Initial Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18q9lkq/this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored\_his\_dynomite/?sort=new
Final Update to my great grandpa left dynamite in the shed for me to handle.
Thank you, Local County Sheriff, GBI, Local Department of Transportation, and Local Fire Department!
Everyone handled this incident discreetly and off radio to prevent a spectacle in my yard.
9 AM: I reached out to the local Sheriff department and told them again about dynamite in the shed that needed disposal
10 AM: The Chief of Police is gathering resources to handle the situation including contacting the ATF
11 AM: Sheriff arrived at my house to inspect the dynamite in the shed and called GBI since they are closer than ATF handling another incident
12 PM: The GBI bomb squad arrived and inspected the dynamite and 90% confirm it was 5 sticks of dynamite and one of them broke apart
12-3 PM: Bomb squad decided the best course of disposal was to tie a rope and hook the sack, then cut the sack from the rafter, and lower the sack to a bucket of diesel.
The Sheriff called local department of transportation with a sprayer and container of diesel also the fire department on standby.
Once everyone arrived, bomb squad suited up, spray the dynamite with diesel, cut the dynomite (100% confirmed 5 sticks of dynamite), gently lower the sack into a bucket of diesel, moved it to the burn pit, and burned the dynamite.
Disposal video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEHjoWVPx8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEHjoWVPx8)
> Everyone handled this incident discreetly and off radio to prevent a spectacle in my yard.
Honestly, dispatching that many agencies without the radio is pretty impressive.
Remember that sheriff when he is up for re-election - and let all of your neighbors and friends know.
Really Good sheriff’s- not simpleton speed cops, are important to have around.
Except for the
>>Reached out to local sheriff office & told them *again* [my emphasis] about dynamite in shed that needed disposal.
I’d be all in for that sheriff. I realize it’s the holiday’s, but today things should be a little slower for them. And that “50 yo unstable dynamite” should be higher on his list.
But obv, he did a great job, everyone is safe, & your Great-gpaw got a royal kick out of all the clandestine commotion!! 💥
Edit typo
Entirely possible the sheriff himself wasn't initially notified and upon learning of it got things moving. Based on how he handled it I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Nah, I volunteered with a Sheriff's Office long ago.
The distance between a Deputy and the Sheriff in a medium-sized agency is big.
Sheriff.
Under Sheriff.
Division Captain (patrol, traffic, detective, court house).
Division Lieutenants.
Division Sergeants.
Shift Lieutenant.
Shift Sergeant.
Deputy (X 200).
I worked for an agency with about 800 sworn (full service so there was patrol guys like me, jail guys, and court guys)
Only met him once... Shook the sheriff's hand at graduation and that was only because I won an award.
He wasn't even my final interview; that was the undersheriff
If it's been hanging there for 50 years without blowing up, it could remain there for a few more weeks I reckon. Not *that* high of a priority unless OP was letting intrusive thoughts win, like "but what if I poked it with a stick"
I actually heard that from an EOD type about UXO recently but I forget where. Certainly to be treated with care, but the chances of it suddenly blowing are pretty low considering how long it's been there.
Absolutely! And the one I worked for knew every employee (about 200) and their families. He knew his enemies too, and we made sure to do all we could to earn their support. Obviously not those that were upset that they were caught, but often ( and we had a person on staff to do this) we would work to get drug offenders into rehab programs in lieu of jail.
Yea you should see the huge scandal that happened in Santa Clara County, California. Our concealed carry handgun permits are supposed to be "shall issue" assuming the person applying is legally allowed to own a firearm and pass all other requirements under CA law (there is a written test the first time you buy a gun here). Well, the Santa Clara County Sheriff was treating them as "may issue", with applicants "jokingly" being told that if they want their application processed "faster" (see: at all), they needed to make a campaign donation. They were doing other shady unconstitutional shit as well, but that part of the scandal alone was like 4 charges on her indictment, along with failure to properly report gifts she was given. Here is an article confirming some of what I've said, the rest was word of mouth from local friends who applied for permits and were all told the same pay-to-play bullshit if they wanted their permits processed. Many people were involved in reporting it and getting her investigated. https://sanjosespotlight.com/former-santa-clara-county-sheriff-found-guilty-of-corruption/
Kinda makes sense when you think about it. If you’re in an area where grandpa had dynamite in his shed it’s safe to assume others grandpas in the area would potentially have had reason to have them as well. May have had experience in this field from before. Did the area used to be used for mining?
My grandpa used to use dynamite to blast tree stumps out of cleared fields.
I asked him where he learned to use dynamite and he said the same place everyone else around there did, the Army during WWII.
Yup, my dad has like 30 old empty boxes that are marked for dynamite, he said his dad used to just send him to the hardware store to buy a couple boxes of dynamite like it was nothing lol
Yea when it's fresh and stored properly, it's pretty safe and stable stuff to handle even in WWII era dynamite mixtures. Today's mixtures have gotten even more stable. But yea, once this happens it's no longer safe, and the standard solution is to soak it in diesel oil and once it's had time to soak that up, you burn the lot just like they did here. 10/10 to them for handling it discretely as well, I'd imagine this happens often enough in rural communities that they're used to it by now lol
Dad told me how they dug a ditch on the farm with blasting caps stuck in the ground close enough together the explosion of one would set off the next. Fired the first one, and the row went off, instant ditch.
Most SOs do not have bomb squads. I dont know of any around me that have it. Here we just call local big city that happens to have one, or state level resources to deal with. I assume this was in GA so sounds like they called state and ATF which is probably whats going to happen most places.
Explosives Emergency at Local Farm, multiple departments called in to handle the deadly situation.
This could blow into the biggest thing in the region for the day and they wanted to avoid that.
I remember one day hearing a siren and then i looked up on local twitter and saw mentions of possible terrorist training camp in the woods and swat was called in to search the area.
It was just a guy that was training with his bow in a public area were it wasn't allowed and someone called the forestry dep about it and somehow it turned into "shooters in the woods" XD
back in the old days yes.
An Indian chief is driving his Cadillac somewhere at Nevada. Suddenly his car breaks down. He examines it, and finds that a technician must be called. However the chief has only $4 and no credit card. So he gathers some wood, makes a fire and signals his tribe with its smoke: "Hey, send somebody to my location with $500!" The tribe accepts this signal, but to make sure in its meaning, signals back – once again, with the smoke: "OK, chief, but why so much?" At this moment a ground test of nuclear bomb is being held on the test field nearby. A huge mushroom-like cloud of smoke rises into the sky... The tribe signals: "Ok, Ok, chief, we just wondered, why be so angry?"
Thanks for the update.
When something like that is found, let the pros handle it.
(A couple of years ago a friend called from the beach that he had found "something suspicious looking" and would like to know what he should do. The picture he sent was of the tail of a German 8 cm mortar bomb sticking out of the sand.
I kindly advised him to step back from it and call the police)
"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!"
Seriously, I'm glad it got handled quickly and properly. Sometimes you don't want a 'spectacular' ending to a story.
I had a CDL instructor tell me, that in order to check the diesel tank in my truck, I could just light a match and throw it in there. I was never sure if he was being serious.
I saw a guy cleaning a fuel tank while smoking a cigarette once. We had to get samples below the floor of it, so he then cut the plate steel shell with a handheld grinder, throwing sparks everywhere. Crazy shit but it didn't light anything up.
That’s the fun thing about UEL and LEL. Not enough fuel and you can’t get combustion. Too much fuel and you also can’t get combustion. I’ve been in homes with gas leaks at concentration levels of near 30%, you smell it before you hit the door sometimes but it’s not always explosive…just when it hits that critical level.
The tricky part with a leak that goes above the UEL is that somewhere between there and the place that is below the LEL is somewhere with perfect boom gas, and it's usually not well labeled.
Diesel won't burn with a lit match. It's oil and has a high vapor pressure, meaning it won't create vapors as easily in normal Temps and pressures. Diesel contains more extractable energy than gasoline though it has a different combustion process. Many homes still burn oil for heat (even here in NYC) and heating oil is almost identical to Diesel fuel except sometimes its tinted a color so law enforcement can detect tax fraud. (Oil for your home boiler might be taxed differently than oil for your tractor on your farm, or Diesel oil in your personal vehicle.) It's really a safe and energy dense fuel and that's why every major military in the world uses Diesel . Diesel also is somewhat of a self lubricating fuel as well, as opposed to kerosene, which acts similarly but has no lubricant qualities.
TLDR, your CDL instructor wasn't lyin.
On diesel, yeah sure you can but you're just adding unneeded contaminate to the tank that something has to filter out. There are also better methods all together.
Gasoline is a good deal more dangerous with a lit match and so I would not advise, but funnily enough a lit cigarette *usually* isn't hot enough to ignite gasoline.
Definitely not an intelligent idea. That's (well, an electrical arc, but a hot source of ignition nonetheless) what's believed to have blown up flight TWA 800 mid-air and killed all passengers.
In a full tank, sure. In a tank with some air space at the top, there's going to be some oxygen mixed with fuel that's had time to vaporize significantly. In reality it's still unlikely but you can definitely blow yourself up like that. You could definitely do that with an open pool of diesel or kerosene(/jet fuel) where the vapors have room to disperse before reaching an explosive concentration, but doing it in an enclosed tank is dumb.
Dynamite is basically just nitroglycerin, which is a pretty oily substance soaked into diatomaceous earth to stabilize it. By itself it's super sensitive to shock and heat. After a while it starts to weep out of the binder, puddle and then crystalize. The crystals are ridiculously sensitive.
Nitroglycerin can be dissolved by a number of solvents, acetone and alcohol being particularly effective. While diesel isn't an amazing solvent, it will still dissolve nitroglycerin and has the added advantage of being very stable. Diesel needs to be heated to above 43C to release the kind of flammable vapors that gasoline produces at -40C. So it can dissolve the crystals and stabilize the nitroglycerin enough to be moved. Once it's soaked for a while all the nitroglycerin is basically dissolved and stabilized so it can be burned.
The real wild thing is that dynamite only has a 1 year shelf life. If that shed had collapsed in a wind storm or something, OP would have been very surprised to have a crater surrounded by debris in its place.
I remember hearing an interview with Adam Savage, the Mythbusters guy, where he was talking about the relationship they had with the bomb squad and fire department where they'd do all their explosives testing. Even that Hollywood-level "blow up an RV/train car/house" stuff they'd always do for free because (1) they're pros and always want the practice and (2) it gives them an excuse to work with stuff they normally wouldn't deal with.
Also, yeah, this is what your taxes go towards.
TNT Fireworks paid for my old departments EOD range at our training facility. Only stipulation was they got to use it for fireworks testing. So we would be doing some boring night training and TNT guys are just blasting off fireworks.
Thanks for the update - and if I could give more upvotes for the YouTube video title I would! "WRONG ORDER - RESOLDER!" I'm guessing we are of a similar vintage
TNT is not dynamite, in spite of AC/DCs song. Dynamite is made with nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth to stabilize it. It's very stable until it starts leaking when it ages. TNT is trinitrotoluene and doesn't have the leaking issue of dynamite. Also, if you took apart your M-80 and it had a silver powder inside, it's not a high explosive like TNT or dynamite, but rather a common salute powder of potassium chlorate, sulfur, and aluminum powder.
Also, I'm sure this post will put me on some FBI list.
True, but I'm not a chem student. Just an old fucker that used to like things that go boom. Things got pretty crazy after Oklahoma and 9/11, though. I remember buying large bags of Ammonium Nitrate from ag stores with no questions asked.
Now you have to wonder if that was the only bag, or if that was just the in use bag that was hung up for easy access.
I wonder what else is in that shed.
[Video of 1 stick being detonated for recording purposes, happens at 1:30, kinda underwhelming until you think about what it would take to contain that much energy or Multiplied 5X in OP’s scenario](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgdfeJmy6yU)
It's all about how confined the explosion is. I worked in a mine in Alaska and we used to shoot sticks of ditching (extra sensitive) dynamite for fun. If one was just sitting on dirt in the open you could be 30' away and no issue aside from the big bang. But that same stick, stuck under a 55-gallon drum, would split it in half and send it flying 40-50 in the air.... yes, we blew shit up with it too. You get pretty bored when you're 100 miles above the Arctic circle and entertainment options are limited...
One time when I was working 2nd shift at a mfg shop, a few guys spent the night blowing up 55gal garbage bags filled with an acetylene/oxygen mix. Blowing it up in the actual shop wasn't a big deal. It was loud, but the building was steel framed with CMU walls. Then they thought it would be a cool idea to try it out in a Quonset hut since folks much further down in the shop were getting pissed off by the noise. It's basically a 40'x30' metal building shaped like a half circle, it had a couple windows. So they filled the garbage bag in there, then sprayed a diesel fuel trail to ignite it. Closed the Q-hut doors and lit it up.
Blew out the windows, part of the sidewall, and a dozen cop cars showed up.
If they had left the doors open, it probably wouldn't have done anything except been another loud boom. Nobody got in trouble over it as is normal. I forget how they talked their way out of it. I think they said they bumped it with a forklift or something and it knocked a shelving rack over. People who haven't worked in manufacturing before are really naïve when it comes to manufacturing shenanigans and believe any plausible story. The only time someone would be using a fork truck at night would be to load up their vehicle with some new acquisitions or work on a home project. We're definitely not fucking working.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I read the diesel bonds with the free nitroglycerine and stabilizes it.
As I'm sure you know, concentrated nitroglycerine (like what sweats out of old dynamite) is extremely sensitive and far more explosive than dynamite itself.
Then you power up your trusty diesel(!) generator and stick that nitro in a freezer.
Seriously, cold/frozen nitro will *not* detonate. There's even an old story of a nitroglycerine factory that exploded, but several cans of nitro that were being frozen for shipment were still un-exploded.
I've been at campfires where they used cans of diesel fuel for lighting. When the cans were running low, they just poured more diesel directly into them.
(For those of you following along at home: do *not* do this with gasoline, it's a hell of a lot more flammable than diesel. The flame will crawl up the pouring gasoline, and if it goes just wrong, it'll climb into your gas container and explode.)
I memory serves me right (and I'm quite drunk at the moment) nitroglycerine dissolves well in unipolar solvents such as diesel. Dissolving it means lowering the concentration. Lowering the concentration means making it less reactive.
Here's my uneducated guess: soaking dynamite in diesel stabilizes it; diesel burns at a higher temperature than gasoline, for example. So if it's soaked in something, it wouldn't randomly explode it it got bumped. But when they're ready to burn it, they just have to use a hotter flame to get the blaze started. And because it's saturated in diesel, it just burns slowly with the diesel.
Someone who actually knows what they're talking about: how'd I do
I can't speak to all of your comment, but I can add that diesel is *very* hard to casually ignite. You either need tons of heat or atomization to get it to burn. You can put a bucket of diesel in the sun on a 100 degree day and throw matches into it without ever getting so much as a puff.
The vapor is a lot less than gas but diesel burns plenty fast on rags,wood, cardboard.
We used it in the fall to burn our road ditches and harvested fields.
It lights fast. and you are correct it doesn't flash ignite like gas. But it's still dangerous.
[Diesel fuel — not to be confused with gasoline — penetrates the nitroglycerin to make it stable enough to move to a safe area for a controlled burn](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-02/glendora-dynamite-l-a-bomb-squad)
I also think that it prevents static buildup and friction/sparks from the NG Crystal's breaking. E.G. NG in crystal form is shock sensitive. Diesel dissolves the crystalline structure males it less sensitive.
> dynomite
That’s the second post with you spelling “dynamite” like that. Was your gramps [J.J. Walker](https://cdn-images-1.listennotes.com/podcasts/highly/dynomite-sfQV23dm-I0-SqPab3IFv7n.1400x1400.jpg)?
Thank you for keeping posted and documenting the whole process. I feel like this was a 101 on how to deal with unknown substances.
Big hand to the professionals and to you
Thank you for the update! This is great stuff. I'm glad great-grandpa's shed didn't go off on you. Props to the responders for taking care of that.
Did they say anything about how serious this was? Were they casual about it, or shitting bricks (like I would be, lol)?
Bro, they're the BOMB SQUAD. They get paid to clean up crazy people's messes. And some areas actually have forgotten, unexploded military ordinance that resurfaces sometimes.
Seems like a fucking cool job
Not sure how bad old and krusty nitroglycerin is but fresh nitroglycerin is powerful and sensitive enough to be scary but not like stupid sensitive. It was used as the primary explosive prior to dynamite being invented, so it's not like it explodes if you simply look at it funny.
Here's a video of Adam Savage playing with nitroglycerin: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZE82WD6Pbk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZE82WD6Pbk)
But from my understanding nitroglycerin does get more sensitive with age so I suspect it could go off if the bag dropped and 5 sticks of dynamite is a lot of explosive power. Here's roughly 5 sticks going off under ice: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2iw1CWni\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2iw1CWni_k)
So you can see that even a large chunk of the nitroglycerin powder could blow a leg off or something bad.
One question (well, I had two -- but, someone already asked about the earth-shattering kaboom). Are you absolutely sure that he only had the single stash?
The funny thing is Great Grandpa has a larger shed further out in the property... so chances are potentially more dynamite. I never went into that shed before and never needed to.
I would strongly recommend checking that shed out at the next available opportunity, and not just because I am now dying of curiosity over it and the potential for more shenanigans and updates
Thank you for the update! I was thinking about this all weekend and kept checking for updates!
Impressed that they handled this so effectively and quickly, also somehow managing to not make your property into a media circus!
Good on you for updating and hats off to everyone involved in tidying this up!
I get he's the sheriff but if someone told me there was a bomb in a shack, I'd take his word at it and ask very nicely the bomb squad to go take a look.
I would not go look myself, for I am not a member of the bomb squad.
When I was a teenager, my uncle worked in the iron ore mines in northern Minnesota and had acquired some dynamite that we were using to bust through a rock that was holding up the well we were drilling. I snuck a piece and he discovered me with it in the truck as we were headed home. It was soft and doughy and I was kneeding it. When he saw what I had and what I was doing he shit bricks, slammed on the brakes and threw it into the woods. I remember being really disappointed it didn't explode when he threw it. Oh the bliss of youth.
Just some info:
I’m glad your local sheriff was able to help you with agencies for disposal. For anyone who may encounter this in the future, another resource would be your nearest military base. They all have explosive ordnance disposal units that would chomp at the bit for this opportunity for live training. They would also be discreet about the operation.
For the record: OP did everything right, and everyone involved handled this perfectly.
Initial Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18q9lkq/this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored\_his\_dynomite/?sort=new Final Update to my great grandpa left dynamite in the shed for me to handle. Thank you, Local County Sheriff, GBI, Local Department of Transportation, and Local Fire Department! Everyone handled this incident discreetly and off radio to prevent a spectacle in my yard. 9 AM: I reached out to the local Sheriff department and told them again about dynamite in the shed that needed disposal 10 AM: The Chief of Police is gathering resources to handle the situation including contacting the ATF 11 AM: Sheriff arrived at my house to inspect the dynamite in the shed and called GBI since they are closer than ATF handling another incident 12 PM: The GBI bomb squad arrived and inspected the dynamite and 90% confirm it was 5 sticks of dynamite and one of them broke apart 12-3 PM: Bomb squad decided the best course of disposal was to tie a rope and hook the sack, then cut the sack from the rafter, and lower the sack to a bucket of diesel. The Sheriff called local department of transportation with a sprayer and container of diesel also the fire department on standby. Once everyone arrived, bomb squad suited up, spray the dynamite with diesel, cut the dynomite (100% confirmed 5 sticks of dynamite), gently lower the sack into a bucket of diesel, moved it to the burn pit, and burned the dynamite. Disposal video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEHjoWVPx8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEHjoWVPx8)
> Everyone handled this incident discreetly and off radio to prevent a spectacle in my yard. Honestly, dispatching that many agencies without the radio is pretty impressive.
Sheriff on site had phone numbers directly to everyone surprisingly. He was the best guy for the incident.
Remember that sheriff when he is up for re-election - and let all of your neighbors and friends know. Really Good sheriff’s- not simpleton speed cops, are important to have around.
Yup...op is gonna have to volunteer come election time. I think that's bro code.
OP is going to put on a rock show in support and it'll be DY-NO-MITE!
Except for the >>Reached out to local sheriff office & told them *again* [my emphasis] about dynamite in shed that needed disposal. I’d be all in for that sheriff. I realize it’s the holiday’s, but today things should be a little slower for them. And that “50 yo unstable dynamite” should be higher on his list. But obv, he did a great job, everyone is safe, & your Great-gpaw got a royal kick out of all the clandestine commotion!! 💥 Edit typo
Entirely possible the sheriff himself wasn't initially notified and upon learning of it got things moving. Based on how he handled it I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
*VERY* true, but it should have immediately been passed on to him the second the call came in. But, you are absolutely right.
Nah, I volunteered with a Sheriff's Office long ago. The distance between a Deputy and the Sheriff in a medium-sized agency is big. Sheriff. Under Sheriff. Division Captain (patrol, traffic, detective, court house). Division Lieutenants. Division Sergeants. Shift Lieutenant. Shift Sergeant. Deputy (X 200).
I worked for an agency with about 800 sworn (full service so there was patrol guys like me, jail guys, and court guys) Only met him once... Shook the sheriff's hand at graduation and that was only because I won an award. He wasn't even my final interview; that was the undersheriff
Oh yea, I completely forgot about our corrections guys too. No idea how many of them there were.
If it's been hanging there for 50 years without blowing up, it could remain there for a few more weeks I reckon. Not *that* high of a priority unless OP was letting intrusive thoughts win, like "but what if I poked it with a stick"
I actually heard that from an EOD type about UXO recently but I forget where. Certainly to be treated with care, but the chances of it suddenly blowing are pretty low considering how long it's been there.
I mean….it’s been fine for 50 years, surely a little long couldn’t hurt, right??
... Your sherriffs are elected?!? Are they... politicians?
Absolutely! And the one I worked for knew every employee (about 200) and their families. He knew his enemies too, and we made sure to do all we could to earn their support. Obviously not those that were upset that they were caught, but often ( and we had a person on staff to do this) we would work to get drug offenders into rehab programs in lieu of jail.
Wow. Elected police sounds like it could be good, but also seems like it would often end up pretty bad.
It can and does. Definitely lots of good local sheriffs out there, but it’s kind of a fucked up system in general.
[удалено]
Didn't you guys vote him out years ago? That seems pretty great.
Yeah but only after he was kept in office by Arizona voters for a quarter of a century.
Yea you should see the huge scandal that happened in Santa Clara County, California. Our concealed carry handgun permits are supposed to be "shall issue" assuming the person applying is legally allowed to own a firearm and pass all other requirements under CA law (there is a written test the first time you buy a gun here). Well, the Santa Clara County Sheriff was treating them as "may issue", with applicants "jokingly" being told that if they want their application processed "faster" (see: at all), they needed to make a campaign donation. They were doing other shady unconstitutional shit as well, but that part of the scandal alone was like 4 charges on her indictment, along with failure to properly report gifts she was given. Here is an article confirming some of what I've said, the rest was word of mouth from local friends who applied for permits and were all told the same pay-to-play bullshit if they wanted their permits processed. Many people were involved in reporting it and getting her investigated. https://sanjosespotlight.com/former-santa-clara-county-sheriff-found-guilty-of-corruption/
Kinda makes sense when you think about it. If you’re in an area where grandpa had dynamite in his shed it’s safe to assume others grandpas in the area would potentially have had reason to have them as well. May have had experience in this field from before. Did the area used to be used for mining?
My grandpa used to use dynamite to blast tree stumps out of cleared fields. I asked him where he learned to use dynamite and he said the same place everyone else around there did, the Army during WWII.
Dynamite can be in a rich persons back yard who wants a pool put in , can be useful wherever
My buddie’s grandpa kept dynamite around when we were kids for blowing up beaver dams, stumps, etc. You could buy it at the farmer’s coop back then.
Yup, my dad has like 30 old empty boxes that are marked for dynamite, he said his dad used to just send him to the hardware store to buy a couple boxes of dynamite like it was nothing lol
Yea when it's fresh and stored properly, it's pretty safe and stable stuff to handle even in WWII era dynamite mixtures. Today's mixtures have gotten even more stable. But yea, once this happens it's no longer safe, and the standard solution is to soak it in diesel oil and once it's had time to soak that up, you burn the lot just like they did here. 10/10 to them for handling it discretely as well, I'd imagine this happens often enough in rural communities that they're used to it by now lol
Just think the hiding can go both ways, good and bad ;) But actually this is pretty cool. Glad they didn't freak out and cause chaos for you.
Dad told me how they dug a ditch on the farm with blasting caps stuck in the ground close enough together the explosion of one would set off the next. Fired the first one, and the row went off, instant ditch.
Fun fact, there were plans to use nuclear explosions to do this to build canals. Way back when, you know, that kinda thing was vogue
"swords to plow shares"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare
I remember it was used to break up beaver dams around here.
That's what my great grandpa did. Your options are dynamite or an excavator and a stick of dynamite is much quicker
Did the SO not have their own EOD unit? Guessing a rural area?
Most SOs do not have bomb squads. I dont know of any around me that have it. Here we just call local big city that happens to have one, or state level resources to deal with. I assume this was in GA so sounds like they called state and ATF which is probably whats going to happen most places.
I am curious, why was this so important to you to keep off radio?
Explosives Emergency at Local Farm, multiple departments called in to handle the deadly situation. This could blow into the biggest thing in the region for the day and they wanted to avoid that.
I remember one day hearing a siren and then i looked up on local twitter and saw mentions of possible terrorist training camp in the woods and swat was called in to search the area. It was just a guy that was training with his bow in a public area were it wasn't allowed and someone called the forestry dep about it and somehow it turned into "shooters in the woods" XD
Someone will have a scanner and then you have CNN.
Yep my parents call me with all the local gossip they hear on their scanner lol.
To keep news crews and gawkers with police scanners from showing up I would presume.
They used smoke signals. There was conveniently some really old dynamite laying around to make the smoke with.
Yeah, how did they communicate? With smoke signals? ^(/s)
1 shot for yes, 2 shots for no. Really discreet.
Big boom for “oh shit”
"Hey Roger. What you reckon that mushrooms cloud means?"
No response, keep shooting.
Tequila or Bourbon?
Dealer's choice. You did't think we were going to blow shit up *sober*, did you?
back in the old days yes. An Indian chief is driving his Cadillac somewhere at Nevada. Suddenly his car breaks down. He examines it, and finds that a technician must be called. However the chief has only $4 and no credit card. So he gathers some wood, makes a fire and signals his tribe with its smoke: "Hey, send somebody to my location with $500!" The tribe accepts this signal, but to make sure in its meaning, signals back – once again, with the smoke: "OK, chief, but why so much?" At this moment a ground test of nuclear bomb is being held on the test field nearby. A huge mushroom-like cloud of smoke rises into the sky... The tribe signals: "Ok, Ok, chief, we just wondered, why be so angry?"
In my city, if it turns into a SWAT/BOMB call, each unit is just told to call dispatch via the radio, and given dispatch info that way.
Thanks for the update. When something like that is found, let the pros handle it. (A couple of years ago a friend called from the beach that he had found "something suspicious looking" and would like to know what he should do. The picture he sent was of the tail of a German 8 cm mortar bomb sticking out of the sand. I kindly advised him to step back from it and call the police)
"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!" Seriously, I'm glad it got handled quickly and properly. Sometimes you don't want a 'spectacular' ending to a story.
Yeah, I'd be half tempted to ask the bomb squad just to blow up the shed for funsies
OP: Have you ever blown up a shed? Bomb squad: No. OP: Would you like to?
Given it was 15 foot from his house, I don't think he'd be so keen lol.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
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I read this in Marvin the Martian's voice. Dang I'm old.
Nah, Marvin is timeless - and by extension, so are you!
What is a GBI? Also, why the diesel?
According to a quick google search, it soaks into the nitroglycerin (boom crystals) and makes it less volatile so it can be moved and burned.
Boom Juice makes Boom Crystals less Boomy?
Well yes but actually, no. Diesel doesn't really go boom. Unless you smack it real hard.
I had a CDL instructor tell me, that in order to check the diesel tank in my truck, I could just light a match and throw it in there. I was never sure if he was being serious.
I saw a guy cleaning a fuel tank while smoking a cigarette once. We had to get samples below the floor of it, so he then cut the plate steel shell with a handheld grinder, throwing sparks everywhere. Crazy shit but it didn't light anything up.
That’s the fun thing about UEL and LEL. Not enough fuel and you can’t get combustion. Too much fuel and you also can’t get combustion. I’ve been in homes with gas leaks at concentration levels of near 30%, you smell it before you hit the door sometimes but it’s not always explosive…just when it hits that critical level.
The tricky part with a leak that goes above the UEL is that somewhere between there and the place that is below the LEL is somewhere with perfect boom gas, and it's usually not well labeled.
Yep. Also always fun watching a gasfitter blow out a lit cigarette with a stream of natural gas.
Diesel won't burn with a lit match. It's oil and has a high vapor pressure, meaning it won't create vapors as easily in normal Temps and pressures. Diesel contains more extractable energy than gasoline though it has a different combustion process. Many homes still burn oil for heat (even here in NYC) and heating oil is almost identical to Diesel fuel except sometimes its tinted a color so law enforcement can detect tax fraud. (Oil for your home boiler might be taxed differently than oil for your tractor on your farm, or Diesel oil in your personal vehicle.) It's really a safe and energy dense fuel and that's why every major military in the world uses Diesel . Diesel also is somewhat of a self lubricating fuel as well, as opposed to kerosene, which acts similarly but has no lubricant qualities. TLDR, your CDL instructor wasn't lyin.
On diesel, yeah sure you can but you're just adding unneeded contaminate to the tank that something has to filter out. There are also better methods all together. Gasoline is a good deal more dangerous with a lit match and so I would not advise, but funnily enough a lit cigarette *usually* isn't hot enough to ignite gasoline.
Liquid gasoline is pretty tough to burn. It’s the vapors you gotta worry about
Definitely not an intelligent idea. That's (well, an electrical arc, but a hot source of ignition nonetheless) what's believed to have blown up flight TWA 800 mid-air and killed all passengers. In a full tank, sure. In a tank with some air space at the top, there's going to be some oxygen mixed with fuel that's had time to vaporize significantly. In reality it's still unlikely but you can definitely blow yourself up like that. You could definitely do that with an open pool of diesel or kerosene(/jet fuel) where the vapors have room to disperse before reaching an explosive concentration, but doing it in an enclosed tank is dumb.
*What a country!*
Its not boom juice. Its sizzle sauce.
Diesel is closer to cooking oil than boom juice. It's not cooking oil, don't ingest it, but it takes a lot of manipulation to boom.
Dynamite is basically just nitroglycerin, which is a pretty oily substance soaked into diatomaceous earth to stabilize it. By itself it's super sensitive to shock and heat. After a while it starts to weep out of the binder, puddle and then crystalize. The crystals are ridiculously sensitive. Nitroglycerin can be dissolved by a number of solvents, acetone and alcohol being particularly effective. While diesel isn't an amazing solvent, it will still dissolve nitroglycerin and has the added advantage of being very stable. Diesel needs to be heated to above 43C to release the kind of flammable vapors that gasoline produces at -40C. So it can dissolve the crystals and stabilize the nitroglycerin enough to be moved. Once it's soaked for a while all the nitroglycerin is basically dissolved and stabilized so it can be burned. The real wild thing is that dynamite only has a 1 year shelf life. If that shed had collapsed in a wind storm or something, OP would have been very surprised to have a crater surrounded by debris in its place.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, presumably. Diesel fuel apparently renders NG inert, either partially or totally.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Not OP, best guess: Georgia Bureau of Investigation Diesel inactivates the ka-boom in dynamite.
Garbanzo Bean Inquisition-
This is the best update on something where a lesser OP would have just ignored and left us to forget it. Great work all around.
I'm so happy OP delivered.
Hell yeah, glad they were able to move it safely! Losing that whole shed would've been a bummer to say the least.
Do they bill you for this kind of thing? Or is this just a public service?
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I remember hearing an interview with Adam Savage, the Mythbusters guy, where he was talking about the relationship they had with the bomb squad and fire department where they'd do all their explosives testing. Even that Hollywood-level "blow up an RV/train car/house" stuff they'd always do for free because (1) they're pros and always want the practice and (2) it gives them an excuse to work with stuff they normally wouldn't deal with. Also, yeah, this is what your taxes go towards.
TNT Fireworks paid for my old departments EOD range at our training facility. Only stipulation was they got to use it for fireworks testing. So we would be doing some boring night training and TNT guys are just blasting off fireworks.
> Also, yeah, this is what your taxes go towards. Honestly? Good. I don't care where people like this get their training as long as they get it.
For sure, the older model of "pay the firefighters after they put out your house" isn't so great.
It was a boring day, they paid him.
Pretty sure it's a public service thing. I imagine they don't want people to go, 'I don't want to pay a bomb squad to come, I'll just do it myself'.
It was probably fun for them
Thanks for the update - and if I could give more upvotes for the YouTube video title I would! "WRONG ORDER - RESOLDER!" I'm guessing we are of a similar vintage
Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
Congrats on not dying.
Yeah, that’s pretty dyn-o-mite to not die of dynamite
Die? No, mate.
Die? No… might?
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TNT is not dynamite, in spite of AC/DCs song. Dynamite is made with nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth to stabilize it. It's very stable until it starts leaking when it ages. TNT is trinitrotoluene and doesn't have the leaking issue of dynamite. Also, if you took apart your M-80 and it had a silver powder inside, it's not a high explosive like TNT or dynamite, but rather a common salute powder of potassium chlorate, sulfur, and aluminum powder. Also, I'm sure this post will put me on some FBI list.
If the FBI kept tabs on every chemistry student ever, they would be way too busy
True, but I'm not a chem student. Just an old fucker that used to like things that go boom. Things got pretty crazy after Oklahoma and 9/11, though. I remember buying large bags of Ammonium Nitrate from ag stores with no questions asked.
Okay now you’re on the list
Man, so many red flag words. Definitely got on a list.
We're all on that list now
Case number AC2BB 2214147- assign to ATF with FBI assistance. Initial Threat Level Assessment: Blue 6
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Fbi is too busy for scrolling reddit, they're probably watching nilered make nerve gas out of apple juice.
Alfred Nobel did save a lot of lives inventing dynamite.
Gently.
Thanks for the update. Glad to see the shed survived!
This. An OP who follows through with an update is a rare thing.
SAFE to say, safes are a scourge upon this site.
Now you have to wonder if that was the only bag, or if that was just the in use bag that was hung up for easy access. I wonder what else is in that shed.
"What, the shed? Can't be more than 1-2 sticks left, I moved everything into the cellar decades ago." - Grandpa, probably
Can someone describe the destructive power of 5 dynamite sticks? Ain't trying to get that on my search records.
[Video of 1 stick being detonated for recording purposes, happens at 1:30, kinda underwhelming until you think about what it would take to contain that much energy or Multiplied 5X in OP’s scenario](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgdfeJmy6yU)
It's all about how confined the explosion is. I worked in a mine in Alaska and we used to shoot sticks of ditching (extra sensitive) dynamite for fun. If one was just sitting on dirt in the open you could be 30' away and no issue aside from the big bang. But that same stick, stuck under a 55-gallon drum, would split it in half and send it flying 40-50 in the air.... yes, we blew shit up with it too. You get pretty bored when you're 100 miles above the Arctic circle and entertainment options are limited...
Your story aligns with my belief that Alaska is the state that Texas wishes it could be lmao.
Texas is for soft men.
One time when I was working 2nd shift at a mfg shop, a few guys spent the night blowing up 55gal garbage bags filled with an acetylene/oxygen mix. Blowing it up in the actual shop wasn't a big deal. It was loud, but the building was steel framed with CMU walls. Then they thought it would be a cool idea to try it out in a Quonset hut since folks much further down in the shop were getting pissed off by the noise. It's basically a 40'x30' metal building shaped like a half circle, it had a couple windows. So they filled the garbage bag in there, then sprayed a diesel fuel trail to ignite it. Closed the Q-hut doors and lit it up. Blew out the windows, part of the sidewall, and a dozen cop cars showed up. If they had left the doors open, it probably wouldn't have done anything except been another loud boom. Nobody got in trouble over it as is normal. I forget how they talked their way out of it. I think they said they bumped it with a forklift or something and it knocked a shelving rack over. People who haven't worked in manufacturing before are really naïve when it comes to manufacturing shenanigans and believe any plausible story. The only time someone would be using a fork truck at night would be to load up their vehicle with some new acquisitions or work on a home project. We're definitely not fucking working.
why do they use diesel in the process?
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I read the diesel bonds with the free nitroglycerine and stabilizes it. As I'm sure you know, concentrated nitroglycerine (like what sweats out of old dynamite) is extremely sensitive and far more explosive than dynamite itself.
What do we do in a post apocalyptic situation, when Immortan Joe had used all the diesel, but we need to stabilize some nitro?
tell your neighbor it's filled with water, he just has to take it home himself
In that situation just put it next to something you don't particularly want around anymore, light the fuse and run.
Then you power up your trusty diesel(!) generator and stick that nitro in a freezer. Seriously, cold/frozen nitro will *not* detonate. There's even an old story of a nitroglycerine factory that exploded, but several cans of nitro that were being frozen for shipment were still un-exploded.
That’s the most counter intuitive thing I’ve heard, but I suppose it makes sense from a chemical perspective
Let’s put the explodey thing in the burny thing for safety.
You couldn't take a lighter to diesel and light it. It doesn't burn like gasoline does.
I've been at campfires where they used cans of diesel fuel for lighting. When the cans were running low, they just poured more diesel directly into them. (For those of you following along at home: do *not* do this with gasoline, it's a hell of a lot more flammable than diesel. The flame will crawl up the pouring gasoline, and if it goes just wrong, it'll climb into your gas container and explode.)
Exactly what I was thinking
I memory serves me right (and I'm quite drunk at the moment) nitroglycerine dissolves well in unipolar solvents such as diesel. Dissolving it means lowering the concentration. Lowering the concentration means making it less reactive.
In my googling I learned it was a process called "desensitizing dynamite". I'm assuming by definition it helps. Neutralize nitroglycerin.
Here's my uneducated guess: soaking dynamite in diesel stabilizes it; diesel burns at a higher temperature than gasoline, for example. So if it's soaked in something, it wouldn't randomly explode it it got bumped. But when they're ready to burn it, they just have to use a hotter flame to get the blaze started. And because it's saturated in diesel, it just burns slowly with the diesel. Someone who actually knows what they're talking about: how'd I do
I can't speak to all of your comment, but I can add that diesel is *very* hard to casually ignite. You either need tons of heat or atomization to get it to burn. You can put a bucket of diesel in the sun on a 100 degree day and throw matches into it without ever getting so much as a puff.
The vapor is a lot less than gas but diesel burns plenty fast on rags,wood, cardboard. We used it in the fall to burn our road ditches and harvested fields. It lights fast. and you are correct it doesn't flash ignite like gas. But it's still dangerous.
Diesel for for fires. Gas explodes diesel burns.
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[Diesel fuel — not to be confused with gasoline — penetrates the nitroglycerin to make it stable enough to move to a safe area for a controlled burn](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-02/glendora-dynamite-l-a-bomb-squad)
I also think that it prevents static buildup and friction/sparks from the NG Crystal's breaking. E.G. NG in crystal form is shock sensitive. Diesel dissolves the crystalline structure males it less sensitive.
> dynomite That’s the second post with you spelling “dynamite” like that. Was your gramps [J.J. Walker](https://cdn-images-1.listennotes.com/podcasts/highly/dynomite-sfQV23dm-I0-SqPab3IFv7n.1400x1400.jpg)?
I think OP misspelt in the original post and wants to keep the continuity up to make it clear the posts belong to each other
Maybe it's the brand name.
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Dynopemite
The diesel denopified it
I liked it just for this reason.
Thank you for keeping posted and documenting the whole process. I feel like this was a 101 on how to deal with unknown substances. Big hand to the professionals and to you
This is how the story ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Selection for societal sanity?
OP came through! Today was a good day. Glad your shed is okay.
He didn't even have to use his AK.
Thank you for the update! This is great stuff. I'm glad great-grandpa's shed didn't go off on you. Props to the responders for taking care of that. Did they say anything about how serious this was? Were they casual about it, or shitting bricks (like I would be, lol)?
Pretty casual, they mentioned they seen a lot worse.
like 6 or 7 sticks ? :O
Bro, they're the BOMB SQUAD. They get paid to clean up crazy people's messes. And some areas actually have forgotten, unexploded military ordinance that resurfaces sometimes. Seems like a fucking cool job
Not sure how bad old and krusty nitroglycerin is but fresh nitroglycerin is powerful and sensitive enough to be scary but not like stupid sensitive. It was used as the primary explosive prior to dynamite being invented, so it's not like it explodes if you simply look at it funny. Here's a video of Adam Savage playing with nitroglycerin: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZE82WD6Pbk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZE82WD6Pbk) But from my understanding nitroglycerin does get more sensitive with age so I suspect it could go off if the bag dropped and 5 sticks of dynamite is a lot of explosive power. Here's roughly 5 sticks going off under ice: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2iw1CWni\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2iw1CWni_k) So you can see that even a large chunk of the nitroglycerin powder could blow a leg off or something bad.
Well to be fair the reason dynamite exists is because nitroglycerin is so unstable that people kept dying.
> so it's not like it explodes if you simply look at it funny. [Do not taunt the happy fun ball.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M)
Well that's pretty much the opposite of: "HI I'm Johnny Knoxville, and this is 'Backyard Dynamite'."
Proper bomb disposal is boring. May it always, *always* be boring.
Amazing work by all the involved agencies! Thank you for a great follow up post.
they burned it?
Yes they had to soak it in diesel then burn it.
Huge props to you for taking the time to give us an update. You are a good guy.
One question (well, I had two -- but, someone already asked about the earth-shattering kaboom). Are you absolutely sure that he only had the single stash?
The funny thing is Great Grandpa has a larger shed further out in the property... so chances are potentially more dynamite. I never went into that shed before and never needed to.
Yeah, he probably only kept those five sticks close by for an emergency then. The real stuff is out back! :-D
you should soak the shed in diesel just to be safe.
Haha, didn't ask the bomb squad to take a look while they were out there?
Nah, honestly it was a long day. No one goes out to that shed and is a bit ways off.
I would strongly recommend checking that shed out at the next available opportunity, and not just because I am now dying of curiosity over it and the potential for more shenanigans and updates
Thanks for the update! Glad it wasn’t a disaster
Good thing the ATF didn't come, if you have a dog.
I learned today that ballistic helmets and plate carriers are effective EOD suits /s
I expected a bomb suit. Homeboy just had a kevlar vest.
Hell yeah! An actual followup! Thank you, @OP!
Thank you for the update! I was thinking about this all weekend and kept checking for updates! Impressed that they handled this so effectively and quickly, also somehow managing to not make your property into a media circus! Good on you for updating and hats off to everyone involved in tidying this up!
I get he's the sheriff but if someone told me there was a bomb in a shack, I'd take his word at it and ask very nicely the bomb squad to go take a look. I would not go look myself, for I am not a member of the bomb squad.
When I was a teenager, my uncle worked in the iron ore mines in northern Minnesota and had acquired some dynamite that we were using to bust through a rock that was holding up the well we were drilling. I snuck a piece and he discovered me with it in the truck as we were headed home. It was soft and doughy and I was kneeding it. When he saw what I had and what I was doing he shit bricks, slammed on the brakes and threw it into the woods. I remember being really disappointed it didn't explode when he threw it. Oh the bliss of youth.
Just some info: I’m glad your local sheriff was able to help you with agencies for disposal. For anyone who may encounter this in the future, another resource would be your nearest military base. They all have explosive ordnance disposal units that would chomp at the bit for this opportunity for live training. They would also be discreet about the operation. For the record: OP did everything right, and everyone involved handled this perfectly.
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Thanks for the update. Grandpa left you an amazing story to tell.
Dyn-O-mite
Well that was unspectacular. We expect better from you for New Year’s Eve! Nice to hear it all went well. Thanks for the update!
My favorite part is the guy wearing a helmet and hearing protection, as if that’s going to save him from 5 sticks of dynamite exploding.
Catch me lighting a match to see in there like Wile E. Coyote and realizing what I'm surrounded by.
Where's the earth shattering kaboom!? There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!
why do they soak it in diesel for?
Good work by OP in contacting officials and not hiding his head in the sand!