I just went to the local fireworks stand and @#%%! that crap is EXPENSIVE!

I was just wondering if any of you guys have ever made some. Might be illegal where you are and you might need a licence, like you need a licence to do anything fun anymore.

Anyone?

DONT GET MY TOPIC LOCKED! I dont want to know about anything illegal- just good clean fun

Hello, Mr Cleaver. How is Beaver doing.

Mr Cleaver, did you know that if you put dry ice and about 2-3 inches of water in a 2 liter pop bottle and screw the lid on tight, it will pop and make a loud noise?

What's your idea of clean fun.  Mine is still illegal and requires black powder.

elaborate if you want to, just remember that this is a [B]public[/B] forum

Famous last words

Here, hold this.

I was going into the pyrotechnics field and train through Pyrospectaculars, but the deal fell through.

I used to make legal stuff like small aerial shells, fountains, skyrockets, and smoke candles.

The junvenile delinquent accross the street from me showed me how to make pipe bombs when I was ten...does that count? [:D]  

We used lawn chairs...low shrapnel probability.  None of our parents could figure out why the lawn chairs slowly disappeared over the course of the summer lol.  

I also vaguely remember something about sodium chlorate and sugar mixed together.  

Louder than you would imagine, at least when I did it.  I used a 1L seltzer bottle...but WOW...was it loud.  Seriously, if you do it...don't stand close, cover your ears and take cover.

Otherwise, I see FFFFg blackpowder, film cases, and duct tape in your future.

But remember, dont drink and explode.

Find a copy of "The Chemistry of Powder & Explosives" by Tenney L. Davis.  It will tell you how fireworks of all types are manufactured.
A copy of this book is also included in "Poor Mans James Bond 2" from Desert Publications which I beleive is availible at Paladin Press.

When I was a little kid of 8 or 9, my Dad took me to his friends house this one July 4th or nearing it.I think he was just trying to teach me a lesson of some sort.

He told me, "son, you're about to see something that might scare you. I'll tell you ahead of time so you can get an idea and prepare yourself.I am taking you to see lobster claw man"

I'm like "wtf?"

We pull up to this guy's house out in Chatsworth my Dad had known for years.

We get out of the car and head in through the garage to knock on the door that leads into the den.

I about turned white, or so said my Dad when this chap about 40-ish came out from his recliner. I just remember looking at his hands, or what was left of them. They looked like lobster claws because he was making some kind of crazy pyrotechnics.

All he had left was a thumb on each hand and one other finger like a pinky or ring finger.

He also was partially blind in one eye from the blast, too.

It looked like a lobster holding a fish eating its head off when he was holding his cigarette and taking a drink from a cup.

Freaked me out and kept me away from trying to make any kind of homemade fireworks.

That is a good book to have, even though some parts are dated. If you are serious in wanting to saftely make fireworks, then join Pyrotechnics Guild International and find a local shooters group to learn from.

I have no idea if what I do is legal, but who cares.  About two years ago, having been intrigued by fire and explosions all my life, I decided to learn how to make gunpowder.  I looked up the chemical formula of gunpowder and its result, balanced the formula, figured out the exact weights of each part, bought some potassium nitrate from eBay, used my dad's old powdered sulphur, made my own charcoal out of discarded baseboards (after testing with different woods, it seemed that whatever kind of wood baseboards are made of make the best charcoal), bought a scale, weighed them out, crushed the seperate parts into a fine powder, mixed them, and I had a few pounds of gunpowder that burned rather nicely with very little residue.  I then experimented with different fireworks.  I found that rockets were rather hard to make - I had to have a hole big enough for a fuse but small enough that the pressure would make the powder burn fast, and the nozzle tended to burn away fast anyway.  So I made myself happy with firecrackers, or, as I call them, superfirecrackers.  The smaller ones use one sheet of paper, about a foot of duct tape, and about a tablespoon or two of powder.  The big ones use four sheets of paper and probably about four tablespoons.  Here's a video of one of my larger ones underneath a metal mixing bowl:
[url]http://www.users.muohio.edu/cliftojd/misc/firework.mpg[/url]
I've also dabbled in smoke bombs made from stump remover (which is mostly potassium nitrate) and sugar.  Those things are FUN, expecially when you melt them into little cookies.  They make a really pretty bright pink jet of fire, a really neat sound, and a LOT of smoke.  You can hold them in your hands until they burn too close to your hand.  You have to coat them in wax, though, 'cause they absorb water from the air.

LOL, thats a great video

I know a much easier way to do that.  Just get some toilet bowl cleaner (make sure it's The Works or some such cleaner that has HCl as the main ingredient) and about a square foot of aluminum foil.  Rip the foil into smaller pieces, roll them up into balls, put them and about a cup of the cleaner into the bottle, close the lid, give it a shake, and get back.  Depending on the temperature, it may take 10 minutes or 30 seconds for the mixture to begin to boil.  When it begins boiling, it is about 10 seconds away from exploding with a tremendous but harmless (if you are far enough away that the hot acid doesn't get on you) BANG!!!

Equal parts salt peter (sodium chlorate, available in any drug store/pharmacy) and table sugar melt together over low heat.  Pour into oiled metal mold (I used a steel camp cup.  Make sure to oil it or the bomb won't come out) Before it hardens, place a wooden kitchen/fireplace match in the center as fuse.  Light and it will make some serious smoke.  (this is a smoke bomb strong enough that in low wind conditions can smoke up about half a city block.  You can add powdered paint like that used in elementary schools to give the smoke color.  And, if you are really good and want to mess with the stuff, you can add a tea spoon of micro pulverized CS to make a tear gas bomb.  The last to be used only in non populated areas for training purposes only)

Also, if you have a muzzle loader, a double load of pyrodex followed by a wad of paper towels.  Can shoot flames up to 40 feet.  If you have access to them, blanks work great as flame throwers.  

When I was in highschool, my friend had the bright idea to make a giant popper by unwrapping all those little poppers you throw on the ground. He sat in a chair in my house unwrapping each one, and gently dumping the contents into a pile in his lap!!! Well you know what happened next. He had a burned hole in his crotch after a loud bang, and a stunned look on his face. I never laughed so hard at him. Part of me wonders what that popper would have been like if he really could have made a giant one and threw it down. But the look on his face was priceless so it was worth it either way.

It's a lot easier just to pour them into, as I said, cookies.  I use plain old aluminum foil.  When it cools and hardens I pull the "cookies" off of the foil and dip them in wax to keep them from getting soggy, which, unless the weather is really dry, they will.

Bwah ha ha!  That exact thing happened to me a few days ago!  I was carefully undoing a box of the poppers, unwrapping them, and pouring the little rocks into a pile on a kleenex on my lap.  Well, I guess after about 40 of them the mere weight of the pile was enough to set it off, 'cause it spontaneously exploded.  It mostly burned through the kleenex, left my shirt unmarred, amazingly did not send any of those little stones around my room, but did hurt my ears.

What do you guys do for fuses?

I just buy cannon fuse from my local fireworks store.  If I can't get there, I just use bottle rocket fuses and tie them together to make them long enough.

I've got a muzzleloader cannon that me and my dad built that fires 12oz.beer (or coke)cans.It uses 1cup of fffg pyrodex for a regular load.Launches a can 'bout a mile.(We own a HUGE farm in which to shoot at)

You add Works Toliet Bowl Cleaner and abou 5 little balls of tin foil to a 20 Oz pop bottle and wait awhile.

Then there be an earth shattered kaboom

A firefighter friend of mine told me that during his training he was told that bleach and automobile brake fluid explode when they come in contact. He said this was demostrated to him by using two Ball Mason jars filled with each liquid and a long length of string tied to each jar. When the jars were turned over simultaniously and the liquids touched it did explode and he said it left a small crater in the ground.

Have fun, but be careful folks! Don't want any ER trips...or worse.

In a former life, I was a hand grenade inspector (mostly on the squib line).

I like things that explode, as long it is at a safe distance.

Gwen in L.A.

'bout 2 yrs ago my ex-ball&chain & I parted ways. 'bout a month later I dressed my ass up like braveheart, and held George's Wildass Pig Roast & Reality Check, around a 100 people, some friends brought their class 3 stuff, black powder cannon, flame thrower, etc. Anyway, had this big ass 4ft teddy bear that the ex had given me. Strapped a can of fffg to it's chest, put 100yds down on the first berm, and put a tracer in it from my STG-58. Was'nt I surprised when I hit it first shot off hand! Anyway, Mr. Bear turned into a very large cloud of smoldering fluff. Don't know if it's really topic relivent, but I felt better, and everybody else seemed to enjoy it.

Concentrated pool chlorine and brake fluid will do that, don't know about household bleach. Remember, if the cops catch you doing that, they can call BATF in and YOU WILL get charged with making an unregistered destructive device and you WILL be up the creek without a paddle. Ditto on stupid stuff like PVC firecrackers made with blackpowder. Just heard on the news where they busted someone for that and yup, BATF was called in, and yup the poor bastard is in jail. They call BATF in for just about everything so they can charge the person with a federal crime. Domestic disturbance and the cops show up and your drinking homemade beer? Yup, BATF on the way.
Rule of thumb: If it's fun then it is probably illegal.

Half the crap I did for fun as a kid is now considered "acts of terrorism". Damn, I figure, on a average day I'm good for at least 6 felonies, ucmj viols. Don't have to even try, if you can think of it, it's most likely illegal. Whatever..................

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Man, they have you cowed.  BATF doesn't care about homebrew unless you're selling it without the gov't getting its cut in taxes.

Nosey neighbor, domestic disturbance (argument with the old lady), children, drinking home brew, guns in the house,  sounds more like a Lautenburg violation to me. Now what guns do you have? What are these magazine, ammo, and accessories? BATF?