Investigators say the man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks.
    • jonne
      4·
      5 hours ago

      They don’t actually know who it is, they’re just guessing at this point. Not sure what they hope to accomplish by sharing this information though. Are they hoping some welder is going to go ‘crazy Terry drives a Volvo’ and turn him in?

      • Cort@lemmy.world
        20·
        16 hours ago

        50/50 Aluminum powder and rust that’s stable enough to resist igniting under a blow torch. What’s dangerous about making it?

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          16 hours ago

          Attaching it to some kind of ignition, most commonly.

          But even past that, you typically want a very fine concentrate and even distribution of aluminium and rust. Grinding that shit up and mixing it is nasty for your lungs, without quality equipment on hand.

          • BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            10 hours ago

            The problem is that you’ll typically need something like a magnesium strip to set it off. Shit needs to meet with something burning like the surface of the sun before it kicks into chaos mode.

          • Cort@lemmy.world
            81·
            15 hours ago

            I mean a cheap rock tumbler with steel balls for the grinding and standard magnesium sparklers for ignition does would do the trick, I imagine

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              15 hours ago

              In theory, lots of things work great. In practice…

              You generally want some kind of background and some proper equipment. I’ll concede that making thermite can easily go wrong in the opposite direction - cooking up a recipe that doesn’t ignite at all.

          • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            12 hours ago

            You can buy premixed thermite online. Granted, you’ll show up suspicious when they start looking up sellers and their buyers.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        16 hours ago

        Thought about trying it for kicks, but making the AL powder sounds painful without proper gear.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
    16·
    17 hours ago
    Associated Press - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

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    MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America

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