Building Pykrete (bulletproof ice)

if you are familiar to this, sorry in advance for any mistakes, if not here is a short explination of what pykrete is:

this is my first instructable so bare with me

i take no responsibility of what you do with this

Pykrete is a strange and wonderful thing invented in WW2 by a British inventor ad showcased to Churchill in his bathtub. Pykrete is a form of reinforced ice that has the stopping capability of a brick when a gun is fired at is remarkably fire resistant since it is basically ice. drawing were produced during WW2 for a giant aircraft carrier to be made out of this as it would be like an iceburg
i would say that this is composite material

relatively east to make you need:

Materials:

1 Container
2 Water
3 Wood Pulp (paper, sawdust, wood chips)
4 Freezer

Step 1 Mixing the Water and Wood Pulp

Take the Water and Wood Pup and mix it by weight to these percentages:

14% Wood Pulp ( in this case kitchen towel)
to
86% Water


so for example for 1 Kg of Pykrete Mix 140G Paper (any I Think) to 860G water



Mix Well






Put into suitable container


Stick in the freezer and leave to set

Comments

[tinker234]

wonder if i could rig a suit for artic climates that runs the stuff through a clear plasstic layer

[Hades di Angelo]

does this work

[TechDante]

yes it does. and you can build a boat from it as proven by teh mythbusters recently

[Foaly7]

Yeah, but the boat would melt if you aren't in the Arctic.

[TechDante]

no plan was to have an aircraft carrier built out of it. it didnt go through because it would have been two expensive to run the coolers to keep the stuff frozen over long periods of time

[zascecs]

Just think of a snowball made out of this. Ouch!

[snowpenguin]

You really should use some grammar, especially in your Instructables, because the only part of what you wrote that I understood was 14 to 86 percent. People really don't like to have to read like that.

[cyberpageman]

 I found the description perfectly clear, plus the author apologized in advance for any errors.  And, if you will excuse me for saying this, your writing is not the epitome of clarity.

[TechDante]

i know, sorry was and still is my first instructable. plus i have never been any good with spelling and grammar

[tankhowland]

 ya didnt bother me at all
and i found this pykrete very intresting

[ClemensY290]

this was "invented" to make a giant aircraft, but no it wasn't to fire freezing water at enemy planes, it was made for a unsinkable, missile/motor/bomb "proof" aircraft carrier that could move through the Atlantic without sinking when it hit a ice burg and yes it would make a nice potato gun projectile I have already done it and i had destructive results

[JeremyA]

I didn't say that it was specifically for firing freezing water I simply said that it could. It was made for making a huge aircraft carrier that could withstand the wolf pack attacks in the Atlantic. Geoffrey Pike was the inventor he's neat look him up.

[Roflolommo]

geoffrey pyke not pike hense the pykrete

[Foehammer358]

I'm planning to make a wall of this to protect my quinzee this winter :D

[ILIKEPIE333]

you could also use wood shavings did you see this on a show on the history channel? If so, I have also seen it

[TechDante]

no i saw this in the uk on a show called Brainiac History Abuse (only ran for 1 season) and in a magazine call Fortean Times (not sure what issue)

[sharlston]

do u live in the uk? and how long does it take to melt?

[ILIKEPIE333]

saw it on G4

[dombeef]

G4 Rules!

[ILIKEPIE333]

Braniac rules!

[crayzclown1]

ill try this with my .357 magnum

[crayzclown1]

and a .22 rifle

[crayzclown1]

and a shotgun

[arcadiasr]

I was wondering how heavy pykrete is?

[TechDante]

its as heavy as water as that is the key ingredient. hope this helps

[ILIKEPIE333]

they tested it out in the northern US( maybe Canada, IDK?) They made a smaller model but it was scrapped before they completed the testing that kinda sucks cause it would have been awesome to see a huge floating aircraft carrier made of ice the only soverein US territory made completely of ice

[elitehaxor]

u should mix some gelatin with it

[cateyesko]

I have been trying to find a way to keep my dogs water cool outside. I tried plain water in 2liter bottles. Melted in less than two hours. I remembered seeing this on Discovery or one of those channels. I am going to try it!

[JeremyA]

I never implied that it was designed to fire freezing water. I simply said it was capable of firing freezing water.

[pls]

i looked up knex, and got ice?

[backyardpyro217]

man ill tell ya if that wasnt so stiff and it didnt melt that would make a PERFECT bullet proof vest... except it would probably be cold.

[JeremyA]

The uses for pykrete are pretty neat. For instance since it takes for ever to thaw you can freeze some in bottles and put it in your freezer or refrigerator to keep the units from having to work as hard to keep the temperature down. Use it along with some of the home made air conditioners on this site to have a long lasting cooling medium. Maybe try using it for laptop cooling. Be creative. On another note Pykrete was initially developed for a project called "project Habukuk" (sp?) were a humongous air craft carrier was built that could actually fire freezing water at enemy craft. The uncle John's bathroom reader series has a good write up on Pyke. He had many good ideas although he unfortunatly killed himself after the war.

[vcw]

Well, the humid would be bad for computers, :\

[chron]

On the flip side, what about making a projectile from this stuff for a "potato cannon". :-)

[Drewzer667]

Awsome! cant brak with a bb gun. great target. thx for making

[JeremyA]

Also thank you for posting this I have been wanting to make some for some time.

[TechDante]

no problem i like the idea about laptop cooling

[Bright Shadow]

these make good targets for bb/airsoft/knex/real guns

[Bright Shadow]

Oh! I saw this on the History Channel! this guy took a sledgehammer to some pykrete, and a small chip barely came off!

[cowscankill]

that's a cool thing