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"Fireworks Guide"

Ever seen a fireworks show? Ever notice how awesome they are? Do you wonder how they do it? IF you answered yes to all three questions, look no further! I will cover several basic topics in the area of pyrotechnics, including: 
 
Safety 
Basics 
Ignition 
Chemicals/Supplies 
Basic Formulas 
 
First of all, you must know whether fireworks are legal or not in your area. If they are not, do not try to recreate anything in this article. 
 
Safety: 
 
First thing that I must tell you is, USE COMMON SENSE! Please don't do anything that could potentially harm you, and use the utmost care when handling fireworks. Burn wounds are one of the most painful things you can experience.  
 
When working with chemicals, you must avoid contamination. These can lead to undesired effects, some of which can be dangerous. Especially when using metal powders, and potassium chlorate. For that matter, all chlorates. Please don't use them. Always use safety goggles. No exceptions. 
 
Basics: 
 
In almost every pyrotechnic composition, there is one or more oxidizer, or oxidizing agent, and one or more fuel, or reducing agent. These oxidizers decompose to supply oxygen, and accelerate burn rates. Fuels are often the ones that give more effects, such as sparks or green flames, to the fireworks, but oxidizers can do this as well. 
 
Ignition: 
 
There are many ways you can ignite fireworks, but I will be focusing on fuses and e-matches. I personally use both, but I prefer e-matches. Fuses are much easier to use, because you can easily buy them, whereas with e-matches you must make them. You should probably use visco fuse, as it is one of the cheapest and most readily available fuses. It is usually coated with a nitrocellulose lacquer to waterproof it, and burns at ~2.5 seconds per inch. 
 
By now, you are probably wondering what e-match stands for. Well, it stands for electrical match. Unfortunately, the procedure to making this is quite a long process and will not be stated here. Fuses will work just fine for anything stated in this article. 
 
Chemicals/Supplies: 
 
The first thing you need before you do anything, is a scale. This should be a digital scale that measures grams. This can easily be found online, but might be expensive. 
 
Another fundamental tool is a ball mill. A ball mill is basically a rock tumbler, but instead you put grinding media in, instead of polishing media. You can use many different types of griding media. I use alumina/ceramic balls, due to their inexpensiveness and extreme hardness. Alumina (Aluminum Oxide, Al203) is the second hardest natural substance on earth. The one I use can be found here: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90979 
And, a guide to making your own can be found here:  
http://www.unitednuclear.com/ballmill.htm 
Grinding media can be bought online through stores or eBay. 
 
I will now list some of the basic formulas and special effects that are commonly used. 
 
Oxidizers: Potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, potassium perchlorate, ammonium perchlorate, barium nitrate, barium chlorate, and strontium nitrate. Potassium nitrate is by far the most commonly used oxidizer, and it is extremely cheap. It's not very dangerous either. I don't really recommend using chlorates, due to their explosive hazards. Perchlorates are a little safer, but you really have to be careful. Also, note that barium compounds are very toxic and you should probably wear nitrile gloves when handling them. 
 
Fuels: Aluminum, magnesium, titanium, charcoal, sulfur, antimony trisulfide, dextrin, red gum, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Be careful with metal powders, as they are easy to breath in and always use a respirator, easily found at any hardware store. Antimony trisulfide is very poisonous, so be very careful. Dextrin and red gum are commonly used binders, to keep things together. Be careful when using PVC, when you burn it, hydrogen chloride gas is released, which is very dangerous and should not be inhaled. I know this from personal experience, it hurts a lot. It is usually used as a chloride donor, metal chlorides have much brighter and more brilliant colors than their original. 
 
Special Effects: 
Red flame: Most strontium salts, the most common being strontium nitrate or strontium carbonate. 
Green flame: Most barium salts, the most common being barium nitrate and barium chlorate. 
Blue flame: Copper salts, commonly copper carbonate, copper sulfate, and copper oxide. 
Yellow flame: Sodium salts work best here, the commonly used ones are sodium oxalate, and cryolite (Na3AlF6). 
White flame: Magnesium and aluminum powders. 
Gold sparks: Iron filings and charcoal. 
White sparks: Aluminum, magnesium, magnalium (magnesium-aluminum alloy), and titanium. 
White smoke: A potassium nitrate and sulfur mixture. 
Colored smoke: Potassium chlorate (be careful!), sulfur, and organic dye (available at most hobby shops) mixed together. 
 
Basic Formulas: 
 
One of the oldest pyrotechnic compositions is black powder, and it has a variety of uses. This is a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal. 
The best composition I've found is 75% potassium nitrate, 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur. The compositions are by weight. You can always simply mix or ball mill these together to make a low-grade black powder, but it's still very fun to play with. The best form of making a good quality black powder is via the precipitation method. You can find a tutorial for this online, since it is too long to list here. 
 
Another basic formula is the simple smokebomb mixture. Another tutorial too long to list here, but I can provide you a link to a detailed one. http://pyroguide.com/index.php?title=Smoke_mix 
It's pretty fun to play around with, especially with a catalyst. 
 
Anyways, this is the end of the article. I hope you learned a lot and you can continue on to make fireworks. 
Good luck!

 

Article written by: Pirates

From:California Age: n/a

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