CuO/Al Thermite

[MilkyJoe]

Me and a friend made some CuO/Al thermite the other day and where surprised with the results.

 

We foolishly hadn't read much about it and thought it would be just like regular thermite.

 

THIS STUFF IS LIKE FLASH!!

 

What I would like to know is:

 

Can this be used in place of flash in like rocket headers and shells?

Is there any problems with this mix? sensitive; cant be stored; reacts with certain chemicals.

 

Thanks for the help

 

 

~Milky~

[GalFisk]

I haven't made this, but I've made CuO+MgAl thermite which is similar but a little more powerful. The thermite is not as powerful as the same weight of flash, but it's much denser so it may be more powerful by volume. I haven't tested shock/friction sensitivity, but it takes fire much easier than perchlorate flash made with the same MgAl.

The thermite mixture doesn't produce a strong flash of light, which may be desirable when breaking shells. It also produces a lot of heat, and may be a good prime because of its ignitability. I'm going to conduct experiments to see how well it works in practice.

IIR there are some compatibility issues with copper compounds, but I'm not sure of the specifics (probably related to AP and/or chlorates). Since CuO is not water soluble this may not be an issue.

[Mumbles]

Flash is most certainly not a newbie section topic. There is plenty of information on said composition on the forum if you're interested.