Black Powder Only Projects

[DragonsKing]

I was just wondering if anyone cared to post some simple black powder compositions or projects that would be good starter projects or ideas. Nothing fancy, with "crazy" chemicals like flash powder, whistle mix, or Benzolift, just straight BP, Riced or otherwise. Thanks Guys!!

[Arthur]

BP is a great start, and a LOT of old comps esp in Lancaster's book, are BP plus assorted charcoals for fountains and some comets, or BP plus various metal filings for sparkly fountains.

 

From the BP chemicals then you can make tiger tail stars, lift and break powder so you can get straight into shells.

 

Try fountains with BP and some extra charcoal stirred in (fine but not milled in!). Try rockets with a slower BP again add charcoal for tail and to slow the fuel. From Rockets try wheel drivers then you already have three different sorts of firework from a small chemical list.

[pyrochris732]

TT stars are fun. If you dont want to go right into shells you can just load some into a paper mortar over some BP and make a star mine.

 

 

[jwitt]

Not to mention that you can make all sorts of BP based stars- chrysanthemum, willow, TT, etc. They differ thanks to their respective brun rates. I still recommend making some mines once you've made some BP- ought to be fun to test the BP and make purty stuff with stars. I was given the advice to use your "junk" stars that aren't evenly shaped/sized in mines, since I'm making aerial shells that require uniform stars for the best presentation. The stars that don't hack it will go in bag mines to be fired from the HDPE mortars used for shells. Small paper mortars as suggested also make good star mines, so I've heard. (I believe that's another project in the Turbo Pyro book)

 

As Arthur said, ground-based stuff like catherine wheels also sounds fun, especially since you're getting into rockets. The historical aspect of wheels and the like is just plain cool in my opinion- people have been making 'em for hundreds of years.

 

Speaking of historical stuff, if you're bored, check out http://www.freepyroi...hnic_files.html has some interesting stuff. Very old stuff. (Be wary of old fashioned compositions, some are not accepted as safe today!!!) One of the books from the 1600's had some interesting rocketry info.

Edited April 27, 2010 by jwitt

[FUZE]

My favorite BP project so to speak has been fountains I'm done with my crazier days due to the fact my kids are growing up fast, My typical fountain consists of a 55% KNO3/35% C./10% AL* *=Fine Aluminum Flakes. My 2yr old and 10yr old both love this and to them its a classic.

[Steigede]

I really like making polumnas. If you know how to make a paper football, you're good to go. Basically you take a strip of newspaper and fold the one corner over. Tape it along the open edge so that you have a little pocket. Place some black powder in there, a fuse in the corner, and start folding the rest of the paper strip until you run out. Tape it up tight, or add another layer. I made a few of these with some of my homemade black powder and they worked surprisingly good. Google polumna if you need a better explanation.