Not optically i.e, enlarging things but actually making explosions.

I’d love to make a proper explosion, like a big quarry face or a stick of dynamite or something similar. Obviously the bigger and louder the better. Does anyone know if this can be done by members of the public, and if so where?
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BOOM!!!!

Diesel and fertilizer? Farmer I worked for many years ago used to blow tree stumps out of the ground like this. Can’t see you being able to do it legally tho

Or make black powder / gun cotton?

I hear Syria is good for that sort of thing…speaking of which I’m sure Her Majesty’s Constabulary will be popping round soon to enquire after your explosive tendencies!

Well your name is now on a GCHQ list…

Keep posting.

GCHQ are tracking you and a strike team are on the way.

Didn’t you buy bangers when you were little to get this out of your system? 😀

I reckon that I could manage both of those easily enough (science teacher by trade) but I’d prefer it legal- and as big as possible 🙂

It would be a great ‘experience’ type thing for a birthday present.

When we were kids we used to liberate these things out of old trains. A little disk with arms. I think they’re for attaching to the rails when working at night to give some warning of an approaching train. We used to put them on the ground and throw bricks at them from up on a roof. Fun times 🙂

We used to build some pretty impressive fertiliser & ……… explosives as kids on the farm in Argyll, we were generally left alone to do as we pleased but eventually you start to introduce elements such as compressed air aeration into 50 gallon oil drums with a certain select mixture and then you blow the back of the barn to pieces along with sending shrapnel 100’s of meters all around so we got quite a stern talking to after that one.

Bloody good fun though and if the zombie apocalypse ever comes to fruition i imagine i’ll be able to look after myself.

These days i imagine we’d get locked up for such activities but back in the 80’s it was par for the course when staying in such in desolate area (nr castle sween)

Oi cheeky, I’m not an anarchist.

back in my youth we used to make great “fireballs” Old rusty water tower/tank with a platform inside halfway. Small fire at the bottom throw in a milk bottle of petrol onto the platform the petrol “vapourised” ignited by the fire “BOOM” filmtastic style fireball just had to make sure you got out of the way but not too much that you fell off 🙂

HM Gov’t forget a lot of the things they’ve taught you after they’ve sent you out into the big wide world.
Like components of certain household cleaners they’ve told you about
Accelerants.
Quantities
temperatures
timings
Etc….

Yes great fun 44 years ago worked in a quarry
running the rotary crusher and a big ( van sized rock ) would be delivered
but fail to enter the rotor so it was shut down and get the hand sized lump of plastic explosive out of the desk drawer and a Detonator from the drawer underneath and climb into the crusher and apply both with some clay
climb out and start the rotor and push the plunger KABOOM and if you did it right the rock was gone if not repeat . it took 20 minutes for the rotor to spin down so production bonuses were at risk if you failed .
also good fun helping the drillers rig for blasting

It’s half-term. I have a shed full of gardening and other substances. I’m bored. I live in the middle of nowhere.

What could possibly go wrong?

Mrs A assures me that her First Aid certificates are up to date.

This is why Mythbusters was such an awesome show. My favourite explosion was when they blew up a cement truck in a quarry with military explosives. It wasn’t launched into the air on an orange cloud like you see in the movies, there was just a LOT of dust and it was gone (as in nothing left) 😯

Ex mining engineer here. It was fun. Bigly so.

My Step-father was an industrial chemist. Sodium chlorate anyone?

In the late 80s/early 90s I did a couple of underwater explosive courses at Fort Bovisand in Plymouth. We got to blow stuff up on dry land, then got to blow up bits of a wreck. Probably not something on offer these days.

One of my relatives is a professional blowing stuff up expert. He goes all over the world telling governments how to make sure important people and things don’t get blown up. Sadly he doesn’t get to talk about it as it’s mostly classified.

He did however get to tell me about when the Australian military wanted to assess the risks of a large ammunition store – he built a full scale replica in the outback and set light to it. They found man sized chunks of concrete the best part of a mile away after it exploded!

A bin liner full of oxy acetylene, a long length of two core cable, a 6v torch battery and a short length of fuse wire = lots of fun.

Had some great laughs during my apprenticeship.

Could you not start small , and work your way up?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jGN08w8MJo[/video]

A lot of stuff in films isn’t how it looks in real life. We’ve various shapes in walls in old buildings with explosives and all you get is a dull thud and some dust normally.

One of the easiest explosives to make at home is TATP or HMTD. Both are pretty volatile though so chances of you blowing up the shed or losing fingers is high.

Most stuff you see in films is a lot of petrol sitting on top of a small charge.

@thepurist- do you know Tony Tapp, aka Tonyplym by any chance?

Nope, never heard of him

My dad used to work in a mine, I got to push the plunger once…

I also remember hearing a story from one of the effects guys on James Bond, they were googling explosive things & got a visit from some people who work for the government.

I’ve used quite a lot of plastic explosives. Normally for cratering, bridge panels, vehicles and once a russian tank which was handing in during an arms amnesty(!)
We trained and trained and trained with PE4, then when it came to using it in anger, we were given american civilian plastic explosives.

In the late 80’s I was working in Western Australia for a company that used to explore old gold mines. You would find all sorts of stuff down the holes. Up near Meekathara we were working in a old mine and found yards of fuse wire, blasting caps and about 12 sticks of dynamite. Another difference to films is how bloody fast the fuse burns. That was a very loud morning 😆

a neighbour was a big swinging dick in the caving world and held an explosive licence for making small holes underground into bigger holes. He says he might have some charges left in his ramshackle, messy house. Which would be amusing if he werent in his late 70s and I was his executor who has to sort all that crap out when he falls off his perch. I shall start training the dog…

Mark- when the time comes, give me a shout. I’ve used a bit of that stuff myself when I used to do a lot of caving.

[video]https://youtu.be/YNCQ9FE-gyw[/video]

I’ve worked with an explosives engineer on a job a few years ago – I needed someone to blow a commercial airliner to bits. (interesting topic to discuss over the phone when you’re sitting in Starbucks). Facinating to work with though.

I keep trying to line up projects that would allow me to work with him again but the clients keep chickening out.

I bought an underground reservoir last year that I’m hoping to build on at some time in the future – so when time comes I might get him to blow the 4000 sq ft concrete roof off for me. 🙂

Who gets flowers delivered at this time of night?

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This is why Mythbusters was such an awesome show. My favourite explosion was when they blew up a cement truck in a quarry with military explosives. It wasn’t launched into the air on an orange cloud like you see in the movies, there was just a LOT of dust and it was gone (as in nothing left)

That was chuffin’ amazing! The shock wave expanding outwards was very impressive.
There was some of it left, part of the engine block, some of the chassis rails, and maybe part of a wheel…
Things fall down, go boom, some of my favourite entertainments.

Didn’t you buy bangers when you were little to get this out of your system?

Oh yeah! Sticking bangers into lumps of clay, lighting them and when they started to fizz, chucking them into a stream or pond, or pulling the grip off someone’s bike handlebar with the other end on the ground, dropping a banger into the end of the handlebar and jamming the grip back on as fast as possible, made a very effective projectile. 😀

Friend of mine is a blaster in a quarry.
Lots of guidance on how to blast a cliff face, not a lot for boulders. A boulder about the size of a fire engine needed making smaller, one of his colleagues with time on their hands spent day and a half drilling it (a cliff is normally a half day job). Come detonation day, after ages filling and setting it, once detonated the pit was just covered in gravel, no need to put it through the crusher.
There are more stories, but not for here.

Not in the same league as quarry explosions etc, but I work on professional firework displays, plenty of bangs and pretty colours to boot.

Quarries could probably make money by selling people Experience Days where they get to push the detonator button.

My brother’s a pyrotechnician, he’s got some amazing ground zero videos from big displays- I’d always assumed they’d be a mile away doing it all by radio or wire.

If any of you folks know of someone in a quarry/ mine/ similar who would let me press the button….

luke – Member

Not in the same league as quarry explosions etc, but I work on professional firework displays

I used to. 8)

somouk – Member

Most stuff you see in films is a lot of petrol sitting on top of a small charge.

You don’t need a charge just an electronic match, and you have the e-match on top of the petrol in the vapour.
Add a few bags of flour on top and it’s starting to get interesting. 🙂