Thread: Ask Me About Pyrotechnics

Originally Posted by Pyrofan1

I know of a website that you guys might like: link[/b]

Looks like a cool site, though it is new, so there isn't too much there yet. UnitedNuclear.com also has some great guides. Most of these aren't actually on the main "experiments page", and are totally unlinked pages sitting on the site (I think they are more dangerous than the main experiments page, not complete, or the government got pissy about it being posted or something), but I managed to find them because of the very easy to understand naming protocol ):

The Experiment Index (has instructions for smoke bombs, black powder, and rolling one type of star)
Waterfall effect fireworks
Making Aerial Shells (this one seems very dangerous)
Quick Match and Black Match (I don't think some of it's complete though)
Another page on Black Match, Quick Match, and Cross Match (No pictures, and not much detail)
Meal (black powder mixture of some sort) Coated Corn Cob and Rice Hulls

There are a couple more I missed (don't remember the links) on the site, and doing a google search of site:unitednuclear.com may find you a few more cool pages (like all kinds of mixtures to get different color fireworks and stuff like that)

Note that I haven't tried any of this and obviosly they are dangerous, so do them at your own risk if at all. Also, many of these chemicals are quite difficult to get.

good ol' UN

Originally Posted by Pyrofan1

Lucky, I have to synthesize everything from scratch.

Is there an easy way of making potassium nitrate (I want to start out with a smoke bomb since it would be hard to get killed with)? I live in Massachusetts where all fireworks are illegal (technically you can't even use sparklers), and the only stump remover around is Bonide StumpOut, which is sodium metasulfide or something like that, not KNO3.

http://www.pyrosummit.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=649

Originally Posted by ShYne123

We are talking about big bombs, destruction bombs not "fireworks" Lol.
You can make that easily with any common sense and a little gunpowder.

-You can easily make gunpoweder, buy it if your over 18, or get it from rocket engines. (the engines are wicked expensive :-/ )

-If you dont want fire you can use chlorine and brake fuild

-Or peroxide and the black stuff in alkaline batteries. (Dosnt work too great actaully)

You are seriously dangerous. Anyway, i'm probably more dangerous (in terms of chemical/explosive knowledge) than all u guys put together but i would never use any of this stuff (too impure and dangerous to myself) and i would certainly never post how to make crap on a forum.

Originally Posted by ShYne123

-I started making pipe bombs/c02 bombs and stuff 9th grade
-SOmone told on me, i got my house search by police, my room torn apart...bastards.
-I just foundout my friend has a major connection, (ammonium nitrate, idoine crystals (fun) !!potasium chlorate!!! So im thinking im going to get back into this.

-A few years ago i tried to make potasium chlorate with bleach and potassium chloride...
-It didnt work.

stuff+ Anyway, if u really care and want to know i can type u up a really awsome design in a PM.

You don't realize the inherant danger in even typing the word bmb on the internet, even if you were already searched and found to be clean, i mean most likely nobody's watching this forum but still... as far as the police thing, do u realize how lucky you were, if they found a pipebmb, you could have gone to prison. The truth about a lot of this pyrotechnic stuff is if you study wikipedia enough you can make just about anything out of anything. By the way, i'm not exactly sure how you tried to prepare the potassium chlorate, did you boil the bleach then just drop the potassium chloride in? Because if you did, there's an elementary problem with that setup that wikipedia left out for good reason. Also, household bleach is only a 3-6% concentration of sodium hypochlorite... Anyway, i'm just explaining why your bleach experiment didnt work. Anyway, there's legal ways you can get potassium perchlorate even () but according to law you can buy no more than 1lb annually without a federal licence.

Anyway, i've never even tried any of this pyrotechnic stuff (because i dont want to have an FBI file or a death with ), i just know a lot about it, the only advice i can give to you guys is: NEVER under any circumstances try to distill hydrogen peroxide, anything over 70% can rapidly decompose without reason... and anything over 90% can explode/detonate and you won't even know what the concentration is until it's too late.

Originally Posted by PenguinLord13

Is there an easy way of making potassium nitrate (I want to start out with a smoke bomb since it would be hard to get killed with)? I live in Massachusetts where all fireworks are illegal (technically you can't even use sparklers), and the only stump remover around is Bonide StumpOut, which is sodium metasulfide or something like that, not KNO3.

If your grocery store sells "salt peter", that is sodium nitrate, it is quite common in the sausage processing industry (that's where the phrase "hot dogs have nitrate in them" comes from). You can probably buy it at a drug store or online at a sausage making supplier website without attracting any attention from anyone because it's fairly common stuff and not very pure. You put the salt peter and sugar in a frying pan and heat them until they turn red. I believe they showed this method on mythbusters and since they said it there i'm simply repeating it here.