[boronsbote]

It is amazing what can be made of old things! I would ask everybody with good ideas and/or good examples to contribute to this thread:
I start with my old washing machine:
I dissambled it and took out the stainless steel barrel.
After that i removed some of the material - using an old can opener (which bit the dust about 3 centimeter before i was finished): and had a stainless steel barbecue grill (which consumes a lot of charcoal, to be honest) or a perfect container for making fire when it isn´t possible to make an open fire (e.g. on the terrace).
I also took out the "bull´s eye", the glass in the door where you put the clothes in: it makes a perfect glass bowl!

Another thing that is very useful are old, broken harddrives.
They contain VERY strong magnets, who look a little bizarre, but are VERY powerful! I tried to demonstrate the power by hanging a 1 kilogramm weight onto the magnet - it would definitely hold more, but i had´nt any other at hand.

This isn´t "survival" in the narrow sense, but hopefully useful! Would be glad to read other ideas.

 

[hippytreehugger4ev]

There's a Reader's Digest book out from I think 1991 called The Practical Problem Solver, and it shows all kinds of ways to reuse things.

 

[Bizarro]

Our type are known as dumpster divers or pak rats. You should see my garage and storage barn, got more parts than most auto part shops. To save space always take the good parts out chuck the useless ones or take them to the recycle center.

 

[nattylite]

Another thing that is very useful are old, broken harddrives.
They contain VERY strong magnets.

Try making a wind turbine with the magnets... and let us know how it goes

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Hard-Disk-Drive-Magnets-For-Wind-Turbines.htm

http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses-for-a-dead-hard-drive/5/