gunner1 Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 Last night Jaimie made up 1000 pounds of thermite to melt a Chevy Blazer in half! It was really cool. I think the best part was when they opened up the back of their panel truck and took out a 55 GALLON DRUM OF ALUMINUM POWDER!!! If I could get my hands on one of those, I would and then I repackage it, vacuum seal it, and store it for a rainy day.
jacob Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 Oh awesome! I'm gonna go watch that right now, hooray for DVR.
Richtee Posted November 14, 2008 Posted November 14, 2008 Last night Jaimie made up 1000 pounds of thermite to melt a Chevy Blazer in half! It was really cool. I think the best part was when they opened up the back of their panel truck and took out a 55 GALLON DRUM OF ALUMINUM POWDER!!! If I could get my hands on one of those, I would and then I repackage it, vacuum seal it, and store it for a rainy day. Most inefficient use of good chems I have seen. Ah well..it is what it is. One 50th of that, with an appropriate oxidizer would have been more impressive in my book.
Zmuro Posted November 14, 2008 Posted November 14, 2008 I don't know why they used atomized aluminium, shouldn't they use bright flake Al of maybe even dark Al, because the reaction was quite slow and the car wasn't cut in half.
Pretty green flame Posted November 14, 2008 Posted November 14, 2008 A slower reaction in this case is better than a quick poof.
FrKoNaLeaSh1010 Posted November 15, 2008 Posted November 15, 2008 Besides the fact that a slower reaction would probably cut better a 55gallon drum full of aluminum has a very large price difference between flake and atomized. You can get atomized dust for 5 dollars a pound while dark flake can go for 20 per pound. A whole drum full will have a very noticeable price difference while still having a thermite reaction either way.
WarezWally Posted November 15, 2008 Posted November 15, 2008 They should have mixed all of it up and placed it back into the drum and left it over the engine, that would have been spectacular
Mumbles Posted November 17, 2008 Posted November 17, 2008 I think you're confusing the prices on bulk chemicals. The flake fetches a higher price because the people who are desperate for it, will pay exorbitant amounts. It's also goes a lot farther than atomized for common uses, so the turn over is slower. On a barrel pricing, there should really only be a difference by a dollar or two. Indian blackhead going for about $6 or $6.50, and Atomized going around $4.50 or $5 from the last estimates I saw. Then again, they're in california, so who knows what it costs there.
psymon Posted November 17, 2008 Posted November 17, 2008 Then again it wouldn't matter the cost to the Mythbusters crowd. It's not like they are paying for it after all.
jacob Posted November 19, 2008 Posted November 19, 2008 It was cool, but it would've been alot cooler if they'd used Cuo/Al thermite.
Mumbles Posted November 19, 2008 Posted November 19, 2008 I do enjoy the broze smoke/glow from it, but you do realize that outside of APC CuO/Al thermite is virtually unknown as an explosive, right?
xxxjanusxxx Posted November 19, 2008 Posted November 19, 2008 I do enjoy the broze smoke/glow from it, but you do realize that outside of APC CuO/Al thermite is virtually unknown as an explosive, right? It's not as common as other varieties, but it's defenitly well known in theory. We've made a small batch once with German Dark and that's really fast! It also produced a nice report. It's almost unbelievable that that amount of aluminumpowder is just wasted to get a car in half :S . Metal powders are expensive where I live, so I think it's really a waste of Al. It's also a shame that the car didn't split up . That quantity of thermite seems enough to get a good start on a second car as well. I haven't seen that episode, but I think it could be more efficient.
psyco_1322 Posted November 19, 2008 Posted November 19, 2008 (edited) I have mentioned CuO/Al thermite on passfire several times. I also first heard of it over at &totse in BB, it was well discussed there. Then I came to APC and never really seen anyone say anything about it, then I mentioned it once, and its been well discussed since then. Im sure it may have came up before me but no one knew about it. Cause when I mentioned it, everyone one was like "what?" "does that really work?" "explosive thermite? Cool!" So I suspect it was uncommon before then. I was quite surprised. Speaking of which, I stumbled apon a good little more CuO/Al thermite for railroad usage. Its old and some of its hard as a rock. Several different sizes of containers, some have broke open over time. Burnt up a piece after bashing it back to powder, since it no longer had a container. That stuff produces a lot of copper! Edited November 19, 2008 by psyco_1322
Rogue Chemist Posted November 20, 2008 Posted November 20, 2008 (edited) CuO/Al thermite is known in the chemical literature. A 2008 article I do not have on this computer uses nano copper oxide and Al nanopowder to get mixes combusting/detting at 2400m/s, the highest known for a thermite. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal...=1&SRETRY=0 Also, this came up while searching for the above paper link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=A...8e5714921c6881es So CuO/Al has been studied elsewhere Edited November 20, 2008 by Rogue Chemist
optimus Posted November 20, 2008 Posted November 20, 2008 Has anyone heard of Cu/Al thermite being used in shells? Would look awesome at dusk I think... Only ever did one test with it. Scary stuff. http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?s...amp;#entry18929
MilkyJoe Posted November 20, 2008 Posted November 20, 2008 Hey! I use CuO Thermite in all my shells as a booster. About 10g in a 3 inch ball shell gets me great breaks even from plastic hemi's. I discovered CuO Thermite by accident (thought the reaction would be similar to regular thermite only to have it blow up in my face ) and have used it since because I can't get perc for flash. It works, and I love it! Here is a shell using CuO/Thermite as boost
qwezxc12 Posted November 20, 2008 Posted November 20, 2008 I have mentioned CuO/Al thermite on passfire several times. I also first heard of it over at &totse in BB, it was well discussed there. Then I came to APC and never really seen anyone say anything about it, then I mentioned it once, and its been well discussed since then. Im sure it may have came up before me but no one knew about it. Cause when I mentioned it, everyone one was like "what?" "does that really work?" "explosive thermite? Cool!" So I suspect it was uncommon before then. I was quite surprised.Dude, That's funny. You joined in May '07...there has been plenty of talk prior and since. I don't intend this as a slam or anything; I just disagree that 'no one knew about it'. Dec 2006: post of a June '06 test in the Thermite thread: PostDec 2006: post from July 4th '06 in the Fireball thread: PostApr 2007: post of a August '05 shoot in the Binary Impact thread: Post
FrKoNaLeaSh1010 Posted November 20, 2008 Posted November 20, 2008 CuO based thermites have been around the forum for a very long time. I have made CuO/Mg and CuO/Al. they both burn insanely fast for thermite and is comparative to flash powder. The Mg one is a little brighter naturally.
Frozentech Posted November 21, 2008 Posted November 21, 2008 For that matter Rogue Chemist, you were posting about it on the older APC, back in 2005.
psyco_1322 Posted November 25, 2008 Posted November 25, 2008 qwezxc12, Thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't really trying to take credit or anything for it. I think that sentence was a little mis-worded. I was around a bit before joining too. Not that it makes any difference. Yah I figured it had been talked about in the past. It just seemed to be new to the people that were in the discussion when I mentioned it for the first time of being here.
Frozentech Posted November 26, 2008 Posted November 26, 2008 More thermite fun Thermite Hard Drive Destruction
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