Im wondering if working G scale dets could be made from .22 rifle amunition?? Im talking about just the brass cartridge, turn the ends off in a lathe leaving little round disks...
G gauge detonators....
- Thread starter tramcar trev
- Start date
You can get .22 blanks for starting pistols without a licence. They are based on the rim fire principle - the fulminate (the bit that starts the bang) is trapped in the rim of the case and is squashed by the hammer (firing mechanism). This causes it to explode.
Three problems with making a detonator.
1. It needs quite a bit of pressure to detonate, far more then the weight of our locos
2. The blank will just burn with minimal noise unless it is constrained by a barrel or similar.
3. As Michael Cane said - your only meant to blow the blinking doors off - you might get more than you expected.
Link to pic of blank - NOTE; Picture shows ammunition!!!
http://www.countrysupplies.com/item...2+(6mm)+Crimped++Blanks+For+Starting+Revolver
Three problems with making a detonator.
1. It needs quite a bit of pressure to detonate, far more then the weight of our locos
2. The blank will just burn with minimal noise unless it is constrained by a barrel or similar.
3. As Michael Cane said - your only meant to blow the blinking doors off - you might get more than you expected.
Link to pic of blank - NOTE; Picture shows ammunition!!!
http://www.countrysupplies.com/item...2+(6mm)+Crimped++Blanks+For+Starting+Revolver
We used to use something similar for scaring the bejabours out of new recruits in simulated explosive atmospheres. You could rig it up to work like the old Triang OO fog hut. A passing train could set off the trigger which would explode the blank hidden inside a lineside building.stockers said:
This might sound silly, but it would certainly clear your railway of pigeons.
OK if you wish to go into guano production!yb281 said:This might sound silly, but it would certainly clear your railway of pigeons.
Do they still make them? I would have thought some 'elf' would have banned them by now (which would be a shame).
stockers said:
I am not sure but its got me thinking it could be worth a look in the shop and try
I always remember setting fire to a whole roll and expecting some sombe like effect only to be greated big a woosh and flash and not much else.
Now for effect get some old non saftety matches and scrape of the pink stuff in to a nut on the end of a bolt, when nearly full gently and i mean gently insert another bolt until its just finger tight then throw it at something hard but make shure you are not in the line of fire.
Do not try this near a glass house
Think i was about nine when we played it....
It just got a bit serious when we threw them at each other but we survived!!!!!!
It just got a bit serious when we threw them at each other but we survived!!!!!!
I reckon a track contact connected to a cheap MP3 player would be the best way to simulate track detonators....
Whe I was Traffic Manager in Kilmarnock we were supposed to remove out of date dets and take them to Irvine CCE depot, where - according to rumour - they were simply chucked into the sea! I found it more entertaining to take them to a remote signalbox called Barony Junction and get the NCB shunter to run over them. Yes I know, little things.....J2s said:
When the last 504 EMU left Manchester Piccadilly for Hadfield, prior to renewing the 1500V DC OLE to 25KV AC the nearside rail at the end of platform 1 was covered with dets.
It were a good 'send off'. 
It were a good 'send off'.
Det disposal was done by lining them up on a siding until they got carried away and lined up 100, then the army took them and blew them up until that was banned, (how that was too dangerous I'm not sure!)
So a few years back they arranged to clear out old stocks with an approved contractor who was expecting uo to a couple of hundred at each location . . . . . . he was a little suprised to find 1500! One of the rare occasions that a vague contract worked in favour of the railway!
So a few years back they arranged to clear out old stocks with an approved contractor who was expecting uo to a couple of hundred at each location . . . . . . he was a little suprised to find 1500! One of the rare occasions that a vague contract worked in favour of the railway!
I haven't seen the "paper rolls", but you can certainly still get red plastic "rings" of caps - they'd need cutting and trimming, but they might work.
Plenty of toy gun caps listed on Amazon.
Problem being that you have to be 18 to buy them. I'm a bit too young then!
We have the same problem with selling Christmas Crackers at work.
I do remember working with my brother with one of those little metal planes with the 2 bits held by elastic bands and loading as many caps as possible to make either the biggest bang or fire. Great days.
Problem being that you have to be 18 to buy them. I'm a bit too young then!
We have the same problem with selling Christmas Crackers at work.
I do remember working with my brother with one of those little metal planes with the 2 bits held by elastic bands and loading as many caps as possible to make either the biggest bang or fire. Great days.
Problem solved. Using Ross' previous advice I googled for a solution and the answer is dead simple; Ta da - fulminate of mercury just a smear on the rail and anything that touches it cases it to go bang.... how one would smear it on the rail is another problem........
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2008/03/05/mercury-fulminate-breaking-bad.htm
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2008/03/05/mercury-fulminate-breaking-bad.htm
That strikes a chord.
In the chemistry lab many eons ago to liven things up we used to spread orange crystals - potassium chlorate it think it was - on the floor and as the chemistry master walked around pontificating they exploded each time he trod on them.
Highly amusing to a class of 15yr olds.
Of course he rumbled us.
Result? Detention. :wave:
In the chemistry lab many eons ago to liven things up we used to spread orange crystals - potassium chlorate it think it was - on the floor and as the chemistry master walked around pontificating they exploded each time he trod on them.
Highly amusing to a class of 15yr olds.
Of course he rumbled us.
Result? Detention. :wave:
Great fun to put a hand full of it around an ant's nest too .............. or so I've been told.KeithT said: