Smoke Bombs

[orygun]

Do a search for About.com, enter smoke bomb. Follow the directions, except I duct taped the bottom of a s___ paper roll and poured it in . I did not have fuse so i just put a lighter to it and there it went. LOTS of smoke. I got the potassium nitrate from the local pharmacy for $5. We now have a surprise for the second truck when we go rabbit hunting this spring. Try it, my cub scout group loved the first one i did.

[luke213(adamsholsters)]

I built some of these years ago but I picked up the potassium nitrate from my local science teacher when I was working for the school. Didn't realize it was available over the counter at a drug store, but now I need to go ahead and get some more to play with. The first time I did this I lived just outside of town, had a few close neighbors and had no idea the size of the smoke cloud it would produce:)

Thankfully the wind blew it away from the neighbors but it sure did make a huge cloud, something to consider with these mixtures;)

Luke

[seanp]

I didn't follow the link, but when I was a kid, I used to make smoke bombs using 50% salt peter and icing sugar.  Lit them using a sparkler.  Lots of smoke.  The thing to remember is that a lot of heat is generated, so use with caution.  Don't pack it or confine it or it acts like a propellant or explosive.

[JesseL]

I didn't follow the link, but when I was a kid, I used to make smoke bombs using 50% salt peter and icing sugar.  Lit them using a sparkler.  Lots of smoke.  The thing to remember is that a lot of heat is generated, so use with caution.  Don't pack it or confine it or it acts like a propellant or explosive.

That's the way my dad taught me to make them, though we usually embedded some matches or cannon fuse in them for easy lighting.

[seanp]

   Our Dad's must have been similar.  My Dad had his blaster's license from working in the mines near Canmore.  There was a lot that he wouldn't tell me.  

I mentioned the bit about packing the saltpeter and sugar in a confined container because although we usually used toilet paper tubes or plastic pill bottles to make our smoke bombs, one day a friend of mine and I packed as much of the mixture as we could into one of the old glass 500ml Coke bottles.  We punched a hole in the cap and inserted a fuse and then screwed the cap on.  We put it on a bit of bent scrap metal and lit the fuse.

There was a flat bang, a lot of smoke, and two twelve year old boys covered in enough powdered glass that our clothes glittered.  We were lucky that we weren't blinded.  There was a smoke trail about 200m high across the river valley where some portion of the bottle had been launched.

So be cautious.

Then there was the time we blew up the same buddy's neighbor's cat by accident...

[Precious Roy]

From my childhood I know that a heavy walled 5 foot long cardboard center tube from a roll of palletizing plastic wrap when filled with certain substances and sealed with epoxy will make an explosion loud enough to make the local emergency services look around for an airplane crash or building explosion plus make the local news.

[Bud]

From my childhood I know that a heavy walled 5 foot long cardboard center tube from a roll of palletizing plastic wrap when filled with certain substances and sealed with epoxy will make an explosion loud enough to make the local emergency services look around for an airplane crash or building explosion plus make the local news.

I was stageered when I read this. I actually stopped breathing for a moment.

The vision that is presented is almost too much to bear.

Care to to to share what hypothetical substances could be used.

While I wait for your reply I will be in the attic stripping wrapping paper off all the cardboard tubes.

"A quarter stick of dynamite can turn an otherwise dull day into a fun filled adventure!"

[Precious Roy]

Care to to to share what hypothetical substances could be used.

Nope.  Consult your local library.  Maybe check under the author's name "Kurt Saxon".  That's where we obtained the formula if I remember correctly.  Something from the Loompanics or Delta Press type catalogs.  Oh how I miss Loompanics.  I almost cried when they went out of business.  Best. Bookstore. Ever.

While I wait for your reply I will be in the attic stripping wrapping paper off all the cardboard tubes.

Wrapping paper tubes won't do.  You want the heavy cardboard tubes that come in the center of the huge rolls of plastic they wrap pallets with.  I think they also use them to roll carpets on them.  They have a wall thickness of about an inch or so.  You find a factory or business that wraps their pallets in plastic for shipping and then raid their dumpster.

[seanp]

Nope.  Consult your local library.  Maybe check under the author's name "Kurt Saxon".

If it's Saxon it's almost certainly potassium or sodium perchlorate.  Easy to obtain, quite bangy, and it's what Saxon blew his fingers off with IIRC.  It would be hard to come up with enough to fill a carpet tube though.

[Bud]

Here you go, all the Kurt Saxon files in .pdf downloads.

I can't believe how much is available:

http://ineedfile.com/kurt-saxon-survivor-pdf

Neat place and now I know the secret ingredient

       <BSEG>

[JesseL]

These days when I want to make big booms, I go the easy route.

Tannerite.

[seanp]

Here you go, all the Kurt Saxon files in .pdf downloads.

Just bear in mind that a lot of what Saxon writes is second, third, or even farther off source material.  He often does not include - or does not know to include - important information about a lot of the process that he describes.  Moreover, he does not care and is happy to see Darwinism in action.

I would do some serious secondary research if I was interested in any process that Saxon describes.

[Precious Roy]

Just bear in mind that a lot of what Saxon writes is second, third, or even farther off source material.  He often does not include - or does not know to include - important information about a lot of the process that he describes.  Moreover, he does not care and is happy to see Darwinism in action.

I would do some serious secondary research if I was interested in any process that Saxon describes.

Wise words.  That goes for any of the popular texts of homebrewed  havoc like the anarchist cookbook, Ragnars encyclopedia, Seymor Lecker's books, McLean's books etc.

[Bo Smith]

Didn't Saxon blow off his fingers, and temporarily blind himself to boot, playing with a particular concoction that contains fuming red nitric acid?

[seanp]

Didn't Saxon blow off his fingers, and temporarily blind himself to boot, playing with a particular concoction that contains fuming red nitric acid?

That's the romantic version.  In truth, IIRC, he was (not knowing any better) mixing a compound containing either red phosphorous or potassium perchlorate dry in a mortar and pestle.

Bang.  Bye bye fingers.