Thermite(s)

[mr.stijntje]

On the thermite front, I only mix it in a mrtar & Pestle. So an hour in your mill will suffice IMO.

Or less..
Just throwing both ingrediënts in a cup or something and stirring will be good enough for thermite. Off course you can test the differences between non-ballmilled and ballmilled thermite.

Keep up the good work! I really want to see the pics!

[deadman]

I agree an hour in a ballmill is going to be more than it needs, but is a definite way for a homogenous mixture. Thermite is easy enough to mix in a cup or ziploc bag, it really doesn't need to bo intensley mixed to react well although it never hurts. Great job. It's good to see some updates.

[Blackwolf]

Thermite has to be one of the most forgiving formulas there is. When I was a kid back in the sixties, we made thermite by wire brushing rust off of everything we could find in the garage (we had to anyway as part of our chores), then we filed down aluminium drink cans until we got enough. We used a home made balance to get the weight proportions right and aquired some chemicals and magnesium ribbon to light it. We mixed it by shaking it in a small paper bag and ended up with a pile about 2 times the size of a fist.
It worked like a charm. It melted through two 25mm steal plate and a little bit into the ground and left a slug of iron behind.

Phil Blackwolf

[deadman]

What kind of thermite are you wanting to make ucki? The traditional Fe3O4? I don't know why, but I love the CuO thermite. I use ceramic grade.

[Blackwolf]

Isn't CuO one of the most energetic thermites?

[deadman]

To not distract from that at hand topic I am going to make a new thread: Thermite(s). If a mod could please move some posts from this thread to that one it would definitley help keep things clean. ;)

[deadman]

Due to the recent mention of traditional and other thermites I started this thread.

Black Iron thermite is considered the norm from my experience. Red thermite is about the same cost, but loses some of the energy the black iron is common too. I mentioned I really like CuO thermite, it is extremely fast in fine powdered state. Faster burning than good BP actually.

Blackwolf mentioned that CuO is one of the more energetic thermites. Yes it is but there are much more vigorous reactions. Such as the heavy metal thermites we all love known as dragon eggs. Red lead is a very destructive thermite that I would probably guess to be one of the most violent thermites around.

[mr.stijntje]

Yep, it's true.
The traditional crackling formula (81.8/9.1/9.1) gives a terribly loud report when a 4mm cut star is lit. (I have made it, and it's cool) That's red lead and cupric oxide, with Magnalium, so a more 'advanced' type of crackling.

[deadman]

News:

It appears that Cu/Al thermite in a (44:10) ratio is sensitive to .22 caliber rounds when confined in as little as a film canister. Great news, great news. Now this has not been confirmed by myself and may prove to be untrue in which case there will be more news. Stay green.

[Blaf]

Hmmm....

Deadman my Man, I have to say this: "Stay greeen" expression sounds familiar from somewhere else...
Am I right?

Blaf

p.s. Do not take this as an act of war, please.

[deadman]

I definitley do not take it as an attack on myself. I also definitley do not claime the saying "stay green" to be something I came up with. I was just reading a lot of back issues of PML and many people sign off with that saying. I normally don't say it myself, but it just came out.

I believe it is in reference to the green man as well as the adopted slogan for the Pyrotechnics Guild International. The following is taken from the pyrotechnic glossary at pyrouniverse.com

nickname for an 1600s pyrotechnician who would wear green leaves and mud to both protect himself from sparks and hide himself from the crowd while igniting fireworks. Also the symbol of the Pyrotechnics Guild International

[Pyrostar]

You can also make decent Thermite with this formula:

180g Caso4
100g aluminium( 325mesh)
10g Sulfur

You can cast it if you want, igniter should be a Al/S mixture!!!

[Julicher]

That's not thermite. It's a flash compo. I've never seen CaSO4 as an oxidizer but i bet it works fine if you tested it. The principal of thermite is that a metal-oxide oxidises an other metal. Mostly it's a metal-oxide with Al powder of Mg powder. For example your got Fe2O3 and Al and the Fe2O3 oxidises the Al because Al is less noble (I guess it's called ''noble'' in english). You get Al2O3 and Fe.