First Accident

[maho]

This website has been a huge resource for me getting into this hobby. I tend to read past posts and articles from members. A lot of my interest in rocketry and fireworks in general has spawned from this website. Anyway, I thought I'd just share a humbling mishap I recently had.

 

I was making a rocket motor, (about 1/2" diameter x 3" tall) filled with a clay (bentonite) bulk head, candy fuel and a plaster nozzle. I had some of the candy fuel left over from a previous rocket, I decided to fill another with the leftover to show my father how the rockets have been going. Rammed the bulkhead, filled it with the powder, packet it and made a plaster nozzle. All was going well.

 

A couple of hours later I was about to pick up my girlfriend to take her to dinner. Now that the plaster should be dry, I decided that I should drill the core of the rocket out before I take a shower, so that I didn't smell like sulfur (duh, you don't want to smell like the fuel). I also don't have any tooling for rockets, so this is why I decided to use the drilling method.

 

So I headed down to the garage, popped in the drill bit and began slowly drilling. I apparently packed it very tightly as it was tough to drill through at a slow speed. I eventually got a little impatient and sped the drill up (I didn't want to be late picking up the girlfriend - even though I had only been drilling for maybe 30 seconds). Once I put pressure on the motor at high speed. Boom! It exploded in my face. Impatience is a bitch. Please excuse the language. I did not have gloves or safety glasses on. Although both were on the bench at the time.

 

I remember seeing a cloud of smoke, my eyes instantly began to water and I couldn't feel my left hand (the hand holding the motor). I remember running, and staring at my left hand as I headed to the nearest sink. I was just in a moment of utter shock, staring at my fingers as I ran. They were all there, but I was worried that I was in shock and "imagining them" if you will. I flushed my eyes for probably 10 minutes with warm water. I still didn't have a lot of feeling in my hand at this point but I was sure I had 10 fingers and could move all of them. I could hear the smoke alarm in the garage going off at this point. I went down and opened the door, I threw everything out onto the sidewalk along the side of my house. Casings, fuel, and the unfortunate motor that had exploded, were all thrown onto the wet concrete outside. I was so angry at myself. The shock started wearing off at this point. But the pain in my hand didn't set in until I began to shower.

 

I have a sizable amount of 2nd degree burns on my left hand. With one spot of what I believe to be 3rd degree. I have a small corneal abrasion in my left eye as the motor ignited and exploded simultaneously.

 

I have to say, I'm glad to be alive, I'm especially glad to have all of my fingers. Everything will heal and I didn't get seriously injured. This was 3 nights ago, and I'm able to type this with both hands. Although I keep my hand wrapped with silvadene cream (a common antibiotic cream used for burns) when I leave the house.

 

This is one of most humbling experiences of my life- 2nd to my sister's experience with cancer. I'm embarrassed to tell it; I hope I can gain respect from you guys for posting it rather than ridicule. I know that I will never follow the same procedure again, I will never make the same composition, and it will be a while before I feel comfortable to even open the ammo cans that I use to store unmixed chemicals.

 

I realized my error almost immediately, I added "something extra" to the mixture. Something I thought would make it a more powerful rocket. I lacked the clairvoyance at the time to realize what I was doing, I was making an unstable mixture that would behave more like an m80 than a rocket when friction was applied. I realized why they make rocket tooling kits and why you should always follow known recipes (eg: KNO3/sugar/sulfur) and not add even a small amount of something else without researching. I know you're probably dying to know, but the "something extra" was about ~ 1g of blackhead aluminum, to ~20grams of candy fuel. Small and what seemed almost insignificant, almost cost me a couple of my 10 best friends.

 

Feel free to comment, but please keep any ridicule to yourself. Those who are close to me have already voiced plenty of ridicule. I've even considered leaving the hobby entirely. I may just go on hiatus until I feel comfortable enough, and have the right tooling to begin again.

 

 

 

[nater]

Glad your injuries were relatively minor and you are on the road of recovery. I trust with the Rx cream that you went to an ER or doctor? You will want to keep those burns nice and clean as they heal up. Do you have to return for debridment or are you fortunate enough to let them heal on their own?

 

A break will probably be good for your mind to get your comfort level back again. A few years ago I got burned on my cheek from a muzzle break while handlighting a show on the 4th. I took a few weeks off from displays and didn't work a handlit show until Labor Day of that same season. That show was a little rough at first, I was nervous with the first few shells I lit before I got back into my rhythm of handlighting.

 

Good luck to you

[mkn]

Wow, Thank you for sharing. It is good to read and remind all that safety is first. I sometimes( quite often) don't have gloves on hand ramming BP motors, and I quite often have ti above the spindle. I used to drill my candy motors as well, then I came across Nighthawkinlight video of homemade tooling. I did not want to spend a bunch of money on tooling, I wanted to spend it on Chems. The video helped me make some great tooling from 4 oz to 3# motors. Now I don't drill cores anymore. Maybe when your hand gets better, check it out.

Thanks for the safety reminder, it is easy to forget and a split second changes things all too quickly.

Heal well and fast.

 

Matt

[taiwanluthiers]

I used rocket tooling (homemade ones) because I found those nozzle mixture dulled drill bits very quickly. I hated the idea of drilling through live composition anyways so I just let the tooling make the nozzle for me.

[maho]

Glad your injuries were relatively minor and you are on the road of recovery. I trust with the Rx cream that you went to an ER or doctor? You will want to keep those burns nice and clean as they heal up. Do you have to return for debridment or are you fortunate enough to let them heal on their own?

 

A break will probably be good for your mind to get your comfort level back again. A few years ago I got burned on my cheek from a muzzle break while handlighting a show on the 4th. I took a few weeks off from displays and didn't work a handlit show until Labor Day of that same season. That show was a little rough at first, I was nervous with the first few shells I lit before I got back into my rhythm of handlighting.

 

Good luck to you

 

I'm fortunate enough to have some family members in the medical field. I work at a pharmacy and plan on going to pharmacy school next year... So I got some onsite treatment and still made it to dinner that night - about 2 hours late. After being punched in the arm by the girlfriend... She said that going to the ER was more important than seeing her. I have an appointment with my family doc this week, I'll find out about debridement then. I hope it heals up enough on it's own that this is unnecessary. For now I'm just keeping it clean, covered and protected with antibiotics and wound cream.

 

This hobby is literally "playing with fire." This is the first accident that I have had. It sounds like you have quite a bit more experience if you're doing shows. How bad were the burns from the muzzle break? I can imagine the lift charges have quite a bit of energy in them.

 

 

Wow, Thank you for sharing. It is good to read and remind all that safety is first. I sometimes( quite often) don't have gloves on hand ramming BP motors, and I quite often have ti above the spindle. I used to drill my candy motors as well, then I came across Nighthawkinlight video of homemade tooling. I did not want to spend a bunch of money on tooling, I wanted to spend it on Chems. The video helped me make some great tooling from 4 oz to 3# motors. Now I don't drill cores anymore. Maybe when your hand gets better, check it out.

Thanks for the safety reminder, it is easy to forget and a split second changes things all too quickly.

Heal well and fast.

 

Matt

 

Yeah it's a shame, I almost always wear gloves and glasses - the one time I'm in a hurry and neglect safety, is also the first time I have a catastrophic failure.

 

I'll definitely take a look at the homemade tooling. I saw some of the tooling kits can run $100 per kit (for the high qualify ones). I'm still really interested in making rockets, and I'm sure tooling would prevent this particular type of "malfunction" - considering the drill almost certainly caused the spark.

[psyco_1322]

None of the following is meant to be rude/harsh/cruel or otherwise negatively voiced.

 

Glad to hear you got all your fingers still, and came out in rather good shape. This is why I like to advise to people to just spend the money on tooling. Not only is it terribly hard to get consistent results with "ghetto" rockets, but it's downright dangerous (I had my close call). Really if you think about it, $100-200 is not a bad price for what you get. It's still a good chunk of cash, and it hurts the wallet sometimes, but as far hobbyist parts/tools go, it's on the cheaper end.

 

It would be more tempted to blame the sulfur in the mix, since it increases friction and impact sensitivity, and lowers ignition temps. Nothing in your mix should create sparks, the drill bit would, but I really doubt there was a spark involved. Rather more it was a temp/friction problem, where the increased speed and force just pushed it to the point of ignition. With tooling, you never have to worry about that scenario.

[nater]

A muzzle blast is a shell explodes just as it is leaving the mortar. I was in the process of turning away and ducking down after lighting the leader. The shell lifted earlier than I anticipated, I expected about a 2 sec delay from the length of bare match. The shell then malfunctioned and I was plastered with stars. Some made their way under my face shield and on top of a nomex hood. The burns were minor, 1st degree with a few spots of 2nd degree. Other stars burned my gear and put dents in my hardhat. It was only a 3" ball shell too, but broke just a few feet from my face. The proper PPE is what saved me from anything worse

[hindsight]

Maho,

 

Your honesty and humility are greatly appreciated as it allowed you to share something that may help someone else avoid catastrophe.

 

We cannot have too many reminders that disaster can be right around the corner. In some strange way you may have been blessed to not have had worse injuries, while getting an intense stimulus to be safe in the future.

 

I pray your injuries heal quickly and completely.

 

--hindsight

[pyrodoc]

I wish you speedy recovery.

 

I am just starting out. I was eager to obtain all chemicals but now my focus has shifted to purchasing PPE. I want a good respirator, gown/apron, a visor to protect my face, Nitrile gloves.

I want to press instead of ram. So, enquiring about a plexiglass sheets of 1.25 inch thickness.Two of those together will be enough for gerbs. I am not a rocket guy.

 

Doc

[BrainDamage]

Man that sucks now your girlfriend and your dad are going to tell you NO MORE ROCKETS hope you get well soon

[marks265]

Glad to here you are OK. Rushing pyro is a bad thing as you knew and yes you got bit. Telling us is a good reminder to all on what not to do. Some of us just refuse to tell what their mishap was, musta been really dumb not to tell I guess. Besides rushing, holding onto pyro devices while machining into them or lighting them in your hand is bad. Ever seen the you tube where the guy blew his hand off lighting a salute to through into the lake? It wasn't supposed to happen like that but it did. He had forgone the first fail safe, don't hold the darn thing! Pressing or making rockets is commonly bad for pyro when making rockets in many ways and the details are usually the culprits. These details are usually known and easily forgotten because of time constraints, people distractions, mismatch tooling, or cleanliness issues. I've personally seen it a few times and have heard of many. Strictly following the rules can be mostly rewarding, you have found out what it is like to cheat and got away with it with a lot of good luck.

 

You also mentioned your chems in ammo boxes. I hope one has your oxidizers and one has your fuels. And that they are in separate locations.

 

Just keep counting to ten! (stay green!) And again thanks for posting.

 

Mark

[mikeee]

Drilling the motor core is a common practice for some types of fuels, but the idea of running a drill bit at any

speed in a rocket fuel just makes me uneasy. Too much friction, too fast of speed, or a contaminant in the fuel

and you run the risk of ignition of any fuel.

 

Always wear the proper P.P.E. when working with Pyro compounds.

 

Hope you heal up quickly, watch for any kind of infection, it can spread rapidly.

[Col]

Good to hear you werent seriously injured. No ridicule here, we`ve all had one close call to learn from if we`re completely honest. The wrath of a girlfriend is preferable to a burn, even a relatively minor one takes a while to heal. When you get back in the saddle, always drill the core by rotating the drill press chuck by hand. For hard fuel grain, use a small bit first and then a larger one.

[TYRONEEZEKIEL]

Maho, you really don't have to shell out the $100for rocket tooling unless you are looking for performance rockets. My first set of rolling was a brass rod with a hole drilled, and a small aluminum stud sticking out of a board. This set made fantastic 1lb end burners. I'd be happy to show you how to make the same set.

[MWJ]

I very glad your ok! Things like that happen before you even know it. Thanks for posting it, all information is very important to consider when working with explosive material. Knowing what could happen is very important to all of us, and hearing about it happening to someone we know brings it home for us and makes it more real. So maybe Someone ( I ) will be more careful and have more patience when working in this hobby. I always have to keep reminding myself not to hurry any of it. So again, thank you for posting it! Take care of your injuries and remember this accident so you don't do it again.

 

God bless you!

Mike

[spitfire]

wow sounds like you got lucky. Thanks for sharing your story, like others said, it reminds us all to take our hobby serious. I had to learn it the hard way too i think most of us here did. I am involved in pyro for almost 17 years now, but still have to remind myself from time to time to not rush things. It is better to leave stuff alone for weeks, instead of rushing it in 5 minutes. I sincerely hope you get well soon!

 

Stay safe!

[Seymour]

Thanks for sharing Maho.

 

Obviously sharing the details of these events is difficult and embarrasing, but we can all benefit from it.

 

I have had some nasty burns to my hands, and on one occasion was hospitalised by a burn to my cornea. It sounds like your hands copped the worst, but I think you will agree with me that cornea injuries are incredibly scary.

 

It sounds like you are taking this seriously and will take a lot of lessons from it, which is good. My two cents on the cause of the accident is that if the friction was not the cause, the other strong possibility is a fragment of fuel falling in to the motor and igniting, then transfering the fire back to the motor. This has happened to other people before, and can be so quick that it just seems to automatically explode.

 

I have drilled out a lot of rockets in my time, and still do, and many are much more sensitive than your mix. Think containing KClO4, sulfur, MgAl and dark Al, or whistle, or NH4ClO4, Mg, Titanium, catalysts... however as slow as it is I feel so much better twisting the drill bit with my fingers.

 

I hope that you heal swiftly and fully, and keep making rockets

[pyroman2498]

I hope you get better , I wish I could say I haven't been through what you have been through , but I've had many accidents and am lucky to be Alice and working ,

I'll try to pray for you if I can figure out how , anyways go see a doctor ,keep it clean and learn from your mistakes. If you can do that you will be fine .

Get well soo.

 

~Steven