making smokeless powder

[levigsp]

Yes in the good old days when boys were boys I played with gun cotton etc.
We tried to make a large amount of Nitro glycerine, we mixed the two acids for the nitrating mixture, two quart bottles mixed, all's good! we then placed a large amount of glycerine in the new freezer which had been installed in our garage, whilst we went out getting up to no good.
Saturday afternoon we arrive home, go into garage and pour the nitrating mix onto the glycerine in the freezer in the mistaken belief that it would keep it cold!!
We went indoors to get cleaned up for tea, whilst father was reading a newspaper.
I just returned into the living room and there was a rumble, similar to distant thunder and the house shook, father went white, the cats and dogs ran like hell and mother and the rest of us peered out of the back door.
What greeted us was bits of things falling out of the sky! aluminium making strange clicking sounds as it was cooling, all that remained of the aluminium garage roof.
No freezer, no garage, no fence and no bloody me, I scarpered quick sharp.
I never did find out how my father explained it all to the local bobby, but after my row, it was never mentioned again.
Needless to say I refrained from playing with such things again.

 

[Dorsettaff]

Well, that answers the OP's question....

With our combined chemistry knowledge and practical experience knocking up a batch of double based propellant shouldn't be too much of a challenge!

I'll tidy up the ruins of the old Cordite factory at Holton Heath for our use......will ask the local children to collect conkers in September to help produce the acetone needed too!

as you said Alan....How did we survive youth ?

 

[levigsp]

The frightening thing is that a child playing with explosives in this day and age, would be arrested and then sent for psychiatrists tests or some such nonsense.
Mind you anyone wishing to make smokeless powder at home needs to visit a trick cyclist!

 

[paul o']

weed killer and sugar in a lead pipe and jet x fuse from the hobby shop to blow up wasp nests and anything we could pack one in on the farm yup htf did we ever get to 15 yrs old

 

[Jagare]

weed killer and sugar in a lead pipe and jet x fuse from the hobby shop to blow up wasp nests and anything we could pack one in on the farm yup htf did we ever get to 15 yrs old

What was that weed killer called? When i was 14 i worked in a gardening shop on Saturdays and there was a open bin of about 2 cwt of that weed killer. We sold it by the pound, scooped out of the bin and packed in paper bags. Yes it do's go bang mixed with sugar . Mixed with that dope we painted on model planes it made quite a flare. Don't try this at home children.

Not to mention the brass canon i had. My dad would just walk by shakeing his head when we fired that in back garden.

 

[finnbear270]

Aaaah Jetex pills, & lemonade bottles!

 

[paul o']

err think we shouldn't name it as it can be made by the tonn lets say I don't think you can get hold of it in the uk anymore

 

[Jagare]

err think we shouldn't name it as it can be made by the tonn lets say I don't think you can get hold of it in the uk anymore

I remember what its called now. The brain was a little slow.

 

[Jagare]

Aaaah Jetex pills, & lemonade bottles!

Jetex, Great little motor. mounted one on a Hornby railway wagon. That wagom went up the rails at a rate of knots. Used the Jetex fuse in my canon and many other things not related to jetex motors. Happy days

 

[paul o']

a pellet of fun

Jetex, Great little motor. mounted one on a Hornby railway wagon. That wagom went up the rails at a rate of knots. Used the Jetex fuse in my canon and many other things not related to jetex motors. Happy days

 

[Laurie]

The weedkiller in question was banned by the EU some years back largely on environmental grounds, but it appears to still be for sale on EBay and Amazon. That may not be the same stuff though as pre-ban it was modified in some way IIRC to remove its use as a home-made explosive ingredient.

Home-made kids' pipe bombs weren't unknown in my neck of the woods back in the 50s and 60s, and there were the occasional former experimenters around with a hand or other bits missing as mixing it up with sugar could cause an explosion in itself. There were a lot more quiet empty plots and bits of wasteground around in those days for all sorts of interesting practices and experiments too, regular bonfires, air pistol plinking, tunnelling under old structures to make dens. (My blood runs cold at the thought now of some of the risks we ran!) As levigsp says, the authorities would go ballistic these days, arrest everyone in sight, evacuate whole housing estates and do goodness what to the perpetrators.

I'd forgotten about Jetex - that was real fun stuff, though none of my Jetex engine powered Kiel Kraft planes flew very well (or even at all now that I think about it!). I bet it's banned too nowadays should anybody make and try to sell a modern equivalent.

 

[Hereford]

Maybe try whatever 'smokeless' powder was used in these!



Found these whilst going through some of my dads things - not sure how old but they look to be copper-cased?

 

[enfieldspares]

Guncotton...Nick Cotton...Billy Cotton (with or without his Band Show) it's all the same to me. Kid's stuff! What I want to know is has anyone on here tried making their own nuclear weapons?

However, back to sanity, at school in the 1970s, quite legitimately as part of the Nuffield Chemistry syllabus we made as part of the lesson chlorine gas. Just like they used in WWII.

Jetex! Lord...they got hot! My brother made the Jetex boat. And me the Jetex racing car. Both did work. I'm guessing all that thing is somewhere illegal in some Act of Parliament long since.

 

[paul o']

They may be collectors so before you shoot them off get them looked at by a collector ? or research them as you just might end up with a few ££ even just the box's look like they could bring in a collector .

Maybe try whatever 'smokeless' powder was used in these!

View attachment 71359 View attachment 71360

Found these whilst going through some of my dads things - not sure how old but they look to be copper-cased?

 

[sikadog]

Sodium Chlorate, sugar, Length of 2 inch steel pipe drill hole in side weld on collars screw in one stop end fill with the above material screw stop end in the open pipe end
Light fuse run like he'll moved many a tree stump when I was a teenager.

 

[Hereford]

They may be collectors so before you shoot them off get them looked at by a collector ? or research them as you just might end up with a few ££ even just the box's look like they could bring in a collector .

Quick check identifies them as wartime (39-45) approved club and training rounds (LDV & Home Guard) - no idea on value - quite curious to see copper-cased ammunition

 

[Laurie]

You've got to be careful with vintage 22LR cartridges like those - I saw a teenage shooter get an eyeful of powder residue and God knows what else a few years back when his father gave him just such ancient 22 ammo he'd 'acquired' from somewhere. Luckily, nothing worse than a lot of temporary pain until he got A&E attention and no doubt a badly bloodshot eye for a few days resulted. But, these copper case cartridges were always weak and when a half century old .....

 

[hybridfiat]

Has anyone had any experience in making their own powder?

Whoa Nelly No!
Black powder yes. Smokeless never. I value my face and digits wayyyy too much.