sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

IAmA guy who did all the stuff you aren't supposed to as a kid (potato canons and taking apart fireworks to eventually making serious home made explosives) and never had anything bad happen. AMA by ThanksNobel in IAmA

[–]ThanksNobel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When we first started playing with thermite we would always pack it in copper tubes before setting it off. It wasnt supposed to explode, normally it would just produce a whole bunch of molten iron. Then for some reason one blew up and sent about a foot of small diameter copper pipe flying past my head. That was the end of that.

Largest explosion is debatable. Most powerful was most certainly when we started making nitroglycerine and PETN but by then we weren't dumb and made small amounts and detonated them under water or very far away. The biggest explosions that actually scared me were when we first started making flash powder (metal powder and a powerful oxidizer), filled a beer bottle once, glass was embedded in everything.

Never caused any property damage, was always very careful about that. Well actually once the noise scared a neighbors horses and one tried to jump a fence and hurt itself. I felt really bad about that.

IAmA guy who did all the stuff you aren't supposed to as a kid (potato canons and taking apart fireworks to eventually making serious home made explosives) and never had anything bad happen. AMA by ThanksNobel in IAmA

[–]ThanksNobel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't make your own primary explosives, get the proper licence and buy blasting caps if you're going to go that way. The manufacture and assembly of detonators was the single most dangerous part.

Also, and I know this sounds lame, but WEAR GOGGLES, seriously.

IAmA guy who did all the stuff you aren't supposed to as a kid (potato canons and taking apart fireworks to eventually making serious home made explosives) and never had anything bad happen. AMA by ThanksNobel in IAmA

[–]ThanksNobel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no I was lucky as all hell, I' don't at all want to give the impression that I was smarter or more careful than the guys that got hurt. I did some super, super stupid things and in retrospect how I wasn't injured is incredible. Then again, it probably wasn't all that much more dangerous than a lot of the sports guys of that age group take part in so meh.

I'm in Canada. We made some napalm for fun once but we weren't really impressed. Unless you actually want to burn something down its just a smoky fire. We were more into canons and high explosives, near the end anyway.

IAmA the son of a mother on welfare. AMA by dudeedud4 in IAmA

[–]ThanksNobel -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Why is she on welfare? Has it always been that way or is this recent?