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And it tastes so so sweet... When my friends and I were children we found pieces of lead while dumpster diving. Probably 5 pounds of it. We taught ourselves ho

And it tastes so so sweet... When my friends and I were children we found pieces of lead while dumpster diving. Probably 5 pounds of it. We taught ourselves how to make plaster-of-paris molds and tried to counterfeit the most important thing to us - video game tokens from the local arcade. We made only a handful of tokens before we realized the effort was more than the payoff. We had to rebuild the mold each time and break it with a hammer to pull out the token. We never even tried the tokens. And I think the lead fumes from melting it on a bunsen burner from my Christmas chemistry set probably didn't help us in the long run... Making nitrogen tri-iodide in high-school had a much better payoff, even if we had to steal the solid iodine from the chemistry class supply closet. This was before the internet and so we learned this one from the anarchist's cookbook. My cat hated walking in the basement after each batch. Did anyone else experience the purple acrid smoke at the back of your throat?

myself248 12y ago
> And it tastes so so sweet... You mean wall candy? http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18
danieltillett 12y ago
I did the same thing as as a kid with my brother (we broken open batteries instead to get the lead). I never tried to spend the “money” we made, but just used it to impress other kids in the playground. I guess this is where some of the appeal of physical gold comes from - the weight of these coins when held in the hand sure impressed. We avoided breaking the mould by casting the plaster of paris in two sections. The first you cast to halfway up the side of the coin lying flat and once it sets you rub grease over the top of everything and then cast the over half. Once everything has dried the two half split apart easy. We put in little sticks into the first cast sticking up 5mm so that the two halves could be aligned again after removing the coin. You could use this mould as many times as you liked. I do agree that the effort far out weighed the financial reward though :) Someone should start making and selling gold plated tungsten coins as a cheap replica of gold coins - I know this sometimes happens as forgeries, but it would be nice to have a few hundred of these to play around with and impress your friends. Edit. It looks like there is a company in China that actually does this. I have contacted them to see what they cost as I would love to have some of these.
- dzhiurgis 12y ago
  Batteries also hold PbSO3 or smth, which mixed with aluminium powder makes very loud bang. Oh and then the acetone peroxide we used to make from washing liquid. Don't even ask me how I managed to source nitric acid as I just kept it in my room until mason jar lid just disintegrated...
unimpressive 12y ago
>Did anyone else experience the purple acrid smoke at the back of your throat? Of nitrogen tri no. But soldering and having lead smoke blow back into your face is not a pleasant experience in the slightest. And the taste is so bitter, at least as much as it is sweet. It stays in your mouth all day too, you'll be going to sleep with bitter sweet still on your tongue.
reitanqild 12y ago
> Making nitrogen tri-iodide in high-school had a much better payoff http://m.instructables.com/id/Nitrogen-Triiodide/ http://m.instructables.com/id/Nitrogen-Triiodide/ Hmmm. Sometimes I think I should learn a few of those tricks my old teachers used. I attribute a lot of my interest for math, physics and chemistry to the fact that ny teacher used to blow stuff up, make fountains of liquids changing colors inside erlenmeyer flasks etc.

myself248 12y ago

> And it tastes so so sweet... You mean wall candy? http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18

danieltillett 12y ago

I did the same thing as as a kid with my brother (we broken open batteries instead to get the lead). I never tried to spend the “money” we made, but just used it to impress other kids in the playground. I guess this is where some of the appeal of physical gold comes from - the weight of these coins when held in the hand sure impressed. We avoided breaking the mould by casting the plaster of paris in two sections. The first you cast to halfway up the side of the coin lying flat and once it sets you rub grease over the top of everything and then cast the over half. Once everything has dried the two half split apart easy. We put in little sticks into the first cast sticking up 5mm so that the two halves could be aligned again after removing the coin. You could use this mould as many times as you liked. I do agree that the effort far out weighed the financial reward though :) Someone should start making and selling gold plated tungsten coins as a cheap replica of gold coins - I know this sometimes happens as forgeries, but it would be nice to have a few hundred of these to play around with and impress your friends. Edit. It looks like there is a company in China that actually does this. I have contacted them to see what they cost as I would love to have some of these.

dzhiurgis 12y ago
Batteries also hold PbSO3 or smth, which mixed with aluminium powder makes very loud bang. Oh and then the acetone peroxide we used to make from washing liquid. Don't even ask me how I managed to source nitric acid as I just kept it in my room until mason jar lid just disintegrated...

unimpressive 12y ago

>Did anyone else experience the purple acrid smoke at the back of your throat? Of nitrogen tri no. But soldering and having lead smoke blow back into your face is not a pleasant experience in the slightest. And the taste is so bitter, at least as much as it is sweet. It stays in your mouth all day too, you'll be going to sleep with bitter sweet still on your tongue.

reitanqild 12y ago

> Making nitrogen tri-iodide in high-school had a much better payoff http://m.instructables.com/id/Nitrogen-Triiodide/ http://m.instructables.com/id/Nitrogen-Triiodide/ Hmmm. Sometimes I think I should learn a few of those tricks my old teachers used. I attribute a lot of my interest for math, physics and chemistry to the fact that ny teacher used to blow stuff up, make fountains of liquids changing colors inside erlenmeyer flasks etc.