By John Werner INTRODUCTION Saxon spark wheels are a very simple ground based revolving device similar in effect to a wheel but much more basic in construction. Imagine a long, tubular propeller shape spinning about a central pivot, being driven...
Bill Schmidt, a very accomplished fireworks builder, active in the Crackerjacks club, and a former President of the Northern Lighters, approached me a few years ago with a book idea. He has been making fireworks for many, many years. When...
Someone wrote me recently and asked how to make Blue Strobe Rockets. Well, there's a video on the topic "Blue Strobe Rockets" done by Doc Barr, who made the first ones I'd seen. Doc tells me that he first learned...
After playing for two years with the latest craze stinger missile rockets, and making all the sizes from 3/8 bore to the (and I believe I made the first) monster 6 lb., and garnishing them with all kinds of crap...
Black powder coated rice hulls are commonly used as a burst charge in aerial shells. Many people have trouble finding commercial-quality fine black powder (commonly called "meal" or Meal-D) to use for coating rice hulls for shell burst. Homemade black...
If one does not have a ball mill there is another option for grinding coarse potassium nitrate into a free flowing, fine powder. Coffee and spice grinders work well for grinding small batches of individual chemicals. Even though I have...
For anyone wishing to progress beyond making items such as bangers or salutes, it is necessary to become familiar with the techniques of consolidating pyrotechnic compositions in a tube. Known as charging or ramming, the oldest and most common method...
This article on building a ball mill cabinet, by Ned Gorski, is a side article that goes with the Ball Milling 101 article. A Ball Mill Cabinet for Soundproofing Ball milling can be noisy, especially when PVC jars are used....
"Stinger Missile" is a term which has come to be used among fireworkers to refer to spin-stabilized rockets. These missiles are guided on a straight path by gyroscopic forces, due to their spinning as they rise. As a result they...
We get a small, but constant flow of questions from people who are having various problems with firework stars they are making. Perhaps the most common one is the problem of firework stars being "blown blind". That is, when aerial...
Quite often, pyrotechnic formulas, especially older ones, do not have the ingredients listed as a percentage of the total pyrotechnic formula, only as parts per total weight of the mix. An example of this would be the saxon pyrotechnic formula...
Introduction If that title doesn't grab your attention, maybe this video will: Plasma Cutter Torch Fountain in Action This 1/2-inch-ID, brilliant-red torch is a variety of fireworks fountain. A fireworks fountain is also called a "gerb" (pronounced like "gerbil" without...
