Tanker6982 Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 (edited) Hello everyone just wanted to reach out an get acquainted with some of you all. I have been studying for a while at building fireworks because let's face it, it's fun, Dangerous but fun, so safety first always. I work fulltime as an Emergency Medical Technician in western Kentucky, have been for nearly 20 years, I have seen numerous firework related injuries an they ain't pretty. With that in mind it don't stop me from having the urge to make them myself. This past week I ordered some stuff from skylighter.com to build 4 inch shells. I will be making my own BP so is there any tid bits of experience y'all can throw my way to aid in this endeavor, I'd very much appreciate it. Y'all be safe PS. For you grammar police, keep it movin. Edited June 3, 2021 by Tanker6982 2
stix Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 ...PS. For you grammar police, keep it movin.Don't you mean "moving"? There's lot's of good people and info on this forum. Just ask away. 1
myfriendtheenemy Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 There's lots of knowledge that goes into making BP, so as stix said, just ask away.
Mumbles Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 The first common pitfall a lot of people run into when making BP is charcoal. Commercial airfloat sold by many pyro suppliers seems like an ideal, convenient source. It is for many things, but black powder is not one of those applications. You'll probably want to find a source of high quality charcoal or learn to make your own before you get too deep into it. It's kind of a pain, and it's definitely a dirty process, but in the end it's worth it. Commercial airfloat charcoal just isn't "hot" enough to make good BP for many applications. 1
stix Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 I got addicted for a while just making small amounts of charcoal. First I tried Pine. But the Pine we have here in Aus is very resinous. So I tried it in my kitchen oven. It stinks so bad. There was smoke everywhere!!. When my house-mate got home late one night, it was hard to explain. Then I moved on, to outside with a small retort. I ended up using Paulownia wood. I love watching the process, and that smell. It became an obsession where I forgot what the point was.
stix Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 (edited) I almost forgot, my avatar shows it. That is making your own charcoal. Edited June 3, 2021 by stix
wyzard10 Posted June 4, 2021 Posted June 4, 2021 Welcome to the tristate area, there is actually quite a few people around this area that are into fireworks. If your interested in making more than a few ounces of charcoal at a time heres what i do. Go to home depot to the scratch and dent bin for lumber and pull out the warped 2x4's. Its either spruce pine or fir, the pine ones are the ones that are almost white. Its a cheap source of wood thats easy to get. As long as its not to knotty it doesnt matter if its warped. Go to someplace like the pottery and get the biggest stock pot you want to deal with. Usually its 8 to 12 bucks depending on the size you want. Cut or split your wood to fit and cook it up like you would with the paint bucket retort. If your interested there are a few pyrotechnic clubs in the area you might want to investigate OPAG is one and BPG is another. Both clubs have web sites if you want to check them out. Im a member of Bluegrass Pyrotechnic Guild if you have questions i would be happy to answer them.
Arthur Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 First learn to make good black powder! Every design for a firework you ever find will assume that you have black powder of good speed and several different (grain size) grades. The best test I know for quality is the baseball test, Put 25g of powder into a mortar and launch a baseball with it, best flight time to touch down is what you want. Probably up to 20 seconds. Before that make a line of bp on a sheet of paper and light it, Slow powder eats the paper, fast powder leaves unscorched paper.
OldMarine Posted June 6, 2021 Posted June 6, 2021 Buy the biggest ball mill you can afford since the one you can easily afford is already too damned small. 1
Piccaso Posted June 7, 2021 Posted June 7, 2021 A 4" shell is a mighty tall order for a first time project. Like others have said you need a ball mill, Fireworks cookbook has a line of very nice ones as well as Woody's. I would go a little smaller for a first time shell as 4" can do a lot of damage if you mess up. 1
tenneyguy Posted June 13, 2021 Posted June 13, 2021 Hello everyone just wanted to reach out an get acquainted with some of you all. I have been studying for a while at building fireworks because let's face it, it's fun, Dangerous but fun, so safety first always. I work fulltime as an Emergency Medical Technician in western Kentucky, have been for nearly 20 years, I have seen numerous firework related injuries an they ain't pretty. With that in mind it don't stop me from having the urge to make them myself. This past week I ordered some stuff from skylighter.com to build 4 inch shells. I will be making my own BP so is there any tid bits of experience y'all can throw my way to aid in this endeavor, I'd very much appreciate it. Y'all be safe PS. For you grammar police, keep it movin. For the record, I started out with a kid's chemistry set at 11. That was LONG ago, and it included lots of nice stuff, like sodium nitrite and sulfur. I found a mix to burn very nicely, loudly in a steel pipe with only the touch hole open. This may have been quite dangerous; wth did I know? 8th. grade, determined to make something called "Berge's Blasting Powder", I sustained 2nd. degree burns to face and hand, mixing in large porcelain mortar and pestle. I'm telling of this as a prelude to giving advice: START OUT SMALL, work your way up. Forget about 4 inch shells; master 3/4 inch first. Figure out how to make time fuses that work to your prediction, time of flight, height of flight, get them to burst at maximum altitude! "BE SAFE" really is only half of it: LEARN TO BE SAFE!
Twesla Posted June 15, 2021 Posted June 15, 2021 Hello Tanker6982, Im new as well, and I can attest to the desire to jump right in head first ahead of the 4th of July. I cant contribute anything that everyone else with experience hasnt already said, but If I could go back a year Id double down on making safety my absolute top priority, as well as patience. Nothing bad happened, but you want to minimize every conceivable risk which includes many hazards that are not at all obvious, from combinations that sensitize each other or that slowly decompose exothermically to ignition hazards like static, friction or even a metal bowl concentrating sunlight. My first homemade shell poofed out of the 1.91mortar tube and popped on the floor, because I was too impatient to test my lift powder with an inert shell or golf ball. I fired my first 3 ball shell this past Mothers Day, which went well only because of a year of practice and failures in order to develop consistency. For the 4th of July, Im taking things back considerably and only doing gerbs (fountains) and sparklers because Im in a drought stricken area. For black powder, youll want a hot burning reactive charcoal. I use eastern red cedar I bought online, but Ive made a bit of willow and balsa wood charcoal (not cost effective). Youll absolutely need a way to ball mill it along with non-sparking milling media, The amount of potential energy inside the mill is huge, so its a good idea to do this in an area where people, animals and property would be shielded in the event of an explosion, however unlikely it may be. Youll have a lifetime to practice if this is something you become passionate about, so I just want to reiterate what everyone else is saying about considering a smaller first project. Theres a slew of other things youll want to master before being able to confidently take on such a big risk.
Tanker6982 Posted June 19, 2021 Author Posted June 19, 2021 Don't you mean "moving"? There's lot's of good people and info on this forum. Just ask away.
Tanker6982 Posted June 19, 2021 Author Posted June 19, 2021 As I've been told many times, the only dumb question is the one that wasnt asked. So yeah i got a lot of learning to do, we all started somewhere. I'm actually working on making quick match. Once i tackle that, then I'll move on to comps an stuff. I jus wanna make sure i have good powder before i go any further. I'm using maple charcoal to see how it works. I need to go to the river an find some willow trees tho. 1
MadMat Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 (edited) Tank, One thing to keep in mind; questions are great and most people on these forums are more than happy to answer them..... as long as you make the attempt to do your own research first. Personally, I don't care, but, I guarantee, you will take some crap from others if you expect to be simply hand fed all the answers. Use the search bar and look over the forums, there is a TON of information on here and chances are you will find answers to most any question you can come up with. There is one exception to this and that is questions about safety. Everyone on this forum puts safety first and will answer any question where safety is concerned. Other that that.... Welcome! As far as charcoal goes, there are only a couple species of maple that is any good for making black powder. I don't know how it is around your area but cedar is everywhere here in Missouri. Cedar makes pretty damned good black powder. you will hear everyone talk about black willow as being the gold standard, but I have both trees around me and have made BP from both and done a lot of baseball tests to compare cedar and black willow, and haven't found any appreciable difference. BTW a baseball test is exactly what it sounds like. You will find a baseball fits real nice in a 3" mortar. 15 grams of your test powder under a baseball. Fire it off and time from boom to thud. Baseball tests are a great way to compare your progress on making BP and you will know right away if a change you made is good or bad. Edited June 19, 2021 by MadMat
Phil Posted June 22, 2021 Posted June 22, 2021 (edited) Hy and welcome to the forum. I too reside in 270. If you're looking to make BP, this is probably something easily attainable as there are wal-marts everywhere now. You can just pack it straight into your cooker without having to chop anything down. If you're not sure you want to go as deep as the hommade charcoal route you can dip your toes in the water with one of those 1 gallon metal paint cans as a cooker. Just poke a hole in the center of the lid before you toss it in the heat. I haven't tried making shells yet but with my rockets the difference between commercial airfloat and this stuff is night and day. Edited June 22, 2021 by Phil
Kramer Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) I'll add in since I'm still fairly new but have made probably 20 3 inch shells and six four inch shells.1.) Safety everything. If you aren't on a paid forum then go to youtube and look up someone like say Ned Gorski and watch his 101 fireworking series and watch the beginning on safety. Actually, watch the whole series twice. It's worth its weight in gold. He's the zen master of fireworking and is everything that is right about the hobby. Everything from not using metal to not having a beer to wearing cotton to don't have an argument and then go make something is in there. 2.) Test. Test. Test. You have to test every batch of everything. Test spolettes, BP lift, blackmatch burn rate, etc. Test every batch. It may feel wasteful at first but it's worth it. I only had one failed shell and was able to put my first successful 3 inch willow shell in the air in less than 45 days after I started to study because I tested everything and monitored the results. 3.) I hate to say it, but I'm with everyone else here. Four inch is a big start. I did gerbs, then a tennis/baseball wrapped ball dummy shell, then a 3 inch shell and then a 4 inch shell. I live in the country and I shoot with a firing system so a failed experiment isn't as scary for me. But man, the one shell that decided to break just as it left the tube felt so much bigger down here on earth. Healthy reminder of what can go wrong. And when you are first starting a four inch shell is a LOT of composition for a first timer. 4.) Start with a simple formula, like a willow. They are among the prettiest but also safest and easiest to build first. Edited July 28, 2021 by Kramer
Richtee Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 Sorry for the late welcome. Good advice above. 4” is a BIG shell. the bonus of 3’s is the baseball test. Gotta tell ya, I had ALOT of fun with .45 caliber shells recently It’s not the size... As mentioned, do your research/due diligence and be safe! The Mad Hunky!
Recommended Posts