Pyrotechnics and cleanliness, watch out!

[50AE]

I must warn pyros that are new or intermediate, be careful! Getting used to pyro may lid to changing your perception of cleanliness, your point of view and criteria. This often leads to social problems, dispute with family members and/or colleagues.

 

Pyro is a dirty business, right? Especially when working with nasty dark powders, as charcoal, lampblack, aluminum. Generally a pyro workshop is dirty. This is where the problem comes, some pyros will start to perceive it as clean, because they will get used to it. Imagine you have to make pounds of BP all day. You are concentrated on the job and you really don't have time to pay attention how clean the things are. You may be attentive about contamination and spilled compositions, but you wouldn't mind a little dust on your containers.

 

You sure get used to, but the other people don't. You may stop noticing the ugly layers of accumulated charcoal powder on the surfaces, but the others will see them. It's not a problem if everything you make dirty is for your personal use, but if you must share some stuff, as a room, house, materials, tools, please pay attention.

 

Thanks to the other people around me, I woke up from this blind nightmare.

Here's an example: I work as a door keeper sometimes. The doorkeeper sits in a small room to watch people entering and exciting the building. This room is part of a door keeper's flat, which looks like a regular apartment. So I profit to do something pyro sometimes and some time ago, I decided to ball mill charcoal. I brought my mill and it was running all day inside the kitchen.

The next morning I cleaned up the floor from the charcoal powder and the other colleague was on the shift. No worries

 

The next week, another colleague started to shout at me because the place was dirty. He asked me to come in and take a look. While I wasn't seeing anything unusual, he told me "Just slide your finger over the white drawer there". I was astonished to see how my index finger left a white trail on the invisible for me, charcoal layer. Then I really understood how bad my case was. Then I told to myself "no more working with powders inside a room".

 

I have a few other examples, but I will save them for now.

My idea is - when doing pyro, stop for a while and ask yourself if you haven't forgotten your cleanliness ideals. Take a look at your hands - to they look clean enough to you, so you will feel comfortable to go out? Look at the floor in your workplace - is it clean, so you don't bring any black footsteps into your home?

 

This is generally a problem with all dirty jobs. When men used to get dirty, wives complain, right?

Edited October 30, 2011 by 50AE

[dan999ification]

i make sure things are spotless for a number of reasons however door handles and taps cannot avoid

"the dust" i sometimes wear gloves, should more often it saves some cleaning.

this reminded me of the first time i made charcoal and passed it through a sieve in the kitchen, for a good week after evry horizontal surface in evry downstairs room had a thin layer i cleaned it up and it came back it was airborne for days, needless to say some was inhaled by all and the black boogers were proof

it suprised me how much gets around even though i was asking for it really.

never has anything been screened in a room since, it didnt go down too well.

 

dan.

Edited October 30, 2011 by dan999ification

[AdmiralDonSnider]

I think you overlooked the main point of concern linked to dirty workspaces: safety.

 

Spilled powders, stars, fragments, all sorts of chemical dusts mixing and potentially creating incompatibilities and sensitive compounds.

 

Cleanliness in pyro is a safety thing.

[dan999ification]

i make sure things are spotless for a number of reasons

 

i fully understand and didnt overlook anything just gave my two pence [ random discussion ] what should i have said?

my work is carried out sensibly and disposable items are used ie work surfaces scoops and cups no mixing takes place inside buildings not working with anything toxic or incompatible.

if a workplace is as dirty as you describe trouble is not far away.

 

dan.

Edited October 30, 2011 by dan999ification

[AdmiralDonSnider]

My post was adressed to 50AE, just in case of confusion.

[mabuse00]

The problem mentioned here is the one that keeps me from doing pyro on a larger scale.

 

Sieving mixtures together ect. can only be done outside imho. But even ramming rockets always produces small black clouds... I really hate it.

 

In fact, if you don't have one special separated location for this hobby your pretty limited.

 

Social problems don't help too. But I really hate the dust myself.

[dan999ification]

My post was adressed to 50AE, just in case of confusion.

 

 

my appoligies.

[TheArchitect23]

it has been very cold recently here,

i was tempted to do some small inserts, and misc experiments indoors via the spare room.

after a few days of this i decided i had made a decent mess, and it was time to clean up... every surface was coated in black.

hardwood floors reveled most of the "mud" after i swiffered ( mop )

 

i can easily see how accidents can happen on your work tables if for example i had carpet in that room.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I am a very cleanly man, but it's impossible to make BP without getting shitty. Same goes for lampblack and airfloat metal powders. I'm sometimes not careful enough when I have been working with pyro, what cleanliness concerns.

 

But I have seen worse. I knew a guy who had most if his chemicals in his closet and bedroom. He pressed stars and rockets in his bedroom, close to the bed. The whole room smelled of chemicals. It's hard for me to believe that he could ever invite a woman home.

[dagabu]

i do a complete wipe down of the shop every so often, the dust will "flash over" if left there to accumulate.

 

-dag

[50AE]

To Admiral and others.

 

Of course keeping your place clean is mostly safety related. But I doubt many of you wipe the black finger stains on your HDPE containers after each use, or wipe everything after a simple screening of charcoal. Some of us are very busy.

When you get used to pyro, you start to compromise with things such as time and cost. While you know that you can not leave spilled BP or star mix and walk around, you also know that a small layer dust of calcium carbonate is not going to harm you. You know that dried CMC or wheat paste on your table can be left for tomorrow.

 

What I really mean, is that you get used to the dirt that surrounds you. You start to see stain, dust, powders as normal the more you work with pyro.

 

I remember when I was a beginner. I was spending hours to label my chemicals and decorating my containers. I was also cleaning the containers after each use.

Now, when someone needs me to make him 10kgs of MgAl, BP, chlorate or anything else for a specific time, I can't just sit looking at a chemical

Edited October 30, 2011 by 50AE

[guntoteninfadel]

Can not agree with this thread more! I was trying out my new 12" jar by milling charcoal. My over confidence and hubris really made a mess. Because I was testing it and it had no explosive materials I did it in my spare bedroom. The jar did not seal . Was not a big leak but that airfloat was all over the place. I believe that a teaspoon of airfloat charcoal will put a layer of carbon on every square inch of a 2000 sq/ft house once airborne. Was a very difficult mess to clean up! I am with 50, doing my messy crap outside from now on!

[Peret]

Grinding charcoal is a miserable filthy job, I hate it. I hand-cranked a few pounds through a meat grinder this weekend and ball milled about half of it, leaving my face looking like I was about to do an Al Jolson impression and my clothes so black they'll have to be washed alone. I have to pick times when Mrs P is away for jobs like that.

[oldguy]

I have a big old powerful outdoor lawn & garden type electric shredder mulcher, I use for grinding big loads of charcoal down to fines exiting into a big plastic tote.

1^st time I used it, the patio & half the back yard was covered with a fine layer of air float. Which require pressure washing to get clean.

 

After that fiasco, I used an old bed sheet to cover the shredder & tote to try to contain air float from escaping while it was in operation. That worked better, but still ended up with a lot escaping.

 

3^rd attempt, I used a very fine mist spray nozzle on a garden hose to spray an occasional very fine mist of water over the bed sheet while shredding.

The mist did the trick & there was no visible air float escaping, nor coating anything when done.

 

Charcoal fines were slightly damp, but dried quickly left outside a day in a sunny location.

 

 

[Potassiumchlorate]

Can not agree with this thread more! I was trying out my new 12" jar by milling charcoal. My over confidence and hubris really made a mess. Because I was testing it and it had no explosive materials I did it in my spare bedroom. The jar did not seal . Was not a big leak but that airfloat was all over the place. I believe that a teaspoon of airfloat charcoal will put a layer of carbon on every square inch of a 2000 sq/ft house once airborne. Was a very difficult mess to clean up! I am with 50, doing my messy crap outside from now on!

 

Oh, I found out that both my potassium perchlorate and strontium nitrate were a bit coarse, so I milled them in the basement, i.e. in a room that is like a "rougher" living room. I milled it in my "spare" jar, that isn't really made for this but for polishing rocks. It leaked and came out on the floor...and that is white and not that messy. Incredibly irritating.

[Andrew]

Red Iron Oxide on a cream carpet once.....oops.

[guntoteninfadel]

Red Iron Oxide on a cream carpet once.....oops.

 

 

bet the wife loved that one

[spitfire]

spilled only 10 - 15 grams of airfloat C on the carpet once...(tripped) it makes a mess you can't remove. I was messing around with red (rhodamine B.) and blue smoke dye and spilled it... that makes the biggest stains you'll ever see. NEVER touch that stuff again, just because of the mess it leaves. You can throw away your bowls, screens, rods... Edited November 3, 2011 by spitfire