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I _LOVE_ United Nuclear. They have made many chemistry and physics classes so much fun. Here’s a bit of free advice though: Do not tell a police officer that y

I _LOVE_ United Nuclear. They have made many chemistry and physics classes so much fun. Here’s a bit of free advice though: Do not tell a police officer that you have thermite on you. Furthermore, do not explain what thermite is if they don’t know what it is. It is a recipe for a really long day.

lief79 4y ago
That is begging for a story, although I'm guessing the summary might be more entertaining.
- aliqot 4y ago
  I think United Nuclear was Bob Lazaar's company edit: yep https://www.justice.gov/civil/cpb/case/us-v-united-nuclear-scientific-supplies-et-al-0 https://www.justice.gov/civil/cpb/case/us-v-united-nuclear-s...
  - cactusplant7374 4y ago
    Does he still own it? I would never buy something from a con artist like Lazaar.
  - efreak 4y ago
    What does it mean to place a company on probation? I tried looking it up, but can't get away from results about employee probation...ddg and Google both are ignoring my -employee and various other negations to filter the results...
irq 4y ago
Sounds like an interesting story, care to share it? :)
- braingenious 4y ago
  Back in the early 2000s me and a few friends were playing with thermite in a parking lot, igniting tiny piles of it and watching it burn into the asphalt. Somebody across the street called the police and all of a sudden two cop cars and a fire truck showed up. They saw we were just kids and pretty much just told us to fuck off, which I would have, except I had just put down a sizable pile of thermite on the ground. Being both a genius(moron) and civic-minded, I asked if I could clean up my pile of thermite first so as to avoid any danger to others. Then I was asked what that is, so I happily told them about how it creates extremely hot iron slag that can melt through lots of things. And then me and my friends were interrogated about being bomb-makers, terrorists, or if we were planning on doing another Columbine. They called in the local FBI (who thankfully knew what we were talking about and didn’t really give a shit), we got a long speech about the PATRIOT act, and at the end they said we’re all going on “a list” Ruined my entire evening and I never got to ignite the big pile :(
qbasic_forever 4y ago
But if you do tell them about your thermite, make sure you have a small stash hidden away on your person so you can melt the prison bars and escape.
- annoyingnoob 4y ago
  On or In? Yikes!
  - akiselev 4y ago
    Thermite on, ignition source in.
noman-land 4y ago
Never heard of this site before but it has a pretty fun catalog. Caffeine Soap! https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_54&products_id=447 https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c...
- layer8 4y ago
  Not very convenient though: > leave on for at least 1 minute before rinsing.
  - culi 4y ago
    Why's that not convenient. I usually turn the water off while I apply soap and then turn it back on when I've finished to conserve water. That wait time is around a minute anyways. From talking to international friends this seems to be the norm around the world though I wouldn't be surprised if the average American doesn't practice this.
    - bradknowles 4y ago
      Not me. Water is on the whole time. I will move the body part I'm washing out if the stream long enough to apply lather, then immediately rinse it and then repeat. I would be surprised if there aren't at least a large minority that are at the two extremes here. And caffeinated soap has been around a while, and I've been using it off and on. Some are good, some are not.
      - germinalphrase 4y ago
        What prompted you to use caffeine soap when oral ingestion is so much more common/readily available?
        bradknowles 4y ago
        Why not both? Seriously, at the time, I was drinking gallons of coffee per day, and I appreciated the smell of the caffeinated soap. So, I actually did both. These days, I'm decaffeinated on the coffee I drink, and I'm trying a variety of soaps, some of which are still caffeinated, and some are not.
at_a_remove 4y ago
Tell them that you're a rail enthusiast, and start going on (and on) about how they use it to weld together train tracks. The more detail you go into about the trains, the more likely they are to want to get away from you.
- bell-cot 4y ago
  Thermite is basically a quick, low-tech welding compound. Unless you actually work for the railroad, talking about welding railroad tracks may trigger "he's a terrorist planning to cause a train derailment" thoughts in the law officer.
ortusdux 4y ago
Heatgen is a new company that is selling self-heating aluminum cans. As I understand it, it uses a thermite reaction as its heat source. So who knows, maybe having a thermite charge in your pocket might become more common! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpuTwEOpOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpuTwEOpOg https://www.poweredbyheatgen.com/ https://www.poweredbyheatgen.com/ https://www.highbrewcoffee.com/products/self-heating https://www.highbrewcoffee.com/products/self-heating
- uoaei 4y ago
  That is an objectively terrible design. The video through the first link demonstrates that, if you remove the liquid before activating the charge, it gets so hot it melts the aluminum jacket for the charge. Seems then trivial to cause an insane amount of destruction, even accidentally. Definitely one of the more surefire ways to commit arson, especially in wildland settings.
  - ortusdux 4y ago
    IIRC, the last attempt at self-heating cans had to be recalled due to fire hazards. Edit* - https://www.engadget.com/2006-05-05-self-heating-wolfgang-puck-lattes-recalled-en-masse.html https://www.engadget.com/2006-05-05-self-heating-wolfgang-pu...
  - 13of40 4y ago
    Makes me wonder what happens if you remove the liquid and replace it with more thermite. Edit: Come to think of it, it might just absorb the heat and do nothing.
    - adrianN 4y ago
      Aluminium+Rust thermite is pretty difficult to ignite. Maybe other mixtures have lower activation energy.
- braingenious 4y ago
  Oh dear LORD NO

lief79 4y ago

That is begging for a story, although I'm guessing the summary might be more entertaining.

aliqot 4y ago
I think United Nuclear was Bob Lazaar's company edit: yep https://www.justice.gov/civil/cpb/case/us-v-united-nuclear-scientific-supplies-et-al-0 https://www.justice.gov/civil/cpb/case/us-v-united-nuclear-s...
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  Does he still own it? I would never buy something from a con artist like Lazaar.
- efreak 4y ago
  What does it mean to place a company on probation? I tried looking it up, but can't get away from results about employee probation...ddg and Google both are ignoring my -employee and various other negations to filter the results...

irq 4y ago

Sounds like an interesting story, care to share it? :)

braingenious 4y ago
Back in the early 2000s me and a few friends were playing with thermite in a parking lot, igniting tiny piles of it and watching it burn into the asphalt. Somebody across the street called the police and all of a sudden two cop cars and a fire truck showed up. They saw we were just kids and pretty much just told us to fuck off, which I would have, except I had just put down a sizable pile of thermite on the ground. Being both a genius(moron) and civic-minded, I asked if I could clean up my pile of thermite first so as to avoid any danger to others. Then I was asked what that is, so I happily told them about how it creates extremely hot iron slag that can melt through lots of things. And then me and my friends were interrogated about being bomb-makers, terrorists, or if we were planning on doing another Columbine. They called in the local FBI (who thankfully knew what we were talking about and didn’t really give a shit), we got a long speech about the PATRIOT act, and at the end they said we’re all going on “a list” Ruined my entire evening and I never got to ignite the big pile :(

qbasic_forever 4y ago

But if you do tell them about your thermite, make sure you have a small stash hidden away on your person so you can melt the prison bars and escape.

annoyingnoob 4y ago
On or In? Yikes!
- akiselev 4y ago
  Thermite on, ignition source in.

noman-land 4y ago

Never heard of this site before but it has a pretty fun catalog. Caffeine Soap! https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_54&products_id=447 https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c...

layer8 4y ago
Not very convenient though: > leave on for at least 1 minute before rinsing.
- culi 4y ago
  Why's that not convenient. I usually turn the water off while I apply soap and then turn it back on when I've finished to conserve water. That wait time is around a minute anyways. From talking to international friends this seems to be the norm around the world though I wouldn't be surprised if the average American doesn't practice this.
  - bradknowles 4y ago
    Not me. Water is on the whole time. I will move the body part I'm washing out if the stream long enough to apply lather, then immediately rinse it and then repeat. I would be surprised if there aren't at least a large minority that are at the two extremes here. And caffeinated soap has been around a while, and I've been using it off and on. Some are good, some are not.
    - germinalphrase 4y ago
      What prompted you to use caffeine soap when oral ingestion is so much more common/readily available?
      - bradknowles 4y ago
        Why not both? Seriously, at the time, I was drinking gallons of coffee per day, and I appreciated the smell of the caffeinated soap. So, I actually did both. These days, I'm decaffeinated on the coffee I drink, and I'm trying a variety of soaps, some of which are still caffeinated, and some are not.

at_a_remove 4y ago

Tell them that you're a rail enthusiast, and start going on (and on) about how they use it to weld together train tracks. The more detail you go into about the trains, the more likely they are to want to get away from you.

bell-cot 4y ago
Thermite is basically a quick, low-tech welding compound. Unless you actually work for the railroad, talking about welding railroad tracks may trigger "he's a terrorist planning to cause a train derailment" thoughts in the law officer.

ortusdux 4y ago

Heatgen is a new company that is selling self-heating aluminum cans. As I understand it, it uses a thermite reaction as its heat source. So who knows, maybe having a thermite charge in your pocket might become more common! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpuTwEOpOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpuTwEOpOg https://www.poweredbyheatgen.com/ https://www.poweredbyheatgen.com/ https://www.highbrewcoffee.com/products/self-heating https://www.highbrewcoffee.com/products/self-heating

uoaei 4y ago
That is an objectively terrible design. The video through the first link demonstrates that, if you remove the liquid before activating the charge, it gets so hot it melts the aluminum jacket for the charge. Seems then trivial to cause an insane amount of destruction, even accidentally. Definitely one of the more surefire ways to commit arson, especially in wildland settings.
- ortusdux 4y ago
  IIRC, the last attempt at self-heating cans had to be recalled due to fire hazards. Edit* - https://www.engadget.com/2006-05-05-self-heating-wolfgang-puck-lattes-recalled-en-masse.html https://www.engadget.com/2006-05-05-self-heating-wolfgang-pu...
- 13of40 4y ago
  Makes me wonder what happens if you remove the liquid and replace it with more thermite. Edit: Come to think of it, it might just absorb the heat and do nothing.
  - adrianN 4y ago
    Aluminium+Rust thermite is pretty difficult to ignite. Maybe other mixtures have lower activation energy.
braingenious 4y ago
Oh dear LORD NO