Philippe D. Nave, Jr. writes:
Thermite grenades are pretty simple; ...
NOT! Anyone really wanting to try this should hang out on rec.pyrotechnics for awhile, but for the truely foolhardy here are some tips and thoughts: 1) Thermite is extreamly hard to ignite, so requires an igniter. Most home made igniters are extreamly unstable (do you really want the thing off accidently (bump it, static charge, RF energy, etc)? 2) 50:50 mix of AL and iron oxide will probably work, but best to look up a really ballenced % for the best mix. btw: was that by volume or weight?, there is a slight difference :) 3) in general, the finer the powder, the better. ball mill it if you can. 4) iron oxide has this strainge tendency to hold magnetic charges, do you REALLY want that near your HD? 5) for best results, the thermite charge should achive a completly molten state before the slag begins it's decent to the target, otherwise it waste's part of it's payload. The best homebrew way to do this is by making a cylinder of firebrick dust (hard or soft) and high temp epoxy (ceramics are also good), with a quarter sixe hole in the bottom. umm that's like a cylinder with one end cap'd, maybe 4-8" on diameter. cover the hole in the bottom with a thick piece of sheet metal, or copper, or something. Attach some sticks, or rebar, etc to form legs and offset about 1.5 to 3 inches for better penetration. (probably not necessary for electronic equipment) 6) on loading - best done near where you want to use it - alot of moving/ shaking will tend to make the heavier iron oxide settle to the bottom and you won't get as good of a burn. 7) don't tamp it! - it needs that O2 between the flakes of powder. Now that you all know more than you really wanted to about thermite, does anyone know of a good recipe for a magnetic bomb? - you know, something with abit of oomph! ? -n