Looks like I'll try this blog thing out. It was a gorgeous day so decided to cook some Paulownia using the old retort method with kettle grill and briquets. I wanted a fresh batch of external heat retort cooking of Paulownia charcoal for burn speed testing vs. Paulownia cooked with the TLUD method. TLUD will cook any size or shape of wood but maybe a bit too much. I found that using TLUD on Paulownia produces charcoal that is structurally weak and falls apart easily when removed from reto
Very cool - a "Post to Blog" function. I thought I'd give it a try, since this post has some hopefully good information in it. pH Probes and Meters for the (per)chlorate process I spent far too much time on pH probes today. Again, the idea behind the simple bucket cell is so one doesn't have to mess with pH probes and meters, but I still need to use them to verify it works without them. That makes no sense at all, does it? I've always been a fan of Milwaukee pH stuff. They occupy a
Just making this to post some random build pics of stuff I've been working on. Some things are for competition, some are just tests, 4th of July stuff, and fun shootings. Feel free to comment and ask questions. 5" Ring and SOS 3" multibreaks spiked/ 6"Palm Pasted and ready to be leadered and lifted. 6" Palm, about done 6" Palm Tree Shell Ti Coconuts!! 6" mine pistons Cut Win20 4" shells spiked 4" shells finished 3" Rondelle with strobe pistil and BS, rocket head
Just a little competition for the fun of it. Read the rules before outraging please. At the end of the competition, I will pick a winner, they will receive a prize. The prize will be a "Box O' Goodies" containing some random things like tubes, end disks, possible a few pounds of chems. If the entry is not valid with the rules, it is not eligible for the prize. For instance if you post a video that doesn't show the construction, then we get to figure you have something to hide and you are ch
One of the reasons I started building fireworks was because it is difficult to get a good commercial rocket. One of my old favorite consumer rockets was Phantom’s Blue Streak Rocket. If you don’t remember it, it had a charcoal tail and a hard broken header with blue stars and silver fish. Since then, this little rocket has suffered the fate as many others and has been toned down to where it is barely recognizable as the same piece. I want to make my own, but I might as well make it bigger, ri
I have not updated this in a while, I have still been shooting shows, but they were nothing out of the ordinary. The sky diving festival posed an interesting site hazard during the set-up with beginner jumpers landing near us, but other than that it was a typical show. (On a related note, if you're wondering what sport cute women participate in, take up sky-diving.) We're winding down our season, in fact this weekend was my last pro show for the year. I got the chance to participate in pyro
Many fellow pyros have told me that they have worked a barge show, a single barge show and would never do it again. After working my first one, I have to admit that it wasn't that bad. For those who live in the Midwest US, you'll know the heat and humidity is almost unbearable right now. Ambient air temps were just shy of 100 degrees along with record setting dewpoints. The air was so thick it was almost hard to breathe. That was the downside. The upside was we were able to do most of the
I got the rare opportunity to shoot a show less than 15 miles from my house. I don't even have a place to shoot consumer items that close to home, and most of the displays I've worked on are a 2-3 hour drive each way. Of course, I had to work until 7am the morning of the shoot and naturally we were busy most of the night. 400 miles in the ambulance and a few mugs of coffee later, I got off work late, but was still able to make it to the shoot site on time. I survived the morning with even mo
It seems like mother nature won't give us pyros a break this year. Over the past 6 weeks or so, Northern Indiana has had a ton of rain. We had a rather large shoot planned for this evening, but got shut down by the land owner of the venue. This wasn't a commercial shoot, just something a club plans every year and invites the public to attend. We had a large show with all consumer product, a few small shows planned by individuals, and a large scripted display. We had 20 10s and 25 8s to put
I started my season this weekend shooting a small show at a local race track. This was my first show with this company, so I had to be trained their methods. In addition to training me, they were also training a new lead shooter. There was not much to set up. 3 cubes of racks to handfire, racks for the finale, a few comets, and a number of cakes. The weather seemed to be conspiring against us. It was spitting rain most of the day, but the sponsor had hope for the show. We wrapped all c
Another old shell I'd forgotten about. I think I should make another one of these, it worked pretty well, needs a bit more lift and a stronger break though. A 2.5" cylinder with color burst, two layers of beraq to timed reports. Source: 2.5" cylinder
This was an old timed report to bottom shot that I'd forgotten about. It went pretty well I think for using visco and masking tape as time fuse. Source: 2.5" cylinder
My first "real" show of the season is still a couple of weeks away. This past weekend a few of us set up a 1.4g finale after a distributor's demo. A simple 5 minute finale served as a good reminder to respect the product, keep your audience at a proper distance, and use safe equipment. I've seen products fail before, so this was nothing new. A 9-shot cake fell apart after the first shot and a shell blew in a mortar, sending a few guns and pieces of the rack flying. I am proud to say that no
I got my first taste of display fireworks a few years ago while helping set up a demo for a local consumer fireworks distributer. As long as I can remember, I wanted to shoot "real" fireworks, and once I had done that, I only wanted more. After helping out with a few other small displays using 1.3g and 1.4g product, I got the chance to be on the crew of a large display put on by a club. It took 10 people 2 days of setting up racks, burying guns, and matching product all for a 20 minute show.
I'm writing this blog entry because I'd like to share my techniques and findings. I think it will be a nice introductory tutorial to those who are considering making paper ball shells. Starting my second big shell building project got me thinking about efficiency. I wanted to get these shells built in the minimum time possible, while still being as safe as possible. Of course, it is safer to build one shell at a time- the total amount of pyrotechnic compositions on the bench at one time is a l
SHELL X1: Used Long Hangtime Willow Stars, white chinese time fuse, ~1g whistle boost, and crappy BP rice hulls. It was my first pasting job, and it was lumpy and bumpy. I used 28g glazed cannon powder given to me over a decade ago for lift, and it did not perform well enough, although shell diameter was not consistent and may have allowed too much gas to pass the shell in some spots. The shell was strong, however, and went off even though there were some time fuse issues. SHELL X2: Improv
Here's a really long entry chronicling my entry into pyrotechnics and aerial shell building. It's cobbled together from several entries I've made leading up to actual shell production. They aren't necessary anymore, but I'm preserving this for posterity. #1 - Intro I figured I'd make a blog to document my progress from deciding to dabble in pyrotechnics all the way through hand firing a display sometime around the 4th. Maybe it will be a good reference for someone in the same position in the f
When I first joined APC as a member, I designed a ball mill that was as simple as I could make it, with the thought that it could be replicated by just about anyone, via plans or a kit. While in appearance it was fairly crude, it has done an outstanding job, and the basic design is sound. In the server transition, it seems that there has been a bit of loss or mixup of the blogs - or maybe it is just me. Anyway, the ball mill consisted of two shafts, four bearing blocks, 2 sections of 3/4" pl
Hello everyone - it's been a long time! There was a period where I was posting a blog almost weekly. Then, I ended up working on projects that weren't blog-worthy. I also need to get my rear in gear for the fourth of July. Last year, I shamed myself with a paltry performance with a few festival balls and such. This year will be different! I have also been busy welding up electrodes - shameless plug, go to my web page for details on ordering. These encompass all of my experience in making
There are two bothersome problems when you use a traditional strap of titanium to deliver current to either the anode or the cathode in a (per)chlorate cell. The first, and most troublesome, is the cutting and sealing of an appropriate slot in the lid of your cell for a strap that measures perhaps 1mm x 25mm. In thin plastic, it is not too much of an issue. In 1/2" thick PVC plastic, it is frankly a bitch, and regardless of your cell lid thickness, ultimately, the electrode strap will be flop
This is a nice way to spice up those lame and annoying batteries of Saturn Missiles. No one likes hearing a box of 100 go off for 3 minutes, letting off its horrible whistling rockets with their accompanied weak pops. The Chinese carpet bomb their shells, so I say we carpet bomb some crappy Chinese missiles! These come out to be a nice device to end your 4th of July, New Years, or private show with, lots of noise all at once. It might be best to use several set ups spaced apart. OK, so
