7 Survival Hacks You Can Do TODAY

hey folks this is Jr with DIY prepper welcome to the channel as Preppers we love to talk about different kinds of gear I mean after all it is always fun to get new toys but I think many times we forget that we can perform a lot of really important survival tasks using things that we probably already have laying around knowing different survival hacks can help those who can't afford specialized survival gear be able to do the things that they need to do and even if you can afford those different kinds of gear it'll still help you be more resourceful so if you're in a situation where you're separated from your Main Equipment you'll still be able to survive and one of my favorite survival hacks is the Buddy burner also known as a hobo stove this is an off-grid cooking method that uses cheap and easy to find materials most of which you would just throw away to make one you'll need a short metal can like what you'd find canned chicken in But be sure it's actually metal some cans like what cat food comes in are actually plastic and will melt so if you're not sure just use them a magnet to make sure that your can is in fact metal and the size for these doesn't really matter all that much but the smaller ones may be more versatile in some cases for larger cans you're going to need something like a firebox stove that can accommodate that bigger size but smaller ones can fit in something like the solo stove light and it's going to be a lot more portable but regardless of the size this is a cooking method that is definitely done best Outdoors next you're going to need some cardboard like from a shipping or moving box measure the inside of the cannon then Mark your cardboard just a little shorter than that when you do this make sure that the holes on the cardboard are going up and down because this is going to help the wax seep down into it later on after that cut your strips of cardboard you'll probably need to make several strips like this in order to fill the can next roll the strips up this will help them fit down inside of the can easier and will allow you to pack a more densely and you do want the cardboard to fit into the can as tightly as possible after you fill the camera more cardboard use a small scrap of what's left over to create a wick that'll extend just a little bit Above the Rest of the cardboard and those will help you light the stove later on next melt some wax you can use wax from an old candle or buy a box of wax like this and I prefer to use non-scented candles for this and I also melt the wax in something like a tin can like pasta sauce came into so that I don't mess up any of my wife's cookware and drastically reduce my expected lifespan after the wax is melted carefully pour it into the can if it's still really hot it'll bubble like mine did so you may need to stop occasionally and let those bubbles die down after that your buddy burner is ready to use light it using the wick that you created earlier and it may take a little while to get going but once it does it should have a pretty large flame another cooking related survival hack that I really like is the soda can alcohol burner I made my first one that I have here during the 2021 Texas Eye storm and what I like about these is that they're pretty versatile when it comes to the kinds of fuel that you can use you can use denatured alcohol yellow heat isopropyl alcohol and even ever clear and to make one of these you're actually going to need two soda cans once you have them use something like a book and a Sharpie to measure the height of the stove from the bottom of the cans this isn't a set height but around an inch and a half to two inches has worked well for me and you'll do this for both cans next use the scissors to cut along the lines and the pieces should be the same height go ahead and save what's left of the can since you're going to need them later and for this next part you're going to need to be pretty careful you're going to take one of the cans and score the Inside Edge of the bottom I used a box cutter for this and wearing protective gloves is definitely a good idea when you're doing this you're going to need to make several passes to remove enough material and you're not trying to cut all the way through that can rather you're just trying to remove enough to weaken it so that it's easier to snap off later on next score two perpendicular lines going across the bottom of the can and go over these several times as well the more time that you spend scoring the outside and middle of this section the easier that it's going to be to remove and a good General guideline for when it's ready to take out is that as you're scoring the middle of that can if you can turn it over and see indentations from those score lines on the other side of the can then it's probably close to being ready to remove this section make a plunge cut where your perpendicular lines intersect and follow that line to the edge of the intersection and do that for the other sections as well next use pliers to remove the individual pieces grab a halt of them and rock them back and forth until they break free you can also use the end of the box cutters to knock those pieces down a little bit if you need to if you did a good job scoring the edges these should come out without too much trouble after I get the pieces out I also like to smooth out any sharp edges with a file next you're going to create your jet holes along the edge of the can and the easiest way to do this is with a drill but I have heard of people using things like finishing nails or thumbtacks as well but I will say a drill is much easier to use and in case you're wondering I used a 1 16 inch drill bit next use a pair of needle nose pliers to crimp the bottom edge of the can but don't go up too high like what I did here crimping too high will cause Flames to come out between the two cans rather than the jet holes that you just made and you don't want that next take the top portion of one of the soda cans and remove its middle section use scissors to make a straight cut up the middle of the can and then around it and you can flatten it either by Rolling it the opposite way or just placing something heavy on top of it for a while next measure the total height of the bottom can and the height of the top can shoulder add those two numbers together and transfer that measurement to the flat piece that you made earlier and this piece needs to have clean edges and be as straight as possible because this is what you're going to use to separate the middle fuel Chamber from the outer burn chamber so when you're doing these measurements and making these Cuts be very careful after you've made your cut roll that strip so that it'll fit inside of the can and adjust it so it sits inside the bottom can inside of that Groove when you've adjusted it to the right size hold it together and make two small Cuts with your scissors wear it overlaps one over the other use these as references to make longer cuts and opposite sides and ends of the piece this will allow you to connect the two ends to make a ring after that cut two small triangles at the bottom of the Ring these will allow fuel to flow into the burn chamber next place the ring inside of the bottom can and then set the top piece inside of the bottom can as well when pressing the top down make sure that the ring sits inside the grooves of both the bottom can and top can once it's together you can add fuel to the soda can stove and light it if you did crimp too high and have Flames coming out between the two halves you still may be able to salvage it you can try using small pieces of the cans that you had left over to make some shims and you just wedge these down inside of the stove where those gaps are to prevent Flames from shooting out and the good thing about this is that it could prevent you from having to remake the entire top section of your stove which is the most difficult and time consuming part if your soda can stove is working properly then it should look like this after it heats up and these work really well if you don't want to buy a commercial alcohol stove or you already have one but want to have some extras for additional kits just be aware that when these start burning you're either going to need to let them burn themselves out or smother the flame to get them to stop and something like this metal Camp cup set upside down on it will do that also be sure that you don't place these directly on any surface that you don't want to get burned because the stoves themselves do get pretty hot another survival hack that everyone should know is Vaseline and cotton ball fire starters these are easy to light and they burn for a while giving you a very good chance of getting a fire started to make them play some cotton balls inside of a Ziploc bag along with a glob of Vaseline shut the bag in spread the Vaseline over the cotton balls as evenly as you can hand and when you put these in a kit I do like to double bag them just in case that bag gets a hole in it you're not going to get Vaseline all over everything when you get ready to use one of the cotton balls remove it from the bag and separate the cotton balls fibers and spread Vaseline over them as much as possible and you can also use any extra Vaseline that you have in the bag you should be able to light these using a Ferro Rod or any other common ignition Source but there are some other household items that work well as emergency fire starters also and one of them is hand sanitizer you can squirt a little bit out strike it with a Ferro rod and the alcohol and it will ignite this is a very similar concept to wood pellet starter gel you can also use a nine volt battery and steel wool as an emergency fire starter simply touch both contacts to the steel wool and it should light pretty quickly just be careful when you're doing this because it does work very quickly you want to be sure to store those in completely different places because you don't want them getting too close together and setting a fire in something like your bug out bag or the junk drawer in your kitchen but you don't even really need a battery to use steel wool as a fire starter you can actually strike it with a Ferro Rod I've only tried this with super fine steel wool so I'm not sure if it works with the more coarse grades another item that you can use for prepper or survival hacks is spray bottles you can use athletic style bottles to do things like rinse toothbrushes and the benefit to that is that it can help you conserve water doing things like using spigots on aquitainers or just dumping a bottle of water over something can result in a lot of waste but with a squirt bottle you're using less water at a higher pressure which is going to help you clean and rinse more efficiently if you don't have a regular spray bottle then you can make your own out of a disposable water bottle for the really cheap ones just use a needle to poke one or more holes in the lid and squeeze it and water will squirt out and you can also use this to help you water seedlings for this one I used a higher quality bottle and used a drill to make several holes in the lid this is a lot easier on the plants and it gives you more control than using a full size watering can another useful survival hack involves turning a folding saw like a Bako laplander into a pole saw so that you can reach higher branches to do this use zip ties to attach the saw to some sort of pole you can use things like old tool handles or branches and the larger heavy duty zip ties work well for this after you have everything put together simply use it the same way that you would use a pole saw but be very careful when doing this make sure that you're standing somewhere where the branch isn't going to come crashing down on you use safety gear and you probably also want to have a rope on hand so that you can throw it up on the branch and pull it down if the saw gets jammed up pocket chainsaws can be used for this purpose as well just tie a rope to each end of the chainsaw and use the rope as a handle to pull it back and forth and as with the folding saw you may need to use your rope to pull the branch down if the chainsaw gets stuck another useful survival hack is making a duct tape mini roll keeping a full roll of duct tape and a bug out bag or get home bag isn't always practical because they're pretty big but making a smaller roll is very easy just take a pencil and cut it to the width of your duct tape then wrap the duct tape around that pencil the good thing about this is that you can make your roll as large or small as you want to and it eliminates the large empty middle section of a roll and it'll also let you break a larger roll of duct tape down so that you can use it in multiple kits but another thing that I've done is I have taken electrical tape and wrapped it around something like a small piece of plastic and what I've mainly use that for is I keep it in my wallet to cover the sensors on automatic flushing toilets because I really hate it when those things go off while I'm still sitting on the toilet and they Splash my behind it just really grosses me out so I'll just tear off a little piece of that tape stick it on the sensor and then remove it when I'm done this next hack is useful if you have something like a Spyderco sharp maker or other ceramic sharpening rods if you have those you know that it doesn't take very long for them to become covered in tiny metal particles and after a certain point those can make the the sharpening stone less effective but claiming these is really easy and all you need is a magic eraser just get it dampen rub the gray areas off of your sharpening stone rinse it off let it dry and you should be good to go now these are not the only survival hacks out there so if you want to see some more you can check out this video that I did a while back showing several different just everyday items with survival uses or if you want to see some disposable items you should be stockpiling then check out that video thank y'all for stopping by y'all have a good

Channel: DIY Prepper TV

Views: 34,507

Keywords: Prepper, Prepping, DIY Prepper

Id: P5V1nya3o9Y

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2023