or an explosive devise of some sort. Well, you ain't a real man. Every red-blooded male that I know (many in law enforcement) admits to building either pipe bombs or some sort of explosive device as a kid.
I hate it when PC makes that out to be a big, bad thing. Yes, I know its a crime. But its one of those crimes which needs to be kept in perspective. Boys will be boys.
I know a guy with one finger on his right hand. Lost the other three stuffing match heads into a Co2 cartridge. Not smart. I wasn't there when it happened, but I talked to a friend of his who was. T'was a mess.
We built alot of pipe bombs as teenagers and young adults (maybe even a little toward middle age. .) One time we made one and then parked it in a 5 gal bucket of fertilizer soaked in diesel fuel. Blew diesel and fertilizer all over the hay field but did not ignite the mixture. Someone said you need a blasting cap or gun cotton for doing that. Anyone ever made gun cotton? (Hope we're not committing a crime here just discussint this. ).
We built them all the time. From cherry bombs to silver salutes to making our own black powder to unloading shotgun shells to get the powder, we were always blowing stuff up. We were small time until one of our buddies got some of his father's dynamite that he used to blow stumps. Man, we had some fun then!! Can't believe we didn't get kilt.
We built a cannon. Found a piece of heavy walled pipe that you could squeeze a tennis ball down. Fitted and welded an end capC drilled a touch hole and built a T&E mount for it. Really launched a tennis ball with black powder and a black cat for an ignitor. Wiped out the neighbors tame goose flock when we packed it full of nails, staples and broken glass. Dad took it away after that
M-80 dipped in glue then a bag of BBs, repeat several times. Kind of hard on fish when dropped into a deep pool.
At least that is what I have been told.
I also know of a kid that would put a handful of carbide in a mason jar weighted with rocks. That did a better job on fish without so many holes. At least I have been told.
Yes we made our own powder, then the drugstores starting restricting access to some components, made a few pipe bombs out of copper tube and also made cannons to fire marbles. Life was fun, kid from school killed himself playing with bombs, never knew exactly what he was using them for.
We built them all the time. From cherry bombs to silver salutes to making our own black powder to unloading shotgun shells to get the powder, we were always blowing stuff up. We were small time until one of our buddies got some of his father's dynamite that he used to blow stumps. Man, we had some fun then!! Can't believe we didn't get kilt.
For a while we were really into paintball. And built an 'RPG'. We took a piece of PVC 6 inches in diameter. Made a blast shield out of plexi glas. Bought those model rockets with the remote controled launchers. We cut a core out of foam dodge balls and dipped them in paint. And glued them onto the rocket. One guy aimed the tube the other fired the rocket.
For a while we were really into paintball. And built an 'RPG'. We took a piece of PVC 6 inches in diameter. Made a blast shield out of plexi glas. Bought those model rockets with the remote controled launchers. We cut a core out of foam dodge balls and dipped them in paint. And glued them onto the rocket. One guy aimed the tube the other fired the rocket.
I could see where a real good quality 'tater gun could have some serious utility.
We built them all the time. From cherry bombs to silver salutes to making our own black powder to unloading shotgun shells to get the powder, we were always blowing stuff up. We were small time until one of our buddies got some of his father's dynamite that he used to blow stumps. Man, we had some fun then!! Can't believe we didn't get kilt.
Potassium chlorate, mercury fulminate, use aluminum dust as a filler. They would hear our explosions through the whole valley. Fill up the cylinder of old lawn mower engines, send the crank shaft 100 feet in the air. Glad we escaped those day with all our limbs, some of that stuff was a little unstable.
Does making BP cannon barrels in machine shop at school and setting them off just across the street from a police station count or does it have to be a bomb.
Setting them off next to the police station kind of makes the police go a little crazy when they can not find out where the BOOM came from. Just very lucky we were never caught.
Does making BP cannon barrels in machine shop at school and setting them off just across the street from a police station count or does it have to be a bomb.
Setting them off next to the police station kind of makes the police go a little crazy when they can not find out where the BOOM came from. Just very lucky we were never caught.
I still have all my fingers and my eyes but my hearing sucks.
I must admit have been told that lighting a fire under a 55 gallon drum of old sweating dynamite can make one a little nervous as can watching that first drop leave the copper tubing and fall into the jar of cotton.
I would have whipped my boys till they fell down if I had caught them doing something that stupid. My my friends parents were indoor people and had no clue what I he was up to.
We had a deer problem when I was a teenager. The muleys would come down and feast on the winter wheat. So F&G (Utah) gave us a length of fuse rope and a box of silver salutes. You'd hang the fuse from a tree limb where the deer were filing into the field and then insert a silver salute (by the fuse) into the rope weave about every six inches all the way up the rope. Then you'd light the bottom of the rope and it would burn up and ignite a silver salute every 1/2 hour or so.
Worked great for a delayed fuse set up at Junior High. Put one under the window sill of the shop building and another under the window sill at the seminary building. Kaboom x 2! Delayed fuse is good stuff for getting well away when the ignition happens.
True story. I friend a year ahead of me in high school did something like that for a senior prank in a storeroom at school. I caught a case of duplicator fluid on fire and things wend south real fast. Two alarm fire and they had him before the fire was out. Judge said jail or USMC. That was in 67. He was killed his first day in country in a jeep accident.
We were trying to build our own rocket engines. It was't until much later I realized they were pipe bombs. Fire works powder and match heads. We're lucky they just fizzled. We would fill balloons with gas from a snuffed cutting torch in HS metal shop, put it in a paper bag, twist it shut and light the end. That makes a really loud bang. We then put one in a locker lit it and closed the door. HOLY [bleep]!! It blew the door off into a chain link fence and the pressure expansion jammed about 6 doors shut. The school ended up just hauling the whole bank of lockers out. Funny looking back now but that was dangerous. And best was no cops were involved.
We were trying to build our own rocket engines. It was't until much later I realized they were pipe bombs. Fire works powder and match heads. We're lucky they just fizzled. We would fill balloons with gas from a snuffed cutting torch in HS metal shop, put it in a paper bag, twist it shut and light the end. That makes a really loud bang. We then put one in a locker lit it and closed the door. HOLY [bleep]!! It blew the door off into a chain link fence and the pressure expansion jammed about 6 doors shut. The school ended up just hauling the whole bank of lockers out. Funny looking back now but that was dangerous. And best was no cops were involved.
Acetylene is potent stuff. I had a hankering to shoot an '06 into an acelyene tank growing up, but the tank was rented.
Of course, I'd NEVER do anything like that, but I've seen a rez kid on the Rosebud drop a homemade M80-like device down a badger hole a time or two, trying to get a rise out of them........ all he did, though, was rile up a couple of rattlesnakes, or, so I hear.. Mister Noshoulders had a bad day or two, courtesy of some CCI .45 loads.
I know a guy with one finger on his right hand. Lost the other three stuffing match heads into a Co2 cartridge. Not smart. I wasn't there when it happened, but I talked to a friend of his who was. T'was a mess.
We built alot of pipe bombs as teenagers and young adults (maybe even a little toward middle age. .) One time we made one and then parked it in a 5 gal bucket of fertilizer soaked in diesel fuel. Blew diesel and fertilizer all over the hay field but did not ignite the mixture. Someone said you need a blasting cap or gun cotton for doing that. Anyone ever made gun cotton? (Hope we're not committing a crime here just discussint this. ).
Jordan
We used to cut off match heads from matches and stuff them into CO2 cylinders as well, using a nail to compress the compound. We'd use another match for a fuse and a "V" shaped launching ramp. They'd fly about 300-350 feet. Never had one explode, but I now realize how dumb it was.
As far as I know, none of us growing up in the 1950s have been stupid enough to create a written record of all the things we have done. Let's just say we know about all of the above.
Yep and an M80 driven 1/2" NPT pipe gun configured rifle or handgun with a few elbows and tees and a fuelcock that allowed the fuse to pass through. A beauty it was at age 13. We were having fun punching water filled soda cans with a mib powered by such and it blew threw the can, bounced off of the sidewalk across the street and flew though the BIG front living room window of the house across the street. We all packed up and ran and I was swiftly pulled down by my britches by the owner as I was trying to clear a fence. Recall walking home sure that my Dad had heard. He did, gave me the "you dumbazz" look and deducted the cost from my pay from the produce market I was working at. Thankfully, me dear Mother repaired the drapes for the lady of the house as the crashing glass tore them up a bit. Used to seriously dent redwood fences shooting candy Dotz through it as well. Oh the fun.
We used to snatch the bulb housings out of tail lights then install a bulb with the glass busted off it to expose the element. It made a very reliable trigger when the circuit was completed using a 12 volt battery.
Bunch of guys from school duct taped a pound of black powder to a gallon jug of gasoline, buried it in a hole and lit a long fuze. Produced an enormous explosion, the property came on the run, told us never to do anything like that again on his place.
As a teenager, I had a friend died making a pipe bomb. Fortunately I was not there to see it. The guy he was with was a real POS. After my friend died, I was at a gathering at a old abandon gas station hanging out with friends. A buddy and I went to leave and when we get back to my Dad's VW and saw a pair of legs sticking out the passenger door. The POS was trying to steal the battery. My buddy and I each grabbed and leg and jerked his azz right out of the car and across the asphalt to the crowd and announced what he was doing. He was a little sore after that. Didn't see the POS anymore after that.
For a while we were really into paintball. And built an 'RPG'. We took a piece of PVC 6 inches in diameter. Made a blast shield out of plexi glas. Bought those model rockets with the remote controled launchers. We cut a core out of foam dodge balls and dipped them in paint. And glued them onto the rocket. One guy aimed the tube the other fired the rocket.
My son (JustOneGunner) got into paintball for a while and got me hooked as well. If you've never tried it, it's a blast. Eric's gear was better than mine, as I refused to spend as much on a paint ball marker as one spends on a rifle or shotgun, but man, did we have some fun! Played a lot of "big" games-200 to 350 players. There'd be waterborne landings, steep hills to scale, even tanks. Tanks were anything from ATV's with shells built around them to look like a tank, to old jeeps to just about anything with 4 wheels that could be made to resemble a tank. Rules dictated that the only way to take out a tank was to run up on it and either lob a paint grenade directly into the vehicle, or run up on it and slap it. They were very tough to knock out as there were usually two gunners plus the driver could shoot too, and it was hard to get that close without being shot. We ambushed one one time and about 6 of us lobbed paint grenades in on it and actually got two inside the tank-those guys were covered from head to foot with paint. My usual strategy was to bury in the thickest brushpile I could find and snipe guys after they passed me. Worked good until they busted you, then you were usually a sitting duck. Used to tag team with my son, as his gun was much faster, allmost like an automatic, and he could cover us pretty good.
We used to make firecracker guns. A piece of lead pipe, threaded internally on one end. Cut a slot in the threaded end. Mount the pipe in a crude handgun stock. Put a firecracker in the threaded end with the fuse sticking out through the slot. screw a cap into the threaded end and put an empty shotgun shell over the other end of the pipe. Aim 'er at something and light the fuse. I hit a galvanized steel garbage can one time (sorry Dad) and caved in the whole side. I used to harass the red squirrels with these, and hit the branch one was running on one time and knocked him clear out of the tree. I bet that critter's still running. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that the neighbors didn't exactly like having shotgun shells land in the middle of their picnic table while they were eating Sunday dinner...... That house was three lots up from ours.
We also used to do the black powder and anvil thing-flip one anvil over upside down on the ground, fill the cavity with black powder, lay some cannon fuse in there and set another anvil on top of it, and light 'er up. Quite the bang, and the top anvil lifts several feet in the air.
Fill 1/2 of a toilet paper roll with BP and wrap it heavily with masking tape. Those model rocket igniters are great for this. Imbed one in the powder with wires sticking out through the tape. Attach a long length of speaker wire and touch the other ends to a flashlight battery. Poof.
Before the rockets igniters were made, I used the filaments from camera flash bulbs. It was like a fine steel wool. Tease it into a thin strand about 1.5 to 2" long and wrap a thin wire around each end.
Of course I build some growing up in Czechoslovakia, made my own BP, used fertilizer, threw old, rusted ammo in the fire - we could find quite few in the woods left by germans - tossed spray bottles in the fire for the same purpose.
We had a lot of fun, still have scars to prove it.
When was young, I didn't need to make pipe bombs. Not that I didn't, but you could just go to the hardware store and buy dynamite and caps. Seems to me we could even buy partial sticks.
We used to buy .308 rounds on a belt (during Vietnam.) Every 5th one was a tracer. You should see what a gallon of gas can do when put in a glass jar and shot with those tracers. Truly spectacular.
I responded to a magazine ad as a young lad for a spool of waterproof fuse. Turned out to be magnesium, it worked very well and was very useful, and easy to time�.
What prompted this thread was I saw the article below on the web. Obviously, the authorities (and MSN) are making this kid out to be public enemy no. 1. But what he did isn't any different than what most of us have done. Point is, things need to be kept in perspective. But the minute you mention "pipe bombs" liberals become apoplectic and all common sense and reason flies out the window.
I honestly don't recall ever being a part of making any true pipe bombs but we did mess around a lot with store bought fireworks and simple home made pyrotechnics when we were kids.
The single loudest, most impressive explosion I remember was a simple cherry bomb placed inside of a old tin cheese box and then shoved in some ornamental brickwork where it was a good snug fit on the side of a factory building wall in our neighborhood.
The resulting explosion was so unexpectedly loud that it even scared us. The fragmented remains from the cheese box we were able to find the next day had the rough texture of the bricks perfectly embossed in it.
I might have made a few bombs from '06 casings and match heads, lead sinkers and Bullseye. Just crimp the mouth over, then throw on a hard surface. Didn't even think about where the fragmented case went.(stupid kid!)
Also 'nother fun one was a can of hairspray. Just hold a match at the nozzel and let 'er rip. Great flame thrower. Sure frys skeeters and flys!
In the late 50's eary 60's we got into this stuff. We never called them pipe bombs, they were designed as rockets. 6"x 3/4" galv. pipes threaded both ends, screwed on two end caps,soldered tin fins on it, drilled our secret hole size in one cap, filled it with a common chemical you buy at the local drug store that was mixed 50/50 with sugar, tossed in some sulfur for color, about a 12" length of jet-x fuse, lite it and ran. The majority of time those rockets would go out of site, every now and then they'd destroy the launch pad. :>)
We experimented to see what it would take to blow the door off one of those old latching refrigerators. Evidently we were poor pipe bomb makers, but one of my friend's dad was a driller, so a 1/4 stick of dynamite did the trick... Blew that door at least 50 feet into the air...
we had "m-80 wars" as kids...chase another group and sling them at each other...one time "the other group" ran into one of those "outside cellar/basement stairwells entrance's on the side of the house...only to fine the door at the bottom locked!!...trapped they were!!! incoming!!!!
I "heard" about a local kid that filled up Aluminum arrows completely full of BP and then superglued a shotgun primer over the end of the shaft, with a BB glued in the middle of the primer...
In college we had a bunch of crazies who would chase each other around the dorm with wrist rocket slingshots. Their projectile of choice was a marshmallow embedded with a 209 shotgun primer. How anybody never was seriously injured I'll never know, the place was a sticky mess after one of their episodes.
I knew a guy back in the day that used to make "fire crackers" out of pvc pipe and black powder. One night at a barn party he decided to throw one a big pond of cowsh!t from the dairy barn. We watched from about 75 yards away, he didn't make it far enough to escape the "blast". I think he rode home in the back of his buddies truck .
I'll never admit to playing with BP and duct tape as a kid, thank god we didn't have any fuse.
I "heard" about a local kid that filled up Aluminum arrows completely full of BP and then superglued a shotgun primer over the end of the shaft, with a BB glued in the middle of the primer...
Best flame thrower I was ever around was an old CO2 fire extinguisher. Stick it down in a gallon bucket of 24 cents a gallon gasoline, pull the handle and fill 'er up. Then one idiot would start pushing in on the handle while another one held a lit match in the stream of gasoline. The effective distance was determined by how hard the handle pusher pushed.
At the place i worked in town we used a length of 23/8 tubing.
Orange peeled one end and cut a torch hole.
Then using the oxy/acet torch,make the flame like you were cutting a plate of steel,then knock the flame out with a block of wood.
place in touch hole for a while,then ready hit the cut lever for a bit. This thing would launch a tennis ball about 3 blocks and make a rather loud racket.
This was in town and we never had the police come check us out.
I would bet that there have been a few toilets blown up with m-80's.
W One time we made one and then parked it in a 5 gal bucket of fertilizer soaked in diesel fuel. Blew diesel and fertilizer all over the hay field but did not ignite the mixture. Someone said you need a blasting cap or gun cotton for doing that. Anyone ever made gun cotton? (Hope we're not committing a crime here just discussint this. ).
Jordan
Tried that too. In retrospect, good thing it didn't work!
The auto light bulb story reminds me of the time a guy I know very well was being bullied a bit. At the next school dance, he got into the bully's car and replaced the dome light with a "doctored" bulb. Then climbed out the window, reached back through the vent window and rolled the main window back up.
When the bully opened the door, his car gave him a surprise. It also left an ungodly smelly mess on the upholstery.
Word somehow got back to the bully that if he kept picking on his favorite target, the target would be delighted to escalate the car fun.
It should be a rite of passage into the reproductive pool.
Kind of a filter, if you get my drift.
Depends on how far back you stand, and what you shield behind.
Not that I'd know anything about that kind of thing, of course....
But I have 2 boys about age 30....
I seem to be missing some contemporaries - not just related to above subject, or for that matter age... cars, airplanes, snow machines (I lost a mid-20's co-worker a week ago - a corner post on a chainlink fence and highspeed snowmachine seem to be incompatible), boats, wimmin...
How about emptying shot gun shells and taking a nail and hammer to the primers. Pritty load bang
But like others have said I would not now anything about that
When I was a kid another boy in my 5th grade class did something similar to that with a shotgun shell but his goal was to make a giant firecracker out of the empty hull. Right there under his desk in class he started trying to punch out the primer with the point of a circle drawing compass planing on using that hole for the fuse to his giant firecracker. Of course with him pecking and pushing harder and harder on the primer with the point of that compass it eventually detonated. A piece of the primer penetrated the palm of his hand and as he was being led out of the classroom by a couple of teachers he was leaving a trail of blood drops on the floor.
Well, the "Sodium Kid", two stations down back in Inorganic Chem. tried to put out a walnut sized piece of sodium in a test tube of water (the experiment called for "pea-sized") by dunking it under the sink faucet... (for those of you with no chem background, sodium reacts violently with water! - and the more the better - or worse). Bad call!
My lab partner earned the name "Fireball Dugan" for an exercise involving separating out aeromatic? alcohols. It was pretty impressive, too. The nickname sounded better than "No-eye-brows Dugan". He burned all of Experiment 13 right out of his lab book. And yes, I do remember that! I heard a "whomp" and turned around to see Gary walking out of a man-sized fire-ball, slapping at his clothes.
s]Well, the "Sodium Kid", two stations down back in Inorganic Chem. tried to put out a walnut sized piece of sodium in a test tube of water (the experiment called for "pea-sized") by dunking it under the sink faucet... (for those of you with no chem background, sodium reacts violently with water! - and the more the better - or worse). Bad call! Betcha there are still sodium specks on the ceiling...
My lab partner (same class) earned the name "Fireball Dugan" for an exercise involving separating out aromatic alcohols. It was pretty impressive, too. The nickname sounded better than "No-eye-brows Dugan". He burned all of Experiment 13 right out of his lab book. And yes, I do remember that! I heard a "whomp" and turned around to see Gary walking out of a man-sized fire-ball, slapping at his clothes.
Fun times!
The reason I remember all that after 40 plus years is that it was no easy task back then to copy out Experiment 13 from my lab book so Gary could get his credits in. Also, Gary was the Prof's Lab Assistant, not that we ever reminded him of it...
We built a cannon. Found a piece of heavy walled pipe that you could squeeze a tennis ball down. Fitted and welded an end capC drilled a touch hole and built a T&E mount for it. Really launched a tennis ball with black powder and a black cat for an ignitor. Wiped out the neighbors tame goose flock when we packed it full of nails, staples and broken glass. Dad took it away after that
Have you read Pat McManus on the subject of sewer pipe black powder cannons?
When the sheriff walks around the corner of the shed to find Pat and his cohorts he asks, "You kids been smoking?" Pat replies, "Well, if you'd been here 5 minutes sooner...."
I had several tater guns, a little aqua net and a BBQ striker. Filled up a coke can about half way with bullseye and dropped a match in, got a little more than I bargained for that time.
Then high school rolls around. We had a bad mamma jamma, pipe that swiveled on a tripod oxy/acetelin mix and it would launch tennis balls plum outa sight. I know my buddy's hay field was 80 acres and we never found one.
Knew a kid who made a "shotgun" out of rolled up heavy paper about 3" thick to shoot a shotgun shell out of the hollow center. Not sure how it worked because I didn't stick around. His parents were pacifists!
Baffles me it wasn't that many years ago that my friends & I were riding the buss with our guns in cases. Would bring them to the principals office during the day and back onto our friends buss at the end of the day to go hunting/shooting.
Now if someone draws a picture of a gun they get expelled.
my buddys dad had a cannon in his front yard ..breach welded shut ....old ww2 ...2 of us 16yo boys took all his black powder and beer ...drank the beer ..filled the cans with cement ..then the cannon wit the blk powder...in went the can,added a match and........ I still don't know why we were in trouble????
Every red-blooded male that I know (many in law enforcement) admits to building either pipe bombs or some sort of explosive device as a kid.
Lost the other three stuffing match heads into a Co2 cartridge. 
Not smart. I wasn't there when it happened, but I talked to a friend of his who was. T'was a mess. 
).
That depends. How long does the Statute of Limitations run???? 
