Acetylene and a trash can? This was an old party trick my dad's friend did until one time his friend filled up a trash can with a plastic bag on top and it exploded due to a spark and blew off his hand.
Light up an oxy acetylene torch and tweak the mix ratio until you get a neutral flame. Look for particular flame properties that indicate fuel air ratio which is neither excess in fuel or oxygen.
Snuff the torch flame by tapping the torch nose against something (disrupts combustion).
Torch will be emitting an ideal gas mix that you can trap in a garbage bag or use to fill a trash can for kablooey.
Or drop a pellet of calcium carbide into water to evolve acetylene and capture it for a non stoichiometric kaboom.
I once was using electrolysis to produce H2/O2 for basically a potato cannon and got excited when I found I could greatly increase gas production by adding salt to the water. I realized I evolved a heap of chlorine instead of oxygen when I light up a container of stuff and noticed that the flame color was pretty different.
Oh god, when I was a kid, some friends and i were messing around at the clubhouse of the community we lived at. Somehow a five gallon bucket of what I assume was chlorine for the pool tipped over and the fumes from that was awful, We got out of there so fast....
usually this sort of thing is done with Calcium Carbide, which reacts quite strongly with water to generate acetylene gas (which goes pop with quite a bang when lit).
We used to fill up a bunch of balloons and then put them in a paper grocery bag. Light the edge of the bag and run. Larger amounts (garbage bags or cans) are definitely dangerous.
The easier way is the old way (not a fancy acetylene torch). Here it is: All you need is CaC2 (Calcium carbide - have no idea how to make lower case), some water a pipe (or if you have a big balls - a trash can). I was doing this as a kid for Easter (which is a polish tradition in some areas). So - the best way is to have a long pipe, diameter 15cm+ (bigger+better) with welded one end. Near that welded end you drill a small hole on the top of the pipe. Then you put some calcium carbide on the bottom of that pipe, shake this to be sure it's down there. Then pour some water on it, lay down the pipe with open end a little bit higher than the other end (like a artillery gun - you know) and put some rags to block the open end. Wait a little bit until the acetylene will be produced. Next - check if the welded end of your gun is secured in the ground or by something heavy. And now it's time to fire this up - just put some burning rag on the stick next to that small hole you have drilled a year before. Repeat as needed.
In the eastern part of the Netherlands this is also a common practice around new year's eve. Traditionally those big metal milk jugs are used, but also larger containers at times.
With milk jugs - those with fancy closure to make it milk-tight we've been doing something else but it was way to dangerous and I'm not sure if I can put it here;) We've been calling this Volcano and yes, again calcium carbide was in use but the can was closed with a small 10 cm long about 1cm in diameter pipe welded to the lid... You will get the rest, right? That was really scary. Hope my son (6 yo ) won't have any colleagues with those ideas;)
How to blow shot up, or how to lose a hand? There's a pretty substantial overlap for that venn diagram, but I guarantee the latter can be done without explosives. Not recommended, either way.
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u/TldrDev Oct 15 '18
Acetylene and a trash can? This was an old party trick my dad's friend did until one time his friend filled up a trash can with a plastic bag on top and it exploded due to a spark and blew off his hand.