• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Attaching it to some kind of ignition, most commonly.

    But even past that, you typically want a very fine concentrate and even distribution of aluminium and rust. Grinding that shit up and mixing it is nasty for your lungs, without quality equipment on hand.

    • BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      The problem is that you’ll typically need something like a magnesium strip to set it off. Shit needs to meet with something burning like the surface of the sun before it kicks into chaos mode.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      I mean a cheap rock tumbler with steel balls for the grinding and standard magnesium sparklers for ignition does would do the trick, I imagine

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        In theory, lots of things work great. In practice…

        You generally want some kind of background and some proper equipment. I’ll concede that making thermite can easily go wrong in the opposite direction - cooking up a recipe that doesn’t ignite at all.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      You can buy premixed thermite online. Granted, you’ll show up suspicious when they start looking up sellers and their buyers.