300g HMTD (excessive, I know :P)

750g ETN booster

25-30kg ANFO (Pretty standard stuff, 6% diesel)

3 propane tanks.

The footage isn't as good as it could have been, but we have *very* limited sunlight during winter here in Alaska, so I only had a very short time to set everything up in. There was dense brush so I couldn't have the camera any farther back.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0m_extj96w

Feel free to ask any questions you have.

Well, I think I don’t have to tell you this, but for the safety of your further career you better use less than 1 gram HMTD, or better: another safer primary, its up to you.
300 gram HMTD sounds like Russian roulette suicidal version with 5 rounds in the chamber.
There is no future after a phone experience.

I like the way of storing the ANFO, is it sealed with heat? Or are that ziplock bags laying there?
I think you can store it for a very long time that way.

How did you arrange the propane tanks?

300g HMTD is insane! 1g is more than enought. ETN detonates easily.

After all, a good explosion, but a bad footage. A camera at much longer distance would have been a good idea. Looking forward to more movies.

From the looks of the video, none of the ANFO detonated. That would also explain the lack of a low bassy, explosion common to ANFO mixes.

As far as I'm concerned, you're treading on thin ice, what with creating a new thread for this. Still, I guess you did contribute something...

Oh... and where's the house?

Insane is what I live for- I'm very aware of the dangers of excessive primary charges. I'm also a thrill seeker and an adrenaline junkie. I live on fear of death and have very set thoughts and opinions about death. I've talked a little about that at a different forum...
http://www.dererumomnis.org/bbs/index.php?topic=236.0

Call me an idiot, but honestly I do much more dangerous things. I'm the kind of guy who plays Russian roulette with himself.

And yeah, the footage sucks. I'll be doing about 100kg in a car sometime probably in the next month- I'll probably have the camera at least 1/2 mile away for that. Its mostly a logistical challenge this far north, with such limited daylight.

From the looks of the video, none of the ANFO detonated. That would also explain the lack of a low bassy, explosion common to ANFO mixes.

As far as I'm concerned, you're treading on thin ice, what with creating a new thread for this. Still, I guess you did contribute something...

Oh... and where's the house?

The footage isn't great... but I dunno if you looked at the aftermath photos. It was almost certainly a full det, or a very powerful partial det. The house was almost entirely gone. As far as the sound, thats just the way my camera mic is. Having been there, I can assure you it was a very deep bass explosion. You could feel it deep in you chest even from 1/2 mile away. The shock also knocked the snow off most of the trees in the entire valley. Read the description and look at the aftermath photos again, those photos are of where the house used to be. If thats not enough to convince you, I can upload a high def ver of the video to a host or you can just wait for my next vid of a car.

Insane is what I live for- I'm very aware of the dangers of excessive primary charges. I'm also a thrill seeker and an adrenaline junkie. I live on fear of death and have very set thoughts and opinions about death. I've talked a little about that at a different forum...
http://www.dererumomnis.org/bbs/index.php?topic=236.0

You strike me as young man, somewhat lacking in maturity. This is quite normal and sans terminal naivety you will outgrow it. Taking silly risks and the inevitable results are what brings down heat on everyone who enjoys this hobby, that should be a given.

Call me an idiot, but honestly I do much more dangerous things. I'm the kind of guy who plays Russian roulette with himself.

Nah, doing idiotic things does not make one an idiot, although it is a prerequisite for idiocy.

And yeah, the footage sucks. I'll be doing about 100kg in a car sometime probably in the next month- I'll probably have the camera at least 1/2 mile away for that. Its mostly a logistical challenge this far north, with such limited daylight.

Good luck with that, I hope you neither get caught nor harm or kill yourself (or others). As far as the devil-may-care thing, one hopes that you don't decide that that ethos may have been in error, ex post facto...

You strike me as young man, somewhat lacking in maturity. This is quite normal and sans terminal naivety you will outgrow it. Taking silly risks and the inevitable results are what brings down heat on everyone who enjoys this hobby, that should be a given.


Maturity is overrated, after all it is the 6 year olds having the most fun is it not? :D

Risk taking an addiction, one I'm trying to quit. I have starved myself of it before, but I always succumb to the hunger. Perhaps if I live long enough I'll put it behind me entirely.

By the way, as I explained in the thread I linked to, I'm very aware of the risks in anything I do. All my projects are planned for at least 2 months before I carry them out, with years of research behind them. I make myself very aware of the risks and minimize the possibility of risk to bystanders or anyone else. I'm very against harming others and do my best to ensure their safety.

If NameWithheld is indeed an Alaskan, that explains half his adventurous spirit right there. The explosion did look like a controlled and remote test from what I could see, so as far as safety for yourself and others are concerned I think you are following the proper way. Starting a new thread to post successful results of tests is perfectly acceptable in my estimation, and I do make the rules. In fact this is the type of situation when I prefer a new thread to be made.

You are wise enough to limit your video only to your test, not your face or identity. I will assume you have the proper fedgov authority to possess and detonate explosives; the use of explosives is perfectly legal. I imagine explosives are a very useful tool in Alaska.

There is no future after a phone experience.


Made me laugh, I might use it as a signature if you give me permission.

Also I have read that ETN is very sensitive to electricity, would it be possible to replace the 300g :eek: HMTD with something similar to a spark plug?

As I have very little experience with HE this may sound like a very stupid idea so please excuse me if this is just wrong.

"If NameWithheld is indeed an Alaskan, that explains half his adventurous spirit right there."

Yeah, we're like that :P

And Secong Nature, I don't know much about a spark plug- that seems like it might be a bit weak, but I have had success recently testing ETN with Nichrome wire.

I have a setup pretty much identical to this, using a car battery. http://www.unitednuclear.com/wire.htm

Double edit: forgot to mention, I don't use the fuse like they do in that guide. I just run the Nichrome right into my charge.

Looks interesting, I planned on using an electrical det on ETN in order to circumvent the 'problem' of using primaries (I like to store explosives, not make then use).

If you want to, could you run some tests to find out how much electricity it takes to detonate pressed ETN?
It would benefit me and probably others too.

I would try this but erythritol is hard to find here and I may have to resort to shipping it in from Aus, which seems a waste of money and time etc.

I like that “I’m going to do 100 kg” thing because I never will, when you do: provide the video, (from bigger distance and open field hopefully)
I don’t care about your walk of life, but telling you to use less than 1 gram, is an way too see that video at greater possibilities.
Made me laugh, I might use it as a signature if you give me permission.
You can use it.
And Secong Nature, I don't know much about a spark plug- that seems like it might be a bit weak, but I have had success recently testing ETN with Nichrome wire.

Can you provide the conditions of that test? How did you estimate an actual detonation of the ETN? And at what density?

I do not know if this will help, but PETN detonates at .1J with steel electrodes with 1mm of lead foil 50% of the time and ETN is even more sensitive to electricity, if I am not mistaken. It will also detonate at .36J with brass and same foil thickness 50% of the time. Sorry for the annoying data with lead foil, but it is from a technical manual, so everything is written in the most annoying terms possible. In other words, not much.

By the way, that was measured with 12,000 volts and a spark gap of .005 in. and 500uF. Ignition coils typically run at 15,000-20,000V, so yes, a spark plug will ignite PETN and I would assume ETN as well. Spark plugs may be a little too expensive for what you are doing. They have to fire accurately hundreds of thousand of times. For this, it only has to fire once, and not even accurately.

Congratulations on the successful test, NameWithHeld. That's a hell of a charge. Someday I will have the resources to do something like that! I am thrilled to have gotten away with 10 gram charges of HE this fireworks season.

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Electrical Detonation of "fairly-sensitive" Secondary Explosives:

Gaussincarnate, A+ for the effort, but you honestly have no idea what you are talking about. You should stop. The discharge that you speak of in your second paragraph is 36 Kilojoules, and a capacitor used to store that energy would weigh in a couple hundred pounds. And to speculate that "Oh, well, ignition coils run at 15,000 to 20,000V, so they will work!" is just that. Speculation.

It's not the voltage or current imparted to the HE that matters. It's energy (in Joules) per unit time (microseconds).

For those interested in the subject, research Exploding Bridge-Wire Detonators.

The critical property of these devices is current risetime through the active mechanism. Look it up.

Or, you can actually test your own device. You know, it's just a thought. Hint: A 5.0uF, low-ESL, low ESR, capacitor, charged to 10kV or so, with short, fat wires that lead to a tiny (1/2") piece of light-gauge (#32) wire buried inside the HE. Short across a spark gap to trigger it, or, charge the cap up and let it arc across the gap itself (self-triggering gap).

Hey, blame the US army, I took it straight out of their technical manual (paraphrased, of course, not copied). Those were the exact specifications that they gave. Unfortunately, they said nothing about current. If anyone is interested, I could upload the book. It has alot of sensitivity information, as well as syntheses for a number of different compositions of many common HEs and primaries. In any event, they definitely said .1J, regardless of the rest of the information.

By the way, I looked back over the information and noticed that there was specific mention of the spark gap. Correct me if I am wrong, but that implies to me that the detonation would happen when the voltage first jumps the gap, meaning that the energy consumption should be considerably lower than what the capacitor contains. Why, then they needed such high voltages and such a large capacitor, I do not know. Maybe our government might be a little inefficient...

Dude..... 300 grams are you crazy? That could have gone off just sitting there.
I mean damn I've done some stupid shit but 300 grams of HMTD in one AREA let alone pile/batch. All I have to say is your one lucky bastard.

Ok we can all agree that 300g HMTD is excessive, but it won't go off if you breath on it. He already described his death wish earlier in the thread, so its apparent he knows the risk but doesn't really care. People have made larger batches of AP, upwards of 1kg and that didn't spontaneously explode. While it is extremely sensitive, it still needs some activation energy. So while 300g of primary is stupid, its not exactly suicidal, its just an attitude of not giving a damn if it does get dropped, bumped or kicked.

It's not the voltage or current imparted to the HE that matters. It's energy (in Joules) per unit time (microseconds).


Isn't that Amps (electricity per time)?

Isn't that Amps (electricity per time)?
I believe what you are referring to would infact be coulombs (one coulomb is one amp per second).

What positron refers to is joules, a unit of energy that takes into account volts and amperes.

Really nice blast there mate! I'm planning on setting off a 6kg charge of ANNM and I though I am badass, but this is a level higher. And a little question to the video, that tree which you can see in the pictures did that get blown away by the blast? Because that looks like a really thick tree to me.

I'm surprised it didn't uproot that tree.

Had to remove my YouTube videos. Sorry for any inconvenience.