Improvised explosives

[Wicked]

i got a few good ideas about a week ago, im no chemist, im only fourteen, but im learning and im signed up for a basic chemistry class already. well here it is.

1) a low puddy exploseive idea i had was mixing plaster of paris and some gasoline and maybe some sort of oxidiser or some solid form of an easyly ignited metal/fuse (al?)

2) figured out a good way to grind down al, at the cost of a blender:
mix sand and al in a blender and add a bit of water, it would be best if the sand ratio was about 1(sand):3(al), just turn it on for along while then get a thick piece of paper and a strong magnet to seperate the al from the sand, and when its collected, just pull the magnet away from the paper and have it over something to collect the falling al :cool:

well thats sorta it right now, i havent really been thinking much lately, just bummin around. later.

[megalomania]

Well it's nice to see your thinking of new ideas, but I have to point out flaws... First of all, I don't see how gasoline and plaster of paris would be explosive, or even flammable. I may be wrong on that as I have never done it or seen it done, but it dosn't feel right. Second, aluminum is not magnetic, so you cannot seperate it from sand that way. You will however get the bits of blade that wear off from the blender.

<small>[ April 30, 2002, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: megalomania ]</small>

[Wicked]

just read your post mega, for some reason the electro magnet i have picked up the al, it was a nice fine mesh too

[Wicked]

forgot to add:

the gasoline if its in a higher ratio than the plaster should beable to create an epoxy of some sort, so flamable, maybe not exploseive without other chems, but i just came up with the idea without testing it, the al in the mix would help it burn i bet, and it would probobly make it easyer to ignite, if its in high count, i dunno, but it seems that it might work if mixed right,,,,,,, ill get backto you on it when i find some shit.

[Snipie]

I don’t think that your magnet is picking up any Al.
The permeability of Al is 1.000021 (paramagnetic), so in theory it IS possible to pick up Al with a magnet, only the magnet would be very very strong, much more stronger than you have.
If I recall right, a couple of years ago they let water drips fly with such strong magnets (permeability of water is 0.999910)

[Wicked]

it is al, because ive been sifting through it and shit, and theres no metalic shit in there at all, and the magnet i have can lift about 1-2 tons if i would beable to get the power for it, but i cant. its industrial :) but neways, seeing as you guys dont think thats al that its picking up, im taking and looking at a bunch of shit under a microscope and such, its sorta hard to see since its wet, but in the parts that are not wet i see no AL, i see some coper, but thats from the little nub in the blender. im sure that theres gotta be some gay reason that my magnet is picking it up when it shouldnt be then, so im going to try to seperate it as much as i can, but i have not much to work with, seeing as im just a kid. im thinking of talking to danny, im also wondering about some other sort of stuff that can grind down the al (in replacement of the sand), something that would be easyer filtered out, wether it be coffee filter or magnet, or even chemicly, :( i know its al though, but i haveto be sure, because it doesnt make sence by what you said. i checked the blades of the blender, theyre in pretty good shape to tell u the truth. anyone know a good way to get some mg(magnesium), or where to get it :confused: ? gunna fiddle with that. im thinking of paying a visit to the schools science lab "after hours". ive also cometo notice that smoke alarms use some Am(americium {did i spell that right?}), i bet i could play around with that provided i can get lead gloves and vests and such, no ideas what id do with it though. anyone else got any good ideas for a bit of fun? its gotta be pretty easy to get the stuff for it though, cuz like i said, im just a kid.

[TariqMujahid]

I got my Magnesium on Saturday from an outdoors store in the local mall. It was sold as "Coghlan's Magnesium Fire Starter". It comes in about a 1"x3"x1/2" block. There is a thin layer of (something) over it to protect the block itself from flames. But this is easily sanded off.

I've spent a few days sanding this bastard down with 40 grit sandpaper, and it's a serious task. I don't have any power tools, unfortunately...atleast none capable of sanding. Therefore, I'm left to do this by task. The 40 grit sandpaper is very nice though, it gets the Mg down to a very fine powder. Fine powders are good, right?
I'm still sanding it down though, I'm about a quarter through the block. It's doing a good job, but it's slow as hell...I'm sure there has to be a better way of doing this.

Americium in Smoke detectors... That reminds me of an article I read in Readers Digest a while back concerning the "Nuclear Boyscout". This guy managed to get U-235 and some other Nuclear crap with his knowledge of chemistry. He was going to build a Nuclear Reactor in his backyard (and had actually started) when his Geiger Counter started recording high radiation several blocks away, which was harzardous to his neighbors. So he decided to dismantle the reactor and bury the parts in the desert. However, the police caught him stealing tires (i don't know what for), they searched his car and found a tool box with a Nuclear symbol on it. Thinking it was an Atom Bomb, they called a HazMat team and they took all his nuclear toys.

[kingspaz]

who the hells danny?!
hmmm....i can't see anyway that that would be aluminium...maybe what you added to the blender wasn;t aluminium. it could have been steel, nickel, or alloys containging them. i think the best way to grind aluminium, not speaking from experience as i have little use for Al, is to grind up a piece of Al with a file, collect the filings then ballmill that. also a similar method by placing pieces of Al foil in a coffee grinder and grinding it to a coarse powder then ballmilling that. basically a ballmill is a tube with some lead balls in the bottom. the tube is attached to a motor to turn it round very fast. if you add something to the tube it will mix with the balls and the balls will bash it up and grind it down to a finer powder. this is the only way to get good quality Al without buying it. i've made this sound simpler than it is but you'll get the idea since your willing to learn. also why not just use petrol alone? it would surely burn much better. try to avoid contact with petrol since its 2% benzene which is carcinogenic (cancer causing). if you want an incedary add lots and lots of polystyrene (stryofoam in american <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> ) to the petrol. keep adding it until no more will gel with it. you will be left with a highly flammable, long burning syrup. makes a good first project - the fun pyro without the risks!
good luck!

oh yer, its never a bit of fun. thats how you get burnt (pardon the pun). treat this hobby seriously and you will be rewarded. if its treated as a bit of fun and nothing more you are likely to get busted or lose limbs or get permanently disfigured in some way. if your not sure what something will do when you mix it do it in a VERY small amount (like half a pea sized) and wear some safety goggles.
also cleanliness is important. keep all chemicals pure, keep work areas tidy and un cluttered. and most of all, read the archives here aswell as current posts. there is an almost infinate amount of information here! the more you learn the more you will be rewarded.

edit: never ever play with radioactive shit. its cancer in a can! although the radiation sources used in smoke alarms are very low level alpha sources. this is the most ionising radiation and hence the most damaging. it is also however the most easily protected against due to its large particle size. paper for example can stop it.
thats what my point was! americium is a gamma source only i think. releases gamma rays as its nucleas reorganises. half life of around 6hrs or somthing. (can;t find my physics book at the moment!)

<small>[ April 30, 2002, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: kingspaz ]</small>

[J]

Plaster of Paris is Calcium Sulphate. It is an oxidizer at very high temperatures, there is a paper floating around on the 'net detailing its experimental use in flash, along with other Sulphates. It can be used in Thermit instead of Iron Oxide, I believe NBK made a post about this way back.

But I think it's safe to assume your mixture won't explode, and the CaSO4 won't perform as an oxidizer.

You'll ruin your blender doing that. Far better to search for the posts that have been made about grinding Al in a blender for the correct way of doing it. If you had a ball mill, running it for many days on end with sand/abrasive grit and Al foil might work. If you used course grit, you could sieve out the Al.

And don't ask people for ideas for 'fun', that doesn't exactly inspire confidence. If you don't take a professional approach to this hobby, you'll kill or injure yourself eventually.

[Celtick]

I have a dutch article about David Hahn, He used Americum-241 and thorium-232 to build his own Nuclear reactor at the age of 17 :D
I found this article from Harper's Magazine witch is almost the same as mine <a href="http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/print.jhtml" target="_blank">http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/print.jhtml</a>

[Wicked]

dude: (Learning == fun;while fun = doing stupid shit i shouldnt be doing at my age)

i know to be carefull, one of my friends went boom in a fireball playing with some AP, :(. neways, in responce: danny == a friend whos a chemist who helps me out :)

anyways, thanks for the input, but neways, i looked at it closer and took the mesh to danny, its not pure al, damnit. :mad: heh. anyways, just on a totally off-subject mater: why hasnt roguesci gotten an ircd yet? i think if you guys set up an ircd that would be pretty cool for real-time idea exchangeing :)

[Wicked]

ive been trying to get saltpeter for awile, and i just heard from a friend, that sounds mentaly retarded, that u can pee in a wooden cup or something and let it sit out, then the scrapeings on the cup u purify somehow and thats as much as he told me, is he on crack? :p

[0EZ0]

Hehehehe. Sounds like you need to read up a bit mate. Hit the search button at either the top or the bottom of the page and type in KNO3 or Potassium Nitrate, or in your case Saltpeter. You will find a plentifull supply of information there from the search results.
If you did not find what you were looking for then that is the time to post your question.

[Wicked]

i get a 403 on search dude, i have for months, rofl.

[0EZ0]

Ok then. Well your 'friend' is tripping or has read too many of those stupid kewl crapbooks that are floating around on the internet. :rolleyes:

If you want KNO3 then look up the farm supply stores near you and see what they sell. If you find it, it is sold as a fertilizer packaged in 50kg bags. I would be suprised if you did not find KNO3 there at all. Also it can be found in Garden supplies stores as the same thing.

Another interesting place to get it is at a high school science lab.
Brings back memories. For basic Chem in science we catylised a solution of lead nitrate and potassium dichromate with Hydrochloric Acid(HCl), and ended up with a precipitate of Potassium Nitrate. Hehehe. The Grin on my face :D .

Usually synthesising KNO3 is not worth the effort, it is obtained much more cheaply as the fertilizer.

Anyway hope it helps you on your road to finding some KNO3
<img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[nbk2000]

Wicked, you're spelling sucks. Learn to capitalize the letter "i" when referring to yourself. As in "I need to learn to spell properly.".

It would also be advisable to occassionaly add a paragraph in you replies. I do not enjoy having to plow through 12 sentences nonstop.

Did I mention spelling? :mad:

Since the others haven't seen fit to delete you, I'll go with the group opinion and let you stay.

But work on the grammer...PLEASE! :rolleyes:

[Wicked]

Sorry NBK, I'm used to IRCing, so I dont worry about spelling and such, as when your typeing 60-120 words per minute you tend to miss the shift key anyways on this laptop. :( I'll try to make it better spelling and such. see, I can type <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> and yeah, I figured my friend was on crack when he heard that. This morning I was cooking some bacon for breakfest(breakfast? hrmz.) and I took a shit, I walked out and there was a greese fire, to get to the point, I looked around for something to put it out with, seeing as we didnt have a fire extinquisher(argh, atrotious spelling right there.), I grabbed a can of "Resolve", a foaming carpet cleaner, seeing as there was a 50/50 chance it was/wasn't flamable. It was killer affective, spread out too, so I've been experimenting with it, and it doesnt burn unless at very high tempretures. :D

[megalomania]

We have come to a consensus that real time chat may not be protected free speech, ie it can incriminate people. Therefore I do not support it. I also have no desire to chat myself, so that's one more reason for me not to bother :)

Hmm, that quip about my search engine got me scared for a second... anyway, I got 42 results for potassium nitrate, so it works for me. :p

[Wicked]

mega: my ip block maybe banned, check the hosts.deny in /etc/ if that doesnt work, my routers being a fag and I gotta fix it again

[Wicked]

Ok, two things I have noticed.

1) I've been playing with that resolve shit, I made an adapter to use 9 at once, and found out that theres hydrogen bubbles in there, bummer. If you use too much of it, or if the bubbles pop at an extreme rate, it will cause a worse fire, I covered a five foot area of flameing gasoline, and it put it out, I did the same area again with a thing of paintthinner, and it made the bubbles go away too fast, and it made a big ass fireball.

2) In responce to mega, IRC logs arent idmicible in court, federal or otherwise. And since its a private server, you can put a disclamer in the motd that no law officials can be there investigateing without a warrent, at which point the owner of the account would be notifyed first. :) anyways, just wanted to point out a few things.

[Anthony]

Seriously, I'm not sure where you going with this carpet cleaner thing, but I doubt it works any better at extinguishing fire than other inert, or mostly inert substances. I.e baking soda, salt, sand etc.