How to make your own ultra-bright warning beacon... briefly.
Years ago, a friend of mine used to throw 'parties'. He'd invite you over with claims that half the neighborhood would come and everyone would get laid. What usually happened is that me and one or two others from our group would come over and get stoned and bored. One day, there was a fella there that we all knew from college. Quite a clever guy, but a bit of a twat and probably long since jailed. Anyway...

The night before the party thrower, and another guy, had raided some buildings in a local quarry. One of the items stolen was a magnetic amber flashing beacon taken from one of the trucks. It turned out to be a 24 volt, rather than a 12 so it couldn't be used in a normal car. It kind of ran from a battery charger, but not very well. After a while of having it half heatedly trying to flash while we drank crap beer and smoked up, Mark (for that was the little fuckers name) found a lonely 13 amp plug and decided that he would wire the poorly flashing beacon straight to the mains. He spent about ten minutes stripping back wires and wiring it up before plugging it in, giving a short count down while we all sat around the light, waiting to see what would happen.

Mark hit the switch. there was an almighty fucking bang, with a very bright and final orange flash and the entire house was plunged into darkness as the main breakers blew. It was a big house and the party host... fuck it, let's just call him Tim, he's not going to read this... Tim hadn't lived there long and didn't know where the breakers were. It took about fifteen minutes to locate the panel by Zippo light (God forbid he had a working torch) and when the power came on, we discovered that the beacon, which we had all been sitting far to close to, was full of smoke. when somebody broke the plastic dome off, it had bits of glass embedded all over the inside, one of which had nearly gone all the way through. The bulb had been completely blown to pieces. Had the plastic dome been cracked or weakened, it could have shattered we could have had flying glass coming right at us. Great idea in general.

After connecting the light back to the battery charger it was, not surprisingly, found to be completely fucked. I seem to remember that a club hammer was then produced and the thing was smashed into tiny pieces. When I look back, I feel so proud...
( The Togaboy The world will end on, Sun 27 Jul 2014, 15:54, Reply)