The Day After - What to Buy

[tombogan03884]

Skip the generator, go with candles and kerosene lamps.
If supply or finances become a problem, for example a financial collapse that puts fuel prices out of reach, small stocks of "lamp oil" will last much longer than generator fuel. besides which lamps are far more adaptable to alternative fuels.
Remember replacement wicks.

[alfsauve]

I'm probably one of the few families in an urban area that has always had 4 hurricane, kerosene fueled lamps.

There's a bit of history.  My grand-dad had a hunting lodge and we retrieved these from there after his death. They were in their original 1940s shipping box, packed with excelsior wood shavings.  Sadly I threw away the Montgomery-Wards box and packing.   Wood shavings were used before we had bubble wrap and styrofoam.  It's still available as a boutique packaging material for about $1/lb.  There is an old building in Atlanta that was a manufacturing plant for excelsior.  The various retail establishments using the building have maintained part of the mill as a museum.

http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=4523


Anyway the generator is for short term power outages (usually less than a day) which happens every couple of years around here.   If it's in the winter then I'll power up the furnace.  If it's in the summer then the frig and freezer will get the power.

[JC5123]

If you are intereed in excelsior fibers, I can hook you up! I work with a manufacturer called Western Excelsior.
http://www.westernexcelsior.com/
They use Aspen Excelsior for erosion control products. If someone were to want some of this stuff in small quantities for packaging matrial, I'm sure I could get it, and it wouldn't be premium pricing either.

[PegLeg45]

Skip the generator, go with candles and kerosene lamps.
If supply or finances become a problem, for example a financial collapse that puts fuel prices out of reach, small stocks of "lamp oil" will last much longer than generator fuel. besides which lamps are far more adaptable to alternative fuels.
Remember replacement wicks.

+1

If you do get a generator, it might be advisable to pay the added expense for a multi-fuel model....... or a diesel that can burn old cooking oil, kerosene, and possibly old motor oil.


*As a side note: Used motor oil and straw or cotton can be made into a lamp in a metal container....but it is messy and should only be used outdoors. We used to make mini smudge pots out of old quart oil cans (back when they were made of cardboard) with nothing more than hay, burlap, and old oil with just a little diesel mixed in.

[McGyver]

Or one of those old military "all-fuel" slow-speed powered engines and build a generator! Them things can run on ANYTHING that burns! 

[Sponsor]

[PegLeg45]

Or one of those old military "all-fuel" slow-speed powered engines and build a generator! Them things can run on ANYTHING that burns! 

I think they put some multi-fuel engines in deuce-n-a-half's also.

[tombogan03884]

All 1970's 2 1/2's and M151 jeeps had multi fuel engines.

[TAB]

Check out 100dollarman.com ( or something like that)