An ICE operation spiraled into chaos in Worcester, Massachusetts street after agents detained a woman as she clung to her baby—without showing a warrant.
No seriously, I used to do aluminothermic welding, trust me when I say it’s an extremely frustrating substance to use. And on top of that, it is incredibly conspicuous. Unless you both know what you’re doing and what you’re doing can only be done by introducing a huge thermal mass (for example, screwing up a precision bearing surface on a piece of equipment. Note that you can’t really cut through material with thermite without using a burnout mold), there are way better ways to accomplish the task. It’s just not a great choice, and everything a theoretical citizen resistance would feasibly be doing could be done better, faster and safer (for you) with either some gasoline or bolt cutters…
I don’t doubt your expertise and knowledge on the subject, but from veritasium videos on this I would have thought that putting it in a medium size clay flower pot (the ones with a hole at the bottom) and placing it on the car engine hood, it would probably not be a nice outcome for the car. Not total it, but it’s not driving away anyway. A can of gasoline is less logistically complicated (just one item, way easier to ignite) but it’s also bigger to carry around.
I’m just a person who watched too much youtube videos though.
Really though, thermite will mess up a car (quite a bit less than you’d expect from how spectacular it is) but keep in mind that while you’re standing around trying to ignite that magnesium strip, there’s a bunch of ICE officers who don’t want their car burned up. Dumping a jar of gas in the rain gutter and tossing in a lighter takes way less time (and will probably have a much larger effect) than thermite, and nobody can just knock it off the car while it’s burning. Plus it’s much easier to have a plausible excuse for owning a jar of gasoline than it is bags of powdered aluminum.
You’re not wrong that it would work, it’s just not going to work as well as the alternatives.
(Real advice, get a pair of 8"/10" compound bolt cutters - they’re useful for everything from zipcuffs to tire walls and work a treat for self defence as well, plus they’re small enough to be disposed of in an instant if need be. Much more practical to carry around than 5kg pots of thermite, too)
So um… what’re you gonna do with the thermite?
No seriously, I used to do aluminothermic welding, trust me when I say it’s an extremely frustrating substance to use. And on top of that, it is incredibly conspicuous. Unless you both know what you’re doing and what you’re doing can only be done by introducing a huge thermal mass (for example, screwing up a precision bearing surface on a piece of equipment. Note that you can’t really cut through material with thermite without using a burnout mold), there are way better ways to accomplish the task. It’s just not a great choice, and everything a theoretical citizen resistance would feasibly be doing could be done better, faster and safer (for you) with either some gasoline or bolt cutters…
I don’t doubt your expertise and knowledge on the subject, but from veritasium videos on this I would have thought that putting it in a medium size clay flower pot (the ones with a hole at the bottom) and placing it on the car engine hood, it would probably not be a nice outcome for the car. Not total it, but it’s not driving away anyway. A can of gasoline is less logistically complicated (just one item, way easier to ignite) but it’s also bigger to carry around.
I’m just a person who watched too much youtube videos though.
… Just put the gasoline in a smaller container.
Really though, thermite will mess up a car (quite a bit less than you’d expect from how spectacular it is) but keep in mind that while you’re standing around trying to ignite that magnesium strip, there’s a bunch of ICE officers who don’t want their car burned up. Dumping a jar of gas in the rain gutter and tossing in a lighter takes way less time (and will probably have a much larger effect) than thermite, and nobody can just knock it off the car while it’s burning. Plus it’s much easier to have a plausible excuse for owning a jar of gasoline than it is bags of powdered aluminum.
You’re not wrong that it would work, it’s just not going to work as well as the alternatives.
Yeah you’re right an all points, I didn’t think about the rain drain.
Keep safe out there!
Thanks, and you too.
(Real advice, get a pair of 8"/10" compound bolt cutters - they’re useful for everything from zipcuffs to tire walls and work a treat for self defence as well, plus they’re small enough to be disposed of in an instant if need be. Much more practical to carry around than 5kg pots of thermite, too)