DIY: I hand you these items and expect you to perform a mickey-moused bush fix. Can you guess what you are supposed to do by the item list?

There's other uses for your item list that might make that regrettable. 

Don't worry darlin',   I'll be gentle...At first.

Not worried at all, I've been trained in many incapacitating techniques. It's just that orange isn't my best color.

You're even cuter when you pretend to be tough.

Theoretical might be more appropriate than pretend. Just like welding a truck with a box of laundry detergent.

Well of course the scenario is BS. It's intentionally stupid.

Borax isn't a laundry detergent.  It is a flux in welding and forging though. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at January 16, 2017 11:31 AM MST

Glis  -  Well, actually Borax is a main ingredient in many laundry detergents. In fact, you can probably find it with the powdered detergents in you grocery store or at Walmart. It acts as a water softening agent, I think. (My wife actually makes our laundry detergent using borax, washing soda and fels napatha laundry soap. WAAAY more cheaper than the pre-packaged stuff with, basically, the same ingredients.

TammyV2.0  Borax makes for a terrific flux for brazing and welding. It forms a barrier that keeps atmospheric gases (mainly oxygen) from contaminating and weakening the "bead" during the welding process. It's not commonly used for welding these day, at least directly. Electric "sticks" come coated with some type of flux (that probably contains a LOT of borax) and "squirt" welders use wire with a flux core. Specialized welding systems (like TIG or MIG) run with a "shroud" of inert gas around the arc such as argon or helium to prevent oxidation. Where you will see it used directly is as a paste applied to workpieces being brazed (using a "dissimilar" metal to join the workpieces, such as brass to join a piece of cast iron to a piece of steel, or a silver alloy to join two pieces of copper).

So the efforts of those 20-mules in Death Valley is worth all that effort.

Correct. Borax isn't a wetting agent,  it softens the water with sodium ions, lowers the PH, and produces peroxides that increase the effectiveness of detergents and soaps.

No, borax raises the pH, doesn't lower it. Lowering pH makes something more acidic. Raising the pH makes something more "basic". Neutral pH is 7. Borax has a pH of about 9.3. The washing soda (sodium carbonate) weight in at around 11. So unless you're starting with something like a concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide adding borax and washing soda is going to raise that pH, not lower it.

You're right.   I stumbled on my thoughts while typing fast watching the coffee pot to finish.  I wasn't paying enough attention to what i was writing.

Yes, borax isn't the best softener and it isn't that good at creating peroxide.   Sodium percarbonate  is better.  Still that's how borax works. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at January 16, 2017 12:58 PM MST

Needed a DIY question on the fly for a challenge.
The concept is sound and possible. The practicality and strength is another matter all together.

Ah, OK.

I actually remember those ads in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics for a "kit" to do just what you described.

lol.  Really?   They sold kits for it?

I've been to a few tradesmen field day things where it was a competition event.  See which welder could do the best bead without actual welding equipment.

Yep, they did. That was back in the late 50's and through the 60's. (I think that doubling the battery voltage to 12-volts made it somewhat possible on very light stock?)A guy my grandfather worked with bought one but couldn't make it work.