[Limpet Chicken]

I have a need to cut through some thick-ish aluminium, thats quite awkwardly placed and cant be reached with a saw, I need to go right through a solid plate of it from the flat face, so I had an idea.

I plan to use a small propane torch with a small intense flame, to get through the aluminium as it's all I have to hand, that won't melt it, so I thought, why not use a jet of chlorine gas in combination with the torch to cut through it.

Will this work do you think? I think it most likely would, how intense is the flame likely to be from this, and the byproduct, could it form AlCl3? that would be most welcome as a side product from an otherwise strictly practical undertaking

[Corvettaholic]

Is this needed to bust into your haunted house?

[Tetrahedrite]

This is not likely to work because any Aluminium chloride you form will likely shield the unreacted Al behind it. The reaction rate might be too slow as well with solid, thick aluminium

[Limpet Chicken]

Corvettaholic, that was quite unnervingly accurate for a guess

I have been contemplating different methods for the removal of said large metallic impediment, a small area around the current lock is going to be removed and that replaced with a sturdy chain and padlock of my organisation's own.

My first instinct was the approach with NBr3 soaked into the lock with tetramminecopper (II) perchlorate, detonated by remote to set if off, although that would have to be done at night and would attract attention of an undesired nature.

The other option I came up with is attacking the metal itself with fused NaOH and once severely weakened, finishing the job with a well-aimed boot

I am not sure which method to choose, the NBr3 will most likely take out the lock, but noise is something I want to avoid, but it would be quite hard to maintain contact with the NaOH, unless a sort of "shaped charge" type setup was used to maintain contact  and stop the fused NaOH just driping down the sides of the panel.

What about a displacement reaction, using say a solution of a lead or copper salt, which would replace the Al with Pb or Cu which would probably form a weak incoherent layer that could be scraped off (and saved) eating away at the aluminium as it did so?

[Corvettaholic]

This might be kind of general, but what about a freaking tough acid and just eat your way through? Or maybe a good 20 minutes with an oxy-acetylene welder? How far away is this place from habitation anyway? If its far enough away, dynamite always works. But I'm sure that'll piss off whatever's behind that door.

[Limpet Chicken]

Blasting the door of is something I want to avoid unless its the only thing I can get in by, I have never been one to refuse a half liter of NCl3 and a firework
Blasting is possible, if done at night but it is something I would like to avoid nonetheless.

The cheapest acetylene torch is those bernzOmatic MAPP gas ones, that cost £50, which I have not teh funds to afford at the moment.

I think I might try chemical attack first, fluorite blocks should be affordable from those new age stores, from there simple, CaF2+H2SO4.xSO3--heat-->CaSO4+HF

If that don't get through the door then I will most likely go with NBr3, an astrolite charge, or a shaped charge with one of the tetramminecopper complex primaries

[Corvettaholic]

You COULD go primitive with this door too. How thick is it? Some elbow grease + a railroad spike + a sledgehammer = holes in door. Do that enough and I'm sure you could get a nice saw designed for hacking up metal in there. It'll take a little while, but it should work.

Why is the door made of aluminum anyway? What kind of door is this, or is it just a plate bolted to the entrance? Maybe you could use a thermite reaction to get through it, those are cheap! Bit bright though... not sure how far away the nearest law enforcement center is to you. They probably wouldn't like that idea very much, or even the idea of you getting past that door.

Out of curiousity, is this house condemned? Why bother with the door, go through the wall or a window!

[Limpet Chicken]

The actual house has been condemned for a LONG time, years, i very much doubt they are going to knock it down, it may even be listed.

The actual house is surrounded by a large grounds area, and is not viewable from the nearest road directly, well covered, the reason I don't want to blow the walls in, is that I want to be able to place my OWN lock on there, to protect the place from becoming infested by scallies, and junkies, and others that have less respectable intentions.

Because If i catch scallies in there trashing the place my fury will know no bounds, and violence of a disturbing nature is a certainty

[jdurg]

If the metal is indeed aluminum, you can easily work through it using mercury.  Mercury is able to dissolve the oxide coating on the aluminum thus causing it to react very quickly with the air and the surrounding moisture.  In a matter of minutes, the mercury will eat right through that aluminum.  (That is why it is illegal to bring anything with mercury in it onto an airplane.  If for some reason the mercury got out and soaked through the ground/wall, it would eat away at the caseing of the plane in mid-flight!)  

[hmx9123]

Jdurg--are you thinking of gallium?  I wasn't aware that Al formed an amalgam that quickly.  Perhaps it's just not that soluble, I can't remember.  I do know that Ga eats through it like a beast, though.

OK, why would you use a nitrogen trihalide?  That just seems really dumb and expensive.  I guess you're in britian so you're stuck with all the BS laws there, but here in America you can just buy a damn shaped charge and blow the door off its hinges.  If you have to make your own stuff, it's ridiculous to make something as unstable as the stuff you're talking about anyway.

Next, corvetteaholic is right: get redneck on the door.  Here's how:

1. Drill hole in door (very easy considering Al is softer than steel)
2. Insert your favorite hook/device.
3. Attach hook to large chain.
4. Attach chain to your full-size pickup truck's frame.
5. Depress gas pedal and watch as your magnum V8 uses it's full 400 ft-lbs of torque to tear the door, the doorframe, and half of the face of the building down.

This DOES work.  I've seen someone with a medium sized truck pull a LARGE TREE from the ground.  Unfortunately, I think most of the cars in the UK have engines that are closer to my lawnmower than something that could pull your door out.

Of course, you could shoot it open, too, but that's also illegal.  Hmm.  Why not just use a bolt cutters to cut off the current lock and replace it with yours?

This is all so ridiculous, and of course, I'm just feeding the troll, but it's funny as hell anyway.  If anyone's actually reading this, don't take too much of it seriously.

BTW, if you use and of the Cl2, thermite, cutting torch, etc., you'll have problems with fire and heating the frame/house until it burns down.  Just do like dumb criminals do and use brute force.  It will work.

[jdurg]

Nope.  It's not Gallium.  It is indeed Mercury.  In fact, Theodore Gray wrote an article about it here; http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how2/article/0,20967,693558,00.html.  After reading the article it appears as if it takes a bit longer than "instantaneously", but it still works pretty well.

[hmx9123]

I did not know that about mercury, but gallium does indeed destroy aluminum.  It doesn't work on amorphous, though, or at least not as fast.

[Corvettaholic]

Considering the environmental hazards of mercury, maybe you should use gallium instead. To my knowledge, it isn't a controlled substance like mercury is. I wonder how much it would cost? Is there a way to seperate the aluminum once they react? If so, just "melt" a hole, and gather up your new compound, clean it up, repeat. I'm still a strong believer in a sledgehammer or bolt cutters though. Now you said that the place you're trying to get into doesn't seem to like people too much. So what'd think happen if you tried to bust down the door?

[limpet chicken]

I have no gallium, or compounds of it. I havent got a credit card, so what I can order is very limited to places that take the solo debit card and they are not particularly common, that's why i go about synthesizing almost everything other than OTC chemicals myself.

I have precious little quicksilver, although, from what I can tell, perhaps the smallest spot of erosion on the protective oxidation layer would render it liable to destruction from within.

Almost all of my quicksilver is in the form of HgCl-Al amalgam used for reductive aminations
I actually have less than a teaspoon of Hg in the metallic state not either combined with Al or Na/Li.

[ATMyller]

Why not use thermite with excess of Fe₂O₃. Once the initial Al powder in thermite is used the alumium plate should have melted enought to feed the rest of the Fe₂O₃.