ditching dynamite for 11b6r
This is re your remarks on the c4 post.
When I was a kid growing up on the farm, when Dad said do something, I just did it--no discussion, no argument; just did it. Because if I didn't, I would sure be quick to do it next time!
Fast foreward many years: I helped on the farm because it was my Dad's. The place had become a democracy and now I'm a voter!
Now we're at the ditching dynamite in the creek bed. My job is to make the holes for the dynamite. To do this, there's a heavy truck axle that I drive in with a steel post driver. The holes are 18" apart and there's water in the creek. As I'm driving it in, I look back and Dad's getting ready to drop a stick in the hole I just made. I said, "Shock sets that stuff off, right! How do you know my pounding this steel shaft won't do it?" He said something like, "You worry too much." I said, "OK, if you can't wait 'til I'm done with this to set the dynamite, you're on your own!" He grumbled but he backed off with the dynamite.
How touchy is that stuff? Were we about to go up with it!
When I was a kid growing up on the farm, when Dad said do something, I just did it--no discussion, no argument; just did it. Because if I didn't, I would sure be quick to do it next time!
Fast foreward many years: I helped on the farm because it was my Dad's. The place had become a democracy and now I'm a voter!
Now we're at the ditching dynamite in the creek bed. My job is to make the holes for the dynamite. To do this, there's a heavy truck axle that I drive in with a steel post driver. The holes are 18" apart and there's water in the creek. As I'm driving it in, I look back and Dad's getting ready to drop a stick in the hole I just made. I said, "Shock sets that stuff off, right! How do you know my pounding this steel shaft won't do it?" He said something like, "You worry too much." I said, "OK, if you can't wait 'til I'm done with this to set the dynamite, you're on your own!" He grumbled but he backed off with the dynamite.
How touchy is that stuff? Were we about to go up with it!
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When we were in high school there was a local grocer who would sell us individual sticks of 60% dynamite. Having always seen the hero explode it with a rifle shot in the Saturday westerns, we naturally had to try it. All that happened was we ended up with a lot of dynamite crumbs... 0 -
I've set off dynamite only with blasting caps, but my understanding is that jiggling the dirt 18" away would not be hazardous.
In fact, a relative who used to work in a mine said one of his workmates accidentally dropped a quantity of dynamite down a shaft. They all expected to die, but the dynamite didn't explode; it just thumped at the bottom like any ordinary stuff. When they recovered it, the sticks had simply shattered into material resembling sawdust. Understand now: this story is hearsay and may not be worth much.0 -
Old sticks of TNT that have set out in the heat will sweat nitro that beads up on the exterior. Shoot that or drop it, and it'll go boom. 0 -
Nitro glycerin based dynamite will go off with gunfire but not everytime. It will sweat and that stuff will give you the worse headache you ever had. TriNitroToluene is a lot less sensitive. 0 -
Standard "straight" dynamite was 40% nitro. Ditching dynamite was typically 80%. Would driving a hole 18 inches away shoot it? Well- in the words of Dirty Harry- "You have to ask yourself- do you feel LUCKY? Well, DO YA?" [:p]
Probably not- but as I said, you only get to screw up once. Our rule of thumb is you do not drill within twice the max length of the bit from a loaded hole. 40' bit, no closer than 80 ft. Started working for Dad at 13, was Journeyman blaster at 17. Learned that there are old blasters, and bold blasters, but no old, bold blasters.
Re: Dropping powder in the borehole- as long as there is no cap in it, and it is not 80%, usually not a problem. We slit cartridges, load them, and tamp with a wooden pole to squish the cartridge out to couple the powder to the rock. But NEVER after cap goes into hole.
Re: Sweating nitro- yeah- that's not TNT (tri-nitro-toluene) but old style nitro based dynamite. Took one call where folks had bought a foreclosed farm, vacant for years- called because they found a wooden dynamite box up on rafters in barn (Wooden boxes were WW 2 or earlier) Half a case of 40%, at least 60 yrs old, had sweated nitro to where the sticks were covered in white fuzzy crystals. We did not move the box- chemically inerted the stuff while it was sitting on the rafters.
One good thing about working with powder- other people leave you ALONE! and Charlie is right about the nitro headache- it is a vaso-dialator. You know what helps with those headaches? Ice cream. No, that was not an auto censor word. Vanilla icecream.0 -
Whatever you do, wear ear plugs, and ear muffs...it's bound to be loud....[:D][:D][:D] 0 -
We've used ditching dynamite for drainage by poking a hole with a big steel rod, egging the hole out a little, and dropping the 1/2 sticks in the holes. Set off the first(usually a full stick) and the whole string goes in a ripple effect. Absolutely LOVE it until one doesn't domino and you have to walk back out there and restart it with another stick/cap.
Myself and another older farmer(both of us had lived right here all our lives) were helping a young guy build some fence last winter and were talking about "the old days" while taking a coffee break. This younger guy had worked in Iraq/Kuwait as a government contractor after leaving the Army so I figured he had some experience with stuff that goes BOOM. Anyway, us geezers were talking about using dynamite and blowing stuff up and the young guy is just eating it up. Finally break was over and the young guy says"You guys really did this stuff-I can hardly believe you weren't blown sky high!!". I've seen and messed with stuff that had nitro droplets showing-sometimes you're lucky and sometimes you're not. I only remember one man being killed while "farm blasting".0 -
message self destructed...Mission Briefing tape, Mission Impossible ; ) 0 -
I worked with an old-time blaster for a while. I was a regular employee of the company, but when we had a lot of work, small independent contractors were also employed, of which he was one. First job together was to trench 6 feet into limestone, for a considerable distance. I noticed that he seemed to be over-charging the holes, so I asked him what kind of formula he used. He replied, "Figure out what you need, double it, and 50%." [:p][:D]
On the second shoot, when we sounded the horn, I was amazed at the number of people I could see who were all trying to jam themselves under the counterweight of a bulldozer or a backhoe.[:D][:D]0 -
Dynamite has to be periodically restacked so the nitroglycerine doesn't settle out in one direction "decomposed". It will be highly sensitive if allowed to decompose.
In the frozen condition it is most sensitive.
Overseas, a couple of our EOD guys blew themselves and a 3/4 ton truck sky high carelessly transporting decomposed dynamite.0
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