Fireworks Q/A

[peteWah]

Aaron,

Out of Interest,
Can you please tell me what sort of fireworks you can get in the ACT….IJDKnow

Size, Cost, Range/Names… AND
Can you get them in bolk package deals any more…

I cant remember any of the ones i used to play with when i was a youngling….
Back when i was in Primary School they used to have a fireworks drive at the Canteen,
That all stopped when the NSW GOV Banned cracker nights for good…
Oh how i want a pirotechnics licence:smiley2:

Q, Do big ass mortors come in purple…:D

[z-beam]

last time i bought em pete, the mortars cost 80 for the tube and 3 shots… im not sure about purple ones but i know you can make flame magenta with potasium permaganate…. green flame is copper carbonate… i loved pyrotechnics in school…

[peteWah]

Thanks for the Spelling lesson…
Spell it like it sounds, Spell it like it sounds……Hah

I am a bit blah when it comes to some words.
my bad.

Could not be an editor like my sister.

[z-beam]

mortor mortar, i dont mind… i didnt even notice!

ever made any yourself? a lot of my mates in highschool did dumbstuff with pool chemicals and allways tried to steer them away from uncontrolled chemical reactions… the stuff that burns is way more safer!

pm me if you want to know a few techniques pete!

and you do realise how close the ACT is from sydney?! get a car lo0ad of freinds to do a trip and catch up with Aaron while your down there!

[Aaron]

Yeah the quick answer is…. For me to buy fireworks as an ACT resident it can only be done for the week preceeding the Queens Birthday (June) longweekend. They can only be let off within the ACT on the long weekend between 5pm and 10pm. That’s it 🙁

BUT

The good news is that anyone with out-of-state ID can buy them at any time and export them from the ACT legally without a problem. It’s kinda stupid law but I guess it’s what I’ve got to live with. So yeah – buying fireworks in Canberra = easy if you’re nto from ACT. Hard if you are. Well that’s thje way it used to be. I don’t know if it’s still the same as there seems to be less fireworks shops about these days..

A.

--
Site Owner Guy.

[merc-blue]

lol wish i could go up to canberra and buy like 20KG of crackers.. there so much fun

[dgs73]

Pete; mate if we get caught at my place with fireworks again we are in a world of hurt… careful if you’re planning what i think you are…

[Aaron]

I’ll see if I can suss out whatt he rules are in Canberra at the moment… 🙂

A.

--
Site Owner Guy.

[z-beam]

and some adresses of the good shops still around please!

[kevsta]

I still have some fireworks left over from when they were legal in NSW. But after all this time, I think they would just crumble in my hand if I were to pick them up.

[trash]

Yep, I still have a nice collection of fireworks, even a packet of genuine throwdowns.

People freak when they see them…. ah, so many memories !!!

Fireworks in Australia really suck. You can get a few good ones, but nothing beats the roman candles and skyrockets and bazooka’s that you can get in places like Mobile Alabama or Pedro’s in SC. South of the Border … Heeehaaaww !!!

Even Tijuana bottle rockets kick arse, and M80’s …. these are septic shakers. When you feel the ground rumble in southern California it’s more often an M80 than an earthquake.

I used to take the fireworks out to area-51 in nevada when I was passing though. You wonder where most of the UFO sightings come from ?? hehehe … my favourite was slowly sneaking up on the seismic sensors they have around the desert and placing an M80 on a really long fuse and then trying to make an extra slow getaway. 15 minutes later … BOOOOM. heheh … classic to see how fast the spooks can get their arse over that hill !! hahahaha.

It’s not too hard to get a permit to legally let of some fireworks in NSW, it’s more just a bullshit workcover insurance. That’s the problem with the world today… everybody wants to sue everybody else and not take responsibility for their own stupidity. I remember when you used to have kids blown up to serve as an example of what happens if you play with fire. Nothing like the baptism of fire you got from loosing a bit of skin from a crazy jack. You then instant got an education on safety that haunted you for the rest of your life. Now young people are entering the workforce without this scar on their hands and they expect the law to pre-empt lack of thought. Bring back fireworks. Queens birthday was an australian tradition. bon fires that sent the polution index to new highs. How else do you think the dept of met calibrated their meters 🙂

But I moved on … if I could not buy them, then I WOULD make them. Having a gun licence it’s piece of piss to buy black powder, but I pesonally think it’s a bit more fun making it yourself.

Potassium Nitrate 60% as the oxidiser, 35% graphite as the fuel and 5% sulfer as a moderator. Makes excellent sky rocket fuel. Zinc podwer and Sulfer is another in an aluminium tube … oooh, stand back… it goes like a bullet. Potassium Permanganate and a hydrocarbon is another good fizzer. It gets hot, but you have to pack it right and carefully to get good results in rockets etc, I prefer not to use it unless you’re good at building reliable triggers. One false move and there is going to be some missing skin !

Different chemicals give different results. Salts of compounds are often used, you can use raw elements like copper dust or zinc dust to get results. Nitrate salts I find work the best.

Lithium will give you red, Potassium Pink, Sodium Yellow/Orange, Calcium Red, Mercury Green, Copper Green, Magnisium white, Thorium bright white, Manganese Yellow, Strontium Bright Red, Molybdinum Green, Arsenic Blue.

I have a spectrometer, so just burning and element in a candle givesme a good idea of what colours it can produce before I make up a salt to burn in acharge. Mixing magnesium with the salt isa good simple way to make some prettyand bright colours. To much salt and it may not burn, too much magnesium and it just looks white.

[z-beam]

wasnt there a purple flame as well? and whats the dealo with the guys in south OZ growing them black bouy plants for there flamamble sap? its used in pyrotechnics so ive heard…

thanks for that list of colours there trash! very informative! except im not too sure about the blackpowder recepre being here!

when you say mix magnesium with say, molybdinum (which i got some nice chunks of in my crystal collection!) how would i convert the moly into a saly and whats the best way to powderise magnesium?

[trash]

A file ! 🙂 Collect the filings on some paper The finer the file, the finer the filings and the quicker they will burn. If you want to slow them down, add some aluminium or titanium.

I think we’ve already crossed the ‘dangerous’ line. Ask for help from you dad kiddies.

Salts are easy to make. Hydrochloric Acid, Nitric Acid, Sulfuric Acid. We all know how nasty these acids can be. I don’t believe saying ‘don’t do this’ will stop anybody …. ask for some help from an irresponsible adult. They will probably want to help anyway. Ask yourdad for help 🙂 Let him cop the acid burns instead of you !

Hyrdochloric acid won’t reduce most of the metals, but if you addthe acid tohydrogren peroxide (slowly) it will work well. Sodium Carbonate (baking soda) will then help produce carbonates etc if you need that particular salt. It also helps neutralise the acid.

Oh… when using Hydrochloric acid and Peroxide, it produces poisnous gas (Chlorine). It is only a small amount, but the shit is nasty and it can burn your lungs …. use it outside.

Salts are: Chlorides, Sulphides, Oxides,Hydroxides, Flurides, Carbonates, Phosphates, Nitrates,Borates. (most common)

[z-beam]

ok i tried mixing molybdinum powder with a combustable powder and it didnt do anything… (well the combustable went up in a flash!)

so what your saying is i have to mix the molybdinum with a little hydrocloric (which i got as well) to make a salt? spell it out for me trash i really want to make some green fire! (thinking of adding the moly salt to a candle and whala green flame candle!)

i also have a few chucks of lepidolite around which is basicly a lithium silicate, any chance of converting that into a salt?

this sort of science is a little dangerous, but hell its enjoyable and really teaches you to be respectfull of these substances.

[trash]

Green fire …. do it the simple way. Copper. If you burn copper filings they will burn green. This really isn’t practical since it doesn’t burn fast.

Copper Chloride burns faster, but you have to make it. Normally disolving anything in Hydrochloric Acid will form the chloride salt, but This acid won’t eat copper. It will however eat copper oxide. So we have to oxidise the copper. Burning it is the usaly way, but that’s a bit hard to do under water/acid, so we add in some Hydrogen Peroxide from the chemist. 4% is good, but 2% is ok. This stuff bleaches, but generally it’s safe to handle. The HCl isn’t and it reaks, the fumes are toxic. Use it outside.

HCl + H2O2 will eat copper, the result is copper chloride and chlorine gas (green). Which is very toxic. Lucky there won’t be very much of it and it may be invisible. Etch the copper outside. When it is done, you can leave the solution to evapourate somewhere safe in the sun. What is left should be some blue looking crystals. A bit like copper sulphate (which you can also burn green). You can then scrap up the dry Copper Chloride crystals and mix them with a little bit of water and mix them into magnesium powder and let it dry. If you use gun/blackpowder, the yellow/orange from it will overwhelm the colour of the copper. The magnesium is white, so it doesn’t wash the colour out unless you use too much magnesium, then it will just look white.

Magnesium is hard to get it started, so if you pack it right with either some very slow hot burning powder or even phosphor from match heads. You’re best way to test it is line it all up on a block of wood and light one end and watch it burn across slowly. If it burns too quick, then you need to pad it out. If it stops burning, then you need to give it a little bit more fuel. Graphite is a good medium since it burns in a linear fashion and isn’t dangerous.

Be very careful if you ever pack anything into an enclosed space. This is when things can explode, even in cardboard. Learn to make long fuses with fine black powder and tissue paper. You want to get so good at it that you can make a 10 cm fuse burn for exactly 10 seconds.

Rocket motor ignitors on really long pieces of wire are a nice way of testing dangerous things from a distance. The object of the game is NOT to make things go bang. Any fool can do that and usually without trying.

I also remembered another way we used to test for things in chemistry at school. The salt disolved in water, you take a piece of wire in a loop. Dip it into the solution and then hold the drop into a candle / bunsen flame. This will clearly show you the colour you are going to get.

[trash]

Lepidolite. I had to look this one up.

K (Li,Al)3 (Si,Al)4 O10 (F,OH)2

So, you have a soup of elements in there .. Parts 1 Potassium, 3 Lithium, 7 Aluminium, 4 Silicon, 12 Oxygen and 2 Fluorine.

I think I’d just have a go at heating (melting) it with Sodium Carbonate. I haven’t got a clue how to attack this one since it looksrather solid.A lot likeMica which is exceptionally heatand acid resistant.It looks a lot like Muscovite or Mica.

[z-beam]

indeed, its a lavender coloured mica that can be quite solid compared to normal mica. bi carb soda eh? i scratch some off and have a go…

id like to make a fire fountain that has layers of colour, i have made many before and like you said its easier to make it explode than it is to get a nice high stable jet of fire.

that copper chloride recepe seems easily acheivable, ill give it a go as soon as the weather clears up.

will molybdinum form a chloride if mixed with a little HCl?

[z-beam]

lookee what came up in the corner for the google search?!

[jamiekulhanek]

Lol all sounds cool, but i just wantletterbox elimination fireworks…

[kevsta]

LOL.

Try not to lose any fingers while experimenting – no fingers, no rc.

[trash]

molybdinum. Lets see… I’m sure I have some lying around here …. umm

Indium, Gold, Carbon, Magnesium, Palladium, Silver, Bismuth… nope.. not in that box 🙂

Mercury, Berylium, Aluminium, Cadmium, Arsenic… Hmmm… here’s an unlabeled metal ? . Damn… no molydbinum.

[z-beam]

Quote:

trash wrote:

molybdinum. Lets see… I”m sure I have some lying around here …. umm

Indium, Gold, Carbon, Magnesium, Palladium, Silver, Bismuth… nope.. not in that box 🙂

Mercury, Berylium, Aluminium, Cadmium, Arsenic… Hmmm… here”s an unlabeled metal ? . Damn… no molydbinum.

ok, you want some then trash?

[trash]

Hmmm .looks like one of these mystery metals is Gallium. The stuff is a solid, but it melts in hot water… it seems to have some sort of temperature hysterisis, because it doesn’t solidify when I put it in cold water. It does freeze when I put it on ice, but it seems to be such a poor conductor of heat that it still takes several minutes to solidify. I can even melt it in my hands. If forms an alloy that is liquid at room temperature, like mercury.

Making explosives is something that is very dangerous. I can remeber kids at school trying to make them with stupid things like a hammer. Encasing them in metal. Natural selection usually catches up with them.

Making fireworks is not about explosives, it’s about getting things to burn slowly with colours. Some simple rules, safety first, make only tiny amounts and test them first. Outside.. always outside. Fumes and fire are killers. Never enclose anything. Do not put your material in a tube. Test it on an open block of wood. A tube is just like a barrel of a gun, even if it is only cardboard. You don’t want hot metal sprayed out the end and landing on you.Remember, always small amounts and lots of distance between you and your test.

Having said that, you can imagine all the stupid things we used to do as kids. Tape a crazy jack to matchbox cars and let them rip. Matchbox JATO !

Penny Bungers. How much electrical tape did we use on those things ! Put them in a storm water drain and you would hear them in the next suburb. Roman Candles … a kid’s portable welder ! Skyrockets.. they were often more fun underwater. Throwdowns.. ouch, they hurt when they hit you, but you still couldn’t stop laughing.

My absolute fav was getting a whole bunch of helium balloons and loading them up with a payload and watching them drop stuff from 1000ft. Whole boxes of crazy jacks on 3 minute fuses. Catherine wheels were amazing, a cople of them tied together even more so.

An the Bon Fire …. there was nothing that you were affraid of throwing into a bon fire. One party we had one year out in the styx, the base for the fire was a house. We packed it so full of wood, tyres, petrol, diesel, sump oil, fireworks, railway dets, fertiliser. It was like a little woodstock. Everybody brought along a pieceof something to burn. 🙂

[peteWah]

Sounded like a bit of fun Trash…. :p

[trash]

I can always use a new element for the collection Z-beam. What can I offer you in return ?

There must be something around here that could be good for a swap.

[trash]

check this page out

http://www.scitoys.com

[trash]

Turned up to the 1/10th track night at the showground and it wasn’t too hard to find somebody who’d help me out next door.

[Author]

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