Skills

A great many moons ago, when responsibility for “Disaster Preparedness” landed on my desk, I lobbied for “Business Continuity” instead – how do we keep the business functioning, meet customer demand, protect and pay employees, support our suppliers and contractors, etc.?

Not a simple task and in our extremely complex manufacturing business, more than a bit of a challenge. Which is why I embraced the concept of a good, detailed SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, all the way down to the Department level and in some cases, a separate analysis down to critical functions within a department. A good SWOT Analysis, even for a family, won’t be done in 30 minutes, it’ll take a couple of weeks of thoughtful work, needs periodic review and updating as conditions change. It can be as detailed as one wants, which is probably the best way to proceed, weeding out the unattainable and unnecessary when the analysis is complete, or nearly so.

I went through the same 3 hurricanes in 2004 Bob F (above) did, and other than not having whole-house AC for the 6 days we were “electricity challenged” after Charlie – some neighborhoods were dark for almost 3 weeks – it was a “campout at home” (Francis knocked out power for about 24 hours, Jean for about 18 hours) a small ultra-quiet RV generator (3K watts) kept the fridge and some fans running, powered a small window AC at night for more comfortable sleeping in one bedroom, all for about 2 – 2.5 gallons/day, a Zodi camping propane water heater provided low-flow, but warmish, showers on the back porch, the propane grill handled the cooking, etc. We didn’t lose county water, which was a really big thing, and when one lives in Hurricane Country one maintains alternatives, like an old-timey coffee percolator, kerosene lamps (the older Aladdins are great, the newer ones seem…a bit chintzy, but that’s pretty much the default for everything now). The only damage suffered was a lot of shingle tabs gone, but no roof leaks (houses in Florida, even those built to the older code are considerably different from those built elsewhere) and a couple of trees down in the neighbor’s yard; not bad for 2–3 hours of 110 MPH sustained winds (Charlie was, fortunately, a “fast mover” and didn’t sit in one place long, grinding up everything).

Which places emphasis on the “Opportunities” part of a SWOT Analysis – when A doesn’t work, what’s Plan B, or C, or D? I had 145 feet of 10MM climbing rope, a Swiss seat and a line brake for safety while smearing cold tar patch on the missing shingle tabs, and that system and the cold tar bucket made the rounds through the neighborhood for several days after Charlie (and again after Francis, and Jean….), a couple of floodlights on poles provided light for a couple of nights of “a neighborhood cookout for everything from the freezer” after Charlie up and down the block. We all ate like kings for several days, including the older retired folks up the street who didn’t have a grill. Walkie-talkies got broken out, charged when a generator was running, and everyone shared flashlights and batteries. We had used simple railroad-style kerosene lanterns for ambient light on the patio for years, by the time Jean hit everyone had a couple.

We understood the Threat, had a good idea of our Weaknesses, had Options, and learned our Strengths; as the Marines preach in Basic School “Adapt, Improvise, Overcome” and while Eisenhower said ”a plan is worthless, but planning is critical,” having a plan forms a “Performance Outline” to direct attention and effort to solutions.

Regarding Planning, I’m reminded of the old, crusty senior engineer who is working at his desk when the staff runs in, crying and screaming that scientists have discovered a giant meteor that will strike Earth in 24 hours, knocking the planet out of its orbit and into the sun. Without looking up, the Old Engineer points to his bookshelves and says, “second shelf, blue binder, Section 4.”

 

The Rule of Threes is pretty simple.

• Three minutes without air.
• Three hours without shelter.
• Three days without water.
• Three weeks without food.
• Three months without hope.

I’ve heard that this was designed by FEMA, but I have no idea. My family has been using it for close to two decades, and maybe longer. It’s not meant to be a “complete list” of what is needed to prepare for emergencies. Instead, it’s more of a mnemonic. It reminds you of what’s most important in your preps. There are lots of mnemonics you can learn.

This is a longish one, folks, so check out what’s behind the cut…

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I’m a prepper. The term “prepper” means different things to different people. For some, it evokes images of old underground bunkers filled with canned goods and wall mounted, folding beds. For others, it’s more akin to what grandma did when she put away the harvest from her kitchen garden. Still other folks consider it to be stockpiling firearms to raid the rest of us. I’m sure there are a hundred or more points in between my three, as well.

So what exactly is prepping? It’s a short form term for “preparing for emergencies” or “preparing for the apocalypse.” There are at least as many ways to prep as there are people on the planet, and maybe more. No one way is definitively right or wrong. As an example, the Mormons are required to be always prepared for the end of times, which they are told will last just under two years. Therefore, their church insists they always have two years of food on hand, along with anything else they need to survive until the end times are over. While I may not be invested in their end times prophecies, the principle is a good one.

I tend to prepare for 18 months of emergency. I try to be fairly flexible in my preps, because I don’t know if TEOTWAWKI will happen like Nagasaki, or more like the recent pandemic. I have a little bit of many things, designed to cover the most important bases for my family. Your preps probably are (and should be) different from mine, because your family will need different things, and more importantly, has different skills than my own.

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There was a remark about the lathe flywheel I recently worked on. Something about the precision of previous eras.

They had more precision than you might think.

Today, one of the tools we use to measure accurately is a micrometer.

This magic device allows use to measure down to 0.0001, all because of a screw.

Inside the thimble is a threaded rod. It is 40 TPI on an imperial micrometer. When you turn the thimble one full revolution, the spindle advances 0.025 inches.

The thimble is marked with 25 evenly spaced marks. With just those, we can measure to 0.001″

But what about those 1/10,000s? That is done with another piece of old tech, the vernier.

If you take and mark the sleeve with 10 marks, with 9 spaces between them, such that the 10th mark aligns with the 11th mark (10 spaces) on the thimble, we have a vernier scale.

The lines of the vernier align with the lines on the thimble at exactly 0.0001 increments.

You can use this method in larger things as well. If I have a stick with 101 marks and I place that against a stick with 100 marks, I’ve created an ability to subdivide that stick by 100. It is pretty remarkable.

The Wheel

The wheel is laminated to create a width of 3 inches. The wood is a hardwood that does not expand or contract. One laminate is about 2 inches thick, and the other is 1 inch thick.

If we were to remake the wheel, we would likely do it with two layers, 1.5 inches thick.

The jointers create wheel layers by jointing two or more planks of equal thickness together to make a single plank, 44+ inches wide in both directions.

To hold the laminates together, holes are drilled in each plank, about a foot apart. The holes are then transferred to the other layer. The other layer then has the hole drilled slightly offset. When the wooden pegs are driven into the holes, that offset pulls the planks together to make everything tight.

A piece of cordage or a beam compass can be used to draw the perimeter of the wheel. This would be at 44+ inches.

The laminate would be trimmed close to the line but not touching.

A hole would be drilled at the center point, and then made square with chisels.

The entire thing would then be mounted on a spindle to drive it. That could be as simple as two benches with a groove to hold the spindle. The wheel would then be spun up to speed.

A tool rest, would be brought in, the craftsman would then use his lathe chisels to make the wheel completely round. This is an easy, but time-consuming process.

It is easy because the task is to slowly move the chisel from one edge to the other. The speed of that movement requires that the cutting chisel be in contact with the work for one complete revolution.

Since the wheel is turning slowly, 40 to 60 RPM, it means that you can only move a 1/16th of an inch per revolution, or so.

After the wheel is turned true (completely round), the crown is put in via the same method.

A reasonable person turning a wheel like that can expect to get a 44-inch wheel running true within 1/32 of an inch, without having to work at it. It is easy.

There are entire volumes written about making things flat or straight. If you can make something flat or straight, you can make right angles. It is not difficult. If you can make right angles, you can make many other angles.

While the micrometer is a new invention, a simpler tool was used before, it was just a straight stick that was fairly long. It was placed on a pivot, near the nose of the stick. The other end moved across some sort of scale. As the nose moves, the tail moves more. If the distance from the pivot to the nose point is 0.5 inches, and the distance from the pivot to the tail point is 12 inches, every movement of the nose is amplified 24 times.

While you might not be able to see a movement of 0.001 in the nose, you can see the movement of 0.024 in the tail.

We can have precision with simple, old tools. It just takes a bit of work to get there.