More flammables...(actually a multitasker)

Alright, so I've known something for a while but never really got around to using it. Ping pong balls are extremely flammable...go on, try it...take a match to one and step back. Now I've been wondering how to use that energy efficiently for firestarting and I think I've got it. I dissolved a chopped up ping pong ball in pure acetone..not nail polish remover, pure acetone from the hardware store. For every gram of ping pong ball, I used about 5ml of acetone...the average ping-pong ball is 2.7g so a rough amount of acetone is about 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons). You let it sit in a closed container and the ball dissolves leaving a gooey mixture a little thicker than elmers glue...since I used an orange ball, it was reminescent of kraft easy mac's sauce...which I detest. The idea is to get some onto a thin, dry stick and light with flint and steel sparks before all the surface acetone vaporizes..about a 45 second window of oppurtunity. The acetone fumes burn, igniting the nitrocellulose in the celluloid (material that makes up the ping pong ball). This provides enough heat to ignite the underlying wood, giving you a match on the spot. I'd store the stuff in a small thick walled HDPE container with a tight fitting lid, like the ones nalgene makes...look under bottles -> narrow mouth bottles -> HDPE screw top bottles (It won't let me link..obviously, dot=. and foward slash=/) at www dot nalgene-outdoor dot com foward slash store.

Here is a poorly filmed, overly dark little video of me using some of it on a slightly whittled down bamboo skewer.
www dot youtube dot com foward slash watch?v=iWZgVk84lLM

I forgot to include why It's a multitasker...D'oh!
You can smear te stuff onto cuts and 1: the acetone will kill any nasties much like alcohol. In 10-15 minutes, the goo will dry to a thin, wound shaped sheet of plastic. The plasticizing agent in celluloid is camphor, which is cooling feeling, locally anesthetic, and antimicrobial. It does need a bandage placed over it since it tends to peel up if a corner gets loose.

Last edited by Winter on Tue Sep 11, 2007 5:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

You can make smoke bombs outa ping pong balls.

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Thats excellant Winter, good post. I will try that one day Cool

. Cheers.

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Winter wrote:

I'd store the stuff in a small thick walled HDPE container with a tight fitting lid, like the ones nalgene makes...look under bottles -> narrow mouth bottles -> HDPE screw top bottles (It won't let me link..obviously, dot=. and foward slash=/) at www dot nalgene-outdoor dot com foward slash store.

Here is a poorly filmed, overly dark little video of me using some of it on a slightly whittled down bamboo skewer.
www dot youtube dot com foward slash watch?v=iWZgVk84lLM

You may have BBCode disabled in your profile. Confused

Here is the link.
http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=34

Good post. Very Happy

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The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. - Psalms 53:1

Nah, I haven't been here for 5 days...Its an anti-spammer measure....

Thats some cool stuff, Winter Very Happy

eric

wow! you did some homework on that one! thats really neat. I had no idea you could do that. cool

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"Wish I was an English muffin" - Punky's Dilemma by Simon and Garfunkel