Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding from
my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see how
long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one regular
poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


I made a dimmer out of a basin of salt water and some bare wire (mains)

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:56:17 GMT, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one regular
poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


I used some shelves from the larder, that my mum had washed off and left
outside, to make a sledge. Can't remember if I got a whack for that one, but she
wasn't happy !

Andy C

ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding from
my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see how
long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one regular
poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

I sawed the top off a live 22 cartrdidge to see what was inside.

A big bang..

Adam

Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

I used to fill lemonade bottles with hydrogen by electrolysis of
salt-water. The idea was to detonate the "hydrogen bomb" remotely
with a match-head with a couple of turns of nichrome wire wrapped
round. That part was not very successful IIRC

I couldn't have electrocuted my sister, as that is by definition
always fatal, but the alarm system I built for my secret cupboard
in my bedroom had the ability to deliver a shock derived from
a 4.5v cycle lamp battery and an induction coil.
She didn't speak to me for weeks!

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Stupidest one? Half filled a jam jar with sodium chlorate and sugar
mixture, screwed the lid on good and tight and threw it into a bonfire.

The 'pop' was very quiet, but it took ages for all of the bits to fall to
the ground. I suspect some achieved orbit.

Remarkably I escaped injury.

Electrocuted myself a couple of times (when I got bored with explosives I
moved onto electronics). And once to my eternal shame I blew the circuit
breaker for an entire block of labs and offices while testing a new new
'invention'.

Perhaps this is why I stay clear of power tools (the chainsaw idea was a
non-starter, and I've still not plucked up the courage to get an angle
grinder yet).

Al.

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

I brought a 4ft diameter met balloon into collage once and we decided
to fill it with gas from the Bunsen burner supply* in one of the labs.
We released it from a top floor window aided and abetted by
our lecturer. I suggested that we should attach a card with a message
on it from us, but he didn't think that was a good idea.

*proper coal gas, not the modern heavier than air substitute we get now.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding from
my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see how
long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one regular
poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


Spent quite a while playing with a blowtorch and lead piping (from an
old toilet). Much fun but have always wondered if I absorbed rather a
lot of lead.

Played with a doorbell, model railway transformer and various other bits
- gave quite a powerful pulse-like shock as you twanged the hammer spring.

Melted iron in the fireplace - coal plus a cylinder vacuum cleaner. Very
impressive. Especially the burns on the carpet from the sparks. The iron
did melt and filled a hole in the bottom of the fireplace.

Tried to move soil by pointing a hosepipe at it and letting the water
jet do the job. Yes - it moved the soil. But after doing that for a
couple of hours, it set like concrete when the sun baked it over the
next weeks.

Replaced a fuse (this was at my boarding school) - firstly with a couple
of strands of fuse wire. Later with around a dozen - probably
effectively 60 amps. Still managed to blow it by putting magnesium
ribbon across sockets and switching on.

--
Rod

Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
www.thyromind.info www.thyroiduk.org www.altsupportthyroid.org

"Rod" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


Spent quite a while playing with a blowtorch and lead piping (from an old
toilet). Much fun but have always wondered if I absorbed rather a lot of
lead.

Played with a doorbell, model railway transformer and various other bits -
gave quite a powerful pulse-like shock as you twanged the hammer spring.

Melted iron in the fireplace - coal plus a cylinder vacuum cleaner. Very
impressive. Especially the burns on the carpet from the sparks. The iron
did melt and filled a hole in the bottom of the fireplace.

Tried to move soil by pointing a hosepipe at it and letting the water jet
do the job. Yes - it moved the soil. But after doing that for a couple of
hours, it set like concrete when the sun baked it over the next weeks.

Replaced a fuse (this was at my boarding school) - firstly with a couple
of strands of fuse wire. Later with around a dozen - probably effectively
60 amps. Still managed to blow it by putting magnesium ribbon across
sockets and switching on.


I posted this anecdote that my sister told me about (the one
I nearly electrocuted) a couple of years ago.
I will just cut & paste:

My sister used to teach in a private girls' school in London.
The story goes that there was some renovation being done
to one of the classrooms and a small sealed-off room was
found that no-one could remember. It had obviously been
a store room for a lab and among the things found there
was a kilogramme or so of a soft metallic substance not quite
covered in oil. Fortunately someone there realised how dangerous
the find was, and it was dealt with accordingly.

Can you tell what it is yet?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWCU2FXf2w

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


I wondered what would happen if i wired a 240v - 12v transformer the wrong
way round...

Well, when I could see again, my fingers were black, with soot, thankfully,
and the fuse in the plug simply disn't exist any more.

N

"Neil" wrote in message
o.uk...

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


I wondered what would happen if i wired a 240v - 12v transformer the wrong
way round...

Well, when I could see again, my fingers were black, with soot,
thankfully, and the fuse in the plug simply disn't exist any more.


Oh, and there was the time I made a home-made 'firework' boosted with
magnesium pinched from the school chemistry lab.
According to witnesses, my head was enveloped in a ball of flame - it had a
similar (temporary) effect on my eysight and I staggered home without
eyebrows,

N

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:53:53 UTC, "Graham." wrote:

My sister used to teach in a private girls' school in London.
The story goes that there was some renovation being done
to one of the classrooms and a small sealed-off room was
found that no-one could remember. It had obviously been
a store room for a lab and among the things found there
was a kilogramme or so of a soft metallic substance not quite
covered in oil. Fortunately someone there realised how dangerous
the find was, and it was dealt with accordingly.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Not viewed the video, but I'd guess sodium....

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding from
my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see how
long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one regular
poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


We undertook an experiment in the first floor school science labs to see
if the water or gas supply had the highest pressure by connecting
them together one afternoon. The teacher kept lurking nearby so the
supplies were connect for quite sometime. We only got the real result
the next day when there were no school dinners. The cooks had tried to
light the ovens in the ground floor kitchen only to find that water was
coming out of the burners for some reason!

After that all the rubber hoses on the laboratory sink taps were
shortened so they did not reach the nearby gas taps.

Anon (aka Bob)

Graham. wrote:
"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

I brought a 4ft diameter met balloon into collage once and we decided
to fill it with gas from the Bunsen burner supply* in one of the labs.
We released it from a top floor window aided and abetted by
our lecturer. I suggested that we should attach a card with a message
on it from us, but he didn't think that was a good idea.

*proper coal gas, not the modern heavier than air substitute we get now.

Ah WE used a camping mattress pump to fill ours from the gas poker,
taped a fuse to it, and generated UFO sightings over west London.

Then there was the 'ball bearing cannon' featuring 1/4" pipe, two
bangers (dismantled) and a 1/4" ball bearing. Sited carefully on a cast
(steel? iron? Mezac?) plate on a tennis court in a field..it made a
satisfying bang. We walked over and found a quarter inch hole punched
through the 1/4" cast plate..

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:39:08 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
had this to say:

Graham. wrote:
"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

I brought a 4ft diameter met balloon into collage once and we decided
to fill it with gas from the Bunsen burner supply* in one of the labs.
We released it from a top floor window aided and abetted by
our lecturer. I suggested that we should attach a card with a message
on it from us, but he didn't think that was a good idea.

*proper coal gas, not the modern heavier than air substitute we get now.

Ah WE used a camping mattress pump to fill ours from the gas poker,
taped a fuse to it, and generated UFO sightings over west London.

Then there was the 'ball bearing cannon' featuring 1/4" pipe, two
bangers (dismantled) and a 1/4" ball bearing. Sited carefully on a cast
(steel? iron? Mezac?) plate on a tennis court in a field..it made a
satisfying bang. We walked over and found a quarter inch hole punched
through the 1/4" cast plate..

I once devised (?) a rocket-propelled toy lorry. I had this quite
well-made lorry from which I removed the body, leaving just the
rolling chassis and the cab. The propulsion 'device' was a piece of
steel tube about 8" long and perhaps 1½" diameter (from a vacuum
cleaner hose attachment), nipped and rivetted shut at one end;
likewise at the back end apart from a gap just big enough for the
'fizzer' of a firework 'banger'. I (partially) filled this with my
special reasonably-fast-burning secret mixture, and bolted this to the
chassis of said lorry (actually I probably used saddle clamps, but
can't really remember) and attached a suitable detonator.
Against the end of the shed I stood an enamelled iron sheet for the
blast to act against, and lit the 'fuse'.
The vehicle shot forward about 6 feet and exploded, one wheel flying
off and going straight through a smallish pane of a bay window. The
rest of the lorry was OKish (apart from the ripped-open steel tube).
The little old lady living next door (Mrs (Miss?) Barraclough)
sheepishly called round to see if I was all right. She'd just been
putting a cake into the oven when she heard this enormous blast. My
folks were quite immune to my 'experiments'.
It was also the first time that I replaced a pane of glass - at around
12 or 13 years of age.

The problem, after I'd carried out a 'post-mortem' was, I think, that
the mixture contained quite a quantity of sugar; this melted and
gunged-up the jet orifice, forming an effective bomb.

I really think it's sad that kids nowadays are deprived of the
experience of technical/scientific 'research'. Little wonder that as a
nation we're rapidly falling from being world leaders to 'also-rans'.

After all, I'm still alive (just!).

--
Frank Erskine

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

Not experiments as such, but I remember making a weed-killer & sugar pipe
bomb, copper tube, small hole drilled in the centre, flattened one end in
Dads vice, filled with the mixture then flattened the other end in the vice
(I cringe when I think). A length of Jetex fuse (remember that?) into the
centre hole, light it and run like f**k. To this day I remember the copper
shrapnel flying over our heads. And bonfire nights, struth, my mates dad
owned a newsagents, he used to come out with oodles of bangers and rockets,
tie a few bangers to a rocket stick and wait for a likely target. One night
we managed to get a banger-rocket into the wooden hut of a parking attendant
at a local car park. Then there was the bangburst, in someones entry
(terraced houses) put maybe 10 bangers in a circle around an empty
bangersworth of powder, always lay a trail to banger #11 then light the
powder and yep, run like f**k. Kabam 10 times, followed by footsteps down
the entry, followed by kabam #11.
This was when a penny banger was worth a penny.
Hmmmm, I prolly should still be in jail
Then there was the time when, nah, scrub that.

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:39:08 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
had this to say:

Graham. wrote:
"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
om...
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam
I brought a 4ft diameter met balloon into collage once and we decided
to fill it with gas from the Bunsen burner supply* in one of the labs.
We released it from a top floor window aided and abetted by
our lecturer. I suggested that we should attach a card with a message
on it from us, but he didn't think that was a good idea.

*proper coal gas, not the modern heavier than air substitute we get now.

Ah WE used a camping mattress pump to fill ours from the gas poker,
taped a fuse to it, and generated UFO sightings over west London.

Then there was the 'ball bearing cannon' featuring 1/4" pipe, two
bangers (dismantled) and a 1/4" ball bearing. Sited carefully on a cast
(steel? iron? Mezac?) plate on a tennis court in a field..it made a
satisfying bang. We walked over and found a quarter inch hole punched
through the 1/4" cast plate..

I once devised (?) a rocket-propelled toy lorry. I had this quite
well-made lorry from which I removed the body, leaving just the
rolling chassis and the cab. The propulsion 'device' was a piece of
steel tube about 8" long and perhaps 11/2" diameter (from a vacuum
cleaner hose attachment), nipped and rivetted shut at one end;
likewise at the back end apart from a gap just big enough for the
'fizzer' of a firework 'banger'. I (partially) filled this with my
special reasonably-fast-burning secret mixture, and bolted this to the
chassis of said lorry (actually I probably used saddle clamps, but
can't really remember) and attached a suitable detonator.
Against the end of the shed I stood an enamelled iron sheet for the
blast to act against, and lit the 'fuse'.
The vehicle shot forward about 6 feet and exploded, one wheel flying
off and going straight through a smallish pane of a bay window. The
rest of the lorry was OKish (apart from the ripped-open steel tube).
The little old lady living next door (Mrs (Miss?) Barraclough)
sheepishly called round to see if I was all right. She'd just been
putting a cake into the oven when she heard this enormous blast. My
folks were quite immune to my 'experiments'.
It was also the first time that I replaced a pane of glass - at around
12 or 13 years of age.

The problem, after I'd carried out a 'post-mortem' was, I think, that
the mixture contained quite a quantity of sugar; this melted and
gunged-up the jet orifice, forming an effective bomb.

I really think it's sad that kids nowadays are deprived of the
experience of technical/scientific 'research'. Little wonder that as a
nation we're rapidly falling from being world leaders to 'also-rans'.

After all, I'm still alive (just!).

I did exactly te same, although I used aluminium and a epoxied on washer
as a nozzle, and I dispensed with the lorry, and slung it on the clothes
line with sliding hooks.

It wasn't sugar blocking the nozzle: It was pure pressure build up
detonating the mix. I found the twisted casing a year later in the hedge.

"Al" wrote in message
. 4...
So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Stupidest one? Half filled a jam jar with sodium chlorate and sugar
mixture, screwed the lid on good and tight and threw it into a bonfire.

The 'pop' was very quiet, but it took ages for all of the bits to fall to
the ground. I suspect some achieved orbit.

Remarkably I escaped injury.

Electrocuted myself a couple of times (when I got bored with explosives I
moved onto electronics). And once to my eternal shame I blew the circuit
breaker for an entire block of labs and offices while testing a new new
'invention'.


That's more like it. At school we made up lots of 13A plugs with the live
and neutral connected together and plugged them into various sockets around
the school at dinner time.

There were no fuses in the plugs as I owned a soldering iron. A few sockets
needed to be replaced.

Adam

Not experiments as such, but I remember making a weed-killer & sugar pipe
bomb, copper tube, small hole drilled in the centre, flattened one end in
Dads vice, filled with the mixture then flattened the other end in the
vice (I cringe when I think). A length of Jetex fuse (remember that?) into
the centre hole, light it and run like f**k. To this day I remember the
copper shrapnel flying over our heads. And bonfire nights, struth, my
mates dad owned a newsagents, he used to come out with oodles of bangers
and rockets, tie a few bangers to a rocket stick and wait for a likely
target. One night we managed to get a banger-rocket into the wooden hut of
a parking attendant at a local car park. Then there was the bangburst, in
someones entry (terraced houses) put maybe 10 bangers in a circle around
an empty bangersworth of powder, always lay a trail to banger #11 then
light the powder and yep, run like f**k. Kabam 10 times, followed by
footsteps down the entry, followed by kabam #11.
This was when a penny banger was worth a penny.
Hmmmm, I prolly should still be in jail
Then there was the time when, nah, scrub that.

Ditto............But used the pipe bombs up the local woods to blow up the
rubbish bins.

Progressed from bins to couples shagging in cars. Enormous fun chucking one
or two large "bands" of bangers next to a steamed up car and waiting for
someone to fall out shocked as **** and half naked, semi deaf and shouting
obscenities..
I suspect there were a few pregnancies avoided due to that little bit of
fun.

ARWadsworth wrote:
"Al" wrote in message
. 4...
So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.
Stupidest one? Half filled a jam jar with sodium chlorate and sugar
mixture, screwed the lid on good and tight and threw it into a bonfire.

The 'pop' was very quiet, but it took ages for all of the bits to fall to
the ground. I suspect some achieved orbit.

Remarkably I escaped injury.

Electrocuted myself a couple of times (when I got bored with explosives I
moved onto electronics). And once to my eternal shame I blew the circuit
breaker for an entire block of labs and offices while testing a new new
'invention'.


That's more like it. At school we made up lots of 13A plugs with the live
and neutral connected together and plugged them into various sockets around
the school at dinner time.

There were no fuses in the plugs as I owned a soldering iron. A few sockets
needed to be replaced.

Adam



We did a similar thing, but connected the neutral and earth, so the RCD
would just keep tripping - best place was in a socket hidden behind a
cupboard :-)

"Frank Erskine" wrote in message
...

I really think it's sad that kids nowadays are deprived of the
experience of technical/scientific 'research'. Little wonder that as a
nation we're rapidly falling from being world leaders to 'also-rans'.


I think everything has been dumbed down so much that Darwinism doesn't work
anymore.
As a result we have a country run by politicians that should have been
removed from the gene pool during childhood.

After all, I'm still alive (just!).

--
Frank Erskine

Bob Minchin wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our
Dad's hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits
to see how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


We undertook an experiment in the first floor school science labs to see
if the water or gas supply had the highest pressure by connecting them
together one afternoon. The teacher kept lurking nearby so the supplies
were connect for quite sometime. We only got the real result the next
day when there were no school dinners. The cooks had tried to light the
ovens in the ground floor kitchen only to find that water was coming out
of the burners for some reason!

After that all the rubber hoses on the laboratory sink taps were
shortened so they did not reach the nearby gas taps.

Anon (aka Bob)

:-)

Me too - but because the gas supply to our lab came down from the
ceiling, we only filled the rooms gas pipes!

People were using the Bunsen's at the time, so the extra pressure made
the flames really high, for a while, then strangely they went out and
the Bunsen's were shooting water in the air :-)

ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good
hiding from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our
Dad's hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into
bits to see how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Ours were mainly explosive. I grew up in east London during the late 50's &
early 60's, still lots of 'bomb sites' as we called them (derelict land),
where you could find all sorts of useful stuff, build 'camps' etc.

Our best find was a metal tube about 3" diameter, 30" long hinged along its
length - this became our breach loading rocket launcher when bonfire night
came around. Penny bangers were OK, but you could get bigger ones for 3p.
Stuffed into the middle of a rotten apple from the local market clear up,
they made excellent hand grenades - if you got the timing right they
exploded mid air showering bits of apple all over the place.

We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else? When it
dried out it became a sort of contact explosive. We used to apply liberal
amounts to the striker plates of heavy cast iron door knockers & wait...


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

"Toby" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth wrote:
"Al" wrote in message
. 4...
So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.
Stupidest one? Half filled a jam jar with sodium chlorate and sugar
mixture, screwed the lid on good and tight and threw it into a bonfire.

The 'pop' was very quiet, but it took ages for all of the bits to fall
to
the ground. I suspect some achieved orbit.

Remarkably I escaped injury.

Electrocuted myself a couple of times (when I got bored with explosives
I
moved onto electronics). And once to my eternal shame I blew the circuit
breaker for an entire block of labs and offices while testing a new new
'invention'.


That's more like it. At school we made up lots of 13A plugs with the live
and neutral connected together and plugged them into various sockets
around the school at dinner time.

There were no fuses in the plugs as I owned a soldering iron. A few
sockets needed to be replaced.

Adam



We did a similar thing, but connected the neutral and earth, so the RCD
would just keep tripping - best place was in a socket hidden behind a
cupboard :-)


We did not have RCD protection at my school. The trick was to just get the
earth pin slightly in and then kick the plug in with your foot because of
the flashback.

Adam

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


We undertook an experiment in the first floor school science labs to see
if the water or gas supply had the highest pressure by connecting them
together one afternoon. The teacher kept lurking nearby so the supplies
were connect for quite sometime. We only got the real result the next day
when there were no school dinners. The cooks had tried to light the ovens
in the ground floor kitchen only to find that water was coming out of the
burners for some reason!

After that all the rubber hoses on the laboratory sink taps were shortened
so they did not reach the nearby gas taps.

Anon (aka Bob)

I'll bet the schools caretaker loved you.

Adam

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!


That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) - not a
contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to make this
AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with pot.mang?

R wrote:
Not experiments as such, but I remember making a weed-killer & sugar pipe
bomb, copper tube, small hole drilled in the centre, flattened one end in
Dads vice, filled with the mixture then flattened the other end in the
vice (I cringe when I think). A length of Jetex fuse (remember that?) into
the centre hole, light it and run like f**k. To this day I remember the
copper shrapnel flying over our heads. And bonfire nights, struth, my
mates dad owned a newsagents, he used to come out with oodles of bangers
and rockets, tie a few bangers to a rocket stick and wait for a likely
target. One night we managed to get a banger-rocket into the wooden hut of
a parking attendant at a local car park. Then there was the bangburst, in
someones entry (terraced houses) put maybe 10 bangers in a circle around
an empty bangersworth of powder, always lay a trail to banger #11 then
light the powder and yep, run like f**k. Kabam 10 times, followed by
footsteps down the entry, followed by kabam #11.
This was when a penny banger was worth a penny.
Hmmmm, I prolly should still be in jail
Then there was the time when, nah, scrub that.

Ditto............But used the pipe bombs up the local woods to blow up the
rubbish bins.

Progressed from bins to couples shagging in cars. Enormous fun chucking one
or two large "bands" of bangers next to a steamed up car and waiting for
someone to fall out shocked as **** and half naked, semi deaf and shouting
obscenities..
I suspect there were a few pregnancies avoided due to that little bit of
fun.



At age 10 or so I was convinced it was possible to light the touch paper
of a single banger in a box of assorted fireworks, and have time to
snuff it out before the whole lot went up. Wrong of course, but why I
carried out the experiment in the bedroom still eludes me. Pig headed
and stupid, a deadly combination.

ARWadsworth wibbled:

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

Wiring a random transformer from the back of a valve TV to the mains. I knew
what it would do, but not which way! Measured 8V with my cheap and crappy
Radio Shack meter. I was lucky.

Tried my new 2A/10000-turn electromagnet on the colour TV to see how it bent
electron beams. Discovered the joy of inbuilt degaussing coils, about 50
times before my parents came back. Nearly Darwined by that one!

Lots of fund with pot.mang, pot.nitrate, and any reducer to hand. Tried
making gunpowder, and drying it in the gas oven...

Electrolysing water + salt direct from mains. That goes pop-ety-pop, a
lot...

"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!


That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) - not a
contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to make this
AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with pot.mang?

Wasn't it something like ammonium iodide? or something iodide.

"dennis@home" wrote in message
...


"Frank Erskine" wrote in message
...

I really think it's sad that kids nowadays are deprived of the
experience of technical/scientific 'research'. Little wonder that as a
nation we're rapidly falling from being world leaders to 'also-rans'.


I think everything has been dumbed down so much that Darwinism doesn't
work anymore.
As a result we have a country run by politicians that should have been
removed from the gene pool during childhood.


Dennis

This country has gone mad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...-health-safety

I will spend this afternoon crayfish hunting in the River Dearne with a 5
year old and afterwards we will climb some trees. Last weeks picture is here
http://tinypic.com/r/2ret7yw/3

If he falls from a tree I will take him to casualty if needed, if he falls
in the river I will pull him out (more of a stream than a river)

Frank E certainly hit the nail on the head with his post

Adam

"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
ARWadsworth wibbled:

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

Wiring a random transformer from the back of a valve TV to the mains. I
knew
what it would do, but not which way! Measured 8V with my cheap and crappy
Radio Shack meter. I was lucky.

Frame output trany from a valve set was good as a step-dowm


Electrolytic capacitor on long wires out of the window. Plug into mains,
metallic confetti everywhere.

I just realised I made an unintentional one word pun in the sentence
above. Anyone?

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Graham." wrote in message
...

Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

I used to fill lemonade bottles with hydrogen by electrolysis of
salt-water. The idea was to detonate the "hydrogen bomb" remotely
with a match-head with a couple of turns of nichrome wire wrapped
round. That part was not very successful IIRC

I couldn't have electrocuted my sister, as that is by definition
always fatal, but the alarm system I built for my secret cupboard
in my bedroom had the ability to deliver a shock derived from
a 4.5v cycle lamp battery and an induction coil.
She didn't speak to me for weeks!

--
Graham.

I thought that electrocution meant "kill or injure" and was not always
fatal.

Anyway, you made a Taser. So well done.

Adam

brass monkey wibbled:


"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!


That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) - not a
contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to make
this AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with pot.mang?

Wasn't it something like ammonium iodide? or something iodide.

NI3 = Nitrogen Tri-Iodide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_triiodide

You can make Nitrogen Tri-Cloride but that blows up pretty much as soon as
you make it, according to our chemistry teacher.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:20:31 +0100, Tim S wrote:

brass monkey wibbled:


"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!


That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) - not a
contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to make
this AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with pot.mang?

Wasn't it something like ammonium iodide? or something iodide.

NI3 = Nitrogen Tri-Iodide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_triiodide

You can make Nitrogen Tri-Cloride but that blows up pretty much as soon as
you make it, according to our chemistry teacher.

Ah, memories. Worked in a chemi lab in the mid 60s. Started off with sawn
off burettes and nickel balls (not much range but could destroy a
winchester quart - stopped that when 2.5li od fluorosicilic acid went
walkies), then moved on to explosives. Had various substances to try, so
blowpipe-launched was a natural progression. Doing well until an explosion
occured part-way down the pipe. The boss decided that we'd had enough fun
and he wanted his empire intact :-(
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:23:12 GMT, ARWadsworth wrote:

We undertook an experiment in the first floor school science labs to see
if the water or gas supply had the highest pressure by connecting them
together one afternoon. The teacher kept lurking nearby so the supplies
were connect for quite sometime. We only got the real result the next day
when there were no school dinners. The cooks had tried to light the ovens
in the ground floor kitchen only to find that water was coming out of the
burners for some reason!

After that all the rubber hoses on the laboratory sink taps were shortened
so they did not reach the nearby gas taps.

Anon (aka Bob)

I'll bet the schools caretaker loved you.

Nt explosive/electrical:
new physics block at school (about 4 storeys IIRC), members of school choir
in a corner of the stairwell, find resonant frequency and hold note. Long
crack in corner was still there when I left a couple of years later.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:47:32 +0100, Tim S wrote:

ARWadsworth wibbled:

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

Wiring a random transformer from the back of a valve TV to the mains. I knew
what it would do, but not which way! Measured 8V with my cheap and crappy
Radio Shack meter. I was lucky.

Tried my new 2A/10000-turn electromagnet on the colour TV to see how it bent
electron beams. Discovered the joy of inbuilt degaussing coils, about 50
times before my parents came back. Nearly Darwined by that one!

Lots of fund with pot.mang, pot.nitrate, and any reducer to hand. Tried
making gunpowder, and drying it in the gas oven...

Electrolysing water + salt direct from mains. That goes pop-ety-pop, a
lot...

Seems a lot of us were intrigued by explosives and electricity....

I did some incredibly stupid things with ground up Swan Vesta heads (
which in itself was pretty daft - but safety matches didn't have
enough 'ooomph' ) and bits of copper pipe.

We used to make our own bangers by getting a couple of large bolts and
a nut and screwing them together with a match head inbetween. Tied to
a loop of string and hurled against a wall they'd make a pretty decent
bang.

I moved onto butane - and found that by squirting a generous amount
down the plughole of one of a long line of sinks in the school's
chemistry lab and then igniting it, I could get a satisfying 'whoomph'
out of almost every sink along the line.

.....and then there was the WD40 flame gun...

Regards,


--
Steve ( out in the sticks )
Email: Take time to reply: timefrom_usenet{at}gmx.net

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"Frank Erskine" wrote in message
.. .

I really think it's sad that kids nowadays are deprived of the
experience of technical/scientific 'research'. Little wonder that as a
nation we're rapidly falling from being world leaders to 'also-rans'.


I think everything has been dumbed down so much that Darwinism doesn't
work anymore.
As a result we have a country run by politicians that should have been
removed from the gene pool during childhood.


But Dennis - you epitomise this culture

You are the worst example of "live in the box", "no risk" we have in
uk.d-i-y


--
geoff

Tim S wrote:
brass monkey wibbled:

"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something
else?
Glycerine!

That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) -
not a contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to
make this AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with
pot.mang?
Wasn't it something like ammonium iodide? or something iodide.

NI3 = Nitrogen Tri-Iodide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_triiodide

Ah yes... for the benefit of newer readers: my experience with that
*wonderful* stuff is he

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....2b267bcc5ce012

As the sister-electrocuter named by the OP (and yes, she did survive my
ministrations) - as a kid I had a fair amount of experience with
home-made explosives, none of which caused any damage or injury, but for
some reason the instance which most sticks in my mind was when I was
very young and simply left a lit candle in the garage in a plastic pot
overnight 'just to see what would happen'. Went down to see next morning
and all that was left was a charred circle of about 9" diameter on the
wooden shelf and about half-way through its thickness, where the molten
wax must have spilled out and soaked in to the timber as it burned.

Must have been a hair's breadth away from the whole lot - garage, house
- going up in flames overnight. I successfully hid the burn mark under
old cans etc for years - I owned up to my parents a few years ago, and
they never had noticed the burn mark.

David

brass monkey wrote:
"Tim S" wrote in message
.. .
Harry Bloomfield wibbled:

The Medway Handyman expressed precisely :
We also made a paste from potassium permanganate & something else?

Glycerine!


That mix self ignites fairly quickly (10's seconds to minutes) - not
a contact explosive...

Contact bangers sound more like NI3 - but pot.mang isn't used to
make this AFAIK. Perhaps there's some extra fun to be had with
pot.mang?

Wasn't it something like ammonium iodide? or something iodide.

Iodine rings a bell, maybe I was thinking of the colour? And hydrogen
peroxide possibly? Long time ago...


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk