The best, and by far the easist contact explosive is a mixture of supher,
sodium chlorate, and course sand (2 to 2 to 1). Mix it and roll hit it with a hammer, or tape to a rock and throw.
1. A film canister in a roll of gasoline soaked toilet paper makes a BIG
boom.
2. 1 pt. gasoline to 16 pts ammonium nitrate is a VERY effective high
explosive, easily set off by a triangle firecracker.
3. A film canister buried in 2 ft. of dirt does very little.
4. Whistling bottle rockets work just fine under water.
5. Very little is left of a watermelon when an ammonium nitrate charge is
put inside of it.
6. A film canister placed under a bleach bottle filled with gasoline makes a VERY big fireball (and a LOT of smoke).
7. Putting a can of hairspray in the middle of a bonfire, then shooting it
makes a big fireball/explosion.
8. A film canister thrown in 1 ft of water sends a column of water 30 ft
into the air.
We got ammonium nitrate to work as a high explosive. We got it to work by taking ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which comes in little beads, and grinding it up into a fine power. Then we mixed 16 parts by volume of the powdered ammonium nitrate with on
e part by volume of gasoline and mixing it well. It is barely even moist, but you can smell the gasoline in it.
We set it off by using a BIG triangle made with shopping bag paper. It held about 2 grams of low explosive powder, and apparently was enough to detonate the ammonium nitrate. We put the ammonium nitrate-gasoline mix onto a big piece of aluminum foil
and wrapped the whole thing up around the triangle, using plenty of fuse!
Both of the charges that we made were about the size of a baseball. We stuck the first one inside of an old clock radio that C.C. donated. It was
blown to bits. It sent pieces of the plastic housing flying 50 into the air, landing over a 100' radius. All of the buttons and knobs were gone and we
never found any of them. We did find smashed printed circuit boards, a dented transformer, loose capacitors, the radio dial, and some twisted
metal.
The second one destroyed a watermellon. The pieces that we found didn't
add up. Apparently, a good portion of the watermellon was vaporized, turned
into mist.
Anyway, now that we have the exact mixture, it seems to work.
Here is the exact mixture again:
powdered ammonium nitrate 16 pts. by volume
gasoline or fuel oil 1 part
set it off with a large low explosive charge. Have fun!!!
Low explosives are made by simply mixing a powerfully combustible solid
(usually granular) with an oxidizer such as soduim chlorate (see earlier
message in this area), potassium chlorate (better), or potassium nitrate (less
violent (yes, this property can be useful)). There are all kinds of formulas
for low explosives that can be made, but some are much better than others.
Also, some mixtures can work too well or too soon, with subsequent detriment
to the adventuresome pyrotechnician's carrer.
One miture mentionned in a previous message is flashpowder, a mixture of
magnesium powder and sodium chlorate. This will cause a bright flash and
explosion if confined in something.
One mixture that should never be made is a mixture of red phosphorus and
potassium or sodium chlorate. This is the stuff used in caps for cap guns.
The problem is that it can explode whenever it feels like it, and it gets
angry at you if you disturb it... I have read several stories of someone
mixing up 1 1/2 ounces of this stuff and having it explode. It blew the skin
off the bones of their hands.
One of the best low explosive mixtures I have used is as follows:
2 parts by mass Potassium Chlorate
1 " Aluminum powder
1 " Sulfur powder
This can be approximated by using parts by volume. A little less Chlorate,
a little less Aluminum, and a little extra sulfur. If you can, use a balance
or scale and use the mass proportions.
This, like flashpowder, will explode if confined. However, it explodes
much bigger than flashpowder (I don't know why). Out in the open, it will
just burn, albeit white hot.
Another simple low explosive, similar to flashpowder is a mixture of
equal parts of sodium chlorate and aluminum powder. It burns white hot out in
the open and explodes, throwing sparks, when confined. It, however, is
nowhere near as good as the more complicated mixture shown above. The above
mixture should be used whenever possible.
more...
Make some of the low explosive mixture made with potassium chlorate,
aluminum powder, and sulfur.
Scoop out a TINY amount of it onto a small piece of aluminum foil about 2" square. Wrap the foil up around the powder and compress it into a small ball.
Take it outside and put it down on a hard surface. Hit it with a hammer.
These little suckers are trivial to make and are really loud. They're
great if you just want to make noise. Also, if someone complains and calls
the cops, you can just say that you were smashing toy caps with the hammer
(Not far from the truth).
A word of warning. Whatever you do, don't set these off in an enclosed
area of any kind. It is DEAFENING.
This mixture is incredibly bright. It is a dry mixture of equal volumes
of.
sodium chlorate 1 part
magnesium powder 1 part
This mixture makes an flash easily seen in daylight. I'm sure it's what
they use in magic tricks (or something very similar). It makes a whooomp
sound and a cloud of white smoke. Be careful with it. It burns at probably
well over 5000 degrees and it can explode. If it is confined in or by
anything except aluminum foil, it will explode, especially if a large amount
Well, since you now know how to make all sorts of low explosives, it might help to know how to package these so that they explode rather than simply burn. Film cannisters (see earier message) are an easy way, but they are so huge that you can't se
t them off often. (If you have tried one you will know what I mean!!) These triangles are smaller explosive charges, suitable for "light and throw" use. You can make them big or small. The larger ones could be considered small bombs rather than firecr
ackers.
The procedure for making triangles is hard to describe over the modem because I can only use text; no pictures and no demonstrations. I will do the best I can to describe the procedure. If you have any questions, leave a reply to this message, and I wi
ll answer you.
To make triangles, take a 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper and fold it in half 3 times so that the creases define 8 strips of paper about one inch wide and 11 inches long. Cut along the creases so that you get these 8 strips of paper.
Take a strip of paper, lay it down on the table, and look at it horizontally. Take the left end and fold about an inch and a half of it back over the strip. This is tough to describe. Fold it down and to the right at a 60 degree angle. If you visualiz
e the hidden edge of paper you will notice that this fold sort of defines a triangle. (This is definitely one of those cases where a picture would be worth a thousand words!) Try to make this an equilateral triangle. Leave a little less than a half in
ch of overlap. Turn the folded strip of paper over and fold the overlapping length along the edge of the strip against the back side of the strip. Tape this into place. Now turn the strip back over and you will see a triangular shaped "pocket" made by
the folds, ready to accept some low explosives... If you made it this far in the intructions, you have made it past the hardest part to describe.
Lay this triangular pocket down on the table with the opening of the
pocket facing away from you, with the rest of the strip extending up and to the
right. Cut off a 3" length of fuse and place it inside the pocket along the
pocket's left edge, angled up and to the left. Fill the pocket up with a low
explosive (see earlier messages) and then fold the extending strip of paper down and to the right, closing off the pocket.
Now wrap the paper around and around the triangle, giving the
strip of paper some tension so that this makes a strong, compact casing.
When you get to the end of the strip, tape it down with some good, sticky
Scotch tape. You don't want the whole thing to unravel. YOUR'E DONE!!!!
Your first triangles will probably look pretty messy, and may not be tight
enough to give the low explosive enough confinement to explode properly. But
you will get the hang of it. Practice makes less imperfect. Your results
will speak loudly for themselves.
You can make all kinds of variations with trianges. You can use various low explosive mixtures, though the 3 component mixture that I described in an earlier message is the best that I know of. You can also vary the amount of explosive powder that you
put into the triangle. If you fill the triangle full to capacity, it will hold about one gram of explosive. That may not sound like much, but just try one and listen. Don't be suprised if it blows up nearby objects. This is a hell of a demonstration o
f the amount of energy that's in some things. If you want something smaller, just don't fill the triangle all the way up. For instance, if you just put in a little scoup (about an eighth of a teaspoon), it will make a little goody that makes a nice ban
g, and is small enough to throw around casually. While I say casually, don't be stupid!! Don't EVER throw these at people, animals, or valuable objects and don't ever use them inside. The most dangerous aspect of these is the sound. They are very loud
, especially indoors or in enclosed outdoor areas.
A very efective smoke mixture can be made by mixing 2 pts. Hexachloroethane (whew!) with 1 pt. Zinc dust. Add a little Sodium Chlorate, and use a hot
fuse (cannon fuse) or place a Sugar Chlorate charge in the middle to insure
lighting. The smoke is thick and plentiful, but tends to rise too fast. It
is ideal for enclosed spaces. The smoke is non-toxic as far as I know, but is unpleasant to breathe.
Another cheap smoke mixture is sugar Chlorate in large quantities. About
a pound.
A marginally good, but very inexpensive smoke mixture can be made by
mixing sugar and potassium nitrate in equal volumes. You can get potassium
nitrate in a 50 lb. bag at Orange County Farm Supply in Orange. It costs about $16 for that amount, and sugar isn't very expensive (as chemicals go), so you can make lots of this mixure for negligible cost. It is also good for generally incinerating thi
ngs, but not as good as sugar chlorate (nothing
else is).
This mixture can be greatly improved by adding this mixture to a small volume of water (enough to dissolve it at high temperature). Don't use too
much water, or the process will take all year. Heat the solution up to boiling point and boil away the water, stirring it occasionnaly. When there is only a little water left, the solution will thicken and form a gel or mush. Stop heating the soluti
on when it gells and scoup it out onto aluminum foil
and let it dry. Divide it into small pieces to make it dry faster. Don't dry it in the oven, with a hair dryer, on a hot surface, or in the
microwave.
There is a distinct possibility that it will ignite and fill your house with
smoke. The gelled mixture will burn much faster, leave less residue, and produce a lot more smoke. However, for serious smoke, use the hexachloroethane - zinc powder smoke mixture (cf).
Here's another smoke mixture. It makes a cloud of really black smoke. It
tends to dissipate quickly though. It would be great inside...
Crush up mothballs into powder. They must be the kind of mothballs that are made of napthalene. Make sure of this. If they are the type made of para-dichlorobenzene, this mixture won't work.
Mix the napthalene powder with sodium chlorate in equal volumes. Mix it up real good, and you're done.
This stuff is hard to ignite. You must use an sugar-chlorate igniter or take a blowtorch to it. When it ignites, it will burn very hot and pour off thick black smoke. It also gives off little wisps of carbon that float around all over the place.
The smoke mixture presented earlier in this area is extremely good - I would dare say even better than those smoke-pots you can but at the fireworks stand. All you need is 2 parts by volume of Hexachloroethane, 1 part by volume of Zinc dust, and about 3
/4 part by volume of Sodium Chlorate. Mix it together well, wrap about a tablespoon full in a small sheet of aluminum foil with a fuse running to it, light, and watch the fun. If the wind is not that strong, it will produce a smoke cloud of considerable
Detonators are small high explosive charges used to set off big high
explosive charges using explosives such as dynamite, TNT, ammonium nitrate,
nitromethane, etc.
They are made by filling up a small casing such as an empty brass cartridge from a round of ammunition (for those of you who know nothing about guns, that's what's left after you fire off a bullet) with about one gram of a booster explosive and about
one gram of primary explosive.
It is loaded and set up so that the fuse goes in and contacts
the primary explosive. The booster explosive is put underneath the primary
explosive.
When the fuse reaches the primary explosive, the primary explosive goes off with tremendous shock power to everything nearby. It also sets off the booster explosive, which is more powerful and adds considerably to the power of the detonator. The bo
oster explosive is not sensitive enough to be set off by the fuse; it needs the explosion of the primary explosive.
These are technically called compound detonators because they have two stages, the primary explosive and the booster explosive.
These detonators are powerful enough to set off just about anything. They are also pretty impressive by themselves. Since they are very powerful and
shattering, and use a sensitive primary explosive, be damn carefull with them/
The primary explosives that I know how to make are acetone peroxide,
mercury fulminate, HMTD, and lead azide.
The booster explosives that I know how to make are picric acid and RDX.
Blasting caps are simpler versions of detonators. They use no booster
explosive.
They are easy to make. Just take an empty bullet cartridge, a small length of thin copper tubing or something similar and fill it up with about one gram
of primary explosive of your choice. Put a fuse into it and plug up the open
end with kleenex and then carefully crimp the metal casing around the fuse so
You need a large piece of aluminum foil, about 1 foot square, and a solid steel object such as a pipe cap.
Lay out the aluminum foil and put a quantity of the 3 part low explosive mixture in the center of it.
A 1 to 1 mixture of sulfur and sodium chlorate can be used, but it will not work NEARLY as well.
Put the metal object down on top of the mound of low explosive powder.
Wrap the aluminum foil up tight around the metal object and crumple and
draw out the excess into a "tail," at least 6" long. This stabilizes the charge in the air so that it lands powder down with the metal object behind it. It works just like the plastic netting on a badmitton birdie. When flying fast enough thru the air,
one end will always go first.
If you have seen cap grenades, this works just like they do. Take the impact bomb out into the street. Throw it high into the air so that it will hit hard on the street or other hard surface. When it hits, it will explode. You can of course vary th
e amount of explosive to use.
In big charges, you may have trouble finding the metal object so that you
can use it again, because a large charge of powder will often send the metal
object flying.
For example, some friends and I were playing around with magnesium powder
and sodium chlorate, mixing them together and wrapping it in newspaper. We
tried putting a bunch of it into an empty Coke can and putting a long fuse
into it. We lit it, and it made an explosion that we felt 75' away and made a
white flash of fire 15' in diameter. That was our first homemade bomb. We
found a few charred pieces of the can around the yard.
As for those Mexican "corn kernels", I just saw some people at school
throwing those. It was the first time I'd ever seen those. I have no idea
what's on them. I do know how to make a few things that explode when
thrown......
DRANO BOMB
----------
Ever put draino in a ping pong ball? Cover the hole with duct tape
and stick it in a car gas tank. When the gas eats through the ball...
BOOM!!!! Car and all. Anyone have access to the POOR MAN'S JAMES BOND?
That is just full of Pyrotechnics that can be made with household stuff.
Next time: NAPALM
It works. I have never tried it, but I have friends that have. The
Sodium Hydroxide reacts with gas and causes it to explode. What actually
happens is the NaH(I think that's right) ignites the gas. How? I have no
idea. You can also put the NaH in one of those orange medicine prescription
bottles. I also have the formula to make plastic explosive that you mold according to how lethal you want it. It goes something
like:
You need:
Styrofoam
Motor Oil
Melt styrofoam and mix with with oil. Let set til hardens. Will be
somewhat moldable. Not sure how to ignite. Blasting caps or a small
