Shoestring Survivalism is a complete budget-minded blueprint for preparing for tough times. Self-reliance veteran Andy James shows you dozens of shoestring survival methods that cost little or nothing yet will tremendously advance your preparedness for any sort of large-scale emergency, from natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, epidemics) to societal eruptions (acts of terrorism, economic depression, widespread crime).
With Andy James’ handy tips and tricks for low-key, low-budget survival.
Shoestring Survival will show you how to:
Take 21 simple, low-cost steps right now that will drastically improve your chances of surviving any disaster
Acquire free stuff that lots of survivalists never think of
Locate the best sources for inexpensive, essential supplies – extra clothing, necessary tools, reliable guns and more
Stock cheap, filling foods to feed you and your family for 30 days or longer
Find hidden values at familiar stores and in surprising corners of the Internet
Determine whether to stay at your home or bug out during an emergency, including how to maintain comfort and safety in a government shelter
You do not need a fully stocked cabin in the mountains or an arsenal of expensive firearms to make it through hard times. You just need the will to begin preparing today, a surprisingly small amount of money to get started and the handy information in Shoestring Survival.
Doing what you can with what you have, and doing it smart is what this website is about. Shoestring Survivalism does not mean going without, it means doing it smart.
Do you want to know how to build your own plastic injection molding machine? If so, then this article will set you on the write path.
Why Build a Plastic Injection Molding Machine?
Creating with plastic can be fun and can be a profitable hobby as well. But most plastic components these days are created by huge, expensive plastic injection molding machines. Molten plastic is forced under enormous pressure into intricate molds.
On the surface it appears to be a technology well beyond the realm of the home shop.
However, the book Secrets to Building a Plastic Injection Molding Machine simplifies this technology making it possible for you to inexpensively injection mold small parts from common recycled plastic.
What is inside the Book?
Secrets to Building a Plastic Injection Molding Machine shows complete step-by-step instructions revealing the secrets of building a small inexpensive tabletop injection molding machine capable of molding up to a half ounce of plastic.
Although a half ounce may not appear to be much plastic, the truth is, that it is more than enough to produce many small useful items.
Best of all you’ll be molding with plastic recycled from milk jugs, soda bottles, plastic oil cans, and more. Your raw materials are free and plentiful. You will learn the basic principles of injection molding and how to design and make your own molds.
You will start by making a simple mold to test the machine. Then you will mold a plastic knob for the machine itself. Next, you’ll progress to a mold that creates a small plastic container with a snap lid.
The Joys of DIY Plastic Injection Molding
Before long you will be creating new products of your own design. You will be able to cast replacements for broken or missing parts, or you can make copies of plastic components. The possibilities are endless.
The moldings are incredibly professional in quality. Your friends will never understand how you were able to do it. Injection molding is a technology that has given us an incredible standard of living. Here are the secrets that will allow you to put this technology to work in your home shop. Build a molder, and explore a whole new technology today.
If you have this machine, and the others in the Gingery build your own metalshop series there really isn’t anything you can’t build.
The book Expedient Homemade Firearms contains step-by-step instructions for building a 9mm sub-machine gun.
This firearm is constructed from readily available materials. Steel tube is the primary ingredient. Construction does not require a lathe or milling machine.
Because of the lack of machines needed, the gun can be built by novices in about a week.
Obviously, the book Expedient Homemade Firearms is For Academic Study Only.
I enjoyed this book. Reading about the process of building an open bolt submachine gun was entertaining and enlightening. Of course, actually building such a firearm is illegal most of the world populace. In the US, the criminal punishment is severe. I like my dogs and my home so I don’t want the BATFE to burn either one.
You Can’t Mention Expedient Homemade Firearms without Hearing about its author.
This book was used to as evidence to convict him on weapons charges. Afterward PA Luty spent several years in a UK penitentiary.
Mr. Luty was, a model inmate. The warden and several others stated he was a model prisoner. Unfortunately, Luty was not paroled because of politics.
I find this book an invaluable asset when it comes to free thinking, problem solving, and using materials outside of common use. However, building an unregistered machine gun is not recommended.
I imagine this book will be banned long before it becomes necessary to manufacture sub-machine guns at home. I would buy a copy, just In case.
Update:
Actually, as an Update, I was clearing out dead links and found that Amazon actually has removed this book from its online listing. I don’t want to dig too deep into politics but that is troubling seeing all that is going on in September of 2021. It might be time to go buy a bunch of steel tube. Even without a book, building a rifle is not something a creative person can’t figure out. Child labor builds AK-47’s in jungle huts for under $20 and WW-II Sten guns were hand made in the thousands in english bicycle repair shops.
Currently, law makers are attempting to pass laws banning any attempts to build guns. Even firearms that fall with state firearm freedom act exemptions. This is a blatant attempt to violate the second and tenth amendments to the US Constitution.
I am a law abiding citizen, and have no plans or desire to break laws, but I wonder why our representatives are so scare of an armed populace.
I recently was asked to review two new books from Skyhorse Publishing. They are Abigail Gehring’s Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency. These two books are the latest in Shyhorse’s Back to Basics series.
If you follow my blog, you know that I have recommended the original Reader Digest Back to Basics book.
This is the book that first turned me on to homesteading. While it is tattered and torn now, it still has a prominent place in my library. have spent many happy hours thumbing though its pages and daydreaming of having a homestead someday.
Both are Great Books
I have enjoyed reading both books. While I still love the original, these two new books won’t make it to the shelves of my library for some time. I plan on keeping them on the coffee table to show them off. They are both full of basic practical skills.
Becoming as self sufficient as possible is a priority for me. Self-Sufficiency A Complete Guide To: Baking, Carpentry, Crafts, Organic Gardening, Preserving Your Harvest, Raising Animals, and More was the first book I opened.
Most importantly, this hardcover edition contains 457 pages including appendixes, source lists, and an index.
Something that I really liked, and don’t see very often was the “Junior Homesteader” insets, while the book is written for adults, it has small easier skills that are great for teaching children about a more sustainable life. These covered experiments in a plant’s capillary action, how to root plants using discarded vegetable tops, and building a tree house.
Even though this book is written for newcomers to this lifestyle, I still learned some neat things in the inset tips sections, as well as getting some new ideas.
The Homesteading Handbook
Buy at Amazon
Next, I reviewed Homesteading A Backyard Guide To: Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chicken, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More. At 456 pages its almost the exact same size, and covers many of the same topics, however, this book covered a lot more of the physical setup of a homestead, dealing with things like planning and setting up your homestead, building simple structures on the land, powering your homestead using alternative energy, setting up your home garden, and selecting and basic care of homestead livestock.
I have been planning to build terrace on a hill in my yard. This book even had a page or two on that subject.
In the bread baking section of this book, there was a tip on how to make baking powder from baking soda, cornstarch, and cream of tartar.
I Love Reference Books
I am not a big gear nut. While I don’t spend a lot of money on the latest and greatest gear, I do love books. My weakness is reference books. If you have been involved in homesteading, preparedness, or self-sufficiency, you probably have a small library. It probably includes specialty books that covers specific topics in depth. It is because of this love of books that I started reviewing prepper books on this site.
These two books are not those types of books. Both Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency are a lot broader in scope than homesteading books that cover a specific field like gardening or preservation. That isn’t to say that you won’t learn from them. These books are great for a quick answer, or for mining for new ideas.
What I plan to use two books for is to show family members how accessible these skills really are. I can do that because of the quality and amount of the photographs and illustrations. That makes it very easy for someone to pick one of them up and find something that catches their eye. All of us that live this lifestyle have someone we love. Its likely that your someone thinks it’s all a little overwhelming and these books show that its not.
In conclusion, the easiest place to order either Homesteading A Backyard Guide To: Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chicken, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More or Self-Sufficiency A Complete Guide To: Baking, Carpentry, Crafts, Organic Gardening, Preserving Your Harvest, Raising Animals, and More is through amazon.com, but you can also find them online at the publisher’s website Skyhorse Publishing
Big-city cop and gunfight veteran Gabe Suarez teaches you the most vital lessons and techniques for prevailing in any situation where you must draw your weapon.
Chapters in The Tactical Pistol include The Dynamics of a Gunfight, The Rules of Close-Quarter Combat, Holding Hostiles at Gunpoint and more.
This is not the only Suarez book I have reviewed because he has written several books worth reviewing. I particularly like his book on the combative perspective.
This particular book builds upon the mindset lessons of the combative perspective by showing specific pistol techniques that you should master.
This is not the only pistol tactics book I own, and I do not think it should be your only book on handgun fighting – but I do think it is worth owning.
If you add this book to your library on pistol combat you are not wasting your time, money, or shelf space. Which is saying a lot because for me, after collecting as many books as I have shelf space is pretty valuable.
I recommend the Tactical Pistol as a useful book to read as you study the science of handgun survival. Read books like this from the old masters and add that to the work of the new masters and you will quickly gain skill.
Do you want to know how to build your own plastic injection molding machine? If so, then this article will set you on the write path.
The book Expedient Homemade Firearms contains step-by-step instructions for building a 9mm sub-machine gun.
I recently was asked to review two new books from Skyhorse Publishing. They are Abigail Gehring’s Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency. These two books are the latest in Shyhorse’s Back to Basics series.
