Recently there has been a spirited discussion on the merits of using electric matches to fire homemade fireworks shells at our club shoots in order to improve safety. I belong to The Crackerjacks, a mid-Atlantic fireworks club. This use of ematches would mark a change from the club’s traditional approach of attaching a length of Visco fuse to the quickmatch on each shell and lighting with a flame, manually of course.

And while this e-match discussion is still in process as I write this, I thought this particular post from Tom Handel was on-target enough that I should repost it in its entirety here.

Tom’s fireworks background speaks for itself. And I can personally speak for Tom’s reliability as a reporter of such things. He’s a man who has spent his whole career making sure his facts were right. I’ve known him long enough to know that I can bank on what he says.

I am not anti-ematch, nor pro-fuse. And this commentary is not about the rightness or wrongness of either method of igniting something.

Rather, what Tom so eloquently points out is that the very widespread, kind-of-automatic thinking that using ematches makes fireworks ignition safer can be a very dangerous fallacy. And that anyone who relies on this belief may be actually increasing their risks rather than reducing them.

Scene of Fatal Fireworks Accident – 4 Deaths – Ocracoke, NC – July 4th, 2009

Nor am I making a case for using or not using ematches in any particular situation.

But I do hope that Tom’s article will get you thinking about the process of using ematches and all that entails. It is after all, not just the firing of fireworks where there’s danger. The handling of them is just as critical. The horrible photo above is the result of mishandling fireworks during ematching.

It is not as simple an issue as pressing a button vs. lighting a fuse. There is much, much more to consider. And Tom only begins to do that.

Harry Gilliam

I urge you to reprint or repost this article as you see fit using this URL:

http://blog.skylighter.com/fireworks/2012/02/Are-electric-matches-REALLY-safer.html

Tom Handel’s post to the Crackerjacks Mailing List, 2/15/2012

Good Morning all,

I don’t often interject myself here, but y’all have touched on a subject near and dear to my heart – that being safety and its relationship with electrical firing. There have been many excellent points made thus far in the discussion, and I appreciate that it has been civil and directed toward problem exploration and solving. I just want to add a few thoughts to the mix for everyone’s consideration as we go forward.

But first, as I have a poor attendance record at CJ shoots in the last few years and there are many new members, I find that there are more voices in this discussion that I DON’T know (other than through the list) than that I DO know. So I beg your indulgence while I introduce myself for a moment so you’ll know where I’m coming from. Skip the next paragraph if we’re already acquainted or if you don’t care about introductions.

I’ve been a CrackerJack since 1994 (?? – or so) when James Carle and his then-significant-other introduced me to the organization by dragging me down to a Shagland shoot as their guest. A few years later I was the first Publications VP of the CrackerJacks and first editor/publisher of The Passfire, from 12/1997 through 12/1999. I’m a PGI member and have been a member of the PGI Safety Team since 1995. I served (among other duties) as PGI B-Line Shoot Boss for several years [I mention this because the PGI B-Line is a close (though not perfect) analog for the CrackerJacks "Experimental Area"]. I was First VP of the PGI for three years from 8/2004 to 8/2007. I am also a member of the Florida Pyrotechnic Arts Guild and the Western Pyrotechnic Association. I shoot shows, build fireworks (when I’m able), do pyrotechnics/explosives familiarity and safety training for law enforcement (Bomb Squads, primarily) and others, and indulge my passion for photography of fireworks. I still (so far) have all my fingers. In summary, though there are many others in the club better qualified than I am, I’ve been around a little bit and I know a little about safety. But enough about me.

I gather from what has been written in this thread that the purpose of obtaining and using electrical firing systems in the Experimental Area is to improve safety. This is a noble objective, but I suspect it reflects the widespread misunderstanding that the use of electrical firing systems inherently reduces risk/improves safety.

There are many good reasons to use electrical firing systems – particularly in a display context – but improving safety is not one of them. Fundamentally, electrical firing systems don’t eliminate risk; they TRANSFER the risk (and arguably increase it overall) in most scenarios. In a display context, they clearly reduce the risk to the shooter, while shooting, over the alternative – hand firing – by permitting remote initiation rather than up close and personal hand lighting of the display. However, the risk is not gone; it is just transferred to other parts of the process. In these other parts of the process, risk is actually increased due to the significantly increased sensitivity of matched product to unintended initiation by shock, friction, impact, induced current and static. The preparation, storage, transportation, handling, loading, and (if required) unloading of matched product are all significantly more dangerous than is the case with un-matched product. A few pertinent facts.

- In the industry, among the pro’s, the cause of a disproportionately large number of injury accidents has been traced to the unintended firing of an ematch due to mishandling of ematched product. Examples: Peoria, AZ, July ’99, New Orleans, LA, December ’99, Pomona, CA, [date unrecalled], Catawba, SC, July ’01, Ocracoke, NC, July ’09, Washington, DC, July ’09, and many more.

- The ONLY shell-related injury accident at the PGI that I can remember (I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m forgetting something) was caused by unintended firing of an ematch due to mishandling of an e-matched shell (Mason City, IA, 2005).

So, what’s all this mean for the CrackerJacks Experimental Area? Once the shell’s in the mortar, the wires are hooked up and everyone’s back behind the blast shield, life is good. But encouraging more electrical firing – unless very carefully done – will result in an increased number of sensitive devices (i.e., ematched shells and other devices) being created on site and

• being subject to mishandling during match installation somewhere on site,
• being subject to mishandling during transport,
• being subject to mishandling during placement (“Ooops!”) in ready boxes,
• being subject to mishandling during rummaging in ready boxes (“Dang, I know that shell’s in here somewhere!”),
• being subject to mishandling during loading, and
• being subject to mishandling during unloading in the case of misfires.

And in the case of the Experimental Area, the payoff for all this increased risk is … essentially nonexistent. Virtually no increase in safety when firing. “What??” you say. Yep. The safety benefit to the shooter isn’t even there except in the most extreme case (below). This is the Experimental Area, not a display, and there are fewer constraints on the use of (plenty of) Visco. That ematch does not afford the shooter ANY greater safety benefit than is provided by a piece of Visco long enough to allow a leisurely retreat to the safety of the barricade – AND it costs more.

Extreme case: If the shooter lit the Visco, started back up the hill in a leisurely fashion, but stepped in a gopher hole and broke his leg, and his fellow CrackerJacks were unable to drag his butt behind the blast shield before the Visco burned down, AND the shell malfunctioned, then, yes, he might have been better off with the ematch.

But there’s good news, too. Though impractical many times in a display context, for the Experimental Area there is a way to mitigate MOST of the downside potential outlined above. Specifically, require those desiring to electrically fire their shells (or other devices) in the Experimental Area to refrain from matching them until AFTER they are loaded in the mortar or otherwise ready to fire. Then, assuming no body parts over the mortar, if the match ignites prematurely while being installed or otherwise, for whatever reason, the shell handler may get a hell of a surprise, some non-life-threatening burns and lose some eyebrows, but he’ll likely survive. Contrast this to the probable consequences of the ready box going up because somebody dropped an e-matched shell in there.

Note: the risks associated with extracting an ematched misfire still remain and an appropriate protocol for this case needs to be developed also.

So that’s my $0.02 worth of food for thought.

Tom Handel

===================

I urge you to reprint or repost this article as you see fit using this URL:

http://blog.skylighter.com/fireworks/2012/02/Are-electric-matches-REALLY-safer.html

And please weigh in on this. We’d like to see what YOU have to say. Just enter your comments below. Thanks. –Harry Gilliam

The Fallacy of Electric Matches – Do They Really Make Fireworks Safer? is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Making meal or black powder coated rice hulls is one of the cornerstones of shell making. Ned Gorski’s latest project shows you how.

Ned’s ball shells are consistent prize winners in fireworks competitions. Fact is, this article is really a collection of some of his important secrets to building his trademark, spectacularly-beautiful shells.

If you make your BP coated rice hulls well and the same way every time, you’ll be much closer to having reliable aerial shells that burst incredibly well every time.

Here’s my quick overview of making black powder coated rice hulls. Watch this video first.

As you can see, making black powder rice hulls is not rocket science. In fact it’s very simple. And these homemade black powder hulls can sometimes do double duty for you as lift powder.

Once you learn to make meal coated rice hulls, you’ll see why I consider them to be one of the black powder grades, just like 2FA and other sizes of BP.

And speaking of black powder grades and numbers, we prepared a Black Powder Cheat Sheet for you to help you wade through all the technical details of types of black powder and various options for making black powder yourself. There’s a link to it at the bottom of this article.

Please post your comments and questions below.

–Harry Gilliam
February 25, 2012

Personally, I get great satisfaction from making nicely-performing large aerial fireworks ball shells.

12-Inch Ball Shell by the Author
(Photo by Norm Whetzel)

You Must Have Java Turned On To View This Video

One of the key ingredients in a shell like that is the correct shell burst powder. The burst charge has to burn fast enough and be powerful enough to really “pop” the shell. I want it to produce a large and symmetrical display, but not so strong that it shatters the stars or blows them “blind” preventing them from lighting.

In small shells, granulated black powder (BP), or other types of burst powder, is used to break them. But in 4-inch shells and larger, black-powder-coated rice hulls–with or without a burst enhancer–create very pleasing shell bursts.

There are other “black” compositions which can be coated on rice hulls. There are also other carriers, like cotton seeds or cork bits. And the ratio of powder to carrier can also be varied to control the strength of the burst. For an extensive overview of those options, I’d recommend Takeo Shimizu’s book, “Fireworks; the Art, Science, and Technique.”

I consider making good black-powder-coated rice hulls to be one of the most essential fireworks-making skills. It’s right up there with making good black powder and good stars. And, if I do say so myself, many folks, when they first see and handle my coated hulls, say “Man, those are nice, some of the best I’ve seen.”

There are some tricks to making good BP-coated hulls. Read on.

It’s not particularly easy or safe to open up a Chinese aerial shell. But if you did, you’d more than likely see some stars in there along with burst powder granules which look like long, skinny black footballs.

Black-Powder-Coated Rice Hulls

Those are black-powder-coated rice hulls, and they are the typical burst powder used in almost all ball shells and in some cylinder shells.

And, although it’s not that common, some fireworks hobbyists, including yours truly, also use the BP-coated hulls for lift powder under those same shells.

From Wikipedia: “Rice hulls are the coating for the seeds, or grains, of the rice plant. To protect the seed during the growing season, the hull is made of hard materials, including opaline silica and lignin. The hull is mostly indigestible to humans.”

Rice Hulls

When rice is harvested and cleaned the outer coating, the hull, is removed from the edible rice grain. These hulls have a variety of uses, one of which is to be the “carrier” on which black powder is coated to serve fireworks purposes.

The individual hulls often look like small canoes. During the coating process, black powder with a little binder in it sticks to the exterior of the hulls often filling the inside of each “canoe.”

In ball shells smaller than 4-inches or so, granulated black powder works just fine to burst the shells. But once we reach 4-inch shells and larger, granulated BP simply gets too heavy for that purpose.

A 12-inch single-petal ball shell has an area of approximately 450 cubic inches inside its stars that needs to be filled with burst powder.

But what kind of burst powder?

Well, commercial 2FA black powder has a density of 0.6 ounces per cubic inch. So if those 450 cubic inches were filled with 2FA burst powder, it would require 270 ounces of that powder: almost 17 pounds.

But in “Fireworks, the Art, Science and Technique,” Dr. Shimizu recommends 85 ounces of burst charge in that shell–about 5.3 pounds. But the weight of 2FA burst powder is three times that.

Obviously we have to find some way of filling that volume with a burst charge that only contains about 85 ounces of black powder.

By coating the black powder on a “carrier,” such as rice hulls, cotton seeds or cork bits, we can accomplish that desired reduction in the density of the burst charge used in the shell.

Why use rice hulls? Primarily because they are the easiest and cheapest carrier to get in the US.

Black powder coated on rice hulls, in a ratio of 7:1 by weight, results in a burst charge with a density of approximately 0.25 ounces per cubic inch. That is the actual amount of black powder per cubic inch, not including the weight of the rice hulls.

At that 0.25 ounces per cubic inch, the 450 cubic inches in the 12-inch single petal shell would contain 112.5 ounces of black powder bursting charge.

That’s getting down into the range of Dr. Shimizu’s recommendation. And, with a double-petal shell, where more volume is occupied by stars, and less by burst charge, the coated hulls would contain just the right amount of BP. Some of this depends on the size of the stars that are used, of course.

So, we coat black powder on rice hulls to lower the density and weight of the burst charge.

The resulting black powder coating is also much thinner than 2FA granules would be, so it burns much more rapidly than the solid granules would. That results in a very rapid pressure spike, and a strong bursting of the shell, with large star-pattern size and good symmetry to it.

Some experimentation is required in the long run to dial in the perfect burst charge and shell construction for optimum shell bursts. Burst powder strength, the amount of it in the shell, the amount of paper pasted on the shell, etc.–all contribute to the performance of a shell.

Standard, finely milled, full strength, 75:15:10 (potassium-nitrate:charcoal:sulfur) black powder (or Meal-D if you can buy it), plus 5% dextrin binder, is ideal for coating rice hulls.

These projects detail the ball milling of such powder:

Quick and Easy Black Powder Ball Mill

Make Black Powder the Easy Way

How to Use a Ball Mill Safely and Effectively

Ball milling your black powder is the only way I know of to make the powder fine enough to nicely coat the rice hulls, and powerful enough to make good burst charge.

Skylighter’s TL5005 ball mill will make 4.2 ounces of BP/binder at a time, and Skylighter’s TL5010, one gallon ball mill will handle a 21-ounce batch.

We will be coating 21 ounces of BP onto 3 ounces (dry weight) of rice hulls, resulting in a 7:1 ratio of BP to hulls. So, we’ll need one of the batches from the large mill, or 5 of the batches from the small one.

Multiply the “ounce amounts” by 28.4 to obtain “gram amounts”.

If you are using the small ball mill, make five of the 4.2-ounce batches to have a total of 21 ounces of milled BP.

Commercial airfloat charcoal from mixed hardwoods will work satisfactorily for BP-coated rice hulls, used as lift or burst powder. Some homemade charcoal made from “hotter” woods will work even better and more efficiently.

Weigh and ball mill your chemicals together, observing all the safety precautions in the tutorials above. Remember, finely milled BP dust is extremely flammable. Handle and store it with caution.

Say what?

Our goal is to get nicely coated rice hulls, as in the photo earlier in this piece. Rice hulls come with complete, canoe-looking individual hulls, as well as lots of finer bits, pieces, and dust, too.

If you leave the fine pieces in there, they will also get coated with BP, and you’ll end up with a mix of large coated hulls, as well as smaller grains, too. We don’t want that.

So, take a couple handfuls of the rice hulls and bounce and shake them on a 20-mesh screen or kitchen colander. After a little sifting, the fines will have been separated from the larger, complete rice hulls. Discard the fines.

Now weigh out 3 ounces of the de-dusted hulls to be coated with BP.

De-Dusting 3 Ounces of Rice Hulls

You Must Have Java Turned On To View This Video

Pre-wetting the rice hulls makes it much easier to get the black powder to cling to them.

Put 3 ounces of de-dusted hulls into a plastic tub and completely cover them with hot water. Let them soak for about 5 minutes.

Soaking De-Dusted Rice Hulls in Hot Water

Now dump the wet hulls into an old pillowcase, and sling the load ’round and ’round until no more water is coming out of it. (Do not tell your significant other that you did this. But you can tell her you found a new salad spinner, if she wonders why the pillowcase is wet.)

Pouring the Wet Rice Hulls into a Pillowcase

Pour the damp hulls out of the pillowcase and into a big flat-bottom, round tub. Something about the size of this Rubbermaid cake-keeper works nicely.

Round, Flat-Bottomed Cake Container

Damp Rice Hulls Dumped from Pillowcase into Container

You Must Have Java Turned On To View This Video

Using a small paper cup, sprinkle about 5 ounces of your black powder with dextrin mix on top of the damp rice hulls.

Adding Black Powder to Damp Rice Hulls

Put the lid tightly on the plastic container, and shake the rice-hull and black-powder contents ’round and ’round to coat the hulls with the BP.

Shaking the Container to Coat the BP onto the Rice Hulls

Open the container. The contents should still look pretty wet. Add another increment of the black powder, close the tub, and repeat the shaking.

Open the container, and use your gloved hand to wipe any excess BP off that’s clinging to the tub bottom or walls.

The coated rice hulls will probably still look pretty wet. If so, add another increment of the black powder, and repeat the shaking.

At some point, probably after this third increment, the hulls will start to look more dark-gray than black, and the BP coating will start to look dusty, rather than solid. It’s at that point that you should start spritzing on a little extra water with the fine-mist spray from a trigger garden-spray bottle.

Spray this extra water sparingly, directly onto the rice hulls–not onto the container’s sides. After a few spritzes onto the hulls, shake and tumble the whole mass to expose un-spritzed hulls, then spritz again.

Spritzing More Water onto the BP-Coated Rice Hulls

Seal the container and shake the hulls to disperse the water throughout the mass of hulls.

Open the container, add another increment of BP, close and shake the tub.

Repeat this process of:

• Spritzing on a little more water
• Sealing and shaking the container to distribute the water
• Adding another increment of black powder
• Sealing and shaking the container to coat the hulls with BP

Do this until all the black powder has been added to the rice hulls.

All of this takes some practice and getting a feel for it, but it’s really pretty simple and foolproof. Just make sure you don’t add too much water. Spritz on just enough moisture to keep the BP-coated hulls black-looking, and to get all the BP to adhere to the surface of the hulls.

Once you have added all the black powder to the mass of rice hulls, spritz on a little more water so that the rice hulls each have a nice, solid, black-looking, non-dusty coating of BP. Tumble the hulls between spritzes of the water to completely distribute the water onto all the hulls.

All the Black Powder Coated onto the Rice Hulls

You Must Have Java Turned On To View This Video

Spread the black-powder-coated rice hulls out onto a drying screen where air can get to them from above and below. If you don’t have a drying screen, newspapers will work, too. Airflow is what’s most important.

Spreading the Coated Rice Hulls onto a Drying Screen

You Must Have Java Turned On To View This Video

Place the loaded screen into a drying box, or in a dry, warm, breezy location. Depending on the temperature and humidity, the hulls will be dry and ready to use in a day or two. When they are dry, the coated hulls should feel hard and crispy–obviously dry.

Store the dry hulls in a sealed container in safe storage or a magazine.

For many aerial shells, especially ones I want to burst hard, like round peony or chrysanthemum shells, I like to apply slow-flash booster to the dry BP-coated rice hulls. This booster heats up and speeds up the black powder burst charge, resulting in larger, rounder starbursts. But, it does not produce a distracting bright flash when the shell bursts.

The booster is never added to BP-hulls that are to be used as lift powder, though. That could easily result in blown-up mortars.

The slow-flash booster consists of 2:1:1, potassium-nitrate:bright-flake-aluminum:sulfur. 325-mesh bright flake aluminum (Skylighter CH0178) works well in it. The potassium nitrate should be finely milled by itself in a blade-type coffee-mill or individual-serving blender.

After milling the potassium nitrate until it is nice and fine, weigh out the correct amounts of each chemical, and place them onto a sheet of paper.

Roll the chemicals together, back and forth on the paper, until they are nicely mixed. This is called “diaper mixing.”

Diaper-Mixing Slow-Flash-Booster Powder

Diaper mixing on paper is considered one of the safest ways to mix flash powder. It has low friction, low-no static electricity and you are not in direct contact with the mix.

Pour the mixed booster into a container, and keep it tightly closed in safe storage until it is used.

The booster is applied by dusting onto dry BP-coated rice hulls, adding 2% of the rice hulls’ weight of the booster.

So, if you want to use all 24 ounces of the BP-coated hulls you just made, add 0.48 ounce of the booster to that batch of hulls. I’d just round that off to 0.5 ounce.

To coat dry rice hulls with slow-flash booster, simply add 2% by weight of the booster to the 24 ounces of hulls in a container. Close the container tightly and gently rotate it to get the dry hulls to pick up all of the booster powder on their surface.

To determine what 2% of a specific weight of rice hulls is, multiply the weight of the hulls by 0.02. For example, 2% of 8 ounces of coated rice hulls is 0.02 X 8 = 0.16 ounce of the booster to be added.

Once again, from Dr. Shimizu’s “FAST,” we get some approximate figures:

• 4″ shell, 3.5 ounces of hulls
• 5″ shell, 5 ounces of hulls
• 6″ shell, 10 ounces
• 8″ shell, 27 ounces
• 10″ shell, 70 ounces
• 12″ shell, 85 ounces

You can grab your copy of The Black Powder Cheat Sheet right here:

Black-Powder-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

The Black Powder Cheat Sheet should help you make sense of the different black powder, legalities, grades, sources for store-bought BP, and a comparison of the most common ways of making BP.

Let us know if you think we should add anything else to the Cheat Sheet.

So, now you know how to make black powder coated rice hulls. If you want to make up a batch…

Rice hulls are available at Skylighter.com.

There are several kits for making your own black powder at Skylighter as well.

If you have any questions or problems making your black powder or about BP coated rice hulls, please post your question below in the Comments.

Making Black Powder Coated Rice Hulls is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

This is the time of the year when all of us start making black powder for our 4^th of July projects.  And with Skylighter’s incredible deals on potassium nitrate this year, now you can make BP cheaper than ever.

Since we’ve been swamped with questions on making black powder, we figgered it was time to compile the answers into a recording for you.

We’re putting together a “Podcast” with solutions to every black powder problem you may have.

A “podcast” is internet-speak for a recording you can download and then play on your computer, ipod or smartphone whenever you want.

Think of it as an on-demand radio interview.

So, quick… tell us what you want.  You’ve got until noon Tuesday.

After that we’ll start making a 20-30 minute podcast for you.

Submit your question in the “Comments” section this post

We’ll take all of your questions, consult with our notorious team of 17 International Black Powder ninjas and 1 ninjette, and record their answers for you.

Ask me quick!  I cain’t wait to hear from you!!!

P.S. As soon as it’s done (in about 7 days or whenever we get to it), we’ll send you a link to download everything you want to know about making black powder—free.  No strings attached, no crass commercial hucksterism (arghhh, I HATE it when I don’t sell you something!)

P.P.S. If you have a question about troubleshooting your BP’s performance, or how to improve it, be sure and tell us everything about how you’re now making it–so we don’t have to ask you first. Remember, most of us still cannot read your mind–at least not YET!

What’s your most “burning” question about making black powder? is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

A week ago we asked you for your most “burning” questions about making black powder for fireworks. To be honest, we were completely overwhelmed by the response as we received over 260 comments and questions.

We had no idea that so many people were having problems with making black powder.

Since BP is the most critical component in fireworks making, it’s important that everybody understand the methods, applications and safety issues surrounding black powder.

So Harry and Bert got together and recorded the first in a series of podcasts all about Black Powder.

In the podcast Harry tackles the key chemicals and methods for making black powder as well as answering a ton of your questions about black powder components, sources for chemicals and much more.

Click here to download the podcast<—-30 minutes of black powder Q&A

Topics include:

• Can I legally make black powder?
• How do you make gun powder?
• How can I make BP that is comparable to commercial black powder?
• What is the best method for making black powder?
• What are some of the other chemicals besides potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal that can be used to make black powder?
• Can you buy black powder, and what is the advantage to making your own BP?
• How can I make good BP without a ball mill?
• Is there a big difference in BP power using the CIA or precipitation method and the ball mill method?
• What’s the best type of wood to use for charcoal in making black powder?
• How do I make granulated black powder like 2FG?
• What is corning and why is this important?
• How pure does my sulfur need to be? Will highly acidic sulfur still work?
• How long can I store black powder before it loses its power?
• And much, much more…

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

Skylighter Podcast #1 – Black Powder Q&A is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Okay, this is way cool!

Imagine lighting one of these of at your Fourth of July family gathering.

Easy to put together too. You just need some wire, a couple of rocket drivers and two rocket sticks.

If you’re even half as good as me, you can knock one out in 5-10 minutes.

…Especially if you already have the rocket motors on hand.

Speaking of rocket motors, here’s a back door link to get Skylighter’s 3/4" End Burner Black Powder Rocket Kit. This is what you’ll want to use to make a Caduceus rocket.

CLICK HERE TO GET DISCOUNTED TOOLS & SUPPLIES TO MAKE 25 CADUCEUS ROCKETS

How to Make Your Own Caduceus Rocket

Here’s how you can make them quick and easy.

Start with one of Skylighter’s (#TU1062, #TU1068) 3/4-inch ID x 7.5-inch long rocket tubes. Cut it in half, giving you two 3.75-Inch long tubes.

Place one of the 3.75-inch tubes on your 1 pound, end-burner rocket tooling (Skylighter #TL1270). If you don’t have a set of Skylighter’s end burner tooling, don’t worry, we’ll show you where to get a discounted tool set at the end of this post.

Ram an increment of clay, then several increments of ball-milled black powder until the tube is filled within 1/2 inch of the end of the tube. Finish off this rocket with a final increment of clay to form the top bulkhead.

You’ll need 2 of these short rocket engines (or “drivers”) for each Caduceus Rocket you make. And trust me, you will not be satisfied with just one–they are too much fun!

In the video, you can see that thin steel wire is used to connect two sticks to make a small “t” shape. The leg of the “t” serves as the tail for guidance. The cross of the “t” serves as a platform for attaching the drivers.

Lay the drivers out as shown in the video above then secure them solidly using wire as shown.

Fuse the drivers by running a length of GN1100 Fast Yellow Visco fuse (not included in the kit) from one driver’s nozzle to the other and securing each with tape. Finally add a length of standard visco to the center of the fast fuse. This will provide time to retreat to a safe location.

As we mentioned before, you’ll need end burner rockets for this project. The Skylighter 3/4" End Burner Black Powder Rocket Kit comes with the tools, fuse, tubes and chemicals you’ll need to make 50 drivers (but does not include Fast Yellow Visco, #GN1100–be sure to add some of that). This kit saves you 20% off the price of buying everything individually.

CLICK HERE TO GET DISCOUNTED TOOLS & SUPPLIES TO MAKE 25 CADUCEUS ROCKETS

Finally, if you have questions or comments on these crazy, spinning fireworks, please post them in the Comments section below. And if you make these, show us! Tell us all about your variation of Caduceus rockets, and include a link to your YouTube or other video.

“Twisted” Fireworks Rockets is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Hunter B. from California is the winner of the Skylighter Mad Scientist Contest for his magnesium chip go-getters!

Here’s Hunter’s entry:

For his efforts, we’re sending him:

• FREE 10 lbs. of mag chips and
• FREE SHIPPING on your his next Skylighter order and
• 10 lbs. of prilled potassium nitrate FREE…

If you haven’t already, be sure to go to our Facebook page and “Like” it. We’ll be posting more contests there in the very near future.

Skylighter Facebook page <==== click here

Skylighter Magnesium Chips Contest – The Winner is… is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Some people think homemade electric matches are 2nd rate.

Think again.

This homemade ematch…

…was used by Chicago special effects pro Geoff Binns-Calvey to explode this brick wall…

…which was done in order to make this bad-ass commercial

Notes from Pyro Professional Geoff Binns-Calvey

The big air mortar and foam brick effect is seen at around :28 seconds, and reprised at around 1:44.

At around :34 seconds, there’s another effect also using a bit of FFFG black powder and titanium in a little squib (using Skylighter electric matches).

My method on the sparking hits (at :34) was to print up strips of paper. When cut down from a full sheet, each piece was about 1 1/2″ wide, and 4″ long, and had black and yellow miniature caution stripes printed along one edge, about 1/2″ wide. I would roll these up on a dowel, using a squirt of 77 spray on the edge, then roll a nice crimp on the edge to make a bottom with a hole in it. I’d insert an electric match into this, and hot glue it into place. Then I’d load the cylinder, about the size of a cigarette butt now, with black powder and titanium flakes. Then I’d make a little cap of paper and insert it, friction fit, into the end of the tube. This gave me a nice little directional mini-mortar.

At :40 seconds, there’s a smaller pyro effect, but the big air mortar suspended above the set gives a nice rolling toroidal cloud of dust. And there are also some smaller propane effects–not mortars per se, but electrically valved small propane fireballs, just visible on the ground and foreground, at around 1:47.

The firing box (GN6011) I got from you worked like a champ. As I might have mentioned, I think I’m going to make an adapter for single shot use. I didn’t need the slat and multi conductor cable for any of this, and it was a little bulky.

Oh, and at around 1:45, I think there’s some Flying Fish fuse dancing through the upper left corner. I didn’t use much of it, though. It’s a great look, but if it’s close to the actors, there’s a risk of a piece squibbing around and shooting down someone’s collar.

Also, I was standing just out of frame with a die grinder and a scrap of mild steel, throwing sparks at around 1:38 to 1:43. That’s a simple, very controllable way to spark up the set.

Oh, you’re not making your own bad-ass commercials?

Well, take a look at this amazing prize-winning fireworks show my friend Ron Silva made using just ematches and consumer fireworks that anyone can buy. (Save youself some money on ematches, too, if you want to go that route with your next show.)

Roll the credits:

Special effects and pyro, courtesy of Geoff Binns-Calvey.

BASH commercial by The Odd Machine. (USE EXTREME CAUTION! Do not click on Odd Machine’s blog right before you need to go to sleep.)

Bad Ass Sledge Hammer (BASH) by Wilton. Doncha just wanna go out and git your own BASH right now?

Ematches made by Geoff-Binns Calvey the first time he tried, using Skylighter’s Ematch Blanks, Dip Kit, and tutorial.

Use the same ematches fireworks pros do is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

You can get potassium nitrate for making black powder really cheap, if you can find prilled or hard nitrate. “Prilled” nitrate comes in little spheres, around 1 mm or less in diameter.

Make Black Powder Using Cheap Potassium Nitrate Prills

How to Make Black Powder Using Coarse Chemicals

Prilled nitrate is too coarse to use as-is in making black powder and other fireworks, but once you grind it up to about 200 mesh, it’s perfect.

Keep in mind that potassium nitrate, like most oxidizers commonly used in making fireworks, eventually absorbs enough water to get more or less petrified. But it’s still good. You just need to grind it up into a fine, fluffy powder again. It never goes bad, even if it’s gotten wet or has been stored for years.

So learning to grind/mill hard chemicals is one of the routine tasks that all fireworkers need to master.

We routinely recommend two ways: coffee milling and ball milling. Both ways have advantages.

To grind a single chemical (vs. a mix like black powder) using a ball mill, fill your mill jar half full of hardened lead or brass grinding media, and 25% full of potassium nitrate. Turn the mill on and come back in an hour. Your nitrate should be light and fluffy. If not, continue grinding it ’til it’s fine powder with no chunks or grains.

But guess what?

The good news is that sometimes you don’t need to do anything extra like pre-milling. Here’s a quick and dirty video I made. It shows how you can even use coarse chemicals and primitive equipment to make black powder just as good as any commercially made BP.

Making Black Powder with a Ball Mill

Just so you know what’s going on. This is me in my backyard. I am using a homemade ball mill I’ve had for 20 years, and Skylighter’s ½” antimony-hardened lead balls.

Check out my fancy-dancy mill jar! It’s a one-gallon plastic mayonnaise jar stuck inside a large coffee can for reinforcement. I actually have to tape the screw top on it so it doesn’t come off while it’s turning!

This is down and dirty, almost totally homemade equipment. You do NOT need to be fancy or sophisticated (which I sure as hell ain’t!) to make great black powder which performs as well as anything you can buy.

To make this black powder, I’m using Skylighter’s el cheapo, prilled potassium nitrate–the cheapest stuff we have. Everything you see is right out of the containers—no pre-grinding or screening. The point is, look at how quick and easy it is to make black powder using really coarse potassium nitrate without having to spend any time making it finer first.

When the black powder’s finished, you’ll see me using my busted up old bucket screen to separate the lead balls from the new black powder. (You will NOT be impressed!)

Remember these magic proportions when you’re making black powder with a ball mill:

- Fill your mill jar half full of hardened lead balls (or brass)
- Fill half of the remaining space with your 3 chemicals
- Leave 25% empty “head space”

Got it? 50% lead balls, 25% chemicals, 25% air.

These proportions are the “sweet spot” that guarantees that your powder will be good AND that you can do it in the shortest amount of time (typically 3-4 hours).

Troubleshooting: How to Prevent Pitiful Powder Syndrome

From time to time, folks call who have been seriously afflicted with Pitiful Powder Syndrome, an acute black powder deficiency known to cause all manner of fireworks failures and hair-pulling.

Their symptoms are always the same: their ball-milled black powder doesn’t work.

So, the first thing we do is get him (the “hers” are never afflicted) to describe how he made it.

Every time… I mean every single time, the victim’s PPS can be traced to making the black powder a different way than the simple process shown. (Or, as we were warned in kindergarten, by not following instructions—a manly trait.)

Here’s how people most commonly get infected by Pitiful Powder Syndrome:

Not using enough milling media: Always fill your jar 50% full of grinding media.

Using media that’s too small: Use ½” for 1 gallon mill jars or smaller; ¾” for larger mill jars; for 5 gallons or larger, use 1-inch.

Using lightweight grinding media: You want lead or brass. Both are heavy enough, but will not spark or cause an accidental ignition. Do not use steel or ceramic. They can cause another syndrome—death.

Milling for too short a time: run your mill for at least 3 hours. You probably don’t need to run it longer than 5 hours. Milling longer than that will probably not improve your black powder significantly.

Using different chemicals: Standard black powder is made with potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal. Switching or omitting chemicals is a common cause of pitiful powder. Do not waste time and money by second guessing these chemicals.

Remember: making black powder this way is a tried and tested method, perfected for hundreds of years by people who learned more about it than you and I ever will.

Want to Get a Black Powder Making FAQ?

If you’re new to making black powder we made up a Black Powder “Cheatsheat” for you. This would be a good thing to print out and keep in your fireworks-making notebook or pinned to the wall of your shop.

The Black Powder Cheat Sheet will help you make sense of the different black powder, legalities, grades, sources for store-bought BP, and a comparison of the most common ways of making BP.

• Understand the legalities of making black powder
• Discover the different methods for making black powder
• Cut through all the confusion surrounding grades and particle sizes
• Learn the best type of black powder for each fireworks application
• Find the best places to buy commercial BP

Just click here and give us your best email address and we’ll send it to you.

Making Black Powder with a Ball Mill is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Official Giveaway Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. ALL FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL, AND MUNICIPAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

 ELIGIBILITY

• Sweepstakes begins at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”), November 4th, 2012 and ends at 11:59 p.m., ET, Friday, November 9th, 2012.
• Sweepstakes/Giveaways are open only to legal residents of the 48 contiguous (48) United States (including District of Columbia) who are at least twenty-one (21) years old at the time of entry, unless otherwise noted in the footer of each individual Promotion.
• The immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) and household members of Skylighter owner/employees are not eligible. Subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited.
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• All individuals who are actively subscribed to the FREE Deal of the Day email notification service during the Promotion Period will automatically receive one (1) Sweepstakes entry.
• Individuals can subscribe to this free service at: http://www.skylighter.com/deal-of-the-day-offer.asp

Limit: Multiple entrants are not permitted to share the same email address and/or household. Any attempt by any entrant to obtain more than the stated number of plays/entries by using multiple/different email addresses, identities, registrations and logins, or any other methods will void that entrant’s plays/entries and that entrant may be disqualified.

Use of any automated system to participate is prohibited and will result in disqualification. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected registrations, which will be disqualified. In the event of a dispute as to any registration or play, the authorized account holder of the email address used to register will be deemed to be the registrant or player.

The “authorized account holder” is the natural person assigned an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted address. Potential winners may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder.

WINNER SELECTION

Administrator is an independent judging organization whose decisions as to the administration and operation of the Promotion and the selection of potential winners are final and binding in all matters related to the Promotion.

Administrator will randomly select the potential Sweepstakes winner, from all eligible entries through the use of Random.org Random Integer Generator on or around the end date specified for the Promotion Period.

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• One Grand Prize winner will win a FREE 4oz. Black Powder Rocket Kit — retails for $145.34
• Four (4) other winners will each be chosen to win 2 pounds of Bright Aluminum – retails for $20.80

RELEASE

By receipt of any prize, winner agrees to release and hold harmless Administrator, Sponsor, and their respective subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, distributors, advertising/promotion agencies and each of their respective parent companies and each such company’s officers, directors, employees and agents (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any claim or cause of action, including, but not limited to, personal injury, death, or damage to or loss of property, arising out of participation in the Promotion or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.

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• Administrator reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Promotion, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Administrator’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Sweepstakes, as determined by Administrator in its sole discretion. In such event, Administrator reserves the right to award the prizes at random from among the eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment.
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If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another entry in the Sweepstakes, provided that if it is not possible to award another entry due to discontinuance of the Promotion, or any part of it, for any reason, Administrator, at its discretion, may elect to hold a random drawing from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein. No more than the stated number of prizes will be awarded. In the event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than stated number of prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed, Administrator reserves the right to award only the stated number of prizes by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible prize claims.

WINNER LIST

Winner List requests will only be accepted after the promotion end date. For the complete Winner(s) List, visit this page after the promotion ends.

Skylighter Sweepstakes Rules – Ends Friday, November 9th is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

These shells are absolutely positively stunning! It’s not very often that a fireworks display makes the old man jump up out of his chair like this one did.

These bits of Maltese magic are filled with effects than you’ve never seen before…guaranteed.

**** SPECIAL SALE TODAY ****

If you wanna make stars like you see in the video, you’re gonna need a lot of ‘Perc.’

Right now you can get all the Potassium perchlorate you want for only –$3.63 per pound. That’s almost half price!

This opportunity is only good until Wednesday, Sept 19th at midnight so jump quick.

Here’s the link:

Get Potassium perchlorate for only $3.63 per pound <== click here

PS: Potassium perchlorate is the main oxidizer in the Veline Colored Star System. Robert Veline’s excellent star system can be used to make every color you can ever want, all using just one relatively small set of chemicals. If you like the Veline article, please click the Like and Google +1 buttons there to let us know you want to see more good fireworks formulas like the Veline system.

Now these are shells! is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

I just received an email from Ned Gorski that his new Fireworking.com website is now up and running.

And indeed I was able to go onto the site just now, and join.  $40 buys a one year subscription. And Ned wrote back that I was member number 100.

Ned has been working on this site for many months now.  I have absolutely no doubt that within a relatively short time, it will prove to be the most important information and community resource in the world for people who are serious about making fireworks.

Fireworks making, or “fireworking” as Ned’s new is called, has never had a website as well equipped as this one promises to be.

Early on, we had the PML, the Pyrotechnic Mailing List, and it served the fireworking community well during the early years of the internet.

Although other fireworks info sites have sprung up since that time, largely eclipsing the PML, I believe that this new “3rd generation” site of Ned’s will prove to be the richest resource so far for fireworks makers.  Here’s why:

Currently there is no fireworks writer in the world that I know of who is doing better
work.  That’s because Ned is actually an unusual combination of a very good writer, an excellent teacher who understands his readers, and an award-winning, highly accomplished fireworks maker himself.  You simply don’t find all of those skills in very many people.

I’ve known Ned and worked closely with him for a long time.  Ned’s projects on how to make fireworks are well known among Skylighter customers, and I personally think his creation of our Turbo Pyro course has resulted in more new fireworks makers becoming successful than anything else written in the past 25 years. I am biased, of course, but that opinion is based upon input from fireworkers who have bought nearly 2,000 Turbo Pyro courses and kits.  This would never have happened without Ned Gorski.

I urge anyone who has even a passing interest in fireworks making to subscribe to Ned’s website right now.  Ned has
committed himself completely to this new venture. And in my opinion he is giving away his membership, at a measly $40.  Per YEAR!  Not month!

Give yourself an early Christmas present.

Check out and join Fireworking.com right now.

–Harry Gilliam
–Chief Cook & Bottlewasher

Fireworking.com: A New Fireworks Community Website Just Announced is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

There will be a “lighting” of a black smoke Christmas tree at 2:30 today, Eastern Time in Washington, DC. You can watch it streaming live over the internet. Read on to find out how to watch it.

Warning, this is an experiment. Even the artist does not know if it will work. But Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang is famous for creating amazing works of art using fireworks, black powder, and pyrotechnics.

How about his black rainbow in the air?

Or this one?

…or this one from the Beijing Olympics?

Today’s event is the second pyrotechnic event staged by the artist in Washington, DC. Watch this 2005 video of Mr. Cao’s “Tornado” made from fireworks salutes. Be patient, it’s at the very end of the display.

Here’s his rendering for today’s daylight attempt at creating a Christmas tree in the air from black smoke.

I can’t get down into DC myself to watch it live this afternoon, but happily it’s being streamed live on the internet. Cross your fingers that the wind is right and join me at 2:45 today.

Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Black Christmas Tree 2″ made from black smoke and other fireworks, streaming live at 2:45pm today at

http://asia.si.edu/Sackler25/ < <====== Click here for streaming video.

Here’s the official announcement from the Smithsonian Museum’s Freer and Sackler (oriental) galleries:

Did you watch it? Have you ever seen any of Cao Guo-Qiang’s other pyrotechnic events live? What did you think? Give us your comments below.

Black Smoke Christmas Tree to Explode in Washington, DC Today November 30, 2012 is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Somebody asked what the weirdest thing was that ever happened at Skylighter.

This story is the absolute truth…but I know you still won’t believe it!

[this is long--sorry. don't read it if you hate really weird pyro stories--part 1 today, part 2 tomorrow. Be sure to read both.]

Long ago in a Skylighter far, far back in time, when I was but a wee pyro huckster pup, we carried all kindsa exotic organic gums for binders.

Well, a guy named “Edgar” called one day and asked if we had any benzoin gum. I had never even heard of benzoin gum and told him so. He lived nearby in the next-door county and wanted to come out and chat anyway.

He really wanted that benzoin, and a lot of it. And two powerful conditions converged right here at Toxic Central–I was broke and Edgar wanted to spend a pile of cash.

So, I humored him.

Edgar was pushy, and I was curious, so I told him how to get here. He was an odd sort of fellow, kinda of short and dumpy (think Danny Devito, but smooshed shorter). New Joisy accent, friendly, and secretive about what he wanted the benzoin for (I later found out it was used in the incense he was selling to a big high end grocery chain. The stuff smells like vanilla ice cream.)

Edgar had searched high and low for a steady supplier of benzoin gum. He needed something like 14,000 lbs. of the stuff every 6 months.

Long story short, my searching ended up in what I would call the seedy underbelly of far eastern chemical peddlers. I won’t say any more than that about them here.

And that’s how this all came to happen, and I will never forget it as long as I live.

After days and days of phone and emails back and forth, I finally hooked up with a middleman guy I’m gonna call Hu Yu Hai Ding (name changed to protect my person!). I found him through an ex- military spook I know who used to work in a certain dicey part of Southeast Asia. Hu’s “day job,” I was told, was helping fugitives escape from Asian Triads and narco lords.

Stay with me. It just gets weirder.

Anyway, Hu came reliably recommended, and was one of those guys who knew everybody. And if you think I am a shameless huckster, Hu makes me look like a 1st grader!

Hu told me that he had helped a woman “disappear” into New Guinea, where she had changed her name and ended up owning some sort of an unlicensed chemical supply company specializing in all kinds of surplus (some shady) chemicals. Governments are not that tight about such things in places like New Guinea.

Hu hooked us up, and she faxed me an amazing list of stuff that would make any fireworker sit up and bark–loud! When I read it, I just went giggly and all pointy-like. Over countless emails we started to put together a tentative order of various stuff. Including of course, plenty of benzoin gum for Edgar.

Well, I was about to leave for China on a buying trip. So I decided to dogleg to Port Moresby on my way back home from China. I could meet with her and see if she was real and look at her inventory to see if it was junk or not. At the prices she was asking, I was VERY skeptical, bleeve you me.

3 weeks later, she picks me up at Jacksons Airport outside of “Pot Mosbi.” She was probably Thai or maybe Burmese, and about 60-ish I’d guess. Wrinkly, weathered face, with a huge gap between her betel-nut-stained front teeth. And a heart-melting smile.

I loved her immediately. What was funny was that the gap in her teeth made her kinda hiss whenever she spoke most “S” words. I’ll never forget how movie-comical her manner of speech was.

She’s still in business out there today, by the way, tho Edgar made an untimely exit, which I will tell you about tomorrow. She must be 80 now, and of course I won’t mention her name either.

She always addressed me “Missshtah Hoddy.” Spoken like you were going swishhhh down a ski slope, with a little pause after the first syllable. Missshhh…tah… kinda like that. Anyway…

“Ssssso, Missshtah Hoddy, you have come to me to find the magic benssssin gum, yesssss?” First I had heard of it being magic…

“I do have some very old, benssssin gum, not like you sssssee any more. Not from here. From Sssssumatra. Very old, very good quality. And I make you very good pricccce for it. But you mussst do ssssssomething for me in return for good pricccce,” she ssssaid as she gave her best attempt at a seductive smile.

Uh oh… here it comes…

“If you will let me include a ssssmall package in the container and ssssend it to my ssssisshter in Baltimore after you recccceive the sssshipment, I would be mossst happy.”

Back home we call that “smuggling.” Damn. I knew it was all too good to be true.

“What sort of package?” I asked.

“Actually he issss jusssst my little pet rat, Reggie. He isss jussst baby and he isss gift to my ssssissster.”

I told you it was weird, didn’t I?

Now look at it my way: I would be getting a mix of chemicals worth about $250,000 retail value for $17,000 + shipping. And her sister in Baltimore is only about an hour away from Toxic Central. I could just drive little Reggie over and be back home in a couple of hours. What the hell? What possible harm could it be? It’s not like she’s asking me to smuggle heroin or something.

“Why not?” I said.

18 years ago, I was young, stupid, and willing to do some things then that I never would today… ESPECIALLY not ever bringing in a New Guinea rat again!

When we finally got to her warehouse it was a flat-out orgasm for me. She had been buying up surplus military pyro chemicals, organic dyes and other stuff used in textile manufacture, and she had lot of expensive metal powders that she had gotten in Japan. And most of her stuff was in plenty good enough shape for pyros like you and me. She really knew her stuff. And I absolutely knew she was honest.

So, by the end of 3 days, I had ordered a 40-foot cargo container full of about 25 different chemicals at prices I have never seen before or since. She told me that Reggie would be fine for 45 days or so in his little “home away from home” in the container, and that I should look for him to be packed near the benzoin gum.

We agreed on payment and delivery details, and I left for home via Manila.

And she got my container packed, with little Reggie aboard, and on its way 5 days later.

Little did I know what would happen after it arrived 4 weeks later.

After my 20-hour trip home from Asia, the hectic days at Skylighter resumed, and I quickly forgot about Reggie and the old gal in New Guinea.

But sooner than I expected, the cargo container of chemicals showed up, and my warehouse crew spent the day unloading all the drums and a few crates of small stuff. Even Irv Snerd pitched in to help (bleeve me, those days are long gone!)

Snerd set the conveyor up and moved all the heavy wooden crates up into the second floor storage area (we call it the “attic”). His job was to unload them and get a count on the contents in each of ‘em.

At some point, I went up to check on his progress. Which was when I noticed the enormous, ragged hole in the side of one of the unopened crates.

Damn, I had totally forgotten about Reggie!

“Did you see Reggie when you unloaded the container?” I asked Snerd.

“No boss, nothing but chemicals. Who or what is Reggie,” Irv answered.

All of a sudden, I was wondering that myself.

At this point I began to panic. What the hell had I gotten into? That hole in the crate was about 10 inches in diameter, a LOT bigger than anything I had ever seen a rat make.

I started downstairs to see if anybody else in the crew had seen Reggie when we unloaded the container. As I walked down the stairs and got at about eye-level with the upstairs floor, I looked up.

Which was when I came nose to snout with… RATZILLA!

“Little pet rat” Reggie was absolutely HUGE. I’m gonna say 20 lbs. at least, and about nearly 3 feet long nose to tail tip. His fur was mangy and filthy. And he had evil yellow eyes and 3-inch yellow-spikey fangs sticking out through his bloody lips.

I had never before seen any animal like this before (or since)!

He looked straight at me from about a foot away, and screamed a kind of shrill “EEEEEEE” and lunged straight at my throat!

They say that in every man there’s a built-in instant reflex towards fight or flight…

They got that right! I took the rest of the stairs down in a single leap. I ran like hell and didn’t stop until I was 50 feet away from the building!

I yelled at everybody else to get the hell out of the warehouse. They poured into the parking lot asking me what was going on.

I was shook, and really, really rattled. I told them what had happened, which Snerd confirmed, as he had been only 30 feet away when the vile “little pet rat” had attacked me.

I had to do something, but I was really getting more scared by the moment.

On one hand that animal was a danger and had to be killed or caught. On the other, I did not dare call Animal Control for help–and get accused of bringing some foreign predatory species into the country illegally. My pea brain finally clicked on a plan, and I told everybody to stay out of the building while I drove home as fast as I could.

Fight fire with fire.

What better way to take care of the Reggie the Rat problem than with the nastiest example of a rat’s sworn natural enemy–a feral furline that lives in the woods on my property!?

That cat probly ran 25 pounds and has terrorized the properties around me for the past 10 years. Although he started life as “Fluffy” when he was a pet, my neighbors nicknamed him “Kong” after he was abandoned by his owner when he moved away.

Fluffy patrolled the neighborhood impregnating momma cats and just absolutely wiping out other would-be suitors.

I figured if I could install Fluffy at the warehouse, nature would take its course and my Ratzilla problem would be taken care of in the most normal fashion.

But catching Fluffy-Kong would be a problem. Everybody’d tried to catch him. He once actually escaped a live trap by breaking the trap door off from the inside! He was big, mean, smart and amazingly strong.

I rigged up a Havahart live-trap, and put a juicy rib-eye steak in the right place.

Watching through my kitchen window, just 15 minutes later, Kong emerged from his bushes, his nose sniffing as he looked for the source of the savory smell wafting off the $15 slab of one of my favorite Costco steaks. Small price to pay…

Kong was ginormous! And just hard-ugly. One gray eye had been destroyed in a fight, and both ears had been chewed down to nubs.

“Good Lord,” I thought as I watched him through the window close-up for the first time. He was the ugliest hellcat that ever walked the Earth.

6 inches had been bitten off the end of his tail a few years back in a fight with a coyote, that he had actually managed to kill. His massive shoulders were covered with scars, where the fur was gone and pink skin showed. There was not a cat or even a dog in the neighborhood who would come near him anymore.

Fluffy slithered low into the trap as if he was stalking that steak. I watched in awe as his razor sharp teeth tore the first flesh off his meaty prize. And the cage door slammed shut with a loud bang.

Kong let out a howl of rage and began crashing against the doors and sides of the case with all of his fury. He went nuts! I was worried the cage would break open! But the wire held. I had him!

I hefted the cage into the back of my Tahoe, but not before Fluffy Kong reached a paw out and sliced the back of my hand open. Blood dripping from the wound, I dropped my assassin into the back of the Tahoe, and scooted back to Toxic Central, breaking the speed law every mile I went.

Wait’ll Ratzilla comes whisker to whisker with Fluffy!! I may get out of this yet, without facing a Federal animal smuggling charge!

It’ll be King Kong vs. Godzilla all over again! The cat and mouse match of the century!

It was dark by the time I got back. Lori and I wrassled Fluffy in his cage up the stairs, who furiously kept reaching out, trying to rake both of us with his slashing razor claws. As we lowered the cage to the floor, I noticed my inch-and-a-half-thick ribeye had completely disappeared. Damn! I can’t even eat a whole one myself!

Snerd had managed to use a shovel to corner Reggie the Rat between several stacks of boxes. When Irv backed off from him, the Rat slowly started hump-walking in our direction, baring his nasty teeth.

God! I could not believe how big that thing was. He was just absolutely huge. Lori stood behind us with a 16 gauge, just in case.

But I had my secret weapon, caged and ready to kill.

At first, when Ratzilla came slinking out of the corner, Fluffy got strangely quiet. He stiffened and looked straight across the floor at Reggie, now about 12 feet away and closing the gap between us.

Well, it’s now or never…

I snapped open the cage door and let Fluffy-Kong loose.

Kong slunk out, low to the floor like cats do, eyes straight ahead, glued to Reggie, who never even slowed his advance toward us.

Kong’s powerful flanks started to quiver back and forth as he settled himself into pounce position. Growling constant and louder now… wowwwwrrrrrrrrrrr…

At no time did that rat ever show any fear whatsoever.

Three full-grown people and an absolutely huge cat ready to pounce right on him, and the damned thing was still moving aggressively toward us as if we were all ants.

Fluffy now starting that low growling wowrrrrrrr, wowrrrrrrrrrrr…. as he could now see and get that nasty Reggie-Rat smell coming across the room toward us.

Ten feet away, now eight… closer he came. Honestly, I don’t know which of those two animals I was more frightened of. My hand was still bleeding from the first cut of the battle…

Ratzilla looked Kong right in the eyes and started an ear-splitting shriek and stopped very still just two feet away from Kong.

Kong’s hindquarters now moving back and forth, as he got ready to make his final leap. The cat-growling now constant and getting louder, Reggie screaming right at the cat eeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE…!

This was going to be pure hell in about 2 seconds!

I got ready to jump out of the way, because I knew that once those two locked teeth and claws that they would explode and take out anything and anybody who got in the way. I motioned Irv and Lori back.

EEEEEEEEE…… WOWRRRR, WOW_WOWRRRR… Kong now digging in for his final leap. The vile Rat Reggie tensing up, now screaming at the top of his foul stinking rat lungs through those awful yellow fangs.

Both of them screaming at the top of their lungs and looking right down into each other’s vicious souls through those yellow eyes they both had. Kong started to move now… He pushed down for the leap, and here he goes… he’s…

Oh My GOD!

When Kong finally made his move, our jaws just dropped. He had moved about 2 feet in a single leap… backwards!

Reggie had backed Kong down!

Fluffy-the-coward turned a complete 180, streaked between my legs and tore down the attic stairs.

Ratzilla stared at me for a moment, an evil leer crossing his lips before he launchedhimself through the air across the attic floor towards me. I dodged sideways and Reggie smashed right through the window beside me and disappeared into the night…

And we never saw him again!

All three of us were shaking like leaves. We just looked at each other speechless. It’s all we could do. My slashed hand was shaking uncontrollably.

At home later with half a fifth of old rum in me, I finally settled down. But I couldn’t sleep a wink that night. Over the next few days, we all gradually settled back into a normal routine. I swore everyone at Toxic Central to secrecy. (Except Snerd, but that’s another sordid story. Snerd knows too much, and he can never trusted to keep him mouth shut.)

We hear stories now and then of strange happenings around our little town: goats and chickens gone missing or wooden porch furniture gnawed to bits. And for some bizarre reason, where we used to see lots of tame and stray cats around, now there are no cats roaming loose in our end of town whatsoever.

Which brings us to my current dilemma. My office is still littered with boxes of nesting screens, and none of my yellow-bellied staff (let alone ME!) are willing to take them back upstairs to store them.

Not with Ratzilla still out roaming loose somewhere!

I still get a spasm of fear shooting through my spine whenever I think about going back up into that attic at night.

So please, help us out here. We have to get rid of those screens.

Today, I will GIVE you a free set of round, wood-framed, nesting screens for every $57 worth of stuff you buy from Skylighter.

You know the deal on ‘em, right? These screens were promised by a certain Chinaman to be 10, 20, 30, 60, 100 mesh.

But they turned out to be 9, 16, 25, 41 & 53. They were sposed to be stainless steel, but some of the wires are starting to rust a little.

But… they still make fine mixing screens. I’ve been using them myself for years.

They’re even mo’ betta in some ways than the heavier duty square ProScreens — no corners to clean when I wash ‘em out with my hose.

Just don’t rely on the mesh sizes you see stamped on them.

Fine Print — Read Now or Weep Later:

• You must buy $57 wortha stuff at Skylighter.
• Offer CAN be combined with any other special currently going on.
• You must use Promo Code TheRat.
• The screens will not show in your order. We will add them after we receive your order.
• Do not add the screens to your order, lest you be charged the full $91 price for them. We will add one set later per $57 in your order, when we pack up your order to ship to you.
• Limited number on hand. And we want them gone ASAP. We will let you know if we sell out.
• Final shipping cost of your order will be a little higher than what you see on your order confirmation, due to weight of screens.

Please! Help us out. Why don’t you make a nice home for at least one family of these neglected screens today in your warm pyro shed.

So, that is the weirdest story ever to come out of Skylighter… so far.

With fear and hand trembling too much to go out and LIGHT something…

Yours in flames,

Harry Gilliam
Former Exotic Animal Importer

Think I’m lying about Reggie? Here’s a picture of a baby New Guinea rat captured recently, about 6 pounds.

Reggie’s former mama? I never dealt with her again, but Mr. Hu tells me she’s alive and still active in her business outside Port Moresby. Maybe one day I’ll find out why she shipped that horrible Reggie to the United States.

Start shopping now and get a set of round nesting screens for free.

Ratzilla attacks skylighter warehouse is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

A question was asked on rec.pyrotechnics about formulations for strobe comps that do not use dichromate. Here are some nitrate-based compositions.

#1 works particularly well, and by tuning the amount of 200-mesh vs. 60-mesh MgAl, it can speed the strobe up to a steady burn, or slow it to one or two flashes per second, with an occasional “stop”, followed by self-relight.

It’s not a true strobe in that it has more of a shimmering, intermittent burn than a regular on/off strobing effect.

This material works best simply “settled” in a 5/16″ i.d. thin paper tube (lance tube).

Adding up to 3% air float charcoal will make it less prone to go out, and easier to ignite.

Simply replacing the strontium nitrate with barium nitrate yields an acceptable green version.

Various Nitrate Red Strobes

#3 and #3b bound with acetone, but try/dextrin water.

I have used these formulations with good success and have even modified #1 with a little copper oxide and saran for a purple shimmering lance.

It should be pointed out that these are not products of my mind – I got them “off the web”. We should give credit to the anonymous original author.

This article is just one of dozens of great fireworks making projects in the book Best of AFN VI, from American Fireworks News. Thanks to Lloyd Sponenburgh and to AFN for permission to reprint.

Nitrate-Based Strobes is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

For those of you who are having problems with your stars failing to ignite, here’s a star you should make to regain your confidence using a production method that has worked every time for me – with beautiful results.

The formula is one of Dave Bleser’s as shown in his book, Round Stars and Shells, with a modification in production and a slight addition to the formula. The addition is magnesium curl, which gives the stars a sparkling effect that is very apparent in large caliber shells.

So right off you can see these stars are to be used in “bigger bangers,” 6-inch and up, but I don’t see why they couldn’t be scaled down.

The production method will yield a suitably hard star that ignites easily with no prime at all!

A star pump, rubber mallet or arbor press, paper cup, and popsicle stick, are all the tools needed.

The solvent is acetone – never ever bind magnesium with water! There is no need to coat the magnesium to prevent corrosion.

The method: I put star comp in the cup, then add acetone a little at a time till I get a feel for the technique; stir with the popsicle stick and then when the binder has been activated, I fill the star pump and compress to make the star. That’s all there is to it. By using the cup, the acetone vapors, which are heavier than air, will remain in the cup and in contact with the star comp instead of spilling out into the room or cause moisture to condense into the stars – a very bad thing!

When the acetone has evaporated from the completed stars, they are ready.

The mesh size of magnesium that I used was the 100 mesh. The added magnesium curl is actually called Hollow Curl, available from Firefox [and Skylighter, #CH1080], which may cause a dramatic change in the sparkler effect if only a curl shaped slice of magnesium is used.

[All parts above are by weight.]

I break my Red Mag round shells with black powder pasted on cotton seeds, 50/50 by weight. The black powder I use is home milled for 1 hr. in a Sponenmill. Remember, serious pyros own a mill!

This article is just one of dozens of great fireworks making projects in the book Best of AFN VI, from American Fireworks News. Thanks to Randy Peck and to AFN for permission to reprint.

Easy Red & Green Twinkling Mag Stars is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Here is a collection of different formulas for making (mostly) stars using magnesium powder. The information is a little stingy. It was all gleaned from The Wizard’s Pyrotechnic Formulary. This is a collection of more than 2600 different fireworks formulas compiled by Donald Haarmann. Even though there is zero information on how to make the recipes in the book, I don’t know of anything else like it in existence.

As you can see below, often there is very little info provided in the formulas. But where “Magnesium” is called for, you can most likely use just about any of the 80 mesh or finer magnesiums you can readily find these days. Remember that the finer the mag powder, the faster the star will burn. So you should be prepared to experiment a little.

Whenever Dextrin is called for, you can assume the solvent to use is water or water and alcohol. In that case you should coat your magnesium using potassium dichromate dissolved in water. The method is simple. Just make a supersaturated (as much as can be dissolved) solution of potassium dichromate dissolved in hot water. Add the dichromate until no more will dissolve. The add your magnesium powder to the solution and stir. Hydrogen gas will bubble and fizz out of the solution, so do this away from flames. Keep stirring until the bubbles stop. Then pour the solution and wet magnesium sludge through a coffee filter. You can wash any remaining sludge out of your mixing bowl with water. Save the orange solution to be used again (you can add more potassium dichromate again). Dry the mag sludge, and then run it through as fine a screen as you have and crush any little clumps by hand.

In formulas where you see Parlon, it is being used as both a chlorine donor (flame color brightener) and a binder. Use acetone or xylene as the solvent for these Parlon comp’s.

If you see PVC, it is also a chlorine donor and binder; use methylene chloride as the solvent to activate the PVC as a binder. If you see PVC and Parlon, treat the Parlon as the binder. Red gum is being used as a binder as well in some comps; use alcohol as the solvent.

Since so much info is lacking, I strongly advise you to experiment with very small batches at first, until you know you’ve got your star dialed in. Then scale up.

Crimson Star
Kentish

Green Electric Star
Allen [Hitt]

Green Flare and Smoke

Green Star

Green Star
Lancaster

Green Star
T. Fish

Green Star Brilliant
Shimizu

Red Flare
Ellern

Red Mag Star
Bleser

(wet with acetone)

Red Micro Jet

Red Star
Baechle

Red Star
J Farrell

Red Star
T Fish

By all means, write your questions and comments about these formulas in the comments below. We’ll try to answer them for you. Better to ask first before you waste time and money getting a big batch of mag stars wrong.
–Harry Gilliam

Great Magnesium Formulas for Stars is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

What’s better than 4 lbs. of
Volcanic Thermite Fury?

How about 8 POUNDS of it?

I’ve always said that once you get a taste of making your own pyro, you‘re gonna wanna go BIGGER.

It’s just like McDonald’s…

Why get a small fry, when you can Super-Size it!

Now you can grab up an 8 pound Thermite Kit for only $37.87.

That’s double the size of Skylighter’s original thermite kit and saves you about 20% of what the individual pieces and parts cost you.

Get the Super-Sized 8 pound Thermite Kit

In case you don’t know, thermite is a pyrotechnic mix of a reactive metal (usually aluminum) and a metal oxide (often iron oxide). I won’t bore you with all the science. But put simply enough for my own peabrain to understand it, when you ignite it you get so much heat that you can burn a hole through iron or steel!

Today’s Thermite Experiment: Melting Through a Steel Drum
(I got a little too close and almost melted my camera)

Thermite is hotter than volcanic lava!

Boy Genius and I burned holes right through some steel drums with just a few ounces of Thermite in aluminum foil tubes. After they cooled, we had to knock the slag off to see the holes. Next, we’re eyeballin’ a broken down car near the warehouse…

Thermite can be used for lots of other experiments too, like:

Destroying data on your ex-wife’s hard drive, melting your ten-year old’s laptop, opening that reluctant safe, melting pesky locks off of doors, plus a lot of legitimate civilian and military uses.

The new $37.87 Thermite Kit makes up to 8 pounds of Thermite. That’s enough to melt a hole halfway to China!

Each Thermite Kit contains:

• 6 lbs. Red Iron Oxide
• 2 lb. of Bright Flake Aluminum
• 2 packs of 6 Gold Sparklers

You use the sparklers to get a hot enough flame to ignite the thermite.

Now go out and melt something with Skylighter’s Thermite Kits

Yours in molten metal,

Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

PS: The simple, downloadable instructions for making your own Thermite are on the same page where you order your Thermite Kits.

8 Pound Thermite Kit is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

Tom D. asked if we would show him what our new Titanium Dihydride (-120 mesh) looks like when it’s burn-tested.

So, here ya go. Take a look at this video.

Just in case you’ve never heard of this chemical before, it’s basically Titanium + Hydrogen. The chemical formula is TiH2.

It makes silver sparks just like “pure” titanium or the titanium alloys… at half the cost!

BTW, sprinkling any metal powder onto a blowtorch flame is a primo way to preview the kind of sparks it will produce in your fireworks. Or to see if it will make ANY sparks at all.

Whenever I’m on the road checking out possible new products in surplus chem warehouses and government storerooms, I always have this kind of blowtorch with me.

This really simple test is a lot faster than mixing up in a star comp and waiting for it to dry!

So, here’s the deal. We have a measly 900 lbs. of this “new” chemical. (I know that sounds like a lot, but with more than 25,000 people on our mailing list, it will not last long.)

And we plan on giving almost all of it away.

So why are we giving away 900 pounds of this stuff?

Simple, it’s to develop a market for the stuff by getting it into the hands of as many fireworks makers as possible.

The possibilities for cheap Titanium Dihydride are endless:

• Add it to rocket fuels for a “sparkly” trail.
• Use in stars for a rich, white/silver snowball effect.
• Use it in sparklers for an extra bright sparkler.
• Add to fountains and wheels for a very impressive white/silver plume!
• Toss a pinch in your next salute for an eye catching boom

I think it is going to turn out to be a great, cheap alternative for other metal powders whose prices are getting stratospheric.

Here’s how to get some for free:

————————————————————————————————–

New Fireworks Chemical!

Titanium Dihydride: Get Free Samples Today

Just buy ANYTHING at Skylighter today, and I will give you

1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 wortha stuff you purchase.

————————————————————————————————–

We think this is going to turn out to be one of most versatile chemicals to appear on the scene in a long time. It’s currently scare, it’s rare, and if you hurry, it’s FREE!

FINE PRINT–Read it now or weep later:

• 1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride free only for every $35 worth of products you buy today at Skylighter.
• You must use the Promo Code: TIDIHYDRIDE.
• Deadline is midnight, Eastern time Sunday April 14th, or whenever this first load of Titanium Dihydride is gone–whichever comes sooner.
• Items you order must be in stock. This offer does not apply to any product that’s “Temporarily Unable to Ship” or out of stock.
• Your Titanium Dihydride will get added later. You won’t see it in your order confirmation. We’ll add it when we ship your order.
• Your shipping charges will be a little higher than what you see on your order confirmation, because of your Titanium Dihydride.
• Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. “First come, first served.” Sometimes it takes us awhile to get all orders caught up and shipped.
• Not retroactive: You cain’t apply this deal to your last order, no matter how much we really do love you, not even if you are an alpha, super-repeat-buying, big-spender dog.

Please, please pretty please tell us how you use it.

How it turns out. What you learn, etc. And we will share what you learn with everyone else on the list.

Wanna get more of it free? Just send us videos, pictures, and stories about how you used this stuff.

Yours in flames,

Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottlewasher

PS: Get 1 lb of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 you spend at Skylighter.

Use promo code TIDIHYDRIDE — expires Sunday, April 14th at midnight.

Titanium Dihydride Blowtorch Test is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

The possibilities for cheap Titanium Dihydride are endless:

• Add it to rocket fuels for a “sparkly” trail.
• Use in stars for a rich, white/silver snowball effect.
• Use it in sparklers for an extra bright sparkler.
• Add to fountains and wheels for a very impressive white/silver plume!
• Toss a pinch in your next salute for an eye catching boom

I think it is going to turn out to be a great, cheap alternative for other metal powders whose prices are getting stratospheric.

Here’s how to get some for free:

————————————————————————————————–

New Fireworks Chemical!

Titanium Dihydride: Get Free Samples Today

Just buy ANYTHING at Skylighter today, and I will give you

1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 wortha stuff you purchase.

————————————————————————————————–

We think this is going to turn out to be one of most versatile chemicals to appear on the scene in a long time. It’s currently scare, it’s rare, and if you hurry, it’s FREE!

FINE PRINT–Read it now or weep later:

• 1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride free only for every $35 worth of products you buy today at Skylighter.
• You must use the Promo Code: TIDIHYDRIDE.
• Deadline is midnight, Eastern time Sunday April 14th, or whenever this first load of Titanium Dihydride is gone–whichever comes sooner.
• Items you order must be in stock. This offer does not apply to any product that’s “Temporarily Unable to Ship” or out of stock.
• Your Titanium Dihydride will get added later. You won’t see it in your order confirmation. We’ll add it when we ship your order.
• Your shipping charges will be a little higher than what you see on your order confirmation, because of your Titanium Dihydride.
• Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. “First come, first served.” Sometimes it takes us awhile to get all orders caught up and shipped.
• Not retroactive: You cain’t apply this deal to your last order, no matter how much we really do love you, not even if you are an alpha, super-repeat-buying, big-spender dog.

Please, please pretty please tell us how you use it.

How it turns out. What you learn, etc. And we will share what you learn with everyone else on the list.

Wanna get more of it free? Just send us videos, pictures, and stories about how you used this stuff.

Yours in flames,

Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottlewasher

PS: Get 1 lb of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 you spend at Skylighter.

Use promo code TIDIHYDRIDE — expires Sunday, April 14th at midnight.

Titanium Dihyrdride & Black Powder Test is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man

The possibilities for cheap Titanium Dihydride are endless:

• Add it to rocket fuels for a “sparkly” trail.
• Use in stars for a rich, white/silver snowball effect.
• Use it in sparklers for an extra bright sparkler.
• Add to fountains and wheels for a very impressive white/silver plume!
• Toss a pinch in your next salute for an eye catching boom

I think it is going to turn out to be a great, cheap alternative for other metal powders whose prices are getting stratospheric.

Here’s how to get some for free:

————————————————————————————————–

New Fireworks Chemical!

Titanium Dihydride: Get Free Samples Today

Just buy ANYTHING at Skylighter today, and I will give you

1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 wortha stuff you purchase.

————————————————————————————————–

We think this is going to turn out to be one of most versatile chemicals to appear on the scene in a long time. It’s currently scare, it’s rare, and if you hurry, it’s FREE!

FINE PRINT–Read it now or weep later:

• 1 lb. of Titanium Dihydride free only for every $35 worth of products you buy today at Skylighter.
• You must use the Promo Code: TIDI.
• Deadline is midnight, Eastern time Thursday April 18th, or whenever this first load of Titanium Dihydride is gone–whichever comes sooner.
• Items you order must be in stock. This offer does not apply to any product that’s “Temporarily Unable to Ship” or out of stock.
• Your Titanium Dihydride will get added later. You won’t see it in your order confirmation. We’ll add it when we ship your order.
• Your shipping charges will be a little higher than what you see on your order confirmation, because of your Titanium Dihydride.
• Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. “First come, first served.” Sometimes it takes us awhile to get all orders caught up and shipped.
• Not retroactive: You cain’t apply this deal to your last order, no matter how much we really do love you, not even if you are an alpha, super-repeat-buying, big-spender dog.

Please, please pretty please tell us how you use it.

How it turns out. What you learn, etc. And we will share what you learn with everyone else on the list.

Wanna get more of it free? Just send us videos, pictures, and stories about how you used this stuff.

Yours in flames,

Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottlewasher

PS: Get 1 lb of Titanium Dihydride for every $35 you spend at Skylighter.

Use promo code TIDI — expires Thursday, April 18th at midnight.

Testing fireworks compositions – burn test is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man