Fireworks, firecrackers, and acetylene bombs were all illegal where I grew up. Wasn't that part of the alure?
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Toys from the past...They wouldn't let you have now :eek
- Thread starter omega man
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- toys from the past
ts888
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When I was 12 or 13, we were clearing land for pasture, and there were a bunch of giant old cedar stumps my stepdad wanted gone, so he got his blasting permit and we started blasting stumps apart. When the 4th of July came around, we had extra blasting caps, so we blasted various metal containers into near space. A metal gallon paint can would sail a good 30 feet in the air.
There was one huge stump about 75 feet from the house, it was probably 10 feet across the cut. Stepdad put about 3 rounds of powder into it and failed to crack or move it. This led to a more concerted effort. I was sent out to bore more holes, around the base and a few in the top. I worked at it for a few hours with the big ol' hand auger, made about 10 good holes. When I was done, stepdad packed powder and put caps and fuses in each hole. It was by far the biggest load he had ever set, but this was a substantial stump.
He lit all the fuses, they were cut about 90 seconds long so we grabbed the dogs and wandered back to porch to wait. The explosion wasn't loud, but it had a decent shock wave. Mom came shooting out the back door just as the chunks of cedar started raining on the porch roof yelling "What the $#&@!"... No one was hurt, and no real damage beyond a few dents in the corrugated steel porch roof. A few of the neighbors called to be sure everything was OK. The stump lifted about 3 feet and has a few good splits, but it still took a couple days with the chain saw and our little 8N tractor to break it up and drag it to the burn pile.
There was one huge stump about 75 feet from the house, it was probably 10 feet across the cut. Stepdad put about 3 rounds of powder into it and failed to crack or move it. This led to a more concerted effort. I was sent out to bore more holes, around the base and a few in the top. I worked at it for a few hours with the big ol' hand auger, made about 10 good holes. When I was done, stepdad packed powder and put caps and fuses in each hole. It was by far the biggest load he had ever set, but this was a substantial stump.
He lit all the fuses, they were cut about 90 seconds long so we grabbed the dogs and wandered back to porch to wait. The explosion wasn't loud, but it had a decent shock wave. Mom came shooting out the back door just as the chunks of cedar started raining on the porch roof yelling "What the $#&@!"... No one was hurt, and no real damage beyond a few dents in the corrugated steel porch roof. A few of the neighbors called to be sure everything was OK. The stump lifted about 3 feet and has a few good splits, but it still took a couple days with the chain saw and our little 8N tractor to break it up and drag it to the burn pile.
