ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

1. Cut the bottom off an empty lighter.

2. Use a flathead screwdriver to gently pry everything off the plastic lighter body, the flint wheel, wind guard, and lever.

3. Using pliers or a drill, clear room inside for two AAA batteries.

4. Where the lever usually is, drill a hole in the lighter body big enough for the switch.

5. Feed a 10” piece of wire through the nozzle hole into the lighter, then back out through the hole for the switch.

6. Strip the end that comes up through the switch hole and attach it to one of the leads of the switch. Tape or solder the connection.

7. Strip both ends of a 6” piece of wire and attach one end to the other switch lead. Tape or solder the connection and feed the wire through the switch hole, then seat the switch.

8. Strip both ends of another 6” piece of wire and attach one end to one of the leads of the bulb or LED. Tape or solder the connection.

9. Cut the 10” piece of wire sticking out of the nozzle hole down to about 2, and strip it.

10. Attach it to the other lead of the bulb or LED. Tape or solder the connection. Push the wires down into the lighter body through the nozzle hole. Seat the bulb or LED in the hole.

11. Tape the batteries together with the end of one next to the end of the other. Tape or solder a loop of wire to the and tops of the batteries to make a connection.

12. Take the two pieces of wire sticking out of the bottom of the lighter and hold one to each of the exposed battery terminals. Push the switch. The LED should light! If it doesn’t, reverse the leads.

13. Tape or solder the wires to the batteries and feed the wires and batteries into the lighter.

14. Reattach the flint wheel and wind guard.

15. Flick it!

Next Up: MINT CONDITION

AUTHOR: Anthony Discenza

We’ve recycled, reconfigured, and re-purposed a landfill’s worth of debris in the past two years, and yet the world is still piling up with the mass-produced offal of consumer culture. In this issue, we tackle that cherished emblem of the fresh breath industry, the Altoids tin. The curiously strong cases have become curiously ubiquitous in glove compartments and office cubes across the nation. Sure, you can simply put other stuff in there once you’ve scarfed the mints themselves, a perfectly viable strategy if you’ve just got one or two sitting around. But what will you do when your collection of little tins begins to crowd you out of your apartment? And isn’t it singularly unimaginative to use something designed to hold small objects to hold some slightly different small objects? We expect more from you, rocket scientists. Get to work! Submissions due by June 15th. The freshest of the lot wins a free subscription and ReadyMade T-shirt.

Send photos or projects to: MacGyver Challenge, 2706 Eighth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 or info@readymademag.com.