Make a 4th of July fireworks volcano!

[Specop 007]

Found elsewhere.
Keep in mind, while legal(Depending on state and local ordinances) this is a dangerous fireworks. The metal thrown out is incredibly hot, and will set fire to anything it touches. In other words, dont do this by your house, move your car and for Gods sake people keep the kids a safe distance away. Also, dont do it in dry fields or near other flammable objects.

And make sure you dig the hole deep as stated and make sure you yourself are a safe distance away.

Enjoy

PS: I take no liability if you go to jail, melt your arm off, burn down the subdivision etc etc yada yada.

No, you don't put a nuclear bomb inside the Earth to cover every city with liquid-hot mag-ma. All you need are some pennies made after 1982, steel wool, powdered aluminum and sparklers. Burn the steel wool and blow on it to make sure it's completely burned (if you just let it burn normally, it will not burn all the way). If it crumbles into powder it's fully burned, but if it doesn't then it's not fully burned. Powder it up, mix it with the powdered aluminum in a 3-1 weight ratio, and you've got thermite.

Now go somewhere outside where there are no dry leaves, houses, etc. within 50 or so feet, and stab a hole in the ground about .75" or 1" in diameter and 6-10 inches deep (or even deeper. The deeper the better). Tightly packed dirt, like clay, works best. If it's sand or gravel or organic soil, I would guess that it wouldn't work well. Pour an inch or so of thermite, drop a penny in, put some more thermite in, drop another penny, etc. until the hole is full. two or three pennies are plenty. Then put a sparkler into the thermite, light it, and RUN at least 50 feet from the thermite.

The thermite will heat up the pennies to about 2500 degrees farenheit ABOVE THE BOILING POINT OF ZINC, causing them to boil explosively and spew bright hot molten iron and aluminum oxide out of the hole and 10 or 20 feet in the air. It will be unlike any firework you've ever seen, and potentially more dangerous, since that molten material is at over 4000 degrees! I've never seen a real volcano, but this looked exactly like the ones in videos. It was the most amazing pyrotechnic display I've seen.

EDITED TO ADD: Just so everyone knows, thermite is legal.

EDITED TO ALSO ADD: For best results, put 3" or more inches of thermite above the last penny. That way lots of molten material will collect before being blown out, making it much more spectacular. If you put a penny right on top it won't do much. I haven't tried it, but maybe it would be even better if you just put a few pennies at the very bottom of the thermite.

Also, if you make the hole too shallow (like 1 or 2 inches) or too sloped, it will not direct the molten material UP, and you don't want it flying sideways. Think of the hole as a gun barrel, the thermite as the bullet, and the penny as the gunpowder. All the times I've tried it, I've made the hole about 8+" deep, and the molten material never landed outside of about a 15' radius.

 

[DnetMHZ]

I see Darwin awards coming out of this.

 

[Trogdor91]

Pics or vids!

 

[deepred98]

where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

 

[Maxspeed996]

Originally posted by: deepred98
where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

That's what I'm saying!!!

 

[Maxspeed996]

and is the 3-1 ratio

3-powdered aluminum
1-steel wool powder

or
3-steel wool
1-powdered aluminum

 

[Maxspeed996]

Oh , and by the way , you shouldn't have shown me this ......I'm the guy that's a fireworks nut....you know I'm going to try it..
here's the START or my celebration

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j134/Maxspeed996/Picture17.jpg

 

[deepred98]

Originally posted by: Maxspeed996
and is the 3-1 ratio

3-powdered aluminum
1-steel wool powder

or
3-steel wool
1-powdered aluminum

i think its 3-steel wool to 1-aluminum pwder

me and my friend were gonna do this last yeah but after we set off a sparkler bomb in the middle of the woods in the middle of july... well at least there was a lake nearby... :laugh: :evil:

anyways we never did it cuz we couldn't find any aluminum powder

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: deepred98
where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

United Nuclear

Might find it locally at an auto parts store.

 

[deepred98]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: deepred98
where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

United Nuclear

Might find it locally at an auto parts store.

don't think there is an auto repair place near me

couldn't i just sand a piece of aluminum?

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: deepred98

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: deepred98
where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

United Nuclear

Might find it locally at an auto parts store.

don't think there is an auto repair place near me

couldn't i just sand a piece of aluminum?

that should probably work. Aluminum is a very soft metal, get the most coarse sand paper you can and put it on a belt sander. Easy way would be to anchor the belt sander and feed it aluminum bars with paper set up beneath to collect the powder.

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: deepred98

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: deepred98
where do you get aluminum powder?

:evil:

United Nuclear

Might find it locally at an auto parts store.

don't think there is an auto repair place near me

couldn't i just sand a piece of aluminum?

You could, just wear a mask when grinding metals. Also, aluminum (As stated) is pretty soft and loads up grinding stones pretty quickly if you dont use the right kind of stone. You could use sandpaper I guess.
I dont know what the mesh value of the aluminum needs to be. Most auto parts stores sell radiator repair kits which are powdered aluminum. Besides United Nuclear you can also check Ebay.

 

[lokiju]

I got so many damn fireworks left over from last year I don't even know what to do with them all.

 

[Maxspeed996]

Originally posted by: deepred98

Originally posted by: Maxspeed996
and is the 3-1 ratio

3-powdered aluminum
1-steel wool powder

or
3-steel wool
1-powdered aluminum

i think its 3-steel wool to 1-aluminum pwder

me and my friend were gonna do this last yeah but after we set off a sparkler bomb in the middle of the woods in the middle of july... well at least there was a lake nearby... :laugh: :evil:

anyways we never did it cuz we couldn't find any aluminum powder

See , the sparkler bomb....a friend of mine this morning was telling me about this today...Showtime sparklers....electrical tape...does that really work man? And is it dangerous