Thermite Production

Thermite Production

Making thermite is very straightforward. All you need is iron oxide and aluminum powder. To set it off you need a strong heat source like magnesium.

Aluminum powder

Iron oxide powder

Electric bath to create the iron oxide. The bottle is being used to capture the elemental hydrogen byproduct.

Piece of aluminum and file used to get aluminum powder

Filtering out the iron oxide

Saturated filter paper

Filter paper after drying in the oven

Removing iron oxide from the dry filter paper

Iron oxide about to be powdered

Powdered iron oxide

Ready for mixing

Updates

• 07/04/07: Initial attempt at igniting thermite mixture.
  • This was a failure because the mix was not at the proper ratio.
• 07/10/07: Production of iron oxide powder has been continuing at a somewhat steady pace since the failure. Al powder production is now the bottleneck.
• 07/11/07: Apparently the best place to get aluminum powder from is from an etch-a-sketch. src