How To – Dark Nights

CAUSING MAYHEM WITH FIRE EXTINGUISHERS (in your own room of course!)

Posted on 2024/06/19 - 2024/06/19 by darknights

We love promoting new ways to express your art (and defo not to cause enormous paint covering in speciesist businesses) so if you have been wondering about how you can paint places quickly, we have a great recipe for yo: How to fill fire extinguishers with paint!

Note that PalAction actually wrote an amazing guide which you can download at the end of the article. Whilst we give an overview of the steps to convert a fire extinguisher into a weapon of mass paintaction, it is not only inspired by their guide but you should actually follow their guide as it has all the details we cannot fit into a short post.

STUFF YOU NEED:

Extinguisher
Paint, water, funnel
Air compressor or high quality pump.
Hack Saw, rubber mallet.
A metal 1/4” BSP Taper Male Thread x 1/8” BSPT Female Thread Hex Bush.
A 1/8” BSPT Male Thread High Pressure Schrader Valve.
Barbed Hose Joiner, Barbe Hose Tail End Connector (check PDF for sizing)

LET’S GET THIS DONE!  
1- Discharge the extinguisher. Ideally on some bailiffs, but if you can’t then remember foam and water extinguishers are full of shit, discharge in a bucket then empty into a toilet for fowl sewage disposal. CO2 and dust are “less” harmful.

2- Tie the operating leavers together. Then with force (or a rubber mallet) push anticlockwise on the leavers to release them. Unscrew full and pull valve and syphon tube out. Make sure you properly clean the innards of that fire extinguisher!

3- Remove the syphon tube filter. Either unscrew it if it lets you, or cut it out (as low as possible to not reduce length!

4- Unscrew the pipe from the valve assembly. In its place, screw the Hex Bush with a few layers of PTFE tape. To the Hex Bush, screw the Schrader Valve (that’s where you’ll pump the air in!!!!)

5- Fill the extinguisher with a mix of Matt emulsion and Water at equal parts. Please measure the volume of watered down paint and ensure you only fill up to the volume of the fire extinguisher and no more.

6- Screw the Valve assembly. Ensure that the leavers are fully engaged and tied/taped. Use your air compressor or pump to depressurise the system to the middle of the green zone on the pressure gauge. That should be around 14-15 BAR which will be perfect for your arts and crafts.

7- Release the operating leavers, either untie, un tape or whatever else. This will then hold the pressure inside, if you don’t do this you’ll end up covered in paint in the next step!

8- Unscrew the air compressor pipe, then with an adjustable spanner wind the Hex bush anticlockwise to disconnect it.

9- Modify the hose nozzle. Please read about this on PalAction’s PDF. Once the hose is good, screw it into the operating valve. You can tighten it a tad with a spanner.

10- Insert the pin and secure the extinguisher by taping that pin in place. Only remove it when you’re up to no good painting your room!

DOWNLOAD THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER GUIDE BY PAL ACTION HERE:

PDF: Fire Extinguisher

Source: Unoffensive Animal

The Simplest Way to Burn a Vehicle

Posted on 2023/09/01 - 2023/09/01 by darknights

In light of the actions that happened last month, I wanted to encourage everyone to revisit this post. Many of the points made about riotous moments apply to clandestine action as well.

If the people at 890 Memorial Drive intended to burn the vehicles, it was not a good idea to smash windows. Not only does this increase the risk of leaving DNA, breaking a window is very loud and likely to attract attention from passerby — which is exactly what interrupted that action, according to police. As demonstrated in this video, a firestarter cube, placed directly on a front tire (or the rear tire on the same side as the gas tank), is sufficient to assure the destruction of the vehicle. Once lit, it takes about five minutes for the firestarter to fully ignite the tire, which is plenty of time to leave the area unnoticed in most cases. Firestarter cubes can be purchased or racked at any grocery store. Cottonballs covered in vaseline can also work as a firestarter.

I’m not sure how long of a time-delay the people who burned the motorcycles were aiming for. It seemed like they used delays that were not sufficiently tested, which resulted in at least one failed incendiary device being recovered. Unless it was important to have a longer time-delay, I think that placing firestarters directly on the tires would have worked better. This method is much less likely to leave DNA traces because there is no need to construct an incendiary device or to carry accelerant at all. This is the beauty of targeting vehicles with rubber tires! Fuel tanks can be punctured or the hoses that run from them cut for another source of accelerant.

Incendiary devices with long time-delays are better suited to heavy machinery with treads, or to structure fires, so I encourage everyone to keep working on their designs! But in the meantime, let’s not overcomplicate things. I’d like to issue a friendly challenge to all individuals and AGs in the movement to take a little break from internet discourse, get outside, and set some shit on fire!

Don’t forget to take all reasonable precautions to minimize DNA evidence. And please be careful about surveillance footage, although avoiding it completely is almost imposssible in Atlanta.

Submitted Anonymously Over Email

Source: Scenes from Atlanta Forest

DN: Please also read the following which recommends using wrapped/packeted firelighters that don’t leave a trace unlike other firelighters such as what is shown that can crumble and leave behind evidence. https://darknights.noblogs.org/post/2023/03/12/pdf-how-to-burn-cars-manuals/

Communiqué #2: Sabotage of an EHV pylon in France/Grand-Est

Posted on 2023/02/21 by darknights

Source: lille.indymedia

Via: Bure Bure Bure

In December 2022, in solidarity with the prisoner hunger striker Alfredo Cospito, we sabotaged an EHV pylon and partially removed its bolting (https://lille.indymedia.org/spip.php?article35371&lang=fr). The sabotage of a high voltage line is not without danger and, even if it is done without error, there is always a certain risk. However, we found this risk acceptable and the action entertaining. Since direct action is always an attempt to motivate and inspire other contexts, we had already announced our intention to give some technical advice:

Choice of target: When choosing the mast, make sure that the insulators (the ceramic coils to which the cables are attached) are vertical! A diagonal or horizontal position indicates a tensile load in the corresponding direction. Choose the most insulated location possible. Make sure that there are no people between the object and the nearest towers (e.g. busy roads crossing the line). Choose your escape route so that it cannot be blocked by the falling line.

Risk assessment/mitigation: It happens regularly (although rarely) that electricity pylons bend or fall, even without sabotage. This can occur, for example, due to storms, the weight of snow, or simply material fatigue or inadequate maintenance. The result is a risk of premature tilting of the mast. This risk increases with each screw loosened and exponentially with each foot completely unscrewed. It is up to you, as a group, to decide how far you want to go. In all cases, plan the action with the possibility of the mast falling while you are still there. Both at the base of the mast and where the cables touch the ground, there is a potentially lethal tension on the ground within a certain radius! Move away from the object as quickly as possible in the opposite direction of the fall. Ensure that your body remains in contact with the ground at all times (grounding), walking with small “shuffling” steps. Make sure that the weather conditions are favorable. Under no circumstances should you perform this action in strong wind, heavy rain or snowfall!

How to proceed: During the reconnaissance of the object, we noticed with some annoyance that the thread projections of each screw were destroyed by drilling (photo). An anti-sabotage measure of RTE which we do not know if it applies to all EHV lines or only to this one. In retrospect, we can see that it is certainly more tiring, but that it is still possible. For the screws, we concentrated on the ones that connect the mast to its foundations (50 mm key). On the inside, a short handle of about 20-30 cm is enough, as it gets stuck in the structure of the foot. On the outside, you will need a strong tube extension to increase leverage. For ease of transport, it is recommended to use several tubes that fit into each other. For some screws, we needed up to 2 meters of leverage. Before the actual action, we sprayed the screws with penetrating oil (WD 40) and let it work for several hours. We repeated this operation at the beginning of the unscrewing. The last few screws were significantly more difficult to remove, which we interpreted as a sign that the mast was already starting to lower. For this action, you will need at least 2 to 3 people on the object. You can count on about 3 hours per foot (16 screws at a time). If you find a pole with undamaged bolts, it will probably go faster.

Tracks: It is almost impossible to work for several hours in the same place without leaving many tracks! Check regularly during the work if your body is still completely covered (e.g. between sleeve and glove). In any case, get rid of your clothes and shoes after the action. Keep your workplace clean and store your tools in such a way that nothing is inadvertently left behind, even if you have to stop the action before it is completed. Continue reading “Communiqué #2: Sabotage of an EHV pylon in France/Grand-Est” →