"The Other Page"

This page was last updated on: 7 June, 2003

As you may have noticed, all the yields and calculations have now been included into the Procedures page. That page has also been changed from loads of different blocks of text, into one big block of text. This took longer than you might think, but it will be worth it since it will make updating a lot easier, meaning that I am more likely to do it! That page still needs reading through totally to check for errors etc., then it needs updating with improved procedures, then I need to finish all the procedures, and then I need to finish all the yields...

Anyway, so now I have a page with nothing on it, yet. I'm planning on making it into a low explosives, pyrotechnics and miscellaneous stuff page, hopefully with some pretty pictures, depending on how much storage space I have left in my account. Until then, you can enjoy page after page of nothing.
OK, here are some random pictures, just because I need somewhere to store them, and my boomspeed.com account doesn't have enough space to do so:
These are most of my solid chemicals. Liquids and solids that either sublime very easily (eg iodine), or sublime slightly and are very toxic or very smelly (eg phenol, napthalene), are stored elsewhere.
This was the apparatus that I used to distil nitric acid, and other things that aren't compatible with rubber stoppers. Also is a fractionating column to the left.
Since this was taken, the little liebeg was violently smashed in a spectacular fashion, and I'm still awaiting a replacement. This means I can't make 95% nitric acid, and I can't even reflux at the moment!
The rbf is 1L.
Note also some lovelly stains on my lab bench!
On the left is approximately 100g of plaster incendiary, with small chunks of plastic mixed in. On the right is a plain 100g charge of plaster incendiary.
It is made by mixing 6 parts by weight of anhydrous calcium sulphate (Plaster of Paris) and 4 parts by weight of "paint-grade" aluminium powder - this is about 300 mesh, and spherical. Mix the two as thoroughly as you can (screen it to remove lumps), then add enough water to form a thin paste, that can be poured into moulds. Pour it into the mould of your choice, I chose paper tubes, and let the plaster set. Then carefully remove the block from your mould, and place it on a baking sheet. Bake it in the oven at gas mark 1 for a few hours, until nearly all the water has been driven out (ie, until the block is nearly equal in weight to the starting weight of your plaster and aluminium), then increase the temperature to gas mark 2 or even 3 until all the water has gone. Don't get it too hot too soon, the charge might crack.
You can see in the photo on the left a small cylinder, to the right of he burning charge. That is the same size as the one that is burning.
This is what the charge on the right was resting on - it's steel, about 1mm thick. The black bits on the ends are due to some plastic that was charred by the radiant heat.
This is very nice looking stuff! It's one of my favourite mixtures, due to its extreme safety, simplicity, cheapness and HEAT OUTPUT!
2 Pence coins after varying levels of abuse. Unfortunately, the denting doesn't show up very well - the one at the bottom left appears nearly flat, which was not the case!!
2 Pence coins also make great witness plates. The one below was the witness that I used when testing some NTO for the first time.
Some random bits of bent metal. None of these used more than one gram of explosive (either PETN or MHN in these cases). As you can see, explosives are powerful and should be treated with care!!!