support material. A high pressure sprayer is helpful.

The best dual head machine on the market is the Replicator 2x from MakerBot (owned by Stratasys). This is the machine that the Liberator pistol was made with. In fact Microsoft says that the next service pack of Windows 8 will natively support the Replicator 2 as another printer. I don’t know what this means exactly because there is more to the process that just connecting to it.

The Replicator 2x can dispense different colors and PLA or ABS plastic. ABS is a relatively strong material that isn’t brittle and has a relatively high melting point. PLA is also strong and can produce more accurate features but it has a low melting point. Parts can droop in a hot car. The Replicator 2x is $2800 (not including support service).

There are other kinds of 3d printers that use a process called SLA in which a movable platform sits in a pool of liquid. A laser shoots at the top surface of the pool and hardens the liquid where it builds the parts. These machines are extremely accurate but the resulting part is brittle. A new “entry level” printer called the Form 1 is due in November 2013 that has the professional rapid prototyping service companies nervous. It is expected to cost $3300 which is extremely cheap for this kind of machine.

Let’s assume that you decide to buy a printer. You also need a computer to run the printer. If you want to create your own parts then you need software to design your parts. Right now you can download Creo Elements for free. Creo Elements is a basic 3D modeling software but it is very functional for many parts. For the price you can’t go wrong. Personally I use Solidworks but it starts at $4000. SolidWorks is the most common 3D software among small to mid-size companies. I can design anything with SolidWorks.

If you don’t want to design anything you can download 3D parts such as magazines and grips that others have designed. DefCAD.com has a lot “defense” related models. You can also get some at grabcad.com and 3dcontentcentral.com. In my experience they usually aren’t designed very accurately or for 3d printing. DefCAD is your best bet. There are also other sites that have zipped up the DefCAD models and made them available to ensure the models never become inaccessible.

So are these 3D printers useful in a TEOTWAWKI scenario?
I think that there may be some very useful applications for a 3D printer. I could see someone developing good quality models of magazines, belt clips, grips, and other “accessories” for your systems. When you need more you print them.

I personally wouldn’t make any parts for a weapon that see any kind of high pressure, temperature or need high precision. The Liberator gun suggests replacing the barrel between every shot of a .22. It would take nearly 2 hours to print one barrel. It costs maybe $1 in material. Between time and money it isn’t worth it. Even more importantly, the danger is that the barrel is made in layers and under high pressures it could crack and or disintegrate in unpredictable ways. I suppose if things got really bad I might consider it but it would be have to be extreme circumstances.

Is there anything else a 3D printer could be used for?
There is an entire other possibility for 3D printers that I haven’t mentioned yet. This is the idea of making molds for parts. There is a resurgence in the DIY market of making your own molds and therefore producing low volume production of parts. The essential company to know is smooth-on.com. They have everything you need to make your own molds and parts. In fact, in some cases you don’t even need a 3D printer. You might be able to take some of the existing parts you have, create molds, and duplicate your parts. Smooth-On has an unbelievable array of materials that you can make parts from. You can even make metal parts from some of their mold materials. Now if you combine a 3D printer into the mix you have yourself a versatile, small production manufacturing capability. It does take practice learning how to make a mold well but it isn’t rocket science.

Should everyone get a 3D printer?
Personally I think if you operate in a relatively large group and are well prepared a 3D printer and molding supplies might be worth considering. More likely is that I would suggest the tools and knowledge for someone that wants to have a backup profession for when the SHTF. I could see someone being the local manufacturing guy in their area. I have made hundreds of parts in my basement from my 3D printer, mold materials, and some simple tools (drill, knife, screwdrivers, etc).

Right now the 3D printer market is still in its infancy. There are a lot people out there trying to figure out to get the average household to want them in their house. No one has figured it out yet. If you do think that you want get a printer then I recommend the Replicator 2x. It has good customer support, a strong community, and lots of connections to software. I will seriously consider the Form 1 printer once I see that the bugs are worked out. There are less expensive printers out there that you might consider to experiment with but I don’t see them as a useful tool. Best wishes in your preps and be safe.