Thermite

Iodides and Nitrides are nasty stuff!!

The Lightning Stalker said:

That reminds me of the time I made ammonium iodide crystals. I had about a teaspoonfull
drying on a paper towel while I was on the computer. The purity must have come out a bit
high because some air current or something set them off. It was like a 10x14 room. Damn
were my ears ringing. Those thing have got to be like the easiest high explosive to make.

Click to expand...

Ah yes the snapping tiles experiment... an old classic.
Too much fun.
The material in question is Nitrogen Triiodide. NI3..
It's real name is Triiodoamine.

It can detonate upon exposure to just about everything including background radiation.
Lots of fun, but it's vapours are quite toxic. :beer::beer::beer:

You just brought up my favourite memories of blasting holes in tabletops in middle school.
Problem was i got my inspiration from my chemistry teacher whom was equally as pyrotechnically gifted.
You made my day. Thank you !!

This reminds me of that old "anarchist cookbook" pdf. Most of it was bullshit, but I think their NI3 recipe was correct. Never had the guts to try it out

I remember that "book", hehe. Good old times. These days it is dangerous to post things like that online.

Sigurthr said:

I remember that "book", hehe. Good old times. These days it is dangerous to post things like that online.

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Most of the Anarchist cookbook was plagiarized poorly from a
series of books by paladin press. They had some very useful info on
some great DIY stuff.

Lol i used to be into this stuff. Took powdered mg and mixed it with KNO3 to make flash powder, got the cops called on my for setting a trash can on fire (accidentally)

I was such a bad boy back then

Sorry for off-topic

:beer:
-Matt

Tested this thermite experiment last week 40g total using a 3-1 ratio Fe2O3 and AL fine 500mesh powder. It ignited well enough using a sparkler but burnt relatively slow. It melted though the tin can but I might work on my mixture to at least burn through some 1/8-1/4in plate. Hmm

It sounds like you will have to play with the mix. The stoiciometry can be VERY finicky on this stuff. If it
ignites AT ALL, then you're on the right track.

Strange. I did mine with 425 mesh and it burns waaaay too fast. Maybe it's the mix or oxide particle size.

BTW: my new phone will have a 120fps camera. Will try to make a nice slow-motion video of thermite.

By weight. I mixed 10grams or aluminum powder and 30grams iron oxide. I used a spoon & bowl to mix. Since I'm NOT mixing CuO, I might try using a mortar and pestle and alittle more AL.

You should quit wasting good fine Aluminum on this and use it to make some good flash, then you can wake all the neighbors at 01:00 in the morning :crackup:


It wasn't me and you can't prove it !!!

Atomicrox said:

Strange. I did mine with 425 mesh and it burns waaaay too fast. Maybe it's the mix or oxide particle size.

BTW: my new phone will have a 120fps camera. Will try to make a nice slow-motion video of thermite.

Click to expand...

My best attempted at " slow Mow " : P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkiOXTGf9oQ

Cool stuff FP I did recently purchased me some shells. However since this year the punishments for this kind of fireworks here are getting of the charts i will quit this hobby I will just keep it with shooting and lasing

As for the thermite. Would love to make that stuff once.

FPyro --- You have too much
spare time
HMike

Be careful with that stuff its really dangerous. If you do want something to make a nice display tanerite works great. It will really "blow" your audience away hehe

A very good friend of mine in Duncan, OK has a machine shop that does almost entirely custom work for the oil and gas lateral drilling industry, Halliburton being one of his biggest customers. He recently received a custom order for a few hundred parts turned from pure magnesium. They are some sort of plug, about 4" in diameter, and the turning process resulted in about two 55 gallon drums full of, you guessed it, pure magnesium shavings.

He gave me a small box, about the size of a large flat rate USPS mailing box, full of these shavings. He's a bit of a science / experiments nut like me and he is keeping this stuff for some fun down the road and I can get more if I want.

I just bring this up here because it seems relevant. I haven't had the time to pursue anything fun with it yet, planning to hunt on YouTube for some cool things to try. Just curious if anyone here had some good ideas on how to have some good old fashion dangerous pyrotechnic fun with this stuff.

I am an avid ammunition reloader and have an idea I am going to try. I've got some Hornaday projectiles that are FMJ with the ass end Un-jacketed and the lead exposed. I was going to heat these up and melt the lead out, grind some of this magnesium to a powder, mix it with a good oxidizing substance that will result in a fairly stable compound if possible, replace the lead with it, and recap the end with something like JB Weld epoxy. It will result in a projectile much lighter than the original (currently I have 150gr 30cal and 55gr 223cal) possibly 90gr and 30gr respectively. Elevation will need to be accounted for but I have a great app on my iPhone that easily makes the calculations. Basically I'm attempting an incendiary round. This is just one of hundreds of cool things that could be done with pure magnesium....

Anyone with some cool ideas on what else could be done with this stuff please speak up. I'm open minded to any cool and potentially dangerous experiments....who knows, I may even share a little with someone who comes up with something that would make a great YouTube video.

Lastly, is there a form of thermite type material that uses pure magnesium? It seems like a good material to start a thermite / thermate reaction.