A Guide to Firework Construction
=====[ Altered Planes ]=====[ 7-04-88 ]=====[ 20:44.27 ]=====
]
*> Title: A Guide to Firework Construction
*> Date : 6/27/88
*> Time : 5:46 pm
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
BOOM A Guide To Homemade
Fireworks BOOM
BOOM BOOM
BOOM by : BOOM
BOOM Mental Hijinx BOOM
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
So much for the k-rad
opening title…damn it’s later than I thought. Oh well
since it’s getting near the 4th of
July I figured I had better write this so
all my fellow Anarchists would have something to do,
and it could save you
some $$$ too. I took most of these items from an article called
**American
Pyrotechnist** so most of them should work. I have tried mostly all of them
except for a few that I couldn’t find the ingredients for (ain’t that always
the problem). You
must remember when making these the rules of the pyro :
1) Wear protective clothing (goggles,
gloves, asbestos underwear…only
kidding) 2) Work in spark free environment 3) Never use
metal tools or other
items which may cause a spark when mixing or otherwise handaling the
chemicals
There are many more precautions which I’m not going into now because you
should already have a knowledge about the production of fireworks, if not
stop reading right
now. Ahh now that we got rid of the pussies we can get on
with it…
Match Head
Rocket
—————–
Ok here’s an easy one to make if you do it right. And there’s
no fancy chem.
involved. Take a paper sack and cut it into 3" strips, you might want to
tape
then together to form a long piece for convenience (you can also use gummed
mailing
tape). Wrap these around a 1/2" dowel to form the case, make it about
1/8" in
thickness. Now take it off the dowel and close off one end by taping
and/or folding paper over
it. It MUST be air tight. Fill the case with match
heads, about 4 or 5 inches full, do not
pack them. You can cut off the excess
case so there is about 1 or 1 1/2 inches from the
matches. Now insert a fuse
and crimp the end on opposite sides to form a ‘Z’ shape.
note:*=fuse (,)=case
(—\ /) -=case. You can also just seal this end up too them poke a
hole
(*/\ \/ ) in it, stick in a fuse, taper it down and continue. The ‘Z’
(/ \—)
method produces 2 nozzles. The open end of the case should be
tapering down towards the
nozzles, wrap a rubber band around the tepered end
a couple of times in order to hold it shut
TIGHTLY. It must be tight for it
to hold the expanding gas. The rubber band should be at least
1/2" away from
the end to keep it away from heat. Attach a stick to it and it’s ready
to
light. It is pretty good rocket if you make the opening tight, I don’t
really like to
build this one because cutting those matches is sooo boring,
but if you have the patience give
this a try.
Flying Sparks
————-
This device will spin, and then
take off upward shooting off sparks. First
make a 2" tube out of gummed mailing tape. The
inside should be 5/8" in
diameter (wrap tape around 5/8" dowel) wet the tape on the
last turn. Now
pack hardening clay into one end, about 1/2" deep, pack tightly. Fill
the
tube with black powder and cap the other end with clay (not so deep this time)
You
don’t have to use clay, you can use epoxy or any other sealing compound.
Take a drill with a
1/8" bit and drill a hole 45 degrees upward from the
bottom and 45 degrees off center
(when looking downward). Now stick in a fuse
light and run ! This thing can sometimes go
wild.
___ |—–| | Looking down with crosshairs
| |*****| * = powder (((|))) to show
center of tube.
| |*****| – = clay ___(___|___)___ ( and ) = tube side
2" |*****| (
| / ) | and _ = crosshairs
| |**\\*| (((|/)) / = hole
| |—\\| |
| |—-\\ <
Hole
_|_ |—–|
5/8"
Roman Candles
————-
These
are great to use in wars on the 4th, and they’re not that hard to make.
It just takes a lot of
experimenting to get it right. The principle is that
the colored balls, called stars, shoot
out of the barrel because of the force
of gas being released from the oxidizer. The first
thing you need is a real
fine blackpowder, like a F or FFF grade. The speed at which it burns
is
important…if it’s fast the stars come out fast and if it’s slow they come
out slow.
Next is the tube or barrel, it’s wallsmust be thick (1/4" thick)
this depends on how long
your tube is, the longer the tube the thicker the
walls. The paper you use to make the tube
has to be just right too. If it’s
cheap paper, like a paper bag, it will burn away inside
before the candle is
through. If it’s quality paper with good adhesive it won’t burn at all
and
the compression will be to strong for the stars, they will go out because
they shoot
out with such force. The diameter of the tube should be about
5/8" and the stars should
be about 9/16" in diameter and 1/2" long when damp.
(more on these later) The stars
should slide easily into the tube with little
or no effort, they should not be forced. If you
use fast stars you should
surround them with a layer of gunpowder, otherwise don’t use this.
Before
you start adding the stars you should plug the bottome end with some sort
of clay
or epoxy. Now place about .45 gm of blackpowder on the bottom, then
add a star on top of that.
Make sure it goes all the way down. A charge of
meal powder is added, about .5 gm, tilt the
candle a little to make sure
the meal surrounds the star. Take some candle fuse (potassium
nitrate 50,
mealed gunpowder 22, charcoal 40/100 mesh 11, charcoal 30/60 mesh 11, sulphur
table (or the
candle itself if it isn’t upright on the table) this is to
settle the fuse (it is called the
fuse because it acts as a delay in the\
candle). Don’t tap to hard because it might crak the
star or to light which
leaves air pockets. Now repeat the process for each star you have room
for.
But when adding the black powder it should be increased each time as to
shoot the
stars out at an equal distance, if you didn’t the first star would
not shoot as far as the
last one. Use this table : 1 star-.45 gm, 2 star-
.55 gm, 3-.60 gm, 4-.90 gm, 5-1.20 gm,
6-1.50 gm and so on adding .30 gm
each time. To light stick a fuse in the top end and you’re
ready.
Stars
—–
These are not fireworks alone but rather the things that
go in rockets, Roman
candles, floral shells, and mortars. There are many ways of making them.
One
of the best ways is to get a hollow cylinder tube with the inside diameter
the size
that you want the stars, and a stick with a end on it to form a
piston like object for the
tube. This is used to compress the mixture. Now
take a small amount of damp star mixture and
put it in the tube. Take the
piston and mash it dowm firmly so the star won’t come out
deformed. You
should have added enough mixture to gain the right hieght (usually 1/2"
high)
Now pop the star out and set it on a drying rack until it is completly dry.
Note :
the oxidizer should be added as the last step, also stars containing
chlorates should be
handled carefully when inserting into fireworks and
when adding black powder and sulphur to
them. The following table shows
formulas for colored stars, they are in 100 parts by weight
(except for
dextrin) they can also be measured as % by weight.
BLUE GREEN YELLOW |
WHITE
potassium chlorate 68 30 — | potassium nitrate 51
potassium perchlorate — – 70
| sulphur 18
barium chlorate — 55 — | meal powder 15
red gum — 10 6 | antimony metal
powder 10
shellac — – 6 | charcoal 150 mesh 3
colophony resin 6 — – | dextrin 3
dextrin 4 4 4 | potassium chlorate 60
sodium
oxalate — – 14 | aluminum "bright" 20
Paris Green 22 — – | aluminum "dark
pyro" 20
____________________________________________| dextrin 6
GOLD : mealed
gunpowder 58, lampblack 14, |____________________________
charcoal 150 mesh 21, black antimony
sulfide 7, dextrine 7 |
_________________________________________________________________________|
ELECTRIC STREAMER
WHITE GLITTER YELLOW GLITTER |
aluminum "bright" — 8 7 |
aluminum "dark
pyro" 18 — – |
mealed gunowder — 66 70 |
charcoal 40/100 mesh 20 — – |
dextrin 7 4 5 |
stronium oxalate — 8 — |
soidum oxalate — – 10 |
potassium
nitrate 40 — – |
sulphur 10 — – |
black antimony sulphide 5 14 8 |
_______________________________________________________________________|
Bottle
Rocket
————-
These little thing were outlawed here in Texas a while back because
of all
the fires the started, I think they’re became legal again but they’re not
as
destructive as they used to be. Well here’s a method of making them the
good old way. They are
great if you make them right…as always it takes a
little experimenting to get them perfect.
The casing for this can be made
with Kraft paper with the dimensions of 1 1/4" long and
3/16" diameter. Dry
roll it about4 or 5 turns then seal it with epoxy or sodium silicate.
When
this dries push a piece of tissue paper into one end so it covers the hole
completely. Next push in as much powder as possible until it is within 1/4"
from the top.
Now stuff in about 1/8" of primer material (an igniter to light
the fuel). Fold and stick
in a fuse and put a piece of tissue paper in to
hold it in place. Seal this end with epoxy or
sodium silicate. When this is
dry attach a stick to the rocket, it must be thin but strong.
Since the
wood you get for this is probably not heat treated you might want to wrap
a
small piece of aluminum foil around the stick close to the exhaust of the
rocket. The
following table is measured in weight by grams.
____________________ Not a very good diagram
but :
—*-\>||++++++++++* * are the tissue paper plugs
==============@@@@@@@@@@@@@@/——- + is the fule || is the primer
= is the stick —\> is
the fuse @ is the foil
RED GRN BLU YEL ORG WHT PUR
potassium nitrate – - 1 1 1 1 -
barium nitrate – 1 – - – - -
stronium nitrate 1 – - – - – 1
Paris green – -