How
How
How
To understand what is a detonator you have to understand that there are two explosives. Low explosive that expands
slowly like gun powder can be ignited by a flame or fuse. High Explosives include fast expanding charges like C4, TNT
and Plastic Explosives. High explosives have to be set off by a detonator or a blasting cap. In such a case the detonator is
considered as the Primary explosive and the High Explosive as the Secondary explosive.
Detonators can be electrical, mechanical, chemical or fused. This article will delve into electrical and fused detonators.
Detonators work by releasing an immense amount of heat, pressure and friction at high velocities in a confined place. All
these characteristics are obligatory for an effective detonator. There are very few chemicals that exhibit all of the above
when ignited by a direct flame one of which is mercury fulminate. A few detonators are a complete system in one, i.e they
are composed of primary and secondary charges so as to gain more effective detonation properties, however detonators
are not always better because they are more powerful.
Where should a detonator be placed in a charge ? To direct the explosion into one smaller area the explosive would have
to be confined in a cone of hard material. The detonator is placed in the peak of the cone and the open peak covered with
clay. The direction of the explosion will be towards the larger open end of the cone.
There are three main types of detonators available. J1, #8 and a compound detonator.
#8 blasting cap
Materials required are a 10 inch waterproof fuse, a spent 223 cartridge, smokeless gunpowder from a pistol cartridge,
mercury fulminate powder, sulphur, Potassium Chlorate powder. The last two are optional.
Combine 1 part Pottassium Chlorate with 1/8 part sulphur. This is mix 1. Mix one part mercury fulminate with 1/2 part
mix1. This is the final mix. Fill the 223 shell half full of smokeless gunpowder. Fill the rest of it with the final mix. Put the
fuse in the shell and close it off with water resistant glue. This is a #8 detonator which can be ignited by flame.
J1 Detonator
Materials required are a 12 inch waterproof fuse, a spent 223 cartridge, smokeless gunpowder from a pistol cartridge,
mercury fulminate powder, sulphur, Potassium Chlorate powder.
Combine 1 part Pottassium Chlorate with 1/8 part sulphur. This is mix 1. Mix 2 part mercury fulminate with 1/2 part mix1.
This is the final mix. Fill the 223 shell to the rim with final mix and the rest of the shell should be filled with smokeless
powder. Place the fuse in the 223 shell, pinch and glue.
Compound detonators
Compound detonars are very useful in a situation with negative enviromental factors such as dust, rain, heat and cold.
These detonars are a sure way of being sure the charge goes off.
Materials required are 15 inch fuse, Mercury Fulminate, smokeless powder, Pottassium Chlorate and a spent 30 06 shell.
Mix 1 part mercury fulminate with 1/8 part Potassium chlorate, this is mix 1. Mix 1 part mix1 with 1/8 part smokeless
powder. This is the final mix. Put the final mix in the shell. Insert the fuse, pinch and seal.
Electric detonator
To convert any of the above detonators into an electric detonator an electric ignitor as used for rocket engines is used.
This can be found at hobby stores. The ignitor can be inserted instead of a fuse and sealed but not pinched in the shell.
Homemade Explosives
This article will deal with the subject of Homemade Explosives usually referred to as Improvised Munitions or Improvised
Explosives. Before this subject is explored a word of warning; This article is for information or entertainment purposes
only, explosive chemicals are very dangerous and should be handled carefully, never lose sight of the fact that the
careless handling of explosive devices could easily result burns, dismemberment or even death to the handler.
A lot of Anarchy related websites have already covered this subject to a large extent however such information is usually
impractical and/or not feasible practically. A lot of Anarchy web sites related information is unreliable and vague at best.
This article is not a step by step procedure but rather a broad overview that will help you understand these devices. A few
easy and simple examples are also reviewed.
Safety Precautions
Fundamental Principles
Fundamental Principles : Types of EXplosive
Fundamental Principles : Elements of Devices
Examples : Overview
Examples : Uses of Gunpowder
Examples : permanganate and Sugar
Examples : Permanganate and Aluminium
Examples : Chlorate and Vaseline Plastic Explosive
Examples : Carbon TET and Aluminium Liquid Explosive
Examples : Napalm Alternative as fuel additive
Examples : Urea Nitrate Explosive
Safety Precautions
A few things are necessary for self protection during the creation of explosive devices. Goggles, gloves and overalls for
self protection during the handling of toxic materials. Breathing filter for guarding against toxic gases and a long stick to
light the small quantities of explosive to be tested. When the materials are added together this should be done gently and
carefully to avoid spontaneous detonation, there is especially a danger of friction igniting the material when a chemical is
being powdered. Another danger of friction is in the use of pipe bombs, the steel of the pipe can easily cause the powder
to explode prematurely so it is advisable to use a plastic bag or paper between the pipe and the chemical. Completed
explosive chemicals should be tested in small quantities to verify their operation. When using toxic chemicals such as
acids they should be handled in a fuming cupboard or in an open ventilated enviroment. Storage should be in a dark cool
dry place away from other chemicals, a lot of explosive devices require use immediately after completion so storage of
these could be dangerous. And finally if an electronic detonating circuit is to be used a safety switch should be added to
the circuit to prevent an electronic fault causing an explosion.
Fundamental Principles
Explosives are simply chemicals or devices that when initiated are decomposed into a gaseous form at a very rapid rate,
expanding into a large volume in high pressure. This in turn causes any casing or parts to fragment and fly outward
causing damage. A large amount of energy is released which is dissipated as heat. Explosive chemicals are made up of
the oxidizer and the fuel, the oxidizer provides oxygen and the fuel burns that oxygen, they work together at a fast rate to
cause an explosion. A fuel ignited alone would try to take oxygen from the air therefore burning very slowly, burning out if
the air supply is not present.
Explosives can be classified into two different grades, they are High and Low. Low can include such as Black Powder and
other non detonated compounds. High includes such things as C4 and Ammonium Nitrate Etc. It is known that liquid
explosives have several major advantages over Solids. The fact that liquid explosives have a uniform density means that
they are much more powerful per area than non uniform solid explosives.
Nitromethane is one of the safest and cheapest liquid explosives available on the market. It can be obtained from
Chemical supply houses, drag strips and hobby stores as model airplane fuel and many other places. Nitromethane
obtained is usually combined with methanol which means it is not explosive. If boiled for 20-30 seconds the methanol is
evaporated leaving only nitromethane which is shock sensitive from 20 feet. By adding ammonia to it you get an
extremely powerful explosive, using 6% ammonia by weight. This is more than 20 times more powerful than TNT. It is
usually used by confining and detonating.
Ammonium Nitrate is another good substance which can be used to sensitize nitromethane. This is done by placing
Ammonium nitrate in a pan and cooking until it turns into a brown liquid, then cooling in a plate of aluminium and crushing
the cool substance into a fine powder. Adding 2 cups of this to a half cup of nitromethane would result in a substance that
when placed in a pipe and detonated could take off the side of a house.
Astrolite
(Ammonium nitrate and anhydrous hydrazine)
If fertillizer grade ammonium nitrate is to be used it has to be first purified. This is done by boiling Methanol Alchohol and
adding the fertillizer Ammonium nitrate until no more of it will dissolve. This is then cooled in an ice bath and the white
crystalls deposited at the bottom are pure Ammonium Nitrate. Thus the pure Ammonium nitrate can be heated on a lowest
temperature on a pan in the oven until very dry. 1 Kilo of this is added to a half kilo of anhydrous hydrazine.
AIG
To further convert this into AIG add a quarter kilo of of 200 mesh aluminium with the ammonium nitrate before before
adding the nitromethane created earlier. This produces an extremely powerful explosive. It can be detonated with a J1 or
#8 detonator.
Anhydrous hydrazine can be obtained out of a chemical supply house, it is also known as rocket fuel. It is difficult to obtain
but a few science mail order companies do provide it.
Nitromethan is extracted from Hobby Airplane fuel which can be found in hobby stores. The fuel is usually composed of
20% Nitromethane and the remaining is methanol.
This article is for information purposes only. All explosives are very difficult to create and safety should always be an
issue. Do not use an open flame for heating, do not breath any gases released, do not combine hot chemicals together,
do not use cigarettes.
Pipe bombs are are an issue that has been over discussed on the internet without the involvement of any effective solid
information on how to make a pipe bomb. The information out there is usually very shallow and does not show any real
insight into the subject. This article was written with the backing of special forces improvised munitions knowledge.
First a word of warning. Explosives are extremely dangerous devices, forget what you've seen in the movies, if you
venture into improvised explosives manufacture the chances are that you will lose your hands and other parts of your
body no matter how good you think you are. Life is not a thing to waste on a pipe bomb. Having said that this article is for
information purposes only and should not be attempted.
The Fuse
Military detonation cord is best to use as a fuse otherwise cannon or fireworks fuses can be used instead. To make a
completely improvised fuse a tape sticky side up can be placed on a surface and sprinkled with ground gunpowder, the
powder will stick to the tape and so is a fuse although less reliable than others. It is important to know where to place the
fuse in the assembled pipe which is discussed later in the assembly section. Electrical detonation can also be facilitated.
Time Bomb
One of the more advanced properties of being an explosives specialist is the capability to set off an explosive device
exactly when it is required to detonate. Hypothetically speaking a time bomb could be setup to explode after four months
during a change in season during which time the perpetrator could disappear with very little evidence associating him with
the device. The science of time bombs is much more complicated than the use of conventional explosives. i.e anyone
could put a fuse in a pipe bomb and blow it up but very few have the ability to control their explosions down to the minute
or the second hours after the device has been deployed in its place.
There are two types of technologies associated with time bombs; The electrical deals with the use of electronic circuits to
time when the bomb will go off, this technology is very accurate and could be used to control an explosion down to the last
second. The mechanical is the crude way of doing things, it is less precise but can be setup a lot easier than by using an
electronic circuit. An additional technology is chemical which will also be discussed.
Mechanical
Fire plays a very important role in mechanical timed explosions. The very simple example is the cigarette; a cigarette
burning itself out also has a moving flame, a fuse can be tied at the base of the cigarette where the flame ends up and this
fuse has a good chance of being lit once the cigarette reaches that point. However with safety technology being applied to
cigarettes it is very likely this will not work very well, even if the filter is removed to aid an air draft the heat of the cigarette
will find difficulty in lighting the fuse. A much better alternative is to use a candle, simply a long candle placed flat on a non
flammable surface with a fuse intersecting it at it's base where it will ignite once the flame reaches the fuse. A cigarette
can usually take four minutes to burn out and candle time varies from one type to another.
Electrical
Probably the best overall type of time bomb technology. The easiest way to use this is to buy a time delay relay circuit
from an electronics shop. The relay controls the connection between a battery and the detonator and the circuit controls
the circuit. So if the circuit is set for one hour once the hour is up the relay closes connecting the battery to the electrical
detonator causing an explosion. Only a basic knowledge of hobby electronics is required for use of a prebuilt relay delay
circuit. A technician could also build a special purpose electrical circuit to this purpose including safety devices and
indicators to prevent accidents. An electromechanical time bomb can be build using an analogue clock or watch; A small
nail can be punched into the face and when the minute or hour hand contact the nail a circuit is closed between the axis of
the clock and the nail which when are attached to wires, battery and detonators can be an effective and easy to contstruct
time bomb.
chemical
Chemical delay initiators are very interesting and have their own special uses. Once being they cannot be easily detected
by electronic equipment since they don't use a battery or emit any radiation and they are also easily destroyed with the
explosion preventing a forensics team from identifying the initiator. The reaction between Perchlorate or chlorate and
sulphuric acid is explosive. if sulphuric acid is set to drip on aluminium foil it will eventually eat through the foil and could
be setup to drip on chlorate powder on the other side causing an explosion on contact. Permanganate and Glycerol also
form an interesting combination, once glycerol liquid is in contact with Pottassium Permanganate there is a delay of three
minutes before the compound bursts into flame.
A PLASTIC EXPLOSIVE FILLER CAN BE MADE FROM POTASSIUM CHLORATE AND PETROLEUM
JELLY. THIS EXPLOSIVE CAN BE DETONATED IN ANY MILITARY BLASTING CAP. (FIND A
FRIEND IN THE SERVICE OR IN THE RESERVE, OR STEAL ONE).
MATERIALS:
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POTASSIUM CHLORATE - THIS CHEMICAL IS USED FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES, AND IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES.
PROCEDURE:
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1) SPREAD THE POT. NIT. CRYSTALS THINLY ON A HARD SURFACE. ROLL THE ROUND
STICK
OVER THE CRYSTALS TO CRUSH INTO WHAT LOOKS LIKE WHEAT FLOUR.
STORE THE EXPLOSIVE IN A WATERPROOF CONTAINER UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO USE IT.
PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES-
MIX 7 PARTS POTASSIUM CHLORATE FOR EVERY ONE PART OF PETROLEUUM JELLY
(VASELINE WILL DO) THEN USE AN ELECTRIC CHARGE OR A FUSE.
NITRO IODIDE-
OK, THIS IS HOW TO MAKE NITRIC IODIDE. MIX SOME SOLID IODINE WITH
HOUSEHOLD AMMONIA. WAIT OVERNIGHT. POUR OFF THE LIQUID. LET THE MUD FROM
THE BOTTOM DRY ON A HARD SURFACE OUTSIDE LIKE CONCRETE. THROW SOMETHING ON
IT. IT WILL GO OFF AT THE SOUND OF A VOICE BECAUSE IT IS SO UNSTABLE.
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