Lazy Logging - Woodworking Talk

**TexasTimbers** · 03-24-2009, 06:30 PM

One of my neighbors and I had some fun this past Sunday. It's been a while since I blew anything up and I needed a fix.

He's the shooter, and I am running the chainsaw, camera (when he is not filming me on the chainsaw), and setting charges pretending to be the demolition expert.

For those that don't want to leave the site to read the "More Info" you'll see in the video, here's what it says:

Lazy Logging. Just an excuse to have a little fun really. These woods are going to be cleared soon so no innocent trees are being decimated. The sycamores will be milled for lumber, and the two oaks we blew up will be used for firewood. Much of the wood has laready been split. :-D Sierra Clubbers need not rant. The 26" oak was downed with a 3 pound charge. 2.5 pounds were a shaped charge (I just used a cheap, thin plastic welding rod canister) inserted into a bore hole in the tree. The tree was weakened with wedge cuts parallel to the long slender charge.

When the charge failed to detonate the first time, I taped a 1/2 lb. canister to the front of the bore hole to set off the shaped charge with a sympathetic explosion. I figure the failure was due to the shooter's angle of fire; the projectile could not travel down the axis of the welding canister from our firing angle, so it only caught a small portion of the charge, and was not enough to detonate it. That's my theory anyway. We did not want to relocate because the Bois D' Arc tree we were behind offered great protection, a stable firing platform, and was the right distance for where the shooter already had his scope optimized.

The smaller oak was downed with only 1.5 lbs of non-shaped charge. Tannerite was used. The projectile in both cases was a 240 grain soft point .44 magnum, shot from a lever-action Marlin rifle.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vmdv0NKy0[/YOUTUBE]

wonderwoman · 03-24-2009, 07:02 PM

I can almost hear your wife NOT sleeping with your life insurance agent.

slatron25 · 03-24-2009, 07:10 PM

**Daren** · 03-24-2009, 07:18 PM

What's not to like...chainsaws, guns and explosives...

**TexasTimbers** · 03-24-2009, 07:20 PM

My sentiments exactly. Good clean wholesome fun. I don't get how wonderwoman can work infidelity into that. Guns/explosives/chainsaws man that turns my wife on!

bradleywellsoff · 03-24-2009, 07:22 PM

We gotta hang out!

wonderwoman · 03-24-2009, 07:35 PM

Just keep making the pulp.... ..... .... there's a dotted line there, somewhere.

jeffreythree · 03-24-2009, 07:59 PM

You know, I think that is the closest I have ever seen a chainsaw to explosives. Reminds me of making boulders into gravel in the Hill Country on hunting trips

. They had a show about this on Wreckreation Nation the other day, but with toilets, stuffed animals, and a car instead of trees. People have clubs that do it onthe weekends.

wonderwoman · 03-25-2009, 02:08 AM

what else can I say? chainsaw... the wonderment goes on.

I'm watching. m

woodnthings · 03-25-2009, 08:54 AM

How they make tooth picks. Now, even I can understand this process.

Maybe stuff a little sand down the hole with the C4 so the picks aren't so rough, I like to chew on mine!

bill

Nate1778 · 03-25-2009, 09:39 AM

Great vid, got to ask though, whats with the hunting rifle? Were you expecting a deer to run by? Or was was it for security reasons?

**TexasTimbers** · 03-25-2009, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffreythree

You know, I think that is the closest I have ever seen a chainsaw to explosives.

Jeff, I could saw right through the charge and it wouldn't set it off. It's a binary explosive that even when mixed, remains inert until a high velocity projectile travels through it. Tannerite claims something like 3000 ft/sec but if you know anything about the ballistics of a Remington 240 grain .44 mag round shot from a 20" barrel, you know it doesn't actually take 3000 ft/sec or else the concoction has been "doctored" to become more sensitive.

Does that mean I will cut a charge in half to prove my point? Uh, no, that means I will not cut a charge in half to prove my point. Stupid is as stupid does. Even though it is a "safe" explosive, it is actually a "high" explosive with a very high brisance ("shattering" force) especially to be so stable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate1778

Great vid, got to ask though, whats with the hunting rifle? Were you expecting a deer to run by? Or was was it for security reasons?

Nate, it is illegal for the public to detonate explosives (even legal ones) with commercial high explosive (HE) blasting caps. In fact, the average Joe cannot purchase HE blasting caps legally. They are used in mining, oil and gas drilling, road construction etc. and the companies that need them have permits and are heavily regulated by the BATF etc. and must keep strict records and account for every last cap.

The binary explosives which we used are "shooting targets" and are legal in all 50 states. But they must be detonated by shooting them. There are hundreds of easy ways to make crude but effective HE blasting caps from easily-gotten materials, components, and ingredients but it is not legal to set the charge off that way. It is also illegal to make HE blasting caps I believe in all states. Also, *most* homemade HE blasting caps that would have enough energy to touch off a secondary high explosive have to be made of certain ingredients such as, just for example, acetone peroxide. It is a primary high explosive but like *most* of them, very highly sensitive to heat, friction, and shock. Bottom line, stupid is as stupid does. Don't mess with highly sensitive, high explosives. It is moronic.

I am sure many people who know nothing about explosives (and I do not claim to be an expert) see an explosion like the ones we set off and think us to be highly moronic. Comes with the territory.

Nate1778 · 03-25-2009, 01:52 PM

Gotcha, I didn't realize you guys were using binary shooting targets, makes sense now. I thought "dang, these guys are blowing stuff up and getting in some good hunting at the same time."

Got your package in the mail today, will keep you updated on it as I get it applied. Thanks again.......

JigStik · 03-30-2009, 12:44 AM

THAT is what I call fun.

Rodney Sinclair · 03-30-2009, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasTimbers

Jeff, I could saw right through the charge and it wouldn't set it off. It's a binary explosive that even when mixed, remains inert until a high velocity projectile travels through it.

When I retired last year, it was from an Army Ammo Plant just outside of New Boston, Texas. I spent most of my years there blowing "stuff" up for the Army. So I can tell you first hand that word "Inert" has a lot of meaning. Basically it means the stuff won't blow up. Just don't f#^k with it cause it just might.

The big thing you said that got to me was when you said "the first time it didn't detonate". This is bad news here. Any time you put a charge to a load, the damn thing is hot. We've done that a lot over the years and have had the load go off 6-7 hrs later. The good news is like you said, most people couldn't set a charge off if they tried.

Rodney

**TexasTimbers** · 03-30-2009, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney Sinclair

Any time you put a charge to a load, the damn thing is hot. We've done that a lot over the years and have had the load go off 6-7 hrs later.

Tannerite is simply AN/Al. It was initially posted all over the internet 5 to 6 years ago as NH4NO3, NH4ClO4, Al, ZrH2 and someone threw in the Ti sponge, but it's simply AN/AL. That's it. It has a lot of seemingly contradictory characteristics though.

It will not spontaneously detonate, or even store latent energy (from a high velocity round). Still, I wouldn't have unfurled my bedroll beneath that unexploded tree that night simply because there were other trees in the area that didn't have 3 pounds of high order unexploded ordinance in them.

It has good brisance even at the 2000+ ft/s sensitivity it comes with, but if you tinker with that even a little (sorry fellas ain't gonna post it up for the idiots that might cruise through), it can literally blow TNT away in all the important categories. It will not deflagrate under normal conditions and the error of margin is wide. Like, real wide. In fact I don't think thermite would even set it off but if it did it would be deflagration. But I would not bet my life.

And so we come full circle. Understanding chemistry is one thing; tempting it is another. I am way more comfortable trekking into a deserted dry river bed with 5 pounds of redneck plastique in my backpack than I would be commuting to work everyday in your average metroplex with 20 gallons of gasoline in my tank.

New Boston is a great place to live and visit. Been to the Pioneer Days twice. Passed the depot signs many times going to and coming from the northeast I always wanted to drive a M-1 in there and load up on some real goodies.

Wrangler55 · 08-08-2009, 01:38 PM

I love it... reminds me of some of the stuff I did in my misspent youth. My speciality was oxidizers... With the right compound almost anything will go boom. LOL

Hal