will a ap blasting cap be enough to detonatio ammonium nitrate? whats the detonating velocity of AP? whats the best way to use AP? what size explosion will 5g of AP produced when detonated with an ap blasting cap? and about the process of making ap, is there a way to test if the sulfuric acid is strong enough for use? mine easily lights a formula of bp and potassium chlorate when a drop of acid is placed on it, if that helps. and how bad is it when you get a little sulfuric acid on your hane? i got a little on my hand, it doesn't hurt and's not irritated.

for the most part, an AP blasting cap WONT be able to detonate AN. the AN would need to be sensitized by a fuel oil, and the cap would need to detonate a booster charge, which in turn would detonate the ANFO.

detonation velocity of AP: 3750 M/second at .92 grams per cc.

to use AP, you can either ignite it with a fuse, or detonate it with a cap (which can be made of AP, whadya know). detonation will be much more powerful than deflagration.

i dont know. when i made AP, i didnt have a good scale. it said that my batch weighed like 6 grams, which didnt seem right. a heaving AP sandwich (nickel bomb, if you will) makes a flash about a foot in diameter if i remember, and thats at night. you really cant see the flash during the day, but you sure as hell can hear it.

to test the sulfuric acid for purity, look on the side of the bottle. sorry to sound like a smartass, but if it doesnt come with info like that, then you probably shouldnt use it. i guess you can also do that thing where you boil it until white fumes appear if you want, but sulfur dioxide isnt the best thing to be breathing.

hmm my sulfuric acid eats through paper towels and leaves a brown ring around the hole after about 3 minutes. ive never gotten it on my hand, but im sure its not good. some people choose to have a jar of a solution of sodium bicarbonate in water in case of accidents.

yet again i post this link, because it contains the answers to so many questions newbie's (not using that as a bad thing) have about AP, so take a look: http://www.totse.com/en/bad_ideas/ka_fucking_boom/162660.html

I've heard of people setting off ANFO with acetone peroxide before, but you need to use godawful amounts of the stuff and you need to press it to increase the density (and thus, the detonation velocity).

If you can get your hands on relatively pure nitromethane, I suggest you use ANNM. From what I've heard its much more cap sensitive then ANFO, and more birstant to boot.

~Zero the Inestimable

hey thanks unstable. my memory is a little rusty and research takes time, the detonation velocity of commercial grade c4 is around 7500 right? so ap's velocity is near half that of c4, pretty cool. so in that link it says you can make a booster charge out of AN and AP to detonate anfo, thats cool. whats the detonation velocity of anfo? if noone wants to add another post to their rank then i will look for the answer myself. and zero would you feel safe compressing AP to make it be able to detonate anfo? i know i wouldn't. oh and my sulfuric acid doesn't say anything about how concentrated it is it just says "contains concentrated sulfuric acid" which i would think would be above %85 percent but im not sure, i will check again. and what happens if you use a lower % acid? just a poor quality AP or what? oh and my acids name is "liquid fire" which is a drain cleaner.

thanks for the help, and yes i am a newbie as the biggest thing i have made was a crater maker strapped to spraypaint cans, well that and shitty c4 that didn't do anything.

[This message has been edited by tek (edited 02-12-2002).]