Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Do it yourself Faraday Cage

CopperKnight and I were talking a while ago about making a whole room into a Faraday Cage. Something to protect the electrical gadgets we all dearly love in the event of an EMP strike. I saw a great tutorial a while ago that turned an ammo can into a Faraday Box. Very easy to do--just line the whole thing with thick closed-cell foam, and then wrap your electronics in bubble wrap and place them inside.

WWYD? If you were to build one this weekend, what would you place inside?

I'm thinking of a solar-powered/crank-powered AM/FM/Shortwave radio. I have a mini Grundig I bought a few years ago that would be the perfect size to put in there. An 8GB thumbdrive with copies of important information and stuff that could be useful once the power is (hopefully) restored.

Maybe an older digital camera that I don't use anymore. Take the batteries out and keep them separate from the camera. Document things that happen after the EMP strike.

A good LED flashlight with batteries. (removed, just like the camera)

A Brunton solar-powered charging kit for hiking/backpacking. That way I could power up the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries for my devices.

Heck...I'd put my iPad in there but I use it almost every hour of every day.

Let me know what you'd put inside that you'd like to keep safe.


2 comments:

  1. Remind me on that... do you have to ground the cage-can? I don't remember if it has to be grounded or shouldn't be grounded.

    As for contents, definitely a few flash drives with vital info. If you have a lot of info maybe a portable USB hard drive.

    I don't know if batteries would be affected, but having some spares stored inside would be a good place to keep them. Same thing with a couple small LED lights.

    I like the idea of using a larger can and storing a small laptop inside. You would have to have something to read the flash drives or they won't be any more useful than if they were wiped clean.

    A pair of small rechargeable handheld radios would be useful for communications.

    A solar chargers is a great idea for the AA and AAAs, but if you decide to keep the larger stuff, I would suggest looking into vehicle chargers for all your items. A giant 12 volt car battery can charge a lot of stuff, especially if you multitask your car to charge everything you can while you drive places... if the car can survive any EMP type strike.

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  2. I know it has been a while, but I was thinking about this the other day. An ammo can is pretty small, especially once you insulate it. What do you think of a wood footlocker covered in metal window screen? Would the wood be enough insulating, or would you have to add more? Do you think screening would suffice? What about building a cube with a door out of screening, then having a couple shelves that slide in and out to keep stuff?

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