Improvised Weaponry

[dargo83]

first off this a topic i love and my group talks about all the time.

[dargo83]

take gasoline add eather packing peanuts or black garbage bags mix together u get home made napalm

[dargo83]

when i was saying black garbage bags u cut up the bags and dissolve them in the gas it jells up nicely

[dargo83]

lol hay home made water balloon or gas balloon

[azazel1024]

Molitov.

Pretty much any tool.

18v 7 1/2" circular saw.

Steel conduit piping in any length you wish to use.
-Matt

[dargo83]

generators

[azazel1024]

Never said it was for an all day melee.

If I have a vehicle, a simple inverter or auto adapter to battery pack charger will do to recharge the batteries.

If that isn't an option, it would be pretty simple for me to rig up a voltage transformer to take 6v and transform it to 24v to charge an 18v battery. Just pop some AA batteries in to charge up the 18v battery and swap them out when they die.

AA alkalines are everywhere.

Better yet find a solar powered battery charger and charge some NiMh AA with it to use to power this battery pack charging system. Sure it takes a lot, but if I am tangling with zeds an hour a day every day at knife fighting range, I am either doing it wrong, or going to be (un)dead quickly. Probably both.

A couple of minutes of use every week or so should do 'er up good. Not much use for a tool, but great as a weapon still.

[Severus Snape]

Luckluster, that last one is awesome. Think of how much power you could generate with a couple slouchers in there. For added power, make the enclosure the wheel is in see through, and then place a chair with a living target in sight of the zeds. They'd shamble endlessly.

[Severus Snape]

Assuming I actually have time to make one...

I'd take my wife's pilates machine apart, saving 3 of the poles. Take the chains off one of the bicycles and cut it in thirds, saving 2 pieces of bike chain. Weld an end of one bike chain to one end of a steel pole, and then weld an end of the other bike chain section to the other end of the steel pole. Weld the free ends of the bike chains to the other steel poles. 3-section staff.

Now, I've still got a steel pole and a section of bike chain I need to do something with. No worries. The pilates machine has rollers that the seat sits on - 4 of them, to be precise. And they are a decent size, and made of steel. Weld the 4 rollers together in a stack, and then weld that to the end of the bike chain. Weld the end of the bike chain to the steel pole. Instant flail.

Yes, these are melee weapons. But I'm using what I've got since I don't like guns.

[azazel1024]

My resistance bands for weight lifting + pipes I have laying around + an hour with my table vise and tools = God's own sling shot.

[azazel1024]

Yeah, I'd say they have a resistance of probably 25lbs per foot of pull. Double or triple them up and you have a slingshot with around 50-100lbs of pull per foot strength. Going to need to use either your feet (think jungle bow from Yin Sloth Jungles if you have the PFRPG books) or mount it on something like a car or railing. That said, I think something like a 1lb rock is going to ruin a zombie's whole day launched from something like that with a 1-2ft pull on it (that is well up on or over longbow release power).

[Severus Snape]

Another one that I thought of: You can make an improvised zip gun (the kind that inmates make in prisons) out of the spring roller thing that holds the toilet paper roll. It has 2 metal sections that come apart, and a spring. I'm not exactly sure how to make this work, but it would involve taking the roller apart and placing the spring in a position inside the rollers so that when you pull back on one of the rollers, releasing it will release the tension in the spring causing it to snap back into place. A metal pin inside strikes the bullet, firing it through the other end.

It's a single fire, and you'd have to reload (and be very careful doing so) after each shot. But how many rollers do you have in your house? I've got 3. And they can be found at any hardware store for cheap.

[azazel1024]

Sounds like a good way to lose a finger. Most TP rollers are plastic, or if metal really, really thin metal. You'd also need to fashion some kind of actual barrel for it. A cartridge set off without any kind of barrel to direct the bullet and focus the gases behind the bullet doesn't do much damage and is widely inaccrate. You could fashion something out of a length of small diameter pipe and some wadding to make a sabot along with a couple of other things to make a striker and spring.

For the headlight idea...only downside is the headlight housing aren't very tough. You'd likely just blast it apart without imparting much forward velocity to the stuff you packed in the front. Most headlight assemblies are thin plastic or occasionally thin metal (very thin). You'd be better of using a small cast iron pot with the stuff packed in on top. A regular pot could do in a pinch, but much less sturdy.

[dargo83]

5 gallon gas can filled half way up with gas and the other filled with black powder then cap it then drill a hole in a cap insert a cannon fuse then seal with wax equals big boom. my dad did it when he was younger and he said it blow out windows almost a mile a way.

[ingexthefuryhunter1]

Another one that I thought of: You can make an improvised zip gun (the kind that inmates make in prisons) out of the spring roller thing that holds the toilet paper roll. It has 2 metal sections that come apart, and a spring. I'm not exactly sure how to make this work, but it would involve taking the roller apart and placing the spring in a position inside the rollers so that when you pull back on one of the rollers, releasing it will release the tension in the spring causing it to snap back into place. A metal pin inside strikes the bullet, firing it through the other end.

It's a single fire, and you'd have to reload (and be very careful doing so) after each shot. But how many rollers do you have in your house? I've got 3. And they can be found at any hardware store for cheap.

Severus I can tell you for a fact where I am at that would not hold up, all the TP holders are pressure held plastic, no metal and no hollow spots. it has a pressure spot in the middle that snaps the holder in two you take it out of the roll and your snap it together and pop the new roll sideways onto the holder.

Now in some of the older facilities this could be a issue and yes they have had a few detainees loose fingers trying to construct said zip guns.

As for an improvised weapon around my house, half an hours worth of work, take chain bolt off PTO flail, measure 3/4 chain to seven foot length, bolt back on, install onto front PTO fork, weld plating to cab along with sharpened fins along the out side engage pto and drive. How do you like your zombie puree.

For work, in control center, I am screwed in medal shop or armory I dont need to improvise but hopefully I brought a large lunch.

[Gulzhad]

My friend likes using frying pans in my game. I was thinking of somehow putting spikes onto the pan.

Another idea would be taking an electric guitar and putting blades on it.

[Illendaver]

1)Unscrew the Fridge door
2)take the handle from the freezer part of the same fridge and screw it into the fridge door so that you have two handles on the same side, set wide enough to grab the door with both hands for balance
3)take the crappy plastic shelving off the inside of the fridge door
4)Weld some pitons or tent spikes to the inside of the door
5)hold in front of you and run. you now have a better way to tackle zombies. Pin them down and have a buddy follow along to brain the zombies as you hold them down.
Imagine having a football team raiding Sears in full padding, come out with a set of these...12 front line men, 6 guys working the crowbars. Could take out pretty much everything less than 15 zed at a time.
You could alternatively use the little freezer door and strap it to your arm for a spiked shield.

[Gamer]

You must get your refridgerators from the same place Indiana Jones does.
Every fridge door I know a little kid could cave it in.

[Zer0 Kay]

A battery powered Boom Box, a bunch of Concertina Wire, a few bottles of pure liquid oxygen, a couple propane tanks and a hunting rifle.
Attractant, Delay, accelerant, fuel, detonator. Concertina Wire also will make a bigger mess when the "bomb" goes off and pure oxygen... yeah. Fire and steel.

[azazel1024]

Pesticide sprayer and flamable liquid. Duct tape on wind proof lighter to the end. Make sure you are using one that has a metal spray rod and nozzel. Hollow nozzel out slightly to reduce spray pattern. Don't spray in to the wind. Its no 200ft range flame thrower, but it'll spray a good 15-20ft easy. Perfectly fine for shamblers.

[Zer0 Kay]

Loading dock crane, lift container, drop container, drag container, repeat. OR... make a box canyon with containers between two cranes, have bait run into box canyon, into reinforced container on bottom of stack. Crain at front of box canyon lowers container filled with something solid and heavy with a reinforced side (facing back of canyon), starts draging toward back. At back of canyon crane is connected to container at top of stack (reinforced side facing opening of box canyon) but has slack out and is foward of rear wall. Rear crane moves foward or takes in a little slack to pull container off top of stack. Idea is for rear cranes container to swing down and smash the zombies against the other container... I wonder can zombie paste be used as thickener?

[azazel1024]

Pesticide sprayer and flamable liquid. Duct tape on wind proof lighter to the end. Make sure you are using one that has a metal spray rod and nozzel. Hollow nozzel out slightly to reduce spray pattern. Don't spray in to the wind. Its no 200ft range flame thrower, but it'll spray a good 15-20ft easy. Perfectly fine for shamblers.

ripoff. (i seen that movie too.)

What movie (seriously, I don't remember ever seeing that in a movie)?

[Zer0 Kay]

What movie (seriously, I don't remember ever seeing that in a movie)?

Spoiler:

critters.

Since when does a pesticide sprayer "spray" a solid stream though? A super soaker, one of the old ones with the back pack would be better, maybe mod it with a powered pump to pressurize instead of hand pump. Of course you'd also want to take the damn child resistant lock off the lighter.

[azazel1024]

That is why I mentioned modifying the nozzel. If it is a brass nozzel you'd probably be able to hollow it out with a 2d nail and a few swings from a hammer.

[Zer0 Kay]

Since when does a pesticide sprayer "spray" a solid stream though? A super soaker, one of the old ones with the back pack would be better, maybe mod it with a powered pump to pressurize instead of hand pump. Of course you'd also want to take the damn child resistant lock off the lighter.

when i was young (and REALLY stupid) i used to do that with cans of Off (the bug reppelent). never let it burn for too long, but i did once distoryt the aperature on the spray nozzzle.
so keep that copper tubing close.

My brother set the carpet in a corner of his room on fire. We, me and my parents, came back to a house full of sour tasting white dust... I didn't know before that, that fire extinguisher powder had a taste. Strange things you learn from other peoples stupidity huh?

[Thinyser]

Homemade C-4. Yes I know the recipe and procedure for producing it, and its easily done with some simply obtained ingredients and some know how. No, I don't stock the ingredients or the blasting caps needed to make it work. Detonates at 22,000 feet per second where real C-4 is over 26,000 FPS... its still enough to shatter concrete and can take a rifle shot without detonating just like real C-4.

Homemade claymore mines using above C-4 and whatever nuts/bolts/nails/rocks you can find.

Need to stash some blasting caps so that if I ever need to set off some extremely stable explosives I'll have a supply. The fertilizer, powdered aluminium, and nitro-methane fuel needed are not that hard to obtain.

[Thinyser]

Since when does a pesticide sprayer "spray" a solid stream though? A super soaker, one of the old ones with the back pack would be better, maybe mod it with a powered pump to pressurize instead of hand pump. Of course you'd also want to take the damn child resistant lock off the lighter.

when i was young (and REALLY stupid) i used to do that with cans of Off (the bug reppelent). never let it burn for too long, but i did once distoryt the aperature on the spray nozzzle.
so keep that copper tubing close.

My brother set the carpet in a corner of his room on fire. We, me and my parents, came back to a house full of sour tasting white dust... I didn't know before that, that fire extinguisher powder had a taste. Strange things you learn from other peoples stupidity huh?

The pump up pesticide/herbicide sprayer link would work fine if you simply take the nozzle off so that the long metal wand is the nozzle since you want a thick stream not a thin one or a spray. Attach a propane weed burner link with propane as the ignition for the stream and you're in business. Click on the propane then send a stream of gelled gas or even plain gas/diesel down wind... oh yeah you really want to make sure the wind is at your back with these.

Pyroil starter fluid (ether) is a great short range flame thrower as its wicked flammable and has a lot of pressure so as to force the flames far away from the plastic nozzle. If you use a straw like what comes with a can of WD-40 (which itself is a good flame thrower in a can) it will go several feet further. Oh the fun I had in the garage with said aerosols and an aim-n-flame.

[Zer0 Kay]

Since when does a pesticide sprayer "spray" a solid stream though? A super soaker, one of the old ones with the back pack would be better, maybe mod it with a powered pump to pressurize instead of hand pump. Of course you'd also want to take the damn child resistant lock off the lighter.

when i was young (and REALLY stupid) i used to do that with cans of Off (the bug reppelent). never let it burn for too long, but i did once distoryt the aperature on the spray nozzzle.
so keep that copper tubing close.

My brother set the carpet in a corner of his room on fire. We, me and my parents, came back to a house full of sour tasting white dust... I didn't know before that, that fire extinguisher powder had a taste. Strange things you learn from other peoples stupidity huh?

The pump up pesticide/herbicide sprayer link would work fine if you simply take the nozzle off so that the long metal wand is the nozzle since you want a thick stream not a thin one or a spray. Attach a propane weed burner link with propane as the ignition for the stream and you're in business. Click on the propane then send a stream of gelled gas or even plain gas/diesel down wind... oh yeah you really want to make sure the wind is at your back with these.

Pyroil starter fluid (ether) is a great short range flame thrower as its wicked flammable and has a lot of pressure so as to force the flames far away from the plastic nozzle. If you use a straw like what comes with a can of WD-40 (which itself is a good flame thrower in a can) it will go several feet further. Oh the fun I had in the garage with said aerosols and an aim-n-flame.

diesel wouldn't work it ignites from compression. Well dang as said before a super soaker shoots farther and most of them have a pretty solid stream. How about a power washer with a jet nozzle hooked up to a water buffalo filled with gasoline slightly thickened with the pump powered by a generator all on the back of an extended bed pick-up.

[Thinyser]

Since when does a pesticide sprayer "spray" a solid stream though? A super soaker, one of the old ones with the back pack would be better, maybe mod it with a powered pump to pressurize instead of hand pump. Of course you'd also want to take the damn child resistant lock off the lighter.

when i was young (and REALLY stupid) i used to do that with cans of Off (the bug reppelent). never let it burn for too long, but i did once distoryt the aperature on the spray nozzzle.
so keep that copper tubing close.

My brother set the carpet in a corner of his room on fire. We, me and my parents, came back to a house full of sour tasting white dust... I didn't know before that, that fire extinguisher powder had a taste. Strange things you learn from other peoples stupidity huh?

The pump up pesticide/herbicide sprayer link would work fine if you simply take the nozzle off so that the long metal wand is the nozzle since you want a thick stream not a thin one or a spray. Attach a propane weed burner link with propane as the ignition for the stream and you're in business. Click on the propane then send a stream of gelled gas or even plain gas/diesel down wind... oh yeah you really want to make sure the wind is at your back with these.

Pyroil starter fluid (ether) is a great short range flame thrower as its wicked flammable and has a lot of pressure so as to force the flames far away from the plastic nozzle. If you use a straw like what comes with a can of WD-40 (which itself is a good flame thrower in a can) it will go several feet further. Oh the fun I had in the garage with said aerosols and an aim-n-flame.

diesel wouldn't work it ignites from compression. Well dang as said before a super soaker shoots farther and most of them have a pretty solid stream. How about a power washer with a jet nozzle hooked up to a water buffalo filled with gasoline slightly thickened with the pump powered by a generator all on the back of an extended bed pick-up.

Diesel will ignite and burn without compression just as gas will though it is harder to ignite, and neither will detonate unless under pressure combined with sufficient oxygen... but we are not talking about detonation here we just want a sticky fluid burning as it jets through the air and contacts a target. I believe that the propane weed burner I linked to combined with the few microdroplets created at the exit of the spray wand (even without the nozzle there will be some tiny drops) will be sufficient to get it going though if not reattaching the spray nozzle and causing more of a mist would certainly get it to ignite though it would severely limit the range. Supersoakers only shoot farther because they dont have a mister nozzle once that is addressed a nice thick stream from the weed sprayer will put more fuel just as far downrange. Also supersoakers are plastic and will melt from exposure to heat so are only good for a couple uses plus they have much smaller capacity than a weed sprayer.

[Zer0 Kay]

when i was young (and REALLY stupid) i used to do that with cans of Off (the bug reppelent). never let it burn for too long, but i did once distoryt the aperature on the spray nozzzle.
so keep that copper tubing close.

My brother set the carpet in a corner of his room on fire. We, me and my parents, came back to a house full of sour tasting white dust... I didn't know before that, that fire extinguisher powder had a taste. Strange things you learn from other peoples stupidity huh?

The pump up pesticide/herbicide sprayer link would work fine if you simply take the nozzle off so that the long metal wand is the nozzle since you want a thick stream not a thin one or a spray. Attach a propane weed burner link with propane as the ignition for the stream and you're in business. Click on the propane then send a stream of gelled gas or even plain gas/diesel down wind... oh yeah you really want to make sure the wind is at your back with these.

Pyroil starter fluid (ether) is a great short range flame thrower as its wicked flammable and has a lot of pressure so as to force the flames far away from the plastic nozzle. If you use a straw like what comes with a can of WD-40 (which itself is a good flame thrower in a can) it will go several feet further. Oh the fun I had in the garage with said aerosols and an aim-n-flame.

diesel wouldn't work it ignites from compression. Well dang as said before a super soaker shoots farther and most of them have a pretty solid stream. How about a power washer with a jet nozzle hooked up to a water buffalo filled with gasoline slightly thickened with the pump powered by a generator all on the back of an extended bed pick-up.

Diesel will ignite and burn without compression just as gas will though it is harder to ignite, and neither will detonate unless under pressure combined with sufficient oxygen... but we are not talking about detonation here we just want a sticky fluid burning as it jets through the air and contacts a target. I believe that the propane weed burner I linked to combined with the few microdroplets created at the exit of the spray wand (even without the nozzle there will be some tiny drops) will be sufficient to get it going though if not reattaching the spray nozzle and causing more of a mist would certainly get it to ignite though it would severely limit the range. Supersoakers only shoot farther because they dont have a mister nozzle once that is addressed a nice thick stream from the weed sprayer will put more fuel just as far downrange. Also supersoakers are plastic and will melt from exposure to heat so are only good for a couple uses plus they have much smaller capacity than a weed sprayer.

OK, is a lighter sufficient enough for a stream to ignite? It wouldn't have a chance to raise the temperature of any given point in the stream high enoguh. Ah... I missed the propane weed burner, I was still going on the lighter idea. Most super soakers do have a nozzle which narrows the stream and according to Bernoulli's principle that increases the rate of flow and thereby the range as well. In other words, most squirt guns have a narrowed opening at the ejection end of the hose causing a jet of water which is more concentrated, faster and has a longer range than then the liquid would have without the narrowed opening. Good point on the plastic heat issue though... another thing to consider is that petrol products rapidly deterioriate plastic... which is oddly a petrolium product as well.

Bah I got it then a airport firetruck with the foam guns. I don't think the guns actually produce the foam as the foam is a chemical reaction so if you fill up the truck with thickened gas and you somehow manage to put a remote igniter of some sort on the gun then you never even have to leave the truck to use it and this one would be AWESOME with that spiker or whatever they call it.

It is funny when I was looking for the airfield rescue vehicle there was one called "The Super Soaker".

[azazel1024]

Actually diesel is easier to ignite than gasoline when it comes to using heat. Gasoline detonates at a range of around 470-530F, Diesel is ~410F, below the combution point of dry paper. A lighter in a stream of diesel is quite sufficient to ignite it. Gasoline and diesel however behave differently under compression as well as the heat generated from combustion. Therefore gasoline cannot be used under the pressures generated in a diesel engine, nor used in a compression ignition engine (again diesel engine). Diesel could conceivably be used in a spark ignition engine (gasoline engine), however, the Fuel Air ratios required and a few other considerations means that you cannot simply put diesel in a modern engine and have it run.

You CAN put diesel in some older carburated gasoline engines, and with the proper carburator tunning, have it run (like ****, but it'll run). I have seen it done before in an old VW bug when a buddy ran our of gas and the only station around was a truck service station with diesel. Filled it with a couple of gallons and after about 5 minutes of working on getting to started and playing with the carb he got it fired up running like crap, but it ran well enough to drive down the road about 20 miles to the next gas station to fill up the tank with gasoline and retune the carb again.

PS you deffinitely cannot get a diesel engine to run with gas in the tank, but the reverse is theoretically possible in some cases.

Diesel engines are able to function with such high compression ratios because they are direct injected, with the fuel entering the combustion chamber or pre-chamber at approximately top dead center in the compression cycle. The fuel atomizes when injected, delaying ignitions for a few miliseconds during the injection pulse and then causes a very well atomized detonation that is much more sudden then in a gas engine.

In gasoline engines, expect very new direct injected gas engines, the fuel and air is injected at the same time. If compression ignition was attempted with a fuel air mix entering in the intake phase of the engine predetonation will occur with gasoline OR diesel (even worse with diesel due to the lower temperature of ignition). This is why diesel engines have so much higher compression ratios, injecting fuel at the end of the compression phase will not cause predetonation, and the lower combustion temperatures of diesel make it atomize and combust better than gasoline would in a compression ignition engine. In a spark ignition engine, diesel can be used in some cases with the right tunning, but the lower combustion temperatures of diesel mean that even the "modest" compression ratios of gasoline engines (generally 9:1 up to around 12.5:1 compared to diesels 15:1 to 22:1) are likely to cause sever pre-detonation.

Gas in a diesel engine means it probably won't run. Diesel in a gas engine means most likely you'll destroy the engine (with some caveats on lower compression old engines with carbs that you can tune to thicken up the mixture a lot to lower combustion temperatures, etc, etc, ad naseum. Not a good idea to ever attempt).

[Killer Cyborg]

A few thoughts:
1. Sharpen a sturdy wooden pole, something like a pitchfork handle, or something longer. Drive finishing nails through one end of the stick, diagonally, with the nails pointing toward the blunt end. Now you have a barbed spear- once it goes in, it doesn't come out, not easily. Add a crossbar partway down the shaft, so that the tip can penetrate, but the spear can't be pushed all the way through.
The piercing damage alone won't do much damage to a zombie, but it will give you a handle. You can now move the zombie around, and as long as you're on the other end of that spear, he can't reach you. Brace the end against a wall, and the zombie is kept at bay indefinitely.
Attach a sturdy line to the spear, and now you have a harpoon that you can use to attach the zombie to things, like a cinderblock or two, or the bumper of a car.
Or, for fun, a crapload of weather balloons.

2. Break a window. Find a piece of sharp glass long enough to work as a knife. Use Duct Tape to make a safe handle. Try to sever heads and cut through key muscles. Not a great weapon, but sometimes that's all you have.

3. Drive some nails through a 10"x10" piece of plywood, then glue another piece of plywood (or sheet of metal) onto the back, covering the nail heads. When a zombie comes close, smack it in the face with the board. This probably won't penetrate the brain enough to kill it, but the zombie will have a board nailed to its face, making it hard to see. You can then hit the board with your hands or a club in order to drive the nails deeper in.
Alternatively, you can drop these boards on the ground, pointy-side-up, to stick into the feet of zombies, slowing them down and making them make more noise as they walk (clop, clop, clop). For this use, screws might work better.

4. Take a pushmower, and cut off the front two wheels and surrounding metal frame/guard. Pop a wheelie and start chopping up zombie shins.

5. Take a leaf-blower, the reversible kind that can suck up leaves and shred them into an attached bag.
Disable any safety features that keep you from blowing whatever's in the bag out through the blower.
Fill the bag with powdered coffee creamer, and have an ignition system at the end of the blower.

6. Put some vice-grips onto the nose of a nailgun, and you can pull back the safety that keeps the thing from firing when it's not touching a board. Just for fun, aim for the feet.

7. Molotov bolo.

8. A full-sized CO2 bottle can easily be turned into a missile. Same with any kind of compressed gas, really. Just for fun, put a spear on it.
Or combine this with #1, and have it drag a zombie along with it.

9. Get a bedsheet, and tie a brick to each corner. Now you have an improvised net.

10. Disassemble a hand-held, battery-powered drill. Put the trigger part on the bottom of a pole (or broomstick), and the drill part on the far end. It'll take some additional wire to make the connections stretch that far, of course.
But now you have a drill-spear. I'm guessing that a normal wood-bit would be best for boring through a zombie skull, but a spade-bit might work too.

[Thinyser]

A few thoughts:
1. Sharpen a sturdy wooden pole, something like a pitchfork handle, or something longer. Drive finishing nails through one end of the stick, diagonally, with the nails pointing toward the blunt end. Now you have a barbed spear- once it goes in, it doesn't come out, not easily. Add a crossbar partway down the shaft, so that the tip can penetrate, but the spear can't be pushed all the way through.
The piercing damage alone won't do much damage to a zombie, but it will give you a handle. You can now move the zombie around, and as long as you're on the other end of that spear, he can't reach you. Brace the end against a wall, and the zombie is kept at bay indefinitely.
Attach a sturdy line to the spear, and now you have a harpoon that you can use to attach the zombie to things, like a cinderblock or two, or the bumper of a car.
Or, for fun, a crapload of weather balloons.

Good idea but it would need to be longer than a pitchfork handle or else the zed will still be able to reach you. 8-10 feet would be good.

2. Break a window. Find a piece of sharp glass long enough to work as a knife. Use Duct Tape to make a safe handle. Try to sever heads and cut through key muscles. Not a great weapon, but sometimes that's all you have.

better than nothing but very prone to breakage as most thick glass that would be more durable is tempered to shatter into tiny pieces instead of large shards. So you will be dealing with realitivly thin glass

3. Drive some nails through a 10"x10" piece of plywood, then glue another piece of plywood (or sheet of metal) onto the back, covering the nail heads. When a zombie comes close, smack it in the face with the board. This probably won't penetrate the brain enough to kill it, but the zombie will have a board nailed to its face, making it hard to see. You can then hit the board with your hands or a club in order to drive the nails deeper in.
Alternatively, you can drop these boards on the ground, pointy-side-up, to stick into the feet of zombies, slowing them down and making them make more noise as they walk (clop, clop, clop). For this use, screws might work better.

hahaha thats great!

4. Take a pushmower, and cut off the front two wheels and surrounding metal frame/guard. Pop a wheelie and start chopping up zombie shins.

loud and likely to stall upon first impact with anything as large as a zombie shin... have you ever hit a small tree stump with a mower? I hit a sapling stump that was maybe 1.5 inches across and the blade stopped dead after cutting less than half way through. Maybe zombie bone will shatter and not offer as much resistance as wood but I'd not want to chance it since either way said zombie could just fall forward over top of the mower and grab your arms.

5. Take a leaf-blower, the reversible kind that can suck up leaves and shred them into an attached bag.
Disable any safety features that keep you from blowing whatever's in the bag out through the blower.
Fill the bag with powdered coffee creamer, and have an ignition system at the end of the blower.

I'd say thats way to dangerous to the user... though as a trap it would be awesome!

6. Put some vice-grips onto the nose of a nailgun, and you can pull back the safety that keeps the thing from firing when it's not touching a board. Just for fun, aim for the feet.

Effective range is less than 10 feet but if its all you got it could save you but I'd be doing head shots hoping to hit an eye and make it into the brain.

7. Molotov bolo.

with what baby food jars filled with flammable liquid?

8. A full-sized CO2 bottle can easily be turned into a missile. Same with any kind of compressed gas, really. Just for fun, put a spear on it.
Or combine this with #1, and have it drag a zombie along with it.

great if they are in a long, narrow, straight, corridor and you have a sledge hammer big enough to break off the valve cleanly in one hit.

9. Get a bedsheet, and tie a brick to each corner. Now you have an improvised net.

then run like hell?

10. Disassemble a hand-held, battery-powered drill. Put the trigger part on the bottom of a pole (or broomstick), and the drill part on the far end. It'll take some additional wire to make the connections stretch that far, of course.
But now you have a drill-spear. I'm guessing that a normal wood-bit would be best for boring through a zombie skull, but a spade-bit might work too.

Interesting idea and I'd definalty go with a 1/2" or 3/4" non spade (traditional) wood bit preferably one that's about a foot long in its own right.

[azazel1024]

The nails in a board/bat should work just fine. Some long 16p 3 1/4" framing nails are plenty long enough to bash in to a brain, though if you stuck em through a bat they might not be long enough. On a board 2x4 with some backing to keep them from poping back out they'd be long enough and sharp enough with a good whack to punch in to a skull.

[Thinyser]

The nails in a board/bat should work just fine. Some long 16p 3 1/4" framing nails are plenty long enough to bash in to a brain, though if you stuck em through a bat they might not be long enough. On a board 2x4 with some backing to keep them from poping back out they'd be long enough and sharp enough with a good whack to punch in to a skull.

A smooth bat will crush skulls without the nails, and it wont get stuck or break as easy as a bat with nails hammered through. IMO a regular unmodified bat is better than one with nails... except for intimidation. That said...

While time consuming its better to drill a hole big enough for the nail head about half way into the bat and then set the nails in and fill the hole with epoxy. If you have to, wrap the nail in thread or string until it wedges tightly into the hole. Id expect some missing nails with the string method as they could stick in the target and pull out of the bat. The key is not hammering through the wood as its likely to split with many large shank nails crossing though and also you get more nail on the exterior when you drill a hole to seat it in. Use big nails as a 3.25" nail is going to use up a significant portion of that especially if its crossing all the way through the bat, less so with my method but I'd still go with a few large nails rather than many smaller ones.

[Grell]

Any thoughts on how to weaponize a leaf blower?

[azazel1024]

Yeah, grab it by the shoulder strap and swing it really hard.

I like the drill in to the bat idea. Wrap the nail in a bit of string and soak it in wood glue or better yet, construction adhessive and push it in place. That should hold it pretty well once it dries up. You could probably do about a dozen or two around the circumference of the wooden bat, kind of a modern poor man's morning star.

[Illendaver]

Anybody ever watch Fight Club? It can't be that easy to make Dynamite....

[Thinyser]

Anybody ever watch Fight Club? It can't be that easy to make Dynamite....

Dynamite is nitro glycerin stabilized in a clay medium. Nitro glycerin is not hard to make but its dangerous as hell as a slight bump can detonate it and even dynamite is dangerous since even though a bump wont set it off a bullet can.

TNT or trinitrotoluene is harder to make but somewhat safer though IIRC it can still be detonated by a high velocity bullet.

Neither are as easy to make or as safe as homemade C-4 from nitromethane and fertilizer. It needs a blasting cap to set it off and is easy to make.

[azazel1024]

nitromethane and fertilizer is not C-4. It is a fairly stable explosive, but not C-4.

Diesel and ammonium nitrate is the easiest to make, but it isn't a terribly high explosive (still explosive, just not a high brissance). That is what is generally used in excavation and rock quarrying as it has good "moving" power, without such a high brissance that it is going to shatter rock in to itty bitty bitts (makes it harder to shift the resulting rubble from blasting if you have to scoop up a million pieces instead of a few dozen big pieces, several hundred fist size pieces and some little bits).

[Thinyser]

nitromethane and fertilizer is not C-4. It is a fairly stable explosive, but not C-4.

Diesel and ammonium nitrate is the easiest to make, but it isn't a terribly high explosive (still explosive, just not a high brissance). That is what is generally used in excavation and rock quarrying as it has good "moving" power, without such a high brissance that it is going to shatter rock in to itty bitty bitts (makes it harder to shift the resulting rubble from blasting if you have to scoop up a million pieces instead of a few dozen big pieces, several hundred fist size pieces and some little bits).

Its "improvised C-4" as stated in a previous post I'm well aware of its lower (but still very high) detonation velocity. In stability its almost C-4's equal but its very hydrophillic and will pull moisture from the air rendering it non-explosive in a matter of hours or days at most in a very dry environment so its use is very limited in that regard while C-4 has a much longer shelf life when exposed to air.

[azazel1024]

Just making sure. C-4 isn't a class of explosives either though, but a specific one. I think more accurately, from what I know of ammonium nitrate + nitromethane, it is most similar to regular RDX (C4 is 91% RDX, plasticizer and stabalizers, RDX at room temperature and higher is very stable), but a touch more sensitive, and as you mentioned hydophillic.

[MurderCityDisciple]

I wonder what Ash would come up with?

I have a big old double bitted axe...no improv there though...just some good ol' time choppin' and hewin'.

If I had to improv I would take this big old electric motor my dad left here, hook a cable to it, mount a 10lb anvil I have to the end of the cable, then mount the motor so it spins horizontally on a pole at about 5 feet off the ground on a pole, then tie some small child or yappy animal at it's base, turn the motor on and then let centrifugal force do all the work.

[Oberoth]

If you had some time at your haven and brought back many abandoned cars(Newer), you could remove the small explosive charge in the air bags. Combine with some pluming oddments and Voila! Instant pipe bomb.

[Thinyser]

If you had some time at your haven and brought back many abandoned cars(Newer), you could remove the small explosive charge in the air bags. Combine with some pluming oddments and Voila! Instant pipe bomb.

Possible but since airbags are designed to inflate safely they A) use a rather slow "explosive" and B) use only enough to fully inflate the bag which is not a whole lot of expanding gas.

Combine several airbags worth of propellant and place them into a sealed iron pipe and you would have a pipe bomb... but it would be easier to just use smokeless/black powder but if airbags is all you got then its a good idea.

[Beatmeclever]

Anybody ever watch Fight Club? It can't be that easy to make Dynamite....

Is this a test, sir?

[Zamion138]

Get a riding thersher..the massive ones, then weld you self into securely in the cab.....its hella loud and will make the zombies come to you, drive into larger groups, you get chum for shark baiting when done.

Build a bridge over a fast moving river that you have no plans for drinking from. In the middle so you can't walk around the opening place hole with some grinders whierling away, again cum ces out the bottom and it wont over fill. If the drives powered by the flow of watter also you don't have to worry about running out of power either.

Take a metal bat, weld 4 tubes at top that have a side opening and enough space for a 12good guage shell then take something in the bottom to whack the primers. You get 4 whacks to head with a shotshell going off before to have to reload....it works as a point club too. That with crater a skull better than basic bat any how.

[Illendaver]

Anybody ever watch Fight Club? It can't be that easy to make Dynamite....

Is this a test, sir?

best answer possible.
The reason I bring it up is because the method laid out in the movie is to heat up human fat and scrape the tallow off the top then add nitric acid. I know that Nitric acid is used in any place that sells wood to help age it properly. Check your local tool stores, you might find it there too(I did. I also found pure glycerin in the pets section of my local wal-mart. Turns out they use it on horse saddles straps) I am going to have to go back and ask why they had nitric acid at the hardware store though...
Anyway, the point is that if you could find a decent store of Nitric acid you should have an ample supply of "aged to perfection" human fat delivering itself to you. However, I intend to explain all of this to somebody else in my group and watch their results from a pretty good distance as they try to mix it up.

[Dobergirl]

Slingshot + Can opener or other sharp edged blade tied to the sling portion

You can put something like box of deterragen and while pulling the object back you also at the same time open it with the blade. When you shoot, the object have been opened and the contents, usually harmful for zombies (acids and other things that dissolve and would be fairly easy to come to) will spray upon them.

The benefits:

The substance flies farther than if tossed
You do not need to spend time opening the container

Cons:

The spray is wild and can land on your fellow team mate if they're too close.

[azazel1024]

Unless that is pretty pure nitric acid, you are upshitz creek trying to make anything that goes boom. IIRC you need something of around 70% purity or higher which I don't believe is commonly available.