For the pyro guy inside you

[Michael Carter]

Lordy, he wants how-to's!!!

I don't know if you can even GET flash powder any more (when we were kids in the 70's, we just walked into the theatrical supply shop in downtown Detroit).

There were three speeds back then... slow speed gave you that sort of "magician's flame"; when it ignited it sort of flared up slowly. Medium went off with a big "thump", and high speed was more of a "crack". The high speed was wicked-powerful, especially if it was compressed in something like a film vial.

I wouldn't mess with pyro squibs; they can really hurt you. Lots of stuff on the web for doing those with tubing and compressed air.

(Next I'll start reminiscing about my PVC & hairspray potato gun. Man, that thing will send a spud into the next county. FUN!)

 

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

Yes, flash powder is still available, just not to the public. You must have a C3 Consumer lisence (at least in Colorado) to handle FP because it his something of a high explosive. Yes Michael, what you are referring to in speeds is the grain, and how fine the powder is. "The finer the grind, the bigger the boom"

At a younger age, a friend and I mastered the art of making fireworks. We used to make everything from firecrackers to roman candles to fountains, and we made everything from scratch using pyrotechnic chemicals we got from a science/pyro material distributor...

 

[McGyver]

His biggest blast was a garbage bag filled with oxygen and acetylene (which he swiped from the school's metal shop). He still has the newspaper clipping... they stopped a football game 2 MILES away, thinking a house had blown up.

Made me LOL in the middle of early morning...heh...family isn't too happy, but damn that was funny.