4 ms·

Tip: Don't heat the print bed when printing with TNT.

nibbleshifter 4y ago
Its melt castable and not the easiest thing to get going, so you probably could print with it. Probably would also give you megacancer.
wongarsu 4y ago
Apparently TNT melts at 80°C. If we are to believe [1], liquid TNT is quite sensitive while confined, and gets more sensitive the hotter it gets, but if allowed to flow it's actually very difficult to set off. Autoignition happens at about 265°C, according to [2], and again according to [1] temperature doesn't play a major role in the sensitivity of solid TNT. So I guess don't heat the print bed too much, and if you do make sure the TNT can flow freely until it solidifies again, and you should be fine. Edit: and as nibbleshifter suggests, you could print with it given these parameters, just be careful with the TNT in the hotend. 1: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/itass.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/itass.... 2: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe031f3f6861501d4a96cfa/pdf/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe031f3f6861501d4a96cfa.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe03...
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  Would be pretty cool to be able to order custom shapes SendCutSend style. Would be real useful in demolition and construction settings in cases where you don't do enough of a specific job to buy or rent expensive non-explosive equipment to do it.
  - TylerE 4y ago
    That's easy with plastic explosive. It's a putty like consistancy. It's explicitly designed to be sized and shaped in the field.
- Arrath 4y ago
  There are to this day many an explosive product that is cast by pouring molten explosive material into the shell. In some cases, poured by hand from jugs. Steady!!!
jabl 4y ago
I recently read about the Oppau disaster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion ), where the workers were getting bored with using pickaxes to break up a huge pile of compressed ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, and decided to use dynamite to loosen it up. What could possibly go wrong?
- jandrese 4y ago
  The crazy thing about that is they had broken up the Ammonium Sulfate/Ammonium Nitrate mixture thousands of times before the incident. It was incredible that they managed to do so for as long as they did. All it took was one day where the mixture wasn't mixed very well and everyone dies. An industrial version of Russian Roulette.
  - Xylakant 4y ago
    It was considered safe at the time because the mixture is usually not very sensitive. Hindsight is 20/20.
    - Someone 4y ago
      > It was considered safe at the time I know they thought so, but also wonder why they thought so. Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disasters#Timeline_of_major_disasters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disas... says: “the factory had used this method of disaggregation over 20,000 times without incident” But it also mentions what happened less than two months before the Oppau explosion: “July 26, 1921: workers tried to dislodge 30 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had aggregated (solidified into one mass) in two wagons. When mining explosives were used on this solid mass the wagons exploded and killed nineteen people” Separation between the two disasters is about 1,000 km, but both were in Germany. Surely, they must have heard what happened there. Why didn’t that make them reconsider using this technique? And why didn’t that second explosion prevent what happened in Tessenderlo in 1942 “An attempt to disaggregate a pile of 150 tonnes of ammonium nitrate with industrial explosives killed 189 people and wounded another 900”? That’s about 300km, as the crow flies, from Oppau.

Its melt castable and not the easiest thing to get going, so you probably could print with it. Probably would also give you megacancer.

wongarsu 4y ago

Apparently TNT melts at 80°C. If we are to believe [1], liquid TNT is quite sensitive while confined, and gets more sensitive the hotter it gets, but if allowed to flow it's actually very difficult to set off. Autoignition happens at about 265°C, according to [2], and again according to [1] temperature doesn't play a major role in the sensitivity of solid TNT. So I guess don't heat the print bed too much, and if you do make sure the TNT can flow freely until it solidifies again, and you should be fine. Edit: and as nibbleshifter suggests, you could print with it given these parameters, just be careful with the TNT in the hotend. 1: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/itass.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/itass.... 2: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe031f3f6861501d4a96cfa/pdf/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe031f3f6861501d4a96cfa.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-36e8df81dfe03...

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
Would be pretty cool to be able to order custom shapes SendCutSend style. Would be real useful in demolition and construction settings in cases where you don't do enough of a specific job to buy or rent expensive non-explosive equipment to do it.
- TylerE 4y ago
  That's easy with plastic explosive. It's a putty like consistancy. It's explicitly designed to be sized and shaped in the field.
Arrath 4y ago
There are to this day many an explosive product that is cast by pouring molten explosive material into the shell. In some cases, poured by hand from jugs. Steady!!!

jabl 4y ago

I recently read about the Oppau disaster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion ), where the workers were getting bored with using pickaxes to break up a huge pile of compressed ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, and decided to use dynamite to loosen it up. What could possibly go wrong?

jandrese 4y ago
The crazy thing about that is they had broken up the Ammonium Sulfate/Ammonium Nitrate mixture thousands of times before the incident. It was incredible that they managed to do so for as long as they did. All it took was one day where the mixture wasn't mixed very well and everyone dies. An industrial version of Russian Roulette.
- Xylakant 4y ago
  It was considered safe at the time because the mixture is usually not very sensitive. Hindsight is 20/20.
  - Someone 4y ago
    > It was considered safe at the time I know they thought so, but also wonder why they thought so. Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disasters#Timeline_of_major_disasters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disas... says: “the factory had used this method of disaggregation over 20,000 times without incident” But it also mentions what happened less than two months before the Oppau explosion: “July 26, 1921: workers tried to dislodge 30 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had aggregated (solidified into one mass) in two wagons. When mining explosives were used on this solid mass the wagons exploded and killed nineteen people” Separation between the two disasters is about 1,000 km, but both were in Germany. Surely, they must have heard what happened there. Why didn’t that make them reconsider using this technique? And why didn’t that second explosion prevent what happened in Tessenderlo in 1942 “An attempt to disaggregate a pile of 150 tonnes of ammonium nitrate with industrial explosives killed 189 people and wounded another 900”? That’s about 300km, as the crow flies, from Oppau.