Monday, August 17, 2015

BCP Skill Challenge

& is used with permission.
We seem to have run out of guest articles (and Mondays are currently open for someone to become a regular contributor), so today I have decided to issue a challenge to our regular readership in the hopes that it would solve a problem of mine and simultaneously get us more submissions.

As a prepper and an enthusiast of gun accessories, I am constantly acquiring hex wrenches that come with new pieces of hardware. While it's convenient to have the proper size of wrench during installation, afterwards I don't need them -- I have my own set of very nice metric & imperial wrenches that I keep in my tool box.


But I am reluctant to throw away these spare wrenches, because that seems wasteful. They're still perfectly good tools; they just happen to be unnecessary. Since I couldn't think of what to do with them, I decided to pose the question to you, dear readers, as the


BCP Hex Wrench Skill Challenge!
The rules are quite simple:
  1. Think of something non-wasteful to do with these pieces of steel. I want a solution that is constructive, useful, and preferably ingenious. Do not suggest I put them in the recycling bin or give them to someone else.  
  2. Practical applications will be deemed more worthy than purely artistic solutions. The ideal submission will be both practical and attractive. 
  3. The solution must be something that someone without technical skills can perform. For example. Firehand is a blacksmith, so I imagine he has all sorts of notions for melting them down into ingots or hammering them into nails using his knowledge and equipment. However, I don't have that knowledge, nor do I have access to a forge, bellows, etc. 
  4. If you provide detailed, step-by step instructions, preferably with photographs or illustraions on how to do these technical things (such as making a forge using simple household items). then that will make you eligible for this contest. This is called "Leveling the playing field."
  5. Write an article using the guidelines on Guest Articles page. If you have pictures, you can get by with fewer words; fewer pictures means more words. If it's a concern, I'd rather you write too much than too little; I can edit out unnecessary elements but I don't want to put words in your mouths. 
  6. The contest starts now and runs through the end of the year. I realize I'm asking for something very technical, so you have 4.5 months to put it together. 
  7. Because I am running this contest myself, other members of this blog can compete if they desire. Lokidude and Firehand, I'm looking at you in particular. 
Prizes
Because this is out of my pocket and born of a desire to de-clutter my life, prizes are in a similar vein: Anyone who writes an article gets to pick an item out of my swag box. Some items in the swag box are tools which didn't quite work the way I'd hoped they would; some are goodies that I've reviewed, or which came in Apocaboxes, and I don't have room for them. (For example, I have multiple knives, both fixed and folding, in the swag box; it's not that I don't like knives, it's just that I have no current use for them and no place to put them, so they're in my way and gathering dust.)

Nothing in the swag box is junk.  I wouldn't do that to people. 

The person with the best article gets first pick from the box. Other winners get subsequent picks, until everyone has had a turn. 

Anything left over will be given as thank-yous to future BCP guest authors.


This is the Swag Box as it currently stands. It's likely to fill up more as I clean and de-clutter my life. Please  keep in an mind that between now and the end of the contest, there will be 3 more Apocaboxes (August, October, December) arriving, along with whatever I acquire for product testing and for the holidays, so this picture is not everything that is available. 

Got it? Good! Now get to work!

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