crackerdan Posted July 6, 2007 Posted July 6, 2007 I was making some improvised bottle rockets a few minutes ago out of match heads, and another with sparkelor(did i spell that right?) powder and thought others might have had to improvise when they had no acces to materials, , so here's a topic about it.
Icarus Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 First post here, so I might as well say hello, Anyway, Ive made some real small little bottle rockets out of piccolo petes, just unwrapped em', crushed the pressed powder, made real light tubing out of the wrap + paper tape, threw in a few of those black pellets from monster balls for a tiny payload, and packed in the crushed powder with a stylus. Tape to an incense stick and watch it go. Luckily if they do go crazy or blow in my hand its not much force, because... I have absolutely no knowledge of the safety of this procedure. (but lately Ive been getting into rocketry and pyrotechnics alot, that's why I'm here, To learn. ;o) ) They fly up about 40 ft and blow. Screaming all the way. Ive made about 200 of these without any trouble, but getting the weight and size just right seems the most important. Ive tried everything from straws to bigger wraps of paper, seems anything longer then 2 inches, a final weight over a gram and a half, and with an outside diameter bigger than a cigarette wont launch. One wrap of the cardboard + tape is enough. You dont need an end cap, just a fold of tape to keep the powder in. Another trick I came up with out of this method, when your testing something and want more time to get the hell out of there than a cost effective amount of fuse will provide, just tie the fuse to a small stick of incense and light the incense stick. 3 inches or so will give you a good 10 minutes of fuse time. However, if you live in a very strict locale like I do, from this you can almost bet that piccolo petes will be outlawed next 4th.
asilentbob Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 This isn't really what this whole forum strives for... We strive to be very safe and research what we are messing with when possible. We don't just throw stuff together and hope it works. When you don't have access to proper materials... you probably don't have access to proper safety gear either... hence you shouldn't do it. 1. Match heads have no place in real pyro aside from lighting fuses. 2. Breaking apart piccolo petes for the powder, then ramming it again, is counter productive, not to mention extremely dangerous. Generally the whistle mix (rockets) are pressed with several thousand pounds of force. Normal whistles (stationary, low thrust) are done by hand. So thats likely similar to what you ended up making... Though their ID is around 1/2". 3. Chances are that both of you do have plenty of resources available to you. You just haven't found them yet.
crazyboy25 Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 This isn't really what this whole forum strives for... We strive to be very safe and research what we are messing with when possible. We don't just throw stuff together and hope it works. When you don't have access to proper materials... you probably don't have access to proper safety gear either... hence you shouldn't do it. 1. Match heads have no place in real pyro aside from lighting fuses. 2. Breaking apart piccolo petes for the powder, then ramming it again, is counter productive, not to mention extremely dangerous. Generally the whistle mix (rockets) are pressed with several thousand pounds of force. Normal whistles (stationary, low thrust) are done by hand. So thats likely similar to what you ended up making... Though their ID is around 1/2". 3. Chances are that both of you do have plenty of resources available to you. You just haven't found them yet.cc i agree especially about the match heads and piccolo petes. however i have pressed whistle rockets BY HAND and amazingly have achieved moderate thrust although i will try with my vice soon.
crackerdan Posted July 8, 2007 Author Posted July 8, 2007 aha, and any of you live in mexico?, no? i thought so. other than matches, gas, lighters and sparkelors are the only explosive or explosive-like materials that you can get legaly here, and the sparkelors can only be gotten at chritmas. frikin critics.
crazyboy25 Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 i was under the impresion that Mexico had less laws on fireworks and that it is fireworks crazy on Christmas.
Frozentech Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 aha, and any of you live in mexico?, no? i thought so. other than matches, gas, lighters and sparkelors are the only explosive or explosive-like materials that you can get legaly here, and the sparkelors can only be gotten at chritmas. frikin critics. No, but I used to buy fireworks in Mexico and take them back to San Diego. Tultepec, Mexico is infamous for it's fireworks festival. You should go there. http://one.revver.com/watch/40862/format/flv/affiliate/19518
crazyboy25 Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 thats INSANE that looks like a little more than "sparklers gas or matches" BTW how did you manage to sneak fireworks across the Mexican border?
crackerdan Posted July 8, 2007 Author Posted July 8, 2007 QUOTE (crackerdan @ Jul 8 2007, 02:03 AM) aha, and any of you live in mexico?, no? i thought so. other than matches, gas, lighters and sparkelors are the only explosive or explosive-like materials that you can get legaly here, and the sparkelors can only be gotten at chritmas. frikin critics. No, but I used to buy fireworks in Mexico and take them back to San Diego. Tultepec, Mexico is infamous for it's fireworks festival. You should go there.[/code] they made a firework regulation a few years ago, before you could find fireworks anywhere, literally, now because a factory exploded that was at an urban area they banned fireworks, and unless cops are bribed or somthing like that, then you can put together a firewok show but getting any matterials is allmost impossible, legally.
Recommended Posts