Dunecat

Hey so does anybody have experience extracting the azide from car airbags? This seems to be a bountiful source if you're willing to find the right type of airbag for the azide pellets. I have received reports of up to 200g of azide per airbag in larger American cars; easily enough for some 600 0.5g blasting caps. Been busy recently, so I haven't been able to find cheap, old airbags. The majority want up to 70US per bag, which is just ridiculous. I wouldn't think they would be able to actually sell these airbags off, but I have been told otherwise.

Not trying to be a dick here, but we have a whole load of people talking theoretical problems about inert gasses and chemical techniques to stop your MgAl from burning. I will say that unless you are melting many kilos of MgAl, or pouring ingots(for some bizarre reason), any inert gas or use of powdered sulfur to control burning is completely unnecessary. It is as simple as a tin can, with a slightly wider section of tin can to prevent fresh oxygen from getting in. MgAl will form a very very thick layer of oxide on it's surface. Sulfur will make it smell like shit, and argon is plain expensive and hard to contain. Put it in a charcoal chimney or other improvised furnace, and you're away. Video here : www.youtube.com/watch?v=YML-UiZybmI Tutorial here : www.pyroguide.com/index.php?title=Magnalium There will probably be a whole load of crap about sensitivity with nitrates and perchlorates, but I long since couldn't be bothered altering it since I wrote the part on how to smelt it. Unless you plan to make ultra fine MgAl sensitivity problems aren't a big deal, but just keep it dry anyway. Which you should do with all chemicals anyway. MgAl gets to a point where it is too fine and consequently too powerful(for standard fireworks), so don't grind it too much. MgAl is also a great metal powder for flash compositions and thermite. Especially thermite. MgAl's brittle nature means it can be broken up and ground fine in a matter of hours, and depending on how fine the mesh is; can be ignited with fuse. And I haven't bothered with Al powder since :lol:

Yeah, but I always find it hard to construct plans for my projects, because I have to run with what I can find. Always a bit limited when it comes to monetary funding... Always trying to save up more money for my investing fund which will be implemented later... I bought a 80x80x0.45cm square of grey PVC sheet, and I'm thinking now where am I going to find some chloroform(trichloromethane) or whether methylene chloride would work. Or possibly superglue, but I don't want a glue that dies too quickly. And the 80x80 wasn't cheap, coming in at $80NZ/50US... the guy told me it would be about 50ish, but I couldn't say no after he'd cut it. Also got some PVC 30mm rod and polyacetate 6mm rod. I easily have enough PVC sheet to make pulleys and turntables and dies for 3-4 fuse machines lol... if only I had a market. Will keep updates, dismantled the last fuse machine and I'm going to try and return the wormdrive and the rest of the heavy steel pulleys I was sent, because they were too heavy on the last machine and I would love to get some of that money back. Oh and you guys got any suggestions for removing fine scratches from a ring bearing? Similiar to a skateboard bearing. I had had it epoxied into a wooden housing, so I had to get it out of that using hot water, and foolishly I used 400 grit sandpaper to remove some of the tarnish. When I took back the 1/2" bearings, they said they wouldn't take them because they'd already been "fitted"... which they really hadn't, so I'm going to have to try and polish away as much of the fine scratches as possible; do you guys think steel wool would work?

I've since dismantled that machine in favour for a better one. I'm going to see what Items I can get refunds for, but I think I'll probably still make a loss of 40US or so. I suppose it's an expensive lesson, but I learnt a few things from it... always get a second opinion on designs, and small/compact is always better, and make sure you have good plans for what you are going to do. And in the end, even though I have lost a bit, I've learnt a lot and that probably makes up for it... I'm just going to copy Erniz's design, it's a lot more compact than my shelve kinda setup, and I've got most of the materials.

Oh yeah, and I'll give a few specs about my machine. I have since altered the diameter of the winding spindle so it is now 10.5cm and it winds the fuse much better. However, I didn't remember that te 2nd turnable has to spin at twice teh speed of the second one, and my 2nd layer of threads has gaps in it. So with both my turntables going 200rpm, and my 20:1 wormdrive and 10.2cm spindle pulling fuse through at 160cm/min, my fuse is kinda ok. It has gaps, but I just set off some flashpowder with it, and it holds together fine when it has a NC laquer on it. But my design has some crucial flaws, as you can see; it's far too big, the axles are in the wrong places, and consequently, the spindle is not in line with the fuse as it gets drawn down. This is annoying, as the fuse beings to wind off the further side of the spindle, and instead starts winding around the wormdrive output shaft, which is far too narrow to be good. Erniz, I love your compact design and I will be copying it. Can you post some pictures of your other two fuse machines? Blaf, I wish you could've made a tutorial, because yours takes aesthetic appeal. What did you power the whole setup with erniz? I've been using my drill and a hand driven handle, but I don't like the way it has to be secured, and my drill runs really fast, and hand driven is just shit. And you said the lower turntable spins at twice that of the 1st correct?

Oh, well before I get to my stuff, I tried your first design for my fuse machine powder die. The black powder compressed itself and formed a plug that caused the whole machine to screw up really badly. I can see where you are coming with this, but my steeply tapered inlet hole just caused problems. I only read your comment after I did it with my die, so I know what you're thinking. I just used a standard wood countersink(kinda like a conical drillbit) to make a suitable taper to allow the fuse and blackpowder to get pulled down nicely. So far, it's worked absolutely great. The action of the 12 inner layer threads being drawn through works to draw down the loose blackpowder. Ok, so I've been working on my fuse machine, and it has been such a hassle. Being as I'm quite young, I don't have readily available access to a car to get to the places I need to go to acquire materials(my parents are always too busy), I have limited funds, and because my engineering teacher hates anything that isn't schoolwork(!!) I don't really have access to a machineshop. All these factors make it a real bitch to get anywhere, or get anything, because all the places I go to are 30-60min bike rides one way... But despite this, I have still managed to fashion a fuse machine of sorts. I was given the wrong information by a youtube user that 5-7rpm is acceptable with a 6cm diameter collecting roll. This equates to about 100cm of fuse being pulled through the machine(at 5rpm), as I have a main axle that powers my turntables and also turns a 20:1 reduction wormdrive. I have my turntables spinning at twice what I turn the main axle at, and my wormdrive reduces the speed to 5% and gives a ton of torque. But back to the 5-7rpm... 7rpm is an acceptable speed for the fuse to be wound at. However, anything below that and the fuse will be overtwisted, and will kink up in the dies, causing it to tear and problems to happen. So 5rpm on a 6cm diam collecting roll equates to 100cm of fuse being pulled through per minute if the main axle runs at 100rpm. This is TOO SLOW. The minimum length that can be pulled through is 150ish cm/min. It just hit me right now as well; RPM and winding reel diameter can be customized to whatever to give the desired winding speed.(F**K... I can't believe I didn't realize this til now). So circumference of winding spool x RPM = 150-200cm/min What do you guys think? This is my only problem with the fuse machine, and I need 2 people to currently run it; one with the drill(because wormdrive is too slow) and one cranking the handle. Can you guys post the speeds of your turntables as well? I need to calculate the optimum speed that they will be turning at. Also, some pictures(because I am kinda stuggling and my design isn't well thought out; too large) of other fuse machines or more of the previous ones will be really appreciated. Some designs or schematics wouldn't go amiss either.... Good forum too. The Only good forum. Cheers