Fragala Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Hi, just found out this great forum. I wanna be an AP.I'm 18, and live in Canada(Toronto). I want to know where to start. what tools do I get first. What are the first things i should practice making. Is there a guide at all? To this date I have potassium nitrate and sulfur. I have made smoke bombs so far. So ya what are the tools or other tools should I get and where do I start.Also almost all the websites i know do not allow Canadians to order from it, mostly just from the states.
Jason Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 I would suggest going onto black powder next, since you can make your own charcoal. http://www.wichitabuggywhip.com/fireworks/charcoal.html There's also a lot of charcoal information here as well.
rocket Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 If you had have looked in this thread you would have the answer to you first question. http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1472 The main tool you’ll want is a Ball mill.
mormanman Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 GET A SCALE. Don't make the same mistake I did. I made about 2 lbs of black powder that was no good. Measure in weight not by volume (the mistake for me).
Fragala Posted July 20, 2007 Author Posted July 20, 2007 i have an old rock tumbler i found but i have no container for it im going to try and find 1 or make 1. First thing I am going to do is set up a nice workplace for all this and get tje right tools before i do anything.
flying fish Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Speeking of scales, I just bought a .01 digital gram scale with a 100 gram limit and calibration weights for $21 USD SHIPPED on ebay. They are very affordable, and very necessary! A .1 gram scale is also usually sufficient for pyro, but the extra precision never hurts either. My previous scale lasted me years of abuse, we'll see about this $21 scale. Strangely, it appears better built than my old one! I suppose chinese products are coming along! Secondly, visco fuse is very usefull stuff. Definetely get some if you can. Standard visco can be used for time fuse in shells, as well as for ignighting devices. The guys who don't have access to visco make spoilettes (sp?) for timing shells, but this method is more involved as far as time and effort. "Fast visco" (NOT to be confused with standard visco) is nice for shell leaders. I too use a rock tumbler as a ball mill. I use coins rather than the proper media since I'm cheap, and don't make my own lift anyway (just use it for milling TT and similar star comps). Just have to make sure that the coins are made of a non-sparking metal. I've read (from skylighter) that US nickels and quarters don't spark, so that's what I use. Don't want to use iron or steel! Whatever you use, research it beforehand. I guess as far as safety goes you might want to get some safety glasses or goggles. Also when working with fireworks it might be a wise idea to use one of those link/mat systems to prevent static sparks from activating your partially completed illuminations...
Fragala Posted July 21, 2007 Author Posted July 21, 2007 The thing is that i cannot order visco fuse online because no 1 ships it to Canada every 1 stays within the US. I don't know where to find some visco fuse here.
moonshot Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 In my opinion you should concentrate on making Black Powder. Get your tumbler working. The tumbler will make mixing your BP chems much easier.You already have KNO3 and sulfur so you need to either make or buy some charcoal to have all three chems to make your BP. (See posts on charcoal). Mormanman is right get a scale so you can weigh your chems. I made the same mistake he did and made a lot of slow BP but it turned out to be a great rocket propellant so I didn't waste it . Once you can make a decently fast BP the door is open. You can make your own Black match fuse, although not as fancy as visco it will do the job. Look through the tutorials section and read through the APC but for now Experiment with BP production.
mormanman Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 I made the same mistake he did and made a lot of slow BP but it turned out to be a great rocket propellant so I didn't waste it biggrin2.gif . Your bp made good propellant b/c I measure mine in volume and made like a two stage rocket, a regular rocket and two aireal shell but I can't test them. My charcoal was pine but do you think that the rockets will still work or should I just toss them.
moonshot Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 If you really can't test your devices I would suggest SAFELY disposing of them and starting over with a new batch of BP made correctly by weighing your chems. Testing is a critical part of making successful pyro devices so find someplace you can safely test things. Your pine charcoal should work fine for rocket propellant and cut streamer stars. May be a bit slow for burst.In pyro seeming failures can turn out to spark new ideas and lead to eventual success so keep working on it and stay safe.
flying fish Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 I agree - you need to find a place to test your creations. Homemade and experimental pyrotechnics often follows the same process as scientific research. You can't just throw something together and expect it to work. You have to continuously test and refine your methods. I've worked in a research department as an intern - as they say 99% of what you try may not work the way you wanted it to. Of course, there is alot of information available on pyrotechnics, so it isn't like you are starting from scratch. But keep in mind that you still have to test and refine your methods. Merely following instructions you found on the internet will not be sufficient. That's also why I suggest starting out small, rather than building a bunch of devices that you don't know whether they will work. Start with making BP, lift BP, stars and starmines (one at a time). Then when you are comfortable with those...try some shells and rockets(again, one at a time).
mormanman Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 I know I need to find a place but since I live where fireworks aren't legal its hard and I can't drive. The closest place is an hour away. It sucks.And you really think that I should get rid of my stuff. PISS.
flying fish Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Well, you could still test your stuff to see if it works, but I would suggest finding a closer place to test. Obviously safety is still the #1 concern when determining the test site. Maybe if someone you know has some open land with a low fire risk. Then look into the legal aspects, and see whether or not it is worth lighting them there...What I mean to say... is there are levels of illegal-ness ($100 fine vs. 5 years in prison ). (Not than I condone breaking the law...)
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