Thermite Welding AKA CAD Welding

[@Michael-0000]

As a 12 year old, I found the formula for thermite and other compounds in a chemistry book at the library and copied it out longhand during a boring summer’s afternoon. I managed to obtain all the required ingredients at the local pharmacy (no questions asked) and produced a small quantity of thermite at home. I mixed up a 30 second or so fuse using potassium permanganate and a few drops of glycerin. I’d never seen or heard of thermite before and was surprised to melt out the bottom of one of my mother’s cooking pots. My old man and mother had no idea of what was happening in the garage.

[@blanksender7808]

Same. My buddy and I used to make gunpowder in "larger quantities than I'd like to be around today" just to fuck around with it. We'd get sulfur sublimate, potassium nitrate, and grind charcoal briquettes into powder in my back yard. We had a copy of the anarchist cookbook to generally guide us on ratios. Thankfully, we never decided to compress it in a tube or anything but it was still stupid dangerous for 2 12 year olds to play with. Do I know you?

[@nomercyinc6783]

why the fuck would anyone question OVER THE COUNTER OR ON THE SHELF items? its literally walk in grab what you need pay and leave. the surprise that nobody questioned what you were buying doesnt really mean anything important at all. not everyone are potential arson suspects. not everyone knows what ingredients it takes to make a bomb. theres really nothing surprising about anything you typed out

[@WXUZT]

Problem with Permanganate and Glycerin is the Glycerin has to be anhydrous for best results

[@stevetalin6489]

Sounds like the crazy sort of stuff we used to do as kids of that age. I’m happy to say that I’m 71 years old now and have all of my eyes, fingers and limbs. Had many close calls though. Be safe my friend.❤

[@alabasterwilliams5329]

It warms my heart that Goldmember’s quote lives on with workmen around the country. I use the beloved phrase daily working at a marina.

[@GordiansKnotHere]

"Tight like Tiger"...

[@vanillasmerk5742]

I like the train track fix with this method. Tis gnarly

[@Scott.16]

Me too.

[@sebbes333]

What kind of lighter is that? Or is that some special mix of thermite? Normally you need a magnesium strip & a blowtorch to ignite thermite. Is it maybe thermite mixed with some sort of (smokeless) gunpowder?

[@joshuacheung6518]

If i had to guess, and I'm guessing, probably a magnesium alloy bar that gets shaved and the splinters ignited and shot out with each pull

[@mixmaxermixer8005]

Flit striker just with a trigger running a round wheel like a bic lighter, The thermite charge is a prepacked charge for welding ground straps on watermains. Cadweld is one brand. The very last bit of charge that sticks in the bottom of the tube is fine ground magnesium.

[@joshkelly3743]

​@@joshuacheung6518 on larger set ups . The ignition powder comes in a separate container. It is similar to a sparkler firework. It is easy to light but burns hot enough to ignite the thermite mixture which is very difficult to ignite

[@frosthoe]

Good quality will ignite with a strong spark..Ive unfortunately created this while machining/grinding . Maybe yours has a lot of humidity in it or something? My punishment? I had to sleep in a chair at the machine shop watching my area for re ignition! After I machined cast iron and then aluminum and Mag, and Ti and bronze and...witches brew of chip mix. Then I welded on a table near it. Stuff was crackling all over! Lil wisps of smoke would mark tiny spots of lava, and inside them was a white hot glowing ember ...scattered all over my work cell. Under machines, on cabinets and behind them too!. The owner gave me the option, stay the night with pay/ or get fired. Clean up and never mix chips again. I chose fire guard cleanup and a job.. He showed mercy and let me go home at 5am and come in at noon that day. I learned well from that punishment. And respect to the boss for keeping me. I put out little fires for HOURS with a spray bottle filled with soapy water and would foam them and sand it down. Boss had hung 5-6 smoke detectors in my cell and they would go off and wake me.. Later, I learned this was not unusual in the Machining / Tool and die trades.

[@joshkelly3743]

@frosthoe any time we do them we heat everything up with a torch first to drive out any and all moisture. If you don't then it can flash to steam and shoot molten thermite out everywhere.. I only skipped the torch step one time and will never do it again

[@TheTuttle99]

Why is this kind of welding used?

[@DrippiBean]

exothermic welding like this is used in electrical construction because it’s very easy and relatively safe to do and doesn’t require much training. we use it to weld large conductors together and to bus bars, and to weld grounding electrode conductors to things that need grounded and bonded(which is kinda what’s happening here i believe)

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

The minimal amount of equipment and setup is one benefit.

[@yannicmeyer421]

Versitarium has an awesome Video on thermite if you would like to know more!

[@user-dg7sy8cz3b]

They’re attaching copper wires for cathodic protection purposes. Cathodic protection is used to isolate electrical energy into a sacrificial anode and protect the iron lines from developing holes.

[@joshkelly3743]

This was a small one

[@filaoCentral]

Confia que isso vai segurar? Prefiro não arriscar

[@quilbillygarage]

Yes.

[@alexgoldstein7997]

What are the leads for? monitoring of some kind? Grounds?

[@quilbillygarage]

The leads are for testing the effectiveness of cathodic protection of the pipeline.

[@plupyduplupydu1369]

Thats not welding-thats crazy chemistry already done

[@CranialMalfunction]

Why would anyone weld a copper wire to pipes using thermite?! There's safer & better methods! IMHO, thermite welding is better suited for connecting big steel parts, especially rails / I-beams.

[@pypes84]

It's copper-aluminum thermite, so the resulting metal is copper.

[@joshuacheung6518]

And what would you suggest be used here? Solder?

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

Looked rather safe to me. And it seemed to get the job done. "Safer and better" isn't a good enough reason to change if the existing option is already good enough.

[@joshuacheung6518]

Arguably other bonding options aren't really safer either. They all carry a burn risk, many carry an electrocution risk.

[@mixmaxermixer8005]

Daily occurrence if you lay watermains for a living, every valve and bend needs a ground strap welded from pipe to pipe.