M57 Electrical Firing device

[RUUUUUN]

The M57 electrcal firing device is more commonly referred to as The Clacker. It is the electrical firing device used with the M18A1 Claymore antipersonnel mine.

 

From what I am able to gather it is a 3 volt pulse generating device that can be used to fire up to a #6 cap on 100 feet of the military grade blasting wire. I would assume that because it uses mechanical energy to create an electrical pulse that it is simply a peizoelectric generator. The average resistance of a #6 cap is ~1.5 ohms (from my research, anyone have something else?)

 

I checked around a few other places to see the resistance of E-matches and found:

 

http://www.skylighter.com/mall/ignition.asp#GN5051 : run about 1.5 ohms

 

http://www.starmgc.com/ematch.html : theirs run at .9 Ohms +- .15 ohms

 

http://www.electricmatch.com/product_us.html : 1 ohm +- .2 ohms

 

Now I realize that a current is different than an instantaneous discharge however, I should just have to clack it 2 or 3 times for it to overload the bridgewire(kinda like when firing a claymore....) Has anyone made some homemade E-matches either with Nichrome/steel wool/graphite slurry/something along these lines and tested the resistance??

 

Now, the fact that it is only a 3 volt discharge kinda throws out the idea of a spark gap, so that is why I am looking at E-matches.

 

The real question is: Could I reliably fire an E-match with one of these firing devices(on a 100 or so foot section of wire, Were I to somehow randomly aquire some military blasting wire as well )? I believe a bridgewire is how a commercial cap works so in my mind it *SHOULD* work just fine.

 

On a side note: in my wanderings around the sargasso of the net I found this interesting little site, and thought it was a great read (I haven't checked it for accuracy however): http://yarchive.net/explosives/blasting_cap.html

[Arthur]

E-Match heads will usually fire in 20 milliseconds so if there is enough power to pass a current for 20 ms then it will fire.

 

Think current! An e-match takes about 500milliamps for about 20milliseconds to fire The e-match will have a resistance in the region of 1.5 ohms therefore about 750millivolts across the ignitr leads will fire the ig. Then using 500mA calculate the volts lost across the shooting wire Thin wire can be 20 ohms for a 100m reel of twin, thicker wire less resistance! 20 ohms at 500mA needs 10 volts to drive it so with one ig it should fire with two igs if may not! So you have to choose a good wire and a good battery or power supply.

[Lionel]

The wire most commonly used for "blasting wire" by the united states military. WF-16 Communications telephone wire.

 

http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/product/gi-wf16u-communication-telephone-wire-4567.cfm

[alkaline]

Commo wire as above,its neat OD color camoflaged works great for field telephones and demolitions w/electric caps.Just as good find some speaker wire easier to find and I doubt any differences in current capacity would be noticed over a 100ft or so.IIRC commo wire comes in 500ft rolls,prolly more than you need or want to spend the time to roll up after a blast in the countryside

 

All of the stuff written by Gerald Hurst you can nust about take to the bank as far as

accuracys concerned.I dont know how many HE and HE related Patents mr hurst holds but one you may know of is Kinepack/Kinestick.basically a seperately bagged

although in one package binary HE.the bag inside is broken allowing the red dyed liquid(Nitromethane) to mix with the Ammonium nitrate prills.when the mix in the bag becomes a pink color thruought its ready to prime and fire.Very popular as it could be shipped far more easily was much safer than a nonbinary explosive yet had the power to cut steel make shaped charges although on the lower end of VOD/brisance.Final note on kinepack and its cousins.Due to its safety and one time availability OTC (components)It was popular with those just learning about HE's