simple question: will using APAN in AP putty work i.e. will the confinement of the putty be good enough to detonate the AN, without other confinement.

Also does the NC in AP putty actually detonate?

P.S. pingpong balls rock

APAN-rubber cement putty has been used with success by Noltair and perhaps others at E&W. In fact, the rc expels water from the AN, making it more likely to detonate.

I do not clearly remeber someone using APAN/doublebased smokeless powder, but it *should* work. Remeber thats acetone peroxide, not HMTD. HMTD seems to go through some funny reactions with nitrocellulose (in DBSP) and can prematurly detonate.

Of course, playing with APAN is a stupid idea, escpecially if the AN is slightly damp. The following can occur (note H+ ion is acidic): NH4NO3(s) --water--> NH3+(aq) + NO3-(aq) + H+(aq).

I suggest that you use DBSP, not pingpong balls, if you try it. I don't know about rubber cement, though, it would take away from the explosives power.

The rc should make the putty more dense, thus higher velocity of detonation and brisance. Of course, DBSP or NC ping pong balls would do the same and be explosive, but not everyone can get those.

[This message has been edited by Aechean (edited 02-03-2003).]

I have searched and searched, i dont suppose anyone in the UK has had any success getting DBSP, i have been using pingpong balls so far.

By the way after a few days, my AP putty has been going yellow, is this bad?

Yellow can't be good but it's probably a reaction with something in the ping pong balls other than the NC. But what are you doing storing something based on AP for very long anyway? You know you aren't supposed to, and now you have even more reason not to.

And, sure, rubber cement would make it more dense. We'll define dense as weight/volume. So the density of APAN alone is some value, and with the RC in it it's a higher value. However, if you subtract the weight of the RC in the second value it should be the same or less than the first value (that of APAN alone). You have to subtract the weight of the RC because it's not doing any of the exploding. Make sense?


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I found that one can actually make ping-pong balls more suitable for using in explosive mixtures by removing some of the camphor added to the nitrocellulose-this is simply done by imersing pieces of ping-pong balls in concentrated ethilic alcohol for a while(few days...). After that, those pieces burn much like original NC, faster than celluloid. I don't think it is possible to remove completely the camphor as the ethilic alcohol doesn't penetrate deep. Some more complex methods may be imaginated(using mixtures of solvents, water etc.)but it's useless complication.
I guess it is better to use an active plastifier than an inert one. Or to use a good inert plastifier-but they are hard to find...
So stick to ping-pong balls...
I wonder if one may use some kind of vegetable oil to plastify AP or HMTD. Yet I don't think that an organic, oxidable substance should be mixed with peroxides...What about parrafin oil? It is much more inert. One may buy it from drugstore..."Johnson's Baby Oil" instead?
Give it a try?!
Take care?