CapPlacer demostration, safety gadget for high explosives.

Have you ever considered the consequences of a cap detonating while being placed in your main charge? I did and no matter how improbable it is, the consequences are not very interesting.

With that safety issue in mind I decided to make a device to auto insert the cap in place, triggered by the fuse´s flame. The gadget should be easy to make, cheap, very reliable and disposable. After some time and not before a lot of stupid ideas..., it hit me.

The device is just too simple and a lot of variations can be made. I used a drop of hot glue to replace the nylon cable tie in the video but anything can be used to hold the cap in place by the fuse. The straw can be replaced by any kind of tube and the washer can be replaced by a piece of Al paper glued to the tube with a hole in the middle. If like you use electric systems, replace the fuse by a cotton line or similar (just secure it in the cap with some glue), tie it around some nickel chrome wire (replacing the nylon cable tie) and use another switch to heat this NiCr wire. This way you will have a switch to release the cap and place it inside the charge and another to detonate it.

This setup can be used for underwater or underground detonations, aerial charges, hand tossed charges and so on.

Here is a very important safety tip. Before trying with a real cap, test it with a fake one to find a safe way to handle it before any explosives are in the game. It is vital that you never hold the cap directly with your fingers while making the CapPlacer or in any other occasion. Remember, you have 10 fingers in your hands but all of them are needed, they are not spares.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• explosive safety
• detonation
• high speed footage detonation
• one million fps
• explosive accident

[MetalNekomata]

This is a great design, but do you think having the primary detonator 2cm away from the charge is enough? That depends somewhat on which secondary you use, but have you tested it? With a more sensitive secondary, a longer straw and spring could suffice to make up the difference in distance between itself and the detonator.

[vvideoupl]

@dawson01912

Right before or after, it is just a matter of perspective. I mean if you start from the fuse, I hold the cap by the fuse touching the washer.

[dawson01912]

@vvideoupl

What you mean with your hand right before the washer? That's where the cap is though. I like the clothes pin idea for holding.

[vvideoupl]

@dawson01912

You are right, that´s why I hold it by the washer with a clothespin or with my hand right bellow the washer. Just like a gun the eject the projectile and not the gun, if you are holding the washer it will provide enough combined mass to avoid that.

[dawson01912]

@vvideoupl

That washer might go flying in case of accidental detonation. LOL, not, but still.

That's a nice little projectile you'll have there.

[vvideoupl]

@dawson01912

Sometimes I hold the CapPlacer with a clothespin but most time I hold it with my bare hands by the fuse since the distance between the cap and the washer provides enough protection, an accidental detonation is something almost impossible and 0.2g of DS is too little to cause important damages. My biggest concern is the accidental detonation of the main charge or the booster.

[dawson01912]

@vvideoupl

Do you hold the caps with something while handling/placing them? Chinese sticks.............but I personally suck at using them.

[nixrate]

high speed camera is awesome!

[FOATE]

dude this is genious!