Your favorite outlets for supplies

October 29, 2024

Wondering about any small companies that sell high-quality materials/chemicals that may not be of common knowledge. If anyone cares to share. (Skylighter is a bit overpriced)

October 29, 2024

Looks like nobody wants to share their secret sources 😂

October 30, 2024

Fireworkscookbook.com and pyrochemsource.com are the only placed I buy chems.

Woodysrocks.com is the only place I've bought tooling brand new.

Pyrodirect.com and pyrocreations.com for tubes, supplies, etc.

I get Italian flax string from a newer website, which of course I don't recall right now. $120.00 / roll, but it's a massive roll and the string is definitely worth it.

Uline.com for large rolls of Virgin kraft paper (they were selling 30#, 40#, and 50# Virgin kraft.

I make whatever tools I can myself to save money, and use recycled materials to the greatest extent.

Hope this helps!

Chuck

Edited October 31, 2024 by cmjlab
"Virginia" changed to Virgin

October 30, 2024

I've honestly never bought anything from skylighter.com. It's a common complaint for newer folks that they don't want to pay the prices Skylighter charges. I honestly think they must make most of there money from 1st time buyers by paying to be listed higher on Google search results or something.

The two sites I listed for chems are the cheapest you can probably get without buying bulk / wholesale (which for most companies, means having a manufacturers license).

October 30, 2024

What he said. 🙂

October 30, 2024

Thanks for sharing with me! Pyrodirect is really solid, great prices. They also have three consumer stores in PA with some of the best prices around. One of my places that I like to get from is Fireworkcharcoal.com. Really cheap on most things. Unfortunately, they are almost always sold out of charcoal. I managed to snag a bag of ERC charcoal when they restocked. Also I found this link to Paulownia wood chips that, as of now, are $0.69 a pound.

wood chips

October 30, 2024

21 hours ago, cmjlab said:

I've honestly never bought anything from skylighter.com. It's a common complaint for newer folks that they don't want to pay the prices Skylighter charges. I honestly think they must make most of there money from 1st time buyers by paying to be listed higher on Google search results or something.

The two sites I listed for chems are the cheapest you can probably get without buying bulk / wholesale (which for most companies, means having a manufacturers license).

You know whats funny is I thought that too about Skylighter (which indeed they are overpriced), but you have to sign up for their email alerts/newsletter to get deals that make it a standard or good deal. For example, a couple months ago, they sold 1lb and 3lb parallel tubes for overall cheaper than other websites but they had a sale for it thats why. This week, they have a deal where they are giving away 2lbs of free "top shelf" titanium powder that sells for 22/lb on their site for any orders over $88.

Their default prices are horrible but when they have these deals, its best to take advantage of it because it ends up being pretty good if you strategize with it. On the other hand, I did find their strobe fuel kit was one of the best prices for strobe fuel when compared anywhere else. Their sales models is a bit gimmicky and annoying but they are about gamification and making you come to their website to buy flash deals and hoping you spend more on their overpriced stuff. However, like I said, if you are strategic, you can get a pretty good deal out of them!

October 31, 2024

That's good to know. I figured they had some means to maintain a revenue stream, but based on what I had seen the couple times I checked them out, I couldn't figure it out.

October 31, 2024

3 hours ago, FiroweWorks said:

Thanks for sharing with me! Pyrodirect is really solid, great prices. They also have three consumer stores in PA with some of the best prices around. One of my places that I like to get from is Fireworkcharcoal.com. Really cheap on most things. Unfortunately, they are almost always sold out of charcoal. I managed to snag a bag of ERC charcoal when they restocked. Also I found this link to Paulownia wood chips that, as of now, are $0.69 a pound.

wood chips

Tha KS for sharing, I don't think I've heard of this place, and the price seems more tha fair.

Have you bought any of the paulownia wood chips? I'm curious how it works. For that price (idk what shipping is), I could switch from "red cedar" pet bedding to paulownia charcoal for about the same cost. I'll have to order some and give it a shot, it said 12# min, but that's not bad @$0.69 / lb.

October 31, 2024

I personally haven't bought any yet, but it could be an even better way to get your hands on paulownia charcoal than fireworkcharcoal.com. But im sure their process is much more refined. If you do end up purchasing some let me know how it goes!

November 1, 2024

On the topic of obtaining scrap wood, here is a good source for balsa scrap https://specializedbalsa.com/products/balsa_scraps.php They offer both small scraps/chunks as well as sawdust depending on your cooking preferences. Balsa being balsa still isn't cheap, but better than most alternatives. I don't recall how much mass is in these things, but I have some inkling that the 6.424 cuft box is usually like 35-40lbs.

January 4

i bought a big box of balsa sawdust from these folks last year. though shipping is not cheap, the balsa makes REALLY hot charcoal (wear a mask when weighing the resulting charcoal, it’s very light and gets up my nose every time i weigh a batch out!) and the BP is the fastest burning i’ve ever made. it cooks very well in 1 gallon paint can retorts, but it’s so light you’ll need to do a couple of cans to make enough to get your 15% of a 1 pound batch of BP. the nice thing about the sawdust vs chips (i bought a big box of paulonia chips from another supplier at the same time) is that the charcoal from the balsa sawdust goes into the ball mill without pre-grinding whereas the paulonia charcoal from the chips needs pre-ground in my food processor first - time consuming and messy. in my own opinion, the balsa seems to be hotter anyway. i only use either one it when i “feel the need for speed,” ie: meal coated rice hull burst. i can spare a can or two of either material if you want to try it, as long as you pay the shipping.