I recently blew a CO2 explosive. I followed the basic instructions, made the hole bigger, and then filled the spent cylinder with blasting powder. I opted to use the powder from a bunch of Sound Shell fireworks (shoots a shell into the air and then explodes with a larger bang.) I realized I didn't have enough powder to completely fill the container so I stuffed in the extra fuses along with match heads until it was filled. Stuck the remaining fuse into it and sealed that sucker up with some medical tape. I detonated it in a secluded area, making sure potential shrapnel couldn't harm me. It was really loud, and I was actually amazed it went off without a hitch.

I left my safe zone to see the damage. The CO2 canister was totally vaporized, nothing was left, I searched the scene for shrapnel but found none.

Yeah, yeah. Chances are you all are going to call me a noob. But to me, the work I put into the explosive came through in the end and me proud. Anyhow, sorry for the rant. I'm going to move on to my three questions.

1. Because of the CO2 cylinders small size, I want to use something else, something that has a large volume. So, I want to know if your average pop can is a good substitute. Because of my limited chemistry knowledge (high school,) I don't know if the can's thin lining may not be good enough for an explosive device.

2. My plan is to use a pop can filled with the Sound Shell powder and strap it to four aerosol cans, maybe less. I'm hoping for an extremely loud sound and some fire. I was wondering if the cans will cause a lot of shrapnel, I'm concerned about my safety.

3. Is the use of pictures to demonstrate the assembly of explosives allowed on the forum?

And why would we call you a noob? In your message, I don't see spelling errors, I don't see an attitude like you're god and we're only here to serve you, and I see that you realize we might think you're a noob. For those three reasons, you're definately not a noob.

And now for your questions:

Don't know if a pop can will give enough explosive power, since it will likely rip open when just a little pressure builds up, thus wasting the full potential of the explosive material. For all I know, they sell large CO2 containers (about 12 inches long), which are used to carbonate your own soda. if you can get your hands on one of those, do it. If you can't, the next best thing to use would be a pop can, but coated in several layers of harder stuff (like epoxy, cement, that kind of stuff.).

About the aerosol plan, I'm not very sure. It could very well happen that the explosion would make the cans burst, but I think that the explosion would just launch them away, since the pressure is released first, and the heat second. You could use a slow burning explosive, but then, you wouldn't have to use a solid container. I suggest attaching a few spikes to the can that contains the explosive, which will launch themselves into the aerosol cans, so that the aerosol cans are already leaking gas as soon as the explosive sets off, and the flames will have time to light the gases.

About your third question: don't know if it's illegal, but I've posted pics and sketches about the assembly of explosives, and I've never had any trouble.

Yeah, it's fine if you use pictures.

Thanks for the answers you two. And thanks for sharing your knowledge Spirit, I spent some time reading your posts in this forum, you seem to know quite a bit.



Anyhow, I visited the nearby corner store today and bought some supplies. Instead of using a pop can, I'm going to be using this pot I bought. (You might not be able to see, but I removed everything that was on it, all that remains is a perfect sized hole at the top of cover.)


Sorry for the shit quality, but I had to use a webcam, someone borrowed my camera.

It's a mini sized one, probably can fit about 64 oz. of powder in there, which I'm hoping will make for a medium sized explosion.

What do you guys think? The metal lining is pretty thick.



Now onto the timers I got. I'm trying to gain as much experience as I can, and using timers for ignition is something new to me.

I bought two types, an electronic one that uses a single AAA battery and a mechanical one. (First picture is the electric and the second is the mechanical.)



With the electronic one, I'm thinking I could cut the speaker off and wrap that wire around a fuse. But I'm not sure if there's enough juice to actually cause the fuse to ignite. What do you think?

I can test this out, and I plan on, as soon as I get my hands on more fuses. I used up all my fireworks.

I have no idea how to use the mechanical one, and it doesn't seem like the most reliable igniter. I purchased a 9 volt battery, but I need to know how I can use this to actually fabricate something that could set off a fuse.


Here's a picture of the 9 volt, I wanted to post it because of the name. Gotta love cheap knockoffs.



Thanks for reading this!

you would want a low explosive with a low activation energy (amount of energy to set it off) which would ignite the higher explosive with a timer, not a fuse, as getting the fuse to ignite from electricity can be difficult using typical fuses...

you could always see if you could jump an electric shock thru a small amount of the powder and if it ignites, you have a possible timer.....otherwise you have to rig it so that it ignites something else that can be ignited with the jumped electric shock....or rig it to a metallic coil which would get hot enough (off of a AAA battery unless you up the power on the thing or make it trigger something else) to light a fuse......

(these are my scattered plots, i can see them in my mind, if you get hurt because you try them, it no my fault)

Nice going, I think the pot will do fine.

Now, for the ignition, I see you came up with an idea similar to my remote detonator (pager, take out speaker, put primary explosive where the speaker was), but I would recommend using the juice from the timer to directly ignite an unstable explosive, and with the heat from that explosion, it might be much easier to light a fuse.

If you want the 9V to set off something, you'll have to figure out a way to get all the energy, contained in the battery, out of the battery in one moment. This could be done by using a sort of larger, chargeable battery (a car accumulator would be great), which stores all the juice, and releases it when filled. Currently, I have no idea how that should be done (I'm more into the mechanic part of engineering).

For now, I have a mission for you:
Go to the Bullshit forum, read some random posts, and ask yourself why you EVER though we would call YOU a noob. I think you'll understand why.....

capacitor which charges till it's full, then you put it in a circuit which is set off when the timer goes off, and finishes the circuit with the capacitor in it......something like when the thing goes off, it sets off a button like thingy and then once the button is set off (i know this type of circuit exists, not sure how to make it...) it completes the cap(acitor)'s circuit.......then boom.....

Okay, so the mechanical timer is out. I took the liberty of taking the electrical one apart. Here are some pictures:





That's the best number I could think of for the post, heh, close enough to the real number. Tomorrow I'll figure out how I'm going to turn this into a detonator.

At the moment, I'm unable to get my hands on all the component to make a primary charge. A couple of more months and I won't have any trouble, but for now, I have to work with what is around me.

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming, comments are also fine.