Introductions

[Japanese]

Hello!

I'm from Japan.I've never seen amateur pyro enthusiasts here so I want to interact with pyro enthusiasts all over the world. I'm interested in shells and rocket.

Sorry for my bad English.

[Carbon796]

Welcome!

 

Your English is more than good enough, no need for an apology.

[cyrex]

Hi hello. Mumbles sent me to this thread a while ago. Needed to make a post to view something.

[Mosin55]

New to the game and trying to learn from the veterans! Thanks!

[gentrym76]

Hello, my name is Mark from Southwest Louisiana, USA. 44 years old.

 

Total greenhorn here. Hoping to be lead in the right direction for a new hobby in fireworks. I am a thirty year guitar player, and my hands are starting to limit my ability to play for any length of time. So I need a new hobby. Have always been interested in this, especially rockets.

 

Thanks in advance for all the info.

[rogeryermaw]

depending on what you're into, don't think this hobby will be super easy on your hands. spiking cylinders can be very physical work. but at least tarred string can hold it's place for a while if you have to let go! welcome aboard and look forward to what you discover.

Edited November 6, 2020 by rogeryermaw

[bwayne64]

Hi all, I'm Joe. Just signed up,been a lurker off and on. Getting ready to build a ball mill, and knew there were brains to pick here Cheers

[Chad101]

Thanks for allowing me to join!

 

Im a fireworks enthusiast at night and a software engineer by day who puts on 4 shows a year for the subdivision I reside in.

 

I was recently approved for my ATF license to purchase 1.3 product (it should be arriving in the mail any day now). Which probably wont save me much $$$ but itll drastically cut down on the setup time for future shows (e match, bigger cakes, etc).

 

Im looking network with others who share a similar passion for pyrotechnics and learn more about the industry. This is just a hobby, not a career for me.

[thunder6442]

Hello from Ohio

[SeaMonkey]

Greetings Thunder from Very Southern California.

 

I passed through Ohio in April '71 enroute to Defense Language Institute East Coast and again

in February '72 enroute to Alameda, California. Beautiful country and nice People!

 

I got hooked on Big Guns, Fireballs and Loud Explosions plus the unique smells of burnt powder

while in the Navy. The fascination with the Works of Fire just never goes away!

[entropy]

Howdy all!

 

I am from the US and my interest in pyrotechnics has recently been re-sparked. As a kid I was obsessed with all this and tried all kinds of ill advised firework modifications, projects and experiments. Now that I'm an adult with a little bit of chemistry knowledge, a thirst for learning and a matured attitude about safety, I hope to finally explore this hobby in a fulfilling way. At the moment I am taking particular interest in exploring the possibilities of ground fireworks that could be considered S&S, because I've been really impressed with a couple of 500g fountains we've bought recently. Hope to be around and get to know the community!

[SharkWhisperer]

Howdy all!

 

I am from the US and my interest in pyrotechnics has recently been re-sparked. As a kid I was obsessed with all this and tried all kinds of ill advised firework modifications, projects and experiments. Now that I'm an adult with a little bit of chemistry knowledge, a thirst for learning and a matured attitude about safety, I hope to finally explore this hobby in a fulfilling way. At the moment I am taking particular interest in exploring the possibilities of ground fireworks that could be considered S&S, because I've been really impressed with a couple of 500g fountains we've bought recently. Hope to be around and get to know the community!

Welcome! Your fountains will eclipse anything you've bought at a fireworks shop. 500g? Prolly 100g of clay or more. You'll do better. Plenty of folks here are willing to help you any way they can, so long as it's clear you're using that brain of yours and not cutting too many corners. Would suggest (same advice to all new pyros) to take the time and effort to learn to make reliably potent black powder (BP) because it's the basic foundation of pyrotechnics, and is needed for many, many projects. Tip: It all comes down to your charcoal, and when available, the good stuff is expensive. Made by yourself, it's pennies on the dollar, but takes a couple of hours to cook an mill to powder. Given that KNO₃ and sulfur from usual pyro sources in the US are top-notch, BP all boils down to how good your charcoal is, what type of wood, and how fine it's milled. Expect the possibility of hitting a snag from time-to-time in learning the art, but soon you'll be laughing at how easy it is and how silly your oversights may have been.

 

Gloves and glasses. Your hands and eyes are valuable. Other PPE gear needed too, but there are no substitutes for properly functioning (preserved/maintained) hands and eyeballs for enjoying many things in life, including the pyro hobby.

 

Welcome.

[Pdiddy123]

Hello, Love the site and i'm learning alot!

Edited January 3, 2021 by Pdiddy123

[Roggi]

Hey all. Great forum and lots of good information. Thanks

[Richtee]

Hey all. Great forum and lots of good information. Thanks

Welcome. And yes there’s lots of good. There’s some not so good. It tends to get shut down reasonably quick tho. Measure twice, cut once.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Richtee

[ricknickel]

Hello
My name is Rick and I live in Huntsville Alabama
I enjoy working on technology related projects like microelectronics, quadcopters, chemistry, Forging, robotics, 3D printing and many others.
I tend to study things to death before I do any practical work. One of my mottos is - There are some mistakes you can't learn from.

A sampling of what I do can be found at
https://www.facebook.com/rick.nickel.9/
https://www.youtube.com/rnickel123

My homemade ball mill demo on my YouTube channel may be of interest to folks here...

[Guest]

Welp its been a long time since I was on this site and I never introduced myself anyway so I thought I'd go ahead and do that.

 

I'm tom and I'm from Indiana. I'm a relatively new pyro who's been going to club events and shooting professional shows for about 3 years now. always loved fireworks and was thrilled to find out about pgi and my local club the HPA back in 2017. Went to my first firework club event the Midwest fireworks festival and got hooked.

 

Started with backyard fireworks, got into professional shows, dabbled a little in building, focused on doing shows again, got burned out doing that and now I'm back here making baby bottle rockets and having fun.

 

Hope to hear from you all and see what we can make together.

[Paramax55]

Hi, all. Looking forward to learning.

[DrJones]

Name's Ed Jones, retired propellant chemist, age 81 now living and experimenting in New Mexico. Worked at Aerojet-General 1957-65, assigned to White Sands Proving Ground/Missile Range much of that time, as a test engineer. Studied chem engineering at NMA&M, now called NM State, Las Cruces.

Have been developing slow-burning propellants for micro-rockets, reloadable and one-shot, for aeromodels, and an expert on both Jetex and Rapier motors. Founded www.Jetex.org years ago, the best resource for rocket-powered models of all kinds.

Recently developing new slow-burning propellants at Jetex Propulsion Lab (JPL-Mojave), working with the late Ed Brown of Estes.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/jetexpropulsionlab/

Designed motors of >20-sec thrust at one ounce.

 

Trained in explosives chemistry and testing, with experience synthesizing various organic esters with HNO3, as well as hypergolic propellants based upon RFNA and WFNA.

 

Currently developing small (<62.5-gram propellant loads) nozzle-less rockets with KN and assorted sugars and additives, seeking maximum propellant mass fractions in thin, strong paper cases.

 

Currently situated beside the Energetic Materials Research Test Center of NM Institute of Technology, in Socorro. White Sands Missile Range is 25-mi easterly. Nobody raises an eyebrow here when pyrotechnics are tested.

 

Cannon Fuse, Skylighter, and Firefox remain my favorite purveyors. When I began learning pyrotechnics, in 1948, most everything you wanted was on the shelf at a well-stocked drug store. Today I could not find boric acid at a Walmart Superstore. Go figure.

[Bourbon]

Welcome DrJones,

 

Fantastic history and background you have. Your site is packed full of goodies. (Even though I only understand about a 1/4 of it.) A pleasure to hear from a seasoned vet such as yourself!

[Richtee]

 

Have been developing slow-burning propellants for micro-rockets, reloadable and one-shot, for aeromodels, and an expert on both Jetex and Rapier motors. Founded www.Jetex.org years ago, the best resource for rocket-powered models of all kinds.

 

 

Interesting.I’m just a tad young for the Jetex craze...but I heard about it a couple years back. Cool stuff... Yeah, they started taking all the fun stuff away when I was growing up.

[Ethan13]

Hi, I'm Ethan. I'm new to the forum and hobby. I'm interested in space rockets. But I will never be an astronaut. Therefore, I want to figure out how to make flying models. And it is desirable that they do not burn out or explode at the same time.

[GoldLyrebird]

Hi everyone.I'm Charles newbie here. Looking forward to more posts, suggestions and ideas with you all. I want to share some motivational story and wish to hear your opinions. Thanks

[Twesla]

Hello everyone! My name is Stuart, and I started doing pyro as a hobby last year, at the tender age of 35. My formal background is in chemistry, but I picked up electronics and Tesla coil building as a hobby a few years ago, but pyrotechnics was something Ive wanted to do since childhood, and it has completely sucked me in.

 

Other than that, Im a father of a six year old daughter, and Im from southern New Mexico in the United States. Since humidity hasnt been invented yet over here, and were not allowed to import humidity, a lot of my compositions dry really fast naturally. The downside is that I have to be incredibly mindful of safely deterring static discharges.

 

Ive learned so much from lurking in this forum the past year than from any of the other sources of information I have at my disposal, so I just want to extend my gratitude towards everyone who contributes here. I hope to share any little tidbits Ive learned over the past year should they be helpful to someone else. Thank you to everyone here for sharing your knowledge as well as your safety practices!

[Twesla]

Hi, I'm Ethan. I'm new to the forum and hobby. I'm interested in space rockets. But I will never be an astronaut. Therefore, I want to figure out how to make flying models. And it is desirable that they do not burn out or explode at the same time.

Hi Ethan, welcome to the forum! Ive been really invested in pyrotechnic rockets lately. I hope you find what youre looking for here!