Huge Explosion!!

i started making my own about three weeks ago and its a blast, iill give a little tutorial here, its very easy, give me a few minutes to upload pics
 
lets start with ammoniuim nitrate choice, two kinds, ice pack or fertilizer





i have not been able to get the fertilzer to work, it has a tacky coating on it to make itr slow release, i know you can refine it, but not worth the hassle, ice packes are under 1$ everywhere(im a paramedic, so free for me) one ice pack has 60grams of pure nitrate, so approx 4bags per half pound, but still weigh it

 
next comes the Al powder, it must be 5 micron or less and the mix is 5% powder to 95% nitrate, 7500gr in a pound so 375gr of Al podwer to 1 pound nitrate
i choose the Eckart German pyro super, got it off amazon for under 20$ a pound shipped, i believe its 3 micron and has a graphite mix to prevent oxidization



i am doing half a pound, so i will weigh out about 170gr just to be safe



i have three containers i use, i know how much each one holds weight wise so i dont have to do so much weighing
small=half pound medium=1 pound large=2pounds

 
heres what good pure amminium nitrate looks like out of the ice pack



and heres the finished product, i ix the two and shake vigorously for a few and put duct tape around tupperware to get pressure



ibviously be safe, and when in doubt, add i little extra powder to the mix, but be warned, we put a cast iron pot on top of 1 pound and it turned it into a mangle string of iron, this stuff is super powerful and you must keep your distance and not be stupid


disclaimer: please note that gr is grains and not grams, i measure the Al in grains to be more precise since thats the most expensive ingredient
 
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so 1 pound of the Al powder should get you wound 20 pounds of tanner, if anyone knows a way to refine the fertilizer, please let me know, would save lots of hassle
 
In one of my munitions books it said to take the fertlizer and rub it between two boards to pulverize it into a finer powder. Maybe that will work for you.
 
i actually tried to just put it in ziplock and hammer it w/o avail, so i will try a blender begore going to chemical routes

or could just stic with the ice packs

weird though because the fert actuallt looks similar, just bigger balls and yellowy
 
I had a bunch of guys from the Concealed carry forum getting together 3 years ago on my 400 acres and I purchased 440 of Ammonium Nitrate in a 55 gallon over pack drum for $90 at the Coop in Eldorado OKlahoma. It worked fine using it like it was but I found if I ground it up in a coffee grinder or food processor it gave a bigger bang. Before I first started grinding it I used a 100 foot long extension cord just in case. I have found that what I have left where it got hot enough to degrade in this Oklahoma heat it wouldn't work well. Even with a great seal on the drum. The stuff I kept in my reloading room in 5 gallon buckets is just fine but anything in the drum that has changed from prill just won't go boom anymore. No problem though at that price 3 years later it still works as fertilizer. I got at least 240 lbs worth of booms out of it before it started going bad. One thing I've never done though is to put it in anything besides plastic containers. Nothing to clean up even if it is on my own property.
 
By the way I only mix 1/2 teaspoon Aluminum powder per 1/2 lb of Ammonium Nitrate. A 3 oz pill bottle sounds about like the old M-80 firecrackers. 7 lbs will life a 500 stump right out of the ground. I used AMFO in the military so I understood keeping proper minimum safe distances when blowing stumps. I should have filmed it.
 
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