I would like to use explosives of some sort. I've had suggestions of drilling some pipe bombs in around the base. Any suggestions?
ok first here's a shot in the dark.. If you contact your local police department maybe they would be able to get you in touch with a bomb squad or some other group that would want to use explosives to demolish the silo to be able to practice forensics on it. If that isn't available and you don't want to be under the silo when it falls you just need some way of applying force from a distance. Explosives are an obvious first choice but really aren't that viable since they are extremely dangerous to use without extensive training. you'd never know if all the pipe bombs exploded or were still waiting for you to come in and blow your bobcat up. Here's a fun idea. I'm assuming you have a tractor or loader or can borrow one from next door... Buy a used telephone pole or acquire a similarly sized tree trunk. Knock out two holes on opposite sides of the silo that the pole will fit through. Put the pole through both sides of the silo so that it barely sticks out the other side. Chain up the other side to the loader or tractor using the longest chain you can find. Drill holes all around the silo at the same height as the pole. Hop in the tractor and drive directly perpendicular to the pole. The leverage should be enough to unseat the silo. As soon as it breaks free turn the tractor away from the silo. If you don't want to try that, and I acknowledge it sounds kinda crazy... what about filling a garden hose with gun powder and wrapping it around the silo a couple times? That way its only one explosive unit. That way you at least know it ALL explodes. If all else fails just hire a professional ;D
Well, it seems that you have picked up the best answer already, while I still want that you can consider Muyang, and it can give you best solutions on silos.
You need to understand both the explosive and the structure involved. The fact that you talk about pipe bombs' demonstrates that you haven't a clue about how demolition explosives are supposed to work. Play around with setting them off remotely in a hole if you must, but don't try to work with them in the real world.
