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What is the subtance surrounding cherry bombs?


Bing-Bada-BOOM

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I was wondering what sort of coating is on cherry bombs. It looks like some kind of saw dust?

 

Does anybody know what kind of coating manufacturer's use on cherry bombs.

 

Thank you.

 

Bing-bada-BOOM

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Cherry bomb's are not manufactured anymore, unless done so illegally. The coating on the outside of a traditional cherry bomb is fine sawdust and sodium silicate (waterglass).
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And the composition is usually held in a cup set that consists of two pieces of fiberboard or Kraft pressed into a shape sort of like the wrapper around a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Two halves are closed around the composition, then it's dipped in waterglass and rolled in sawdust. The dipping/rolling continues until the final round shape is achieved. I'm not sure how they colored the outside.

 

M

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It's coloring in the waterglass. Essentially one could just use food coloring or some water based paint. It's just for appearance so not really neccesary.
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I say the colour is needed, or it won't resemble a cherry. Authentic looking devices really make me happy.
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They certainly are rather aesthetic in its simple foolproof design, though was there an original size? -as i've always imagined them being about the size of a ping pong ball.
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I think they used 1" cup sets, but don't hold me to that. When all is said and done, they would indeed be around the size of a ping pong ball if this is the case.
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Hmm, well, check out patent number 1,783,999 if you get the chance. I believe that was the original patent for the "Globe Flash Salute," which was later called the cherry bomb. Cherry bombs got their original from the color of the sawdust used, red for the original. Later, and for most whom make them now, simply paint them red.

 

 

Try to find a .pdf of "Exploding Fireworks." There is an excellant chapter on cherry bombs. If you have trouble finding it, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy.

 

About the sodium silicate, I resently found Red Devil Heavy Duty Cleaner, which says it contains sodium metasilicate. It is a white, chrystaline substance with a much slightly smaller than table salt. when added to water, the water becomes "slick." I'm 99% positive this isn't useful, but I thought I'd ask anyways. I don't really want to order from CAC if I don't have to, so a local source would be VERY nice.

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Well, this will date me, no doubt.

 

I used to buy Cherry Bombs, M-80's, and Silver Salutes, as a kid.

 

The real ones, not the shit they sell today and call Cherry Bomb or M-80 or M-160.

 

Then, of course, the government reared its ugly head and the Nannies made them illegal.

 

But to answer a previous question:

 

Cherry Bombs were smaller than a ping-pong ball. And yes, 1" cup sets were used. IIRC, the diameter of a FINISHED one was only 1.25-1.50 inches. You can still buy the exact same cup sets today. Look here:

 

http://www.skylighter.com/mall/plugs.asp

 

Part number PC1050 is the traditional 1" cup set.

The PC0850 is a 3/4" cup set and could be used too.

 

M

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try hardware stores for waterglass, bigbang. It is used where concrete is, for waterproofing or something.
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just under the size of a pin pong ball and filled 3/4 with flash...

i guess these would probably make the same amount of oise as those old m-80s! Quite impressive little things! though if i were to make them. then it'd be for recreational purposes only-as they're too much effort to make often. if it were to be made be using layers upon layers of sodium silicate then i'd assume it take ages to complete! :blink:

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  • 3 weeks later...

The cherry bomb i saw was made in the fifties, it was at the rollercoaster firework store/museeum in beautiful Battle Mountain, NEV.

and it was a little bigger than a dime and a little taller than a dime standing up. So the pin pong sized cherry bomb is in my opinion "bullshit".

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I made half a dozen once. I don't usually make salutes, but cherry bombs had a certain challenge and interesting construction method. I showed them to my father and had him giggling like a school boy. He then went and dropped one in a full bucket of water and a spectacular explosoin resulted. I can see why the old prank of flushing them down toilets became so popular.
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  • 2 weeks later...
As said Cherry Bombs are 3/4" paper cups filled with flash and surrounded with sodium silicate and sawdust. The ones on the UN tutorial ends up being a perfect round 1" ball Cherry Bomb, But on the picture of original salutes that were sold it dont look like a perfect ball. These defenatily would be fun to make as they require more work then other salutes.
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  • 6 months later...
i'm new kind of and know nothing about flash so if theres something here about how to make it or buy it or something could you tell me thanks
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We don't need to tell you because it's all already on the forum. If you search for it you'll find all the info you need.

 

By the way, being new to pyrotechnics and asking about flash too quickly is frowned upon. Flash is dangerous stuff and should only be attempted once you have a better handle on pyrotechnics.

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ok i mean that i'm not gonna touch it until i can make some bp and stuff and not be stupid about it but thanks anyway
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  • 8 years later...

Yeah I know this thread is 8 years old but people still look here for info on cherrybombs.

 

I don't understand how people are talking about 1" cup sets being used. 1" cup sets are roughly 2" long so if you consider that a 1" x 2 1/8" salute tube holds 15g and the end caps take about about an inch of the space so it's only 1" x 1 1/8" and holds 15g that means that a cherry bomb made from a 1" cup set that is 2" long would hold 20g or maybe even 25g if you fill them a lot. Definitely not cherry bomb size. More like remove your entire hand size.

 

(I calculated this by taking the amount of comp. used in a 5/8" x 1 1/2" m80 tube which is 3g and calculating the volume in inches of the tube minus the end plugs' space. Then I calculated the volume of the cherry bomb's casing and did some division then multiplied the 3g to whatever number I had. I forget what number I ended up with but I remember that it was something like 25g.)

 

 

So this means that a real cherry bomb was even smaller than a 1" hemisphere set which can hold 4-5g. A real cherry bomb set was probably less than the diameter of an m80 (9/16") and as long as it was in diameter. Of course my math could be terribly wrong but I know for a fact that a 1" cup set is way too big if a real cherry bomb held 1g - 1.5g of composition.

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I don't blame him! Although they are often quite simple, salutes are intrinsically interesting (IMO).
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A Cherry Bomb cup set measures either 5/8" or 3/4" in diameter and they are just about that tall. You can fit about 2 grams of flash powder in a 3/4" cup depending on the formula. I have seen 1" cup sets for sale however I have never seen a vintage Cherry Bomb that used one in their original production. A 1" cup set will hold 8-10 grams, but 2" long is not a cup set I've ever seen. The picture above is accurate in terms of size. The M80 was charged with at least twice the amount of flash powder as the Cherry Bomb.

Edited by countryboy7978
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Oh ok I was misinformed. The cup sets are probably as long as they are wide. But yeah that makes sense and the one in ddewes picture looks like its the size of the m80 so it must be less than 5/8" before the waterglass and sawdust is applied. Otherwise it would probably hold more like 2g of powder.
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I'm even not sure if that is a real old m80, since the real ones where red with a stiff fuse sticking out the side.
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