Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Energetics training classes in PA in June

Dr.Bob - 13-3-2025 at 10:33

For those who like energetics, there are some training classes in June in Washington County, PA. See the link below for more info. They are not cheap, but thought people here might be interested.

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/wcmg-llc-14770895526

Nemo_Tenetur - 13-3-2025 at 14:17

Are these workshops available for the general public or do some restrictions apply, for example minimum age of 21, no criminal records etc. ?

Rainwater - 13-3-2025 at 15:21

I wish we had something like that down here

pantone159 - 13-3-2025 at 15:41

Quote: Originally posted by Nemo_Tenetur  
Are these workshops available for the general public or do some restrictions apply, for example minimum age of 21, no criminal records etc. ?

Per the class:

WCMG LLC has opened up their High Explosive Law Enforcement Training to the general public with no previous experience required. All attendees must be 18+ years old with a valid driver license, be able to pass a Federal Background Check, and be a US Citizen.

Dr.Bob - 17-3-2025 at 11:38

There used to be a few courses like that, but they have been slowly disappearing. I think the School of Mines still has a summer class for interested students to weed out the ones that will faint if they see dynamite or hear loud noises, or are afraid of caves. Likely not a good mining candidate. After handling Azides, trimethylaluminun, and organolithiums, I would think of C4 as a safe material, compared to most people who would be terrified to handle it.

ManyInterests - 22-3-2025 at 11:02

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
There used to be a few courses like that, but they have been slowly disappearing. I think the School of Mines still has a summer class for interested students to weed out the ones that will faint if they see dynamite or hear loud noises, or are afraid of caves. Likely not a good mining candidate. After handling Azides, trimethylaluminun, and organolithiums, I would think of C4 as a safe material, compared to most people who would be terrified to handle it.


C4 is an astonishingly stable explosive. It is designed so that it can be even shot at with small arms fire and still not explode.

The only danger with C4 is it is kinda toxic on skin contact and you need to be careful. The other thing is that there were some soldiers who cut pieces of C4 for use... and then didn't properly clean their knives and used them to eat afterward, thus poisoning themselves. But it is an easily avoidable scenario.

Dr.Bob - 25-7-2025 at 13:19

I was able to get to this course, the timing was as close to perfect for my schedule as possible, and it was quite interesting. I have handled low powered explosives in my work many times, but this course covered some theory and basic information on high explosives, as well as a huge amount of practical knowledge and hands on work.

Over two days (both courses) the course covered detonators, initiation, transport of shock (det cord, shocktube, etc), single explosives and binary ones. We started with smaller things and moved up to larger amounts and multiple shots, especially with delays. The second day covered many advanced toppics and areas, some of which were pretty unusual. The instructor is a past special forces guy who also likes machine guns and fireworks. It is not cheap, but we used an enourmous amount of materials, which are not cheap or easy to obtain.

So if you really like energetics and want to know more about there uses and some typical ways of using them, this is a great course. If you have questions, feel free to u2u me.

MineMan - 27-7-2025 at 15:59

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
I was able to get to this course, the timing was as close to perfect for my schedule as possible, and it was quite interesting. I have handled low powered explosives in my work many times, but this course covered some theory and basic information on high explosives, as well as a huge amount of practical knowledge and hands on work.

Over two days (both courses) the course covered detonators, initiation, transport of shock (det cord, shocktube, etc), single explosives and binary ones. We started with smaller things and moved up to larger amounts and multiple shots, especially with delays. The second day covered many advanced toppics and areas, some of which were pretty unusual. The instructor is a past special forces guy who also likes machine guns and fireworks. It is not cheap, but we used an enourmous amount of materials, which are not cheap or easy to obtain.

So if you really like energetics and want to know more about there uses and some typical ways of using them, this is a great course. If you have questions, feel free to u2u me.


That is awesome! Glad you got the chance to:). What an experience!

Which binaries did you use and which did you like the best?

BromicAcid - 27-7-2025 at 18:34

There's a mine a bit North of me, they do an educational tour. You get to run a pneumatic drill, put some holes in the wall, and blast. I always thought it was funny, you're basically paying them $280 to work the mine for the day.

https://adventureminetours.com/mining-educational-program/

Then again Michigan Tech which is pretty close to there has a full drilling/blasting class for their Mine Engineering Major.


[Edited on 7/28/2025 by BromicAcid]

Dr.Bob - 10-9-2025 at 13:06

There is one more set of classes running this year on 13-Sept-2025, see

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/wcmg-llc-14770895526

Each class is about 8 hours and about 20-30 blasts. If you want to learn how to handle and use explosives safely, this is a great chance, albeit it an expensive one. But the classes I took set off > $10,000 worth of materials. I found it worth the time and money to really know what I was doing, as opposed to the people who just do trial and error until they lose a hand. (check reddit/pyro, two posts of that just recently...)

MineMan - 11-9-2025 at 18:56

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
There is one more set of classes running this year on 13-Sept-2025, see

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/wcmg-llc-14770895526

Each class is about 8 hours and about 20-30 blasts. If you want to learn how to handle and use explosives safely, this is a great chance, albeit it an expensive one. But the classes I took set off > $10,000 worth of materials. I found it worth the time and money to really know what I was doing, as opposed to the people who just do trial and error until they lose a hand. (check reddit/pyro, two posts of that just recently...)



That is a good number of blasts they set off!

Pyrotechnics is always going to be more dangerous than industrial explosives! All of which are extremely stable except the caps (they still use LA, at least it is in a steel sleeve).

It still gets dangerous doing complex work, and people still make mistakes, especially around heavy equipment and blasting… or miscalculating charges.

Dr.Bob - 20-1-2026 at 09:31

Once again, they are doing a HE class on June 20-21st in PA. It's a blast.

For those people who think flash is fun, this is a whole new level.

https://www.reddit.com/r/energetics/comments/1qhacwz/tickets...

or https://www.eventbrite.com/o/wcmg-llc-14770895526

This was a great course, with much hands on training.