Making fire with a flashlight...

Ok, there are two ways to make fire with a flashlight. You can do it USL style, and get a high powered incandescent (9v or higher, preferably) or you can try controling the sparks of a short. I learned the latter on Mythbusters. First you get an incandescent minimag with its head off. Then you break the bulb so that there are just the two bi pin thingies sticking out of the bulb holder. On mythbusters they used steel wool to cause the short and produce sparks, but Im sure any metallic object will do.

Mags said:

On mythbusters they used steel wool to cause the short and produce sparks, but Im sure any metallic object will do.

Click to expand...

You use steel wool because the strands are thin (diameter) bt they are still strong enough to handle the high heat/current without breaking quickly. Not just "any metallic object" will do. If you tried it with a paper clip and a 9v battery, its not going to work, but with the steel wool it will. The battery will quickly overheat with something as "big" as a paper clip, but the steel wool will cause little or no heat/damage. Just my $.02

Roger

its not sparks that are produced, its a whole lot of steel wool strands acting as filaments without a bulb around them. the steel wool fibers heat to the meltingpoint as current passes through, hot enough to light paper and stuff.

But you don't need to break your bulb for this to work, just take the battery out of the light and use that

This method has caused quite a lot of fires, as people throw away steel wool and batteries in the same trashcan...

kinda like survival school....cut the bulb off of a 2D light with the small blade of the SAK, take steel wool and wad it into a ball and mount it between the filament contacts. then flick the switch while positioned in a pile of dry leaves....

someone told me that dipping the contacts with steel wool in gasoline or alcohol would work better...
don't use anything thats flammable that can leak all over the place if lit ablaze.... :shakehead:

thin strand of wire across the battery will glow and you can use it to start a fire

Can't I just use the flashlight to see where to apply the lighter?
Greg

Well, surely there's better means of starting fires, but the point of this whole exercise is survival knowledge. Survival doesn't depend as much on having what you need as it does with having the knowledge of how to survive with what you have.

Just had a brain fart - why not store some steel wool in your Mag tailcap - it's not in the electrical path and therefore won't ignite. It would basically make any maglight a backup fire source. No USL required!

A hunk of steel wool also has the advantage that it will actually burn on its own, so once you get a little spot glowing you can blow on it to get the rest of the steel wool burning. And yes, its actually the steel burning - oxidizing at a high rate, just like paper and wood do. There usually isn't much in the way of flame from steel wool alone, though.

Can't I just rub to Mags together until the produce enough heat to start a fire?

If you rub petroleum jelly into the steel wool, it will burn for much longer.

monkeyboy said:

If you rub petroleum jelly into the steel wool, it will burn for much longer.

Click to expand...

sounds like maybe i should try and get the mag 3D to run as a 2D and in the dummy cell a bag of petroleum jelly and steel wool. and some matches in the tailcap :naughty:

Illum_the_nation said:

and some matches in the tailcap :naughty:

Click to expand...

Back in elementary school we had someone from the Fire Department come to our class for a demonstration of "Fire Safety". He showed us the steel wool and flashlight trick as a demonstration of short circuits. He also demonstrated a "hairspray blowtorch" to show the flammability of aerosol products. Not sure how effective this was as a "safety class". Us boys immediately set to work replicating both demonstrations in our garages!

If you happen to not have steel wool on you, but you do have a mechanical pencil, the graphite is great for starting fires!!!
(This.. *happened* once in highschool.. so I would know..)
Simply apply the "stick" of graphite across a current and you have 2 choices:

start a fire with the STRONG (arc)
wait until the graphite becomes hot enough to combust. (this may take a while)


Boredom does wierd things to people..
-tom

Hahahaha, that brings back memories!

Back in high school I used mechanical pencil lead and a benchtop DC power supply to weld the rings of my biology teacher's three ring binder/lesson planner together. :devil:


:buddies:

Piece of cake with 100 watt+ Modded mag. Lights fireworks, cooks marshmellows. makes a GREAT heatshrink tool as well.....






Even lights cigarettes:lolsign:

I think I'll put a small ball of steel wool (with a dab of pertoleum jelly in it) plus a short length of 24 guage wire into the tail cap of my 2D MagLED. Since I don't feel the need to carry a regular PR bulb in that space anymore. I'd put these items in a small ziplock bag to prevent a mess if the internals of the light got wet.

I suppose it would be easier, though not as much fun, to carry survival matches in that space instead...