Alone in an abandoned rail yard, Hackett is faced with an enticing challenge…taking the rusted old wreckage around him, and using it as a life-sized train set to build his own working locomotive. But he hits a hurdle when he runs out of the only available gasoline in the yard. Without access to modern fuel…or any help— Hackett turns back time and resorts to Victorian technology. In order to get his train on the tracks, he must wrestle steel parts several times his size, fire up a super-hot invisible hydrogen flame, and resurrect Industrial Revolution-era techniques to turn wood into an explosive gas that will power his personal locomotive.
Hackett is stuck in a place where modern technology comes to die: the junkyard. For Hackett, it's the mother lode of obtainium. The only downside is that it's also the world's dirtiest place, it's filled with a strange type of goo — a mixture of hemorrhaged engine gas bleeding from rusty tanks and the dust of 1,000 rotting cars — and it leaks all over his clothes. Since there is no way Hackett will pay thousands of dollars for an industrial washer/dryer, he sets out to make one. Hackett finds an old American clunker — this is the base structure for his washer and dryer system. To complete the transformation from car to washer/dryer, Hackett must build a welder from scratch, reinvent the spin cycle, and turn the exhaust fumes of a car into the heat he needs to dry his clothes.
Hackett's quest for fresh obtainium leads him to a disturbing place: a dark, abandoned hospital that's so creepy, it must be haunted. As the sun dips low in the sky, the challenge of defeating darkness spurs him to build his own electric light out of the wreckage of the condemned building. Hackett's first attempt is a primordial version of modern lights: a carbon arc lamp. To build it, he digs through toxic battery acid and nearly electrocutes himself… only to find that he's built a lamp so dangerous, it's more terrifying than the dark corridors themselves. A second attempt yields success as he takes on Thomas Edison to build a mad-scientist version of the modern light bulb. Having dominated the shadowy darkness of the abandoned hospital, Hackett decides to create his brightest light yet. He build a super-hot torch that runs on split water molecules to create dazzling, flesh-eating limelight… all to entertain himself with a found movie projector and some mysterious film reels.
Hackett is at an abandoned suburban house in the middle of the desert. The house has a $4000 a day electric bill, which Hackett finds completely unacceptable. Rather than paying such outrageous prices, he's going to make his own power. Hackett takes the house "off the grid" — cutting it off from its electrical power source. Hackett wants to enjoy all the modern conveniences of suburbia, but now he has to generate power on his own. He starts with DC power, making a chemical battery that he hopes will give him enough juice to turn on the TV. When the battery fails to provide the power he needs, he goes to the next level, fashioning a windmill out of PVC pipe, a treadmill motor, and bits of obtanium. When windpower still doesn't do the job, Hackett discards DC power in favor of the much more powerful alternating current (AC), which powers all appliances that connect into wall sockets; it's the lifeline of suburbia, and Hackett is desperate for a piece of the suburban dream. Combining an old car engine with the motor from a table saw, Hackett hopes that AC power will give him what he wants most: TV.
Hackett is at one of the saddest places in the world: an abandoned WWII munitions factory with nothing left but toxic waste and the barest bones of obtanium. To bring some much-needed cheer to his gloomy surroundings, Hackett creates a holiday for himself — "Hackestivus" — and decides to celebrate his holiday by making a fireworks show that will put July 4 to shame. First he has to find his fuel (charcoal) then an oxidizer (unnamed for legal purposes!) to mix it with. Once he's got his volatile mixture, he builds a water cannon to ensure he can contain fire. With his safety assured, Hackett takes his fireworks to the next level, extracting colors from metals and building his first set of fireworks: gerbes (fountains) and mines that will rain stars from the sky. For the piece de resistance, Hackett uses a popular kitchen staple to create a rocket, then heads to a hilltop to build his detonation system — as well as a 'surprise' firework that even the lawyers aren't aware of. But with daylight fading and Hackett needing to get his fireworks set before dark, it's a race against the clock to see if Hackett will get to have his show — and bring a festive close to "Hackestivus."
In need of rest and relaxation, Hackett leaves the hustle and bustle of the big city and escapes to the mountains for some personal Hackett time. Unfortunately, he picked the worst time of year to go away on vacation. Winter. Finding himself buried under tons and tons of snow in a small dinky cabin with no heat; Hackett has to figure out some way of surviving ten thousand feet above sea level. With his two biggest resources being the sun and ice, Hackett decides to build an outdoor hot tub made completely of snow. Hopefully, before he freezes to death.