_________ SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE THIRTY SIX DECEMBER __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / Fun With Explosives \ / * - by CodeMason - nitrogames@yahoo.com * \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to teach you how to make three very powerful explosives. The first is plasticized acetone peroxide, a sensitive and very powerful primary explosive. It has about 80% the power of TNT. The next is ANNM plastique. This is an extremely powerful secondary explosive, which is very similar to C-4, in it's power and it's psychical properties. The next is picric acid, trinitrophenol or TNP. This is very similar to TNT (trinitrotoluene), but is a little less stable and a little more powerful. When attempting to create these explosives, you are putting your life, limb or freedom in danger. Enough of this stuff could take out a full city block. Plus it is a SERIOUS legal offense to manufacture these explosives, in whole or in part, so don't blame me if the Feds come knocking on your door to bust up your lab! * Acetone Peroxide Plastique This primary explosive is plasticized acetone peroxide (tricycloacetone peroxide). It is very sensitive, so keep it in a cool, dark, dry place at all times. Do not store it in open sunlight, near any direct sources of ignition, or near any other explosives. Do not use it after 7 days of it's manufacture. Materials: - Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) - Finding concentrated hydrogen peroxide may be a little hard. 3% and 6% concentrations are available at any good chemist, as it is a great disinfectant for wounds (breaking down into oxygen and water). 10% is good, and you can find this concentration at some hair salons, as it is a great hair bleach. But if you're really lucky, you may find it at a pool supply shop as a chlorine free pool oxidizer in concentrations as high as 30%! - Acetone - You should have no trouble buying this. It is available cheap and pure at any good hardware store, as it dissolves paint and oils very well. Be careful if buying large amounts. It is a "watched" chemical because it has use in homemade drug manufacture. - Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) - Just get this at the hardware store. The standard 30% concentration is fine. It may be sold under the names "muriatic acid" or "pool acid". - Ping pong balls. That's right, ping pong balls. You could use nitrocellulose gunpowder, but I find these more effective. - Small jar with lid. - Old margarine tub filled with chilled water. Procedure: 1. Mix 4 parts (12 teaspoons) hydrogen peroxide to 3 parts (9 teaspoons) acetone in a beaker and stir well. Put it in the margarine tub full of cold water. 2. Slowly add 1 part (3 teaspoons) hydrochloric acid to the solution. Add it one drop at a time and stir slowly. Do not breathe in the fumes, do not get any on your skin, and if possible wear gloves and eye protection. Once all the acid has been added, stir for about a minute. If the solution turns red, it's just due to impurities in the acid. 3. Cap the lid and put it in the fridge (I would suggest wrapping it up in a plastic bag as well, so that any excess acid doesn't contaminate the food). Leave it in there overnight. A few hours into the reaction you should notice white crystals forming on the bottom of the jar. 4. Meanwhile, let's create your plasticizer. Get the ping pong balls (only ping pong balls will do, nothing else), cut them up into thin slices, and mix them with two parts acetone. This must sit in a closed jar for around three days, and what's left will be a thick, gooey, white paste that has the viscosity of honey. 5. Back to the acetone peroxide... When the reaction is done filter out the crystals and dispose of the excess liquid. Wash these crystals with water, and leave them to dry (but not in direct sunlight)! 6. Now mix 2 parts acetone peroxide to 1 part ping pong ball gunk, and carefully work it until an even consistancy is reached. This is your primer! To create a detonator, put it into a matchbox, insert a sparkler as a fuse, and wrap it up in lots of duct tape. These things are more powerful than M-80s and could easily blow off your hand. You can have fun blowing up letter boxes (or fingers) with just these. Or you can use it for detonating your main explosive charge, which can be ANNM plastique, sodium chlorate explosive or picric acid. * ANNM Plastique This high explosive that's similar to C-4 in many ways is a mixture of powdered ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) fertilizer, nitromethane racing fuel (CH4NO2) and a nitrocellulose based plasticizer (ping pong balls). To obtain the ammonium nitrate, just phone around some agricultural (farm) supply stores or fairly large fertilizer retailers. They sell 50kg bags of this stuff for $35 Australian. That's ultra cheap. The N-P-K ratio should be 32, 33 or 34-0-0, or it is not pure ammonium nitrate. Just grind up these beads into a fine powder, and there you have it. To obtain the nitromethane, just ring around some hobby stores. They sell it to power little model car engines. Usually they will sell it in 10% or 15% concentrations, but sometimes they sell it in the pure form for speciality engines. Only buy the 100% pure form. It costs around $33 (Australian) for 1 litre of this stuff. Now do what you did to make the plasticizer in step four of the above procedure, only instead of using acetone, use nitromethane. When it achieves a thick, gooey paste, work it into the powdered ammonium nitrate with gloved hands. This is now a extremely powerful plastic explosive, so be careful. It can explode at fairly low temperatures! Now get a fairly large lump of your ANNM plastique, insert the detonator, light the fuse and RUN LIKE FUCKING HELL. When this stuff goes up, watch out!!! You might not live to see the wonderfully large and loud fireball, if you catch my drift. Be careful... Another consideration is to not mix it with any sodium/potassium chlorate based explosives, as there is the risk of forming a dangerous, highly sensitive salt, ammonium chlorate. * Picric Acid Picric acid is a good explosive. It can be mixed with acetone peroxide explosives to make them more powerful and stable. It can also be mixed with just about any other high explosive. Keep it away from any form of metal though, as it can form highly dangerous metal salts. Since this reaction involves sulfuric acid (and small quantities of nitric acid, due to the potassium nitrate involved), do it in a well ventilated area, preferably outside. Materials: - Concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) - 95% concentrated sulfuric acid can be found at janitorial or plumbing supply stores as a drain cleaner. Or you can obtain impure sulfuric acid from an UNCHARGED car battery or a car battery refill. To purify it, take a beaker outside and gently boil it until you can see white fumes. - A lot of aspirin tablets, try and get the purest quality possible. The generic or cheap brands are usually best. - Potassium nitrate (KNO3) - This is a common stump remover and fertilizer. It can be obtained in bulk from farm supply (as with ammonium nitrate), or it can be ordered in small quantities from the chemist (500g for $15). - A 1000ml (1 litre) beaker. - A large bucket filled with iced water. - If possible, some protective gear (rubber gloves, fume cloth, eye goggles). Procedure: 1. Crush around 100 aspirin tablets into as fine powder a powder as possible. You may want to invest in a small mortar and pestle from a chinese supermarket to make this job easier. 2. Add the ground aspirin to the 1 litre beaker filled with 700ml sulfuric acid. Heat the beaker gently and stir to dissolve the aspirin. Remember to do this outside or in a well ventilated area. 3. When all the crystals have dissolved, add 75g potassium nitrate. Do this very slowly, a few grams at a time. Each time you add some, it will bubble and heat up. Wait until this reaction subsides before adding more. NOTE: This reaction produces small amounts of the fatally toxic gas nitrogen dioxide. This is when the fume cloth comes in handy. 5. Once all the potassium nitrate has been added, slowly let the acid solution cool to room temperature, whilst stirring it gently. When it has cooled, carefully pour it into the bucket of ice water (H2SO4 likes to spatter), to precipitate the picric acid. Decant about 1 litre of the acid water solution, then add another litre of chilled water. 6. Filter this carefully to collect the picric acid crystals. This is quite tedious and painstaking, but it's worth it. More fun articles of mayhem soon! by CodeMason. Comments, questions? Email me, nitrogames@yahoo.com. - EOF -