Improvising: a VCR tape, what can you do with it?

Greg Davenport

Greg Davenport

Joined
Nov 29, 1999
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Note: Try to answer this before reading the responses of others.

You find yourself in a survival situation (reasons unknown). You have limited resources...yet you still have to meet your "five survival needs".

Following my three step approach to survival, you:

1. Stop and recognize the situation for what it is.

2. Recognize and prioritize your "five survival essentials" (listed below) in order of importance.

3. Improvise to meet your needs ("five essentials").

while going through the steps of improvising you inventory your manmade and natural materials. One of the things in this inventory is a Three Stooges VHS tape (your VCR doesn't work and you don't have electricity).

Question:

List as many improvised items you can create for each of the "five survival essentials" and their sub-categories... Five survival essentials"

1. Personal Protection (clothing, shelter, fire)
2. Siganling (manmade and improvised)
3. Sustenance (water and food)
4. Travel (with and without a map and compass)
5. Health (psychological stress, environmental injuries, traumatic injuries)

Have fun Good luck!



------------------
Greg Davenport
Simply Survival's Wilderness Survival Forum
Simply Survival's Web Page
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1. Remove the tape and use as cordage
2. Break the case and sharpen it
3. Use #'s 1 and 2 and make a spear

That's all I can think of off the top of ny head

------------------
"Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you'll die today"
-- James Dean

-Jesse Foust
 
Lets see, I dont beleive I have ever taken apart a VCR tape, and I aint gonna rip apart my Last Of the Mohicans , or my Moran instructional tapes, lol
smile.gif
. I think I have a fair idea of what is there so I will give it a shot.

1. Tape could be used as cordage, it has a fairly high tensile strength, for weight extremely high.

2. Springs or metal clips could be used as fish hooks.

3. The plastic case could be used as an improvised although somewhat fragile blade.

4. Case coud be used as an improvised eatign dish.
 
Lemme see...
Take tape out to improvise cord.
Break up case into scrapers, arrowheads, sharpened into awl.
Use tape as forestry tape to mark trail, leave signals behind.
Maybe one can cut out small compass needle from tape and magnetize it and put onto water surface. I never tried but might try....

HM
 

oops - couldn't help it - went ahead and read everyone else's responses... so on top of the others, I suppose there are some little metal pins you could use as fish hooks...although, the tape may not work as line so you'll prolly have to make some other cordage.

You could use the tape as dental floss if you're a horse
wink.gif


-ZZ

 
1. A whistle - take some tape, stretch it tight and blow across the thin edge. Im not sure how loud it would be but I bet it beats yelling.

2. A signal mirror - use the clear plastic windows. I tried with a flashlight and they reflect some light. It might focus enough to start a fire, but I doubt it.

3. Cord - but not very good cord. If it is like audio tape it stretches too much, then snaps. The tape might be more useful as tinder.

4. A yo-yo - I know this works, I tried it once. Just leave some tape on one of the spools. Well, at least you wont be bored.
 
You have to find some way of playing the tape. Playing The Three Stooges will draw a large crowd of jovial men who will lead you to safety.
redface.gif
)
 
well, first i'd have to resist the urge to burn it right away. Does it HAVE to be three stooges?
wink.gif


I'm following the guidelines and not reading anything else before I post this so ignore repeats. . ..

1. Personal Protection (clothing, shelter, fire)

you could use some of the tape strip itself as a source of black, which heats up better, of course. you stick it under your wood and shine your magnifying glass on it. (Yes, I'd have a mag. glass -- - there's one on my SAK)
Tape also burns well because of the chemicals in it, but it gives off toxic fumes so I wouldn't put food over the fire until the tape's burned away.

Clothing, well if it's an 8 hour tape i guess you could wrap it around yourself. I'd think you'd sweat a lot under there.

Shelter. . .there just isn't too much you can use a VCR tape for shelter, but you could take the tape and put it on the roof in a large solid layer to capture some heat.

2. Siganling (manmade and improvised)

easy. Tape burns very smoky. Toss the tape strip on the fire.
3. Sustenance (water and food)

I'm not exactly a conisseur of fine tapes, but somehow I don't think they'd be edible.

you could lay the black tape strip in a depression and collect moisture at night.


4. Travel (with and without a map and compass)

pop off that little hinged door that protects the tape when it's not in the VCR (by the way, why the hell do I have a tape out in the wilderness anyway). When the sun's not directly overhead, i.e. in the morning or afternoon (or in winter if you're far enough north) stick the door in the ground vertically. Mark the position of it's shadow with a rock. Wait around for an hour. Mark the position of the shadow with another rock. Take the door down and lay it so it connects the rocks. Now you know where north is.

If you have no map, this probably won't help you a whole lot except to make sure you don't keep walking in circles.

5. Health (psychological stress, environmental injuries, traumatic injuries)

Aside from the obvious of popping the tape in the VCR (hey, if you have the tape in the woods, you must've brought a VCR) and watching the movie to reduce stress, i really can't think of a way to reduce stress with a VCR tape. At least, not the VHS ones. Betamax is another story
wink.gif


you could use the tape as a knife. You get that door off and break it so that one end is sharp and pointy. You now have an improvised knife which you can use if you're careful, but most of us wouldn't be caught dead (or alive for that matter) in the woods without at least one knife. I myself carry 4 if you count the camping axe.

Take out one of those little clear plastic windows over the spindles. Affix some of the black tape to the back of the clear plastic. you now have a pseudo-mirror which you can use to signal airplanes.


 
Not me. The last movie I saw in the theaters was Phantom Menace ;)

I just camp alot and i always manage to forget something so I've gotten pretty used to improvising weird solutions to things.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Greg Davenport:
Note: Try to answer this before reading the responses of others.

You find yourself in a survival situation (reasons unknown). You have limited resources...yet you still have to meet your "five survival needs".

Following my three step approach to survival, you:

1. Stop and recognize the situation for what it is.

2. Recognize and prioritize your "five survival essentials" (listed below) in order of importance.

3. Improvise to meet your needs ("five essentials").

while going through the steps of improvising you inventory your manmade and natural materials. One of the things in this inventory is a Three Stooges VHS tape (your VCR doesn't work and you don't have electricity).

Question:

List as many improvised items you can create for each of the "five survival essentials" and their sub-categories... Five survival essentials"

1. Personal Protection (clothing, shelter, fire)
2. Siganling (manmade and improvised)
3. Sustenance (water and food)
4. Travel (with and without a map and compass)
5. Health (psychological stress, environmental injuries, traumatic injuries)

Have fun Good luck!

</font>
Click to expand...


environmental injuries:

Solar glare off snow can do a job on your eyes, using the plastic or tape to make a slit visor (Eskimo style) should help.

Trapped on the ice pack in a light winter gear? Want to keep the cold wind out?
Tie up the sleeves & pants legs bottoms with tape, Pull up your collar and put a few turns around it (make a tie). Wind going up your back, add an outside belt.


traumatic injuries:

The tape is a bandage holder. Got a bad cut, put some cloth on it and wrap it up with lots of tape. A lot of tight turns to stop bleeding.

Massive bleeding on an extremity? Use the tape as a tourniquet. Wrapping many turns, one on top of another should be hard to break.
Leave it loose enough to slide a BIC pen under so it can be twisted to apply the right amount of pressure.


Heck, having a VHS tape is almost like having 6 or 8 rolls of (non-sticky) electrical tape. (Is 3M tape good at -10 degrees)?


 
Use the spools to wrap the fishing line on that you make from the tape that's attached to the fish hooks you made from the door springs. Of course you would lash this to a stick so you could use it like a pole
wink.gif
 
I cheated and read the rest but was quit shocked to find no one said anything about weaving the tape into a mat. The tape is wide enough so it would be easy and i am sure there is quite a length of it in the tape. The tape is water proof and it would make a good roof (or at least a partial one)for a selter.

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"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act
alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Robert A. Heinlein
 
WOW - I thought of some - but the ideas here are amazing...

I really must get lost some time to enjoy this thread to its fullest
 
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