I feel like you've forgotten that books exist. Literally anywhere with a university is going to have a heap of books documenting how to rebuild modern technological society from scratch.
Without transformers, we can’t build new transformers.
Think of the supply chain involved. It all runs on electricity. We’ve built ourselves in to a corner where basically nothing is possible without power.
So yeah, go get that book from the library. Good luck smelting steel.
Here is the description of the series:
ISBN 1-878087-00-2 The Charcoal Foundry
ISBN 1-878087-01-0 The Metal Lathe
ISBN 1-878087-02-9 The Metal Shaper
ISBN 1-878087-03-7 The Milling Machine
ISBN 1-878087-04-5 The Drill Press
ISBN 1-878087-05-3 The Dividing Head & Deluxe Accessories
ISBN 1-878087-06-1 The Sheet Metal Brake
Quote from the site:
Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap is a progressive series of seven projects including, The Charcoal Foundry, The Metal Lathe, The Metal Shaper, The Milling Machine, The Drill Press, The Dividing Head and The Sheet Metal Brake. Beginning with a simple charcoal fired foundry, you produce the castings for building the machine tools to equip your shop. Initially the castings are finished by simple hand methods, but it isn’t long before the developing machines are doing much of the work to produce their own parts. It does not take long to learn the simple craft of pattern-making and sand molding. Each phase of the projects increase your knowledge and skill. There is no need to look for outside help. You can do it all in your own shop. No complicated math----No exotic equipment required----No large cash outlay. Lots of work to be sure, and some of it can be downright tedious, but the reward will be a practical small scale machine shop that you might never give yourself permission to buy, assuming you could afford it.
https://gingerybookstore.com/MetalWorkingShopFromScrapSeries...
By the way, the ‘next closest library’ to where I live is the National Library of Australia.
Let’s assume they had it. Both buildings are locked and all electronic catalogues are down. How do I know about such a series, and how do I find it once I’ve broken in to the building?
And now how, without the food supply normal to a major city, do I go about building these materials and creating a grid-spec transformer? I’m hungry. All I’m concerned about is people not looting my house.
And once I do build it, what’s this individual transformer going to connect to? The rest of the grid is down.
All of the people who would be repairing the grid in normal circumstances are starving and at home protecting their family. None of them are out in a van fixing transformers.
So, cool books. I’m glad they exist. I can’t see how they help.
You’re going to be fighting for survival and learning how to hunt and farm and keep warm. You’re not going to be sitting around learning how to build transformers or metal workshops.