NoltaiR
November 4th, 2002, 01:56 AM
These two questions belong in separate topics but I didn't think that singularly they deserved a thread.. so I am combining them.
Anyways my first question is concerning store bought sulfur. As some of you may know, I have made homemade BP many times in my day and usually I use 'dusting sulfur' from gardening shops (90% pure) which is cheap.. but that 10% of extra crap that is thrown in there seems to negatively affect the performance of the final BP (as compared to the occasional chance that I will run across some pure stuff to make BP with). So my question is.. is there really anyway to purify the dusting sulfur.. are there any solvents that might separate it out?
My second question just arose about an hour ago. In the past I have usually used AN from 'instant kold paks' (they are pure and no one asks any questions) although sometimes I will use my grandfather's account to get small sacks of FGAN which has to have the coating removed. Anyways in the past, when I have opened the kold paks, the prills are usually range from dry to slightly damp.. but nothing that can't be evaporated of while in the oven for a half hour or so. Well today I was emptying some paks and two of them had prills literally soaked in water (some little prick at the store must have been walking by and gave the packs a good squeeze). Well I am not one to waste so I tried sticking it in a glass pyrex bowl and put it into the oven at 170*F for about 35 minutes. After this time the prills had completely dissolved in the water that was left (it didn't look like much water had evaporated). I was late for work so I just took the bowl out and left it in the open until my shift ended 10 hours later. It had turned into a solid mass that was a slightly soft in a few spots but nothing much. Well I decided that I was going to break the AN into chunks and put it in a food processor to powder it. But as soon as the blade starts spinning the chunks turn into a sludge. So back in the oven it went for about 10 minutes again at 150*F.. It had begun to harden a little but not much and then I had an idea.. maybe I could make cast ANFO..
It may have been a futile and possibly even a rediculous idea but I decided to give it a try. So I mixed the AN (265g or 91.1% of the mass of the final mix) which was quickly hardening as it cooled off with 8g (2.8%) of motor oil and 18g (6.1%) of gasoline (for those of you who are going to gripe about my percentages because I used *so much* fuel, I purposely added a little gasoline to allow for evaporation). Anyways the mass is still hardening (very slowly now that the fuel is added but hopefully it continues until it is a solid block).
So my questions are:
(1) was this just an idiotic idea?
(2) if it is reasonable and I actually do get a solid mass once all the extra gas is evaporated, should I corn/granulate the mass or try to detonate it as a single block?
Anyways my first question is concerning store bought sulfur. As some of you may know, I have made homemade BP many times in my day and usually I use 'dusting sulfur' from gardening shops (90% pure) which is cheap.. but that 10% of extra crap that is thrown in there seems to negatively affect the performance of the final BP (as compared to the occasional chance that I will run across some pure stuff to make BP with). So my question is.. is there really anyway to purify the dusting sulfur.. are there any solvents that might separate it out?
My second question just arose about an hour ago. In the past I have usually used AN from 'instant kold paks' (they are pure and no one asks any questions) although sometimes I will use my grandfather's account to get small sacks of FGAN which has to have the coating removed. Anyways in the past, when I have opened the kold paks, the prills are usually range from dry to slightly damp.. but nothing that can't be evaporated of while in the oven for a half hour or so. Well today I was emptying some paks and two of them had prills literally soaked in water (some little prick at the store must have been walking by and gave the packs a good squeeze). Well I am not one to waste so I tried sticking it in a glass pyrex bowl and put it into the oven at 170*F for about 35 minutes. After this time the prills had completely dissolved in the water that was left (it didn't look like much water had evaporated). I was late for work so I just took the bowl out and left it in the open until my shift ended 10 hours later. It had turned into a solid mass that was a slightly soft in a few spots but nothing much. Well I decided that I was going to break the AN into chunks and put it in a food processor to powder it. But as soon as the blade starts spinning the chunks turn into a sludge. So back in the oven it went for about 10 minutes again at 150*F.. It had begun to harden a little but not much and then I had an idea.. maybe I could make cast ANFO..
It may have been a futile and possibly even a rediculous idea but I decided to give it a try. So I mixed the AN (265g or 91.1% of the mass of the final mix) which was quickly hardening as it cooled off with 8g (2.8%) of motor oil and 18g (6.1%) of gasoline (for those of you who are going to gripe about my percentages because I used *so much* fuel, I purposely added a little gasoline to allow for evaporation). Anyways the mass is still hardening (very slowly now that the fuel is added but hopefully it continues until it is a solid block).
So my questions are:
(1) was this just an idiotic idea?
(2) if it is reasonable and I actually do get a solid mass once all the extra gas is evaporated, should I corn/granulate the mass or try to detonate it as a single block?