Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Do anticut gloves resist a detonator #8 boom?

aldofad - 3-1-2014 at 23:52

Hello world,
I went across this pair of anticut gloves in my country. Will this stuff resist a detonator #8 run off?
Should the gloves resist, will the hand get damaged due to the hydraulic shock?
I'm really close to buy a pair and make some good crash boom testing using chicken bones and wet newspaper inside.
What do you think about?

Cheers!

simply RED - 4-1-2014 at 01:02

...no...

plante1999 - 4-1-2014 at 01:25

It will not protect at all.

DubaiAmateurRocketry - 4-1-2014 at 01:48

I have seen them maybe times in papers where it says ''Kevlar gloves should be used''. Maybe you should put few slices fruits inside it and detonate a gram or so beside the glove and see what happened to the fruit inside :)

Detonation is really powerful that will really go through everything. However having them might be better than nothing.

Ral123 - 4-1-2014 at 02:27

Cap No8 is something like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luj3NdyBisA
It must be extra long and you must hold it at the end. You'll still be hit with the metal pieces.

APO - 4-1-2014 at 15:32

I'm sorry, I don't think those gloves have any padding, which is needed to protect against blasts. However, they are better than nothing, as they will stop projectiles from penetrating your skin. But they will not come close to stopping the shear force of a cap that big.


By the way, I have some gloves that are kevlar based, coated with aluminized mylar that are about 2/3 cm thick. They are rated for 2000F ambient heat, and 900F direct heat. Could those protect against, say, 300mg of Silver Acetylide?

Bert - 5-1-2014 at 06:43

According to litterature from the (very) old days a #8 cap contained 2 grams of 80:20 Mercury fulminate:Potassium chlorate. See Tenney Davis Chemistry of Powder & Explosives, volume 2.

No one makes such a cap commercially anymore. Commercial and military blasting caps are still given numbers, but there is no industry standard to tell one what exactly may be in them, so just calling a cap "#8" without specifying brand doesn't tell us anything much useful.

I'd assume you are using a home made cap. What is the composition? How are you loading them, what explosives at what compression...

Regardless, you might want to just get a package of bone in beef ribs and insert them into a couple of fingers of your glove. Place your detonator between the fingers, and shoot it. Be prepared to look at shattered bloody bits and tattered gloves missing their fingers if you are making caps that set off picric acid, TNT & similar.


[Edited on 5-1-2014 by Bert]

aldofad - 6-1-2014 at 19:33

Quote: Originally posted by Bert  
According to litterature from the (very) old days a #8 cap contained 2 grams of 80:20 Mercury fulminate:Potassium chlorate. See Tenney Davis Chemistry of Powder & Explosives, volume 2.

No one makes such a cap commercially anymore. Commercial and military blasting caps are still given numbers, but there is no industry standard to tell one what exactly may be in them, so just calling a cap "#8" without specifying brand doesn't tell us anything much useful.

Uncorrect.
The detonator #8 is the most used today and its a de-facto standard. The 2g of Mercury fulminate used decades ago has been replaced with a different mix giving same exact power.
This is an example commercial datasheet

Bert - 7-1-2014 at 10:43

To be clear: I mean no one commercialy produces a detonator containing 2g of 80:20 Mercury fulminate:chlorate.

Many companies make something they call a "#8 detonator". Your Mondial spec sheet indicates 720mg PETN. Others have published figures as low as 450mg of PETN and still called the item a "#8 detonator". Still other devices called the same name have used RDX or other HE as a base charge, also in varying quantities.

A study of the many published tables showing experimental results initiating HE with different primary or base charges should convince you that these differences matter.

If you have an international standard for what a device being called a "#8 detonator" is, please do share this.

In the meantime, specify what is in a home made detonator and how it was loaded if you wish to ask about performance

Ral123 - 7-1-2014 at 11:56

I wonder what measures do manifacturers take to separate the azide from the PETN. Or may be they are in contact, they give only two years shelf life of the product.

Pard - 10-1-2014 at 03:34

I would suggest using the strongest welding gloves you can get your hands on. Like the strongest welding gloves they make coupled with an apron and blast shield mask and shooting grade ear plugs

Praxichys - 10-1-2014 at 06:22

I routinely wear goggles and a face shield made for grinding, which resists high energy impacts. I always have my ear plugs in.

I clamp a piece of 1" plywood to the table vertically in front of me to protect my torso. It is about chin height and a comfortable width to reach around.

I wear kevlar gloves with a cut resistance level of 5, and the insides of my arms are protected by some crude homemade armor plates.

I am working on the purchase of a pair of elbow-length gloves with cut and puncture resistance, or perhaps the wrap-around gauntlets.

Of course, the energy evolved from a lot of these compounds makes all of this protection moot if the conditions are any less than ideal. I do small-quantity research. I just don't want to have to pick glass out of my upper body when a 250 or 500mg synth of something new decides to go off. I don't wear any more than goggles if I'm running a >50g synth since the armor is not going to provide any protection at that level, and may only increase the propencity for accidents by making me more clumsy. For the "tried-and-true" materials, at some point you resign yourself to the probability of being maimed or killed and just get on with the damned synth.

It has been years since I made anything in that sort of quantity though.

[Edited on 10-1-2014 by Praxichys]

Pard - 10-1-2014 at 14:13

That's an interesting idea. That being covered by armouring makes one complacent. I can understand it. I feel everyone undertaking what is a dangerous synth should consider at all times the possibility of it going off. For example: Tailor your techniques and movements around this idea. Too many people will pack a blasting cap while held in their fist. A friend of mine nearly lost his hand after packing a CO2 explosive. What saved his life is having it held in a vice while he packed it. When it exploded the vice took a lot of the blast but he still nearly lost his fingers. He was packing it in heavily. No doubt he was complacent too after doing it with no problems so long

Ral123 - 10-1-2014 at 14:39

What was he packing and how did it go off?

Pard - 10-1-2014 at 19:34

It was the powder off a sparkler, crushed finely and he was packing it with a chopstick. It must've been friction that did it. He'd made a few before and I'm told they were very loud, so like most kids who feel there onto a good thing he doubled up. Adding more and packing it harder. It basically exploded in about 4 main pieces, one going low, around the pinky and ring finger area, the other hit toop of him arm. The rest luckily went elsewhere. The vice saved his life.

It remidns me: Does anyone have a mechanical device for pressing caps? I've seen an 1 ton arbor press used, but obviously one needs to put in a shield around it. But I think it'd work well. I remember seeing a proposed device in a certain pdf, will try find it, screencap and post it here.