How to:Electric stove

Your gas cooker has stopped working! But you happen to have a glue gun lying around?

We both know how much you want to heat up that can of baked beans right now.

Before we start it might be a good idea to only try this if you hate your glue gun or you dont mind having a broken one. I put mine back together fine but I dont want you to break yours because of me. So be careful!

You will need

Glue gun


Screwdriver


Step 1
Unscrew your glue gun and carefully open it up, make sure nothing falls out. It should look something like this.(If it doesn't it should be a very similar procedure anyway so dont worry.)


Step 2
Now carefully remove just the tip of the glue gun leaving the handle in place. It should look like this now.


Step 3
At this point it should be quite clear where the heating element is, I just followed the wires to find it. So once you know where it is carefully take it out of its holder.


Step 4
In the photo above there is a heat protective piece of plastic around the heating element, this can be taken off if it gets in the way but remember to put it back on before it goes back in the glue gun if you decide to put it back together.

Anyway! Now take your heating element at tape it by the wires so the element is touching your can, you should probably put it on a stand so its not touching anything else. Remember to take off the lid of the can before you turn it on because we dont want exploding beans flying around. Done that? Okay now you can turn it on and stir the contents of your can slowly as it heats up.


This will take a different amount of time depending on the type of glue gun you have, but whatever type it wont take too long so if you ever find yourself in very odd circumstances...atleast you can heat your beans.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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How to:Cactus germination

In this tutorial I’m going to show you the basics on how to germinate cactus seeds! cacti can be very rewarding to grow especially if you’re lazy because they are very easy to maintain. I will be using Peruvian Torch seeds, a great beginners cactus.

You will need

Cactus specific soil*


Cacti seeds


Ziplock or clear plastic bag


Spray bottle


Sleeping dog


Pot(s)


A cup

*Normal soil will work your cacti may not grow as well as they could though. You can make your own and there are many guides on the internet detailing this. (I won’t tell you because I want you to become self sufficient until you have an army of cacti with various names, all with their own names and knitted jackets...)

Step 1

First you should fill up your cup with water and let it settle until it is about room temperature, this is so it doesn’t shock the seeds. Once your water has warmed up to room temp you should drop your seeds in and soak them for 8-24 hours, this step isn’t necessary but usually gives the seeds a nice head start. As with all methods, none are 100% foolproof so you shouldn’t do this with all your seeds in case something goes wrong.


Step 2

Once your seeds have soaked for the given amount of time you put the lime in the coke you nut. soil into the pot and mist it down with your sprayer, the water in your sprayer should be preferably boiled first to remove excess chlorine which could be harmful to your cacti, or at least left to sit for 24 hours. The idea is to get the soil moist not soaking.


Step 3

Now is the part where everyone argues about how deep to plant your seeds, many say on top of the soil, many say 5 miles down. But the basic rule is if they are very small you can rest them on top of the soil and if they are a bit bigger just put onto the soil and sprinkle ½-1cm of soil on top.

Step 4

Now take your ziplock or clear plastic bag and put it over your pot, you want a small enough gap for it to build up humidity, but not so small that your seeds can’t breathe. They will do fine starting off on a windowsill and in 7-14 days they will usually germinate, but some cacti varieties can take much longer so you should take some time researching your individual variety online first.


Here is one of my very first Peruvian Torch cacti, I'll call him Bert.


Hints and Tips

•Move your seedlings into indirect sunlight once they have germinated or they can burn, if you see the tips of your seedlings turning red this is the problem so take them out of the light fast!

•You should remove the bag once every few days and blow some fresh air into it to help them grow faster.

•You can gradually remove the bag over a number of months until they eventually acclimatise to your surroundings.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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How to:Simple fertiliser

Here is a relatively simple way of providing a natural fertiliser and insecticide for your plants that will be perfect for their strength and growth, using only stinging nettles which you will probably either have in your garden or local woods. They’ll be almost anywhere where other plants grow.

You will need

Nettles


Container


Shears


Mashing stick!


Bowl


Step 1
Find your nettles and cut down as many as you can with your shears, being careful not to get stung. Lots of guides say to get about 1kg but I didn’t fancy weighing out nettles with the chance of being stung so get as many as you think you need, the more nettles you get the more fertiliser/insecticide you’ll end up with. Once you’ve cut down your nettles put them into your container. The amount of nettles I have in the photo will give you at least a few litres of you overall mixture.


Step 2
Now with your nettles in your container you need to cut them into smaller pieces, you don’t want them too small so you can’t decant the mixture later on, but you don’t want them too big or the process will take a bit longer. Below is a photo showing roughly how much to cut them up.


Step 3
Once you’ve cut up your nettles you need to add enough water to just about cover them, rain water can be used if you want it to be really organic but tap water will do just fine.


Step 4
Next you need to take your mashy stick and MASH, take out your new hatred of nettles because of the stings they gave you, make sure you crush the stems well as this is where most of the nutrients will be, the process will also be faster the more your mixture is crushed. After a few minutes of mashing and leaving it for an hour the water has started to turn a darkish red, this is good!


Step 5
Now you have to leave your mush in a cool place, for 4-14 days stirring it each day if you are intending to use it as a fertiliser, your mix will now become a darker red. You can use the mix as an insecticide after 24 hours and spray it on your plant leaves. But to use it as a fertiliser it’s best to leave it for a longer period of time to get more nutrients from the solution. After it has been left for your desired amount of time you should carefully pour it into another container. (Directly into your sprayer if you can filter it with an old shirt or rag)

I didn’t have an old shirt or rag so I held the nettles back as best as I could whilst pouring the liquid into another container, I then picked out the remaining bits of nettle.

Step 6
Once your mixture is strained and a nice dark red, pour it into your sprayer or watering can.


Now you have a very effective natural, free insecticide that is also very good as a fertiliser! Use your mixture every 15 days if it is as an insecticide, and every 3 weeks as a fertiliser. Every plant reacts differently so test out a little bit and increase usage in small increments. (Sometimes you can use it every other week depending on your plant)


WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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How to:Cherry bomb

How to make a “cherry bomb”

In this tutorial I’m going to try to show you how to make a cherry bomb from some easyish to find materials.

You will need:
Gunpowder(you can also matchheads whole but it wont be as powerful)
Fuse
Ping pong ball
Hammer
Nail (a bit thicker than your chosen fuse)
Scalpel or screwdriver
Electrical tape(black tends to look good)
Funnel*
Aluminium foil*

*Optional but very useful




Okay, to start you’ll need to rest the ping pong ball on the roll of electrical tape to stop it from sliding about, once you’ve done that take your scalpel or screwdriver and cut a hole in the top of the ping pong ball. It should be big enough to pour in the powder or your matchheads, but not too big because the cherry bomb will be less effective.



If you have a funnel, put it into the hole and start to fill up the ball with powder or drop in your matchheads. If you don’t you can just fold up a piece of paper and slide it in, this can take a bit more time though. You should aim to fill the ball to about three quarters of the way to the top to leave room for the gas to build up.

Once this is done, start to wrap the electrical tape around the ball starting with covering the hole, wrap about 5 layers over this gap, then continue to cover the whole ball in 5 layers of tape. Try to keep the tape tight against the ball and keep it as smooth as you can. It should look like this.



Then take your foil and cut it into 4 square pieces, the idea is to have each piece big enough to cover the ping pong ball. This step isn’t necessary but will really help with the explosion. When you put them together fold one piece over and scrunch it tight, then take another piece and do it the opposite way. Do this until all 4 sides are covered, then roll the ball onto something hard until it is circular again.





After you have done this do another 5,6 or 7 layers of electrical tape around the foil keeping it as tight as you can again.

Then take your...



CROWBARRRRR and pretend you’re Gordon Freeman for a bit. Done? Good, now I know it sounds risky but you need to take your rusty old nail



And VERY gently, hammer the nail through all the layers you’ve just made, tap the ping pong ball onto something, if a bit of powder comes out you’ve gone far enough. (You should be able to feel it when you get through easily, so testing for powder might not be needed.)

Once you’ve done this, cut a big enough sized fuse to go into the ball, always make it a bit longer than you think you’ll need. Then if it’s a bit wobbly, cut 4 small pieces of tape and put them cross ways to fix the fuse in place.

Now you’re done! If your fuse is waterproof these make great depth charge type explosives, as you can see from the video. Please bear in mind that this is dangerous and shouldn't be treated like a firecracker, if you make one and decide to light it.Run.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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How to:Destroy a HDD

*Sob sob* my poor old hard drive has died on me. But I can’t let anyone have a chance at possibly recovering the data...

I’m using a program called copywipe to see when my PC will not recognise the drive anymore, when this happens only the new hard drive will show up and not both.

The drop test


Well that was fun! I even managed to get it to hit some metal on the way down, lets plug it in and see if it still works.




Pesky hard drive!

The “Imaginary friend catch test”

Now my imaginary friend Pete isn’t very good at catching, but it isn’t his fault he just has no arms. (Or any body part for that matter)




Didn’t work either, despite mine and Pete’s best efforts. Time for...

The Gunpowder test

If we can’t make it unreadable by throwing it, we’ll burn it!




Yep you knew that was coming (probably because you saw it at the same time as the video), it still picks it up. Seems like hard drives will only go bad when you need them in use.

The Lump hammer

Yes.




Looks like old fashioned brute force wins again!

In memory of Martha Mark 2



WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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How to:Harvest chilli seeds

In this guide I'll show you how to harvest your chilli or pepper seeds successfully so you can grow them yourself! This is great if you want to grow your favourite chilli or pepper so you can always have some near.

You will need

Chillis or Peppers


Knife


Kitchen roll


Ziplock bag


Step 1
First put your chilli or pepper on the kitchen towel because you don't want to make a mess, especially if its a hot chilli.(Chilli->Body=Pain)Next you need to take your knife and cut off the top of your pepper or chilli, cut just below the top because you don't want to cut any seeds by accident. Then do the same on the other end.



Step 2
Now that you've cut off both ends of the pepper/chilli. you'll want to cut it down the middle making a split. (You can eat or cook the bits that we don't need.)



Step 3
Now you should see the seeds all carefully attached to the chilli, usually at the top end. Take your knife and carefully cut this off trying to avoid cutting through any seeds.


Step 4
Next carefully pull all your seeds off the part of the pepper/chilli that holds them and put them on some paper.


Step 5
Now you have to wait for your seeds to dry, in hot weather this can take an hour to a few hours. Some people choose to dry them in a low heat oven, but I wouldn't do this because it's likely that you kill the embryo within the seeds. A good way to dry them is to put them on the back of your computer monitor for a few hours. If all else fails they will dry in a day or two. You will be able to tell if the seeds are ready for storage or not when they snap in half rather than bend. If they bend when squeezed, give them a few more hours or days.

Once they are all dry put them into your ziplock bag and gently squeeze out all the air, some people put silica gel in the pack to absorb more moisture but if you are going to do this make sure the silica doesnt touch the seeds. (It's not really needed anyway)


Step 6
Now that your seeds are all bagged up, they need to be put in a cool and dark place. A fridge is perfect for this and seeds stored in a fridge can be viable for a long time, even years in some cases.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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