Skylighter Fireworks Making
Confessions of a Fireworks Man – Harry Gilliam of Skylighter, Inc.
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Skylighter Podcast #1 – Black Powder Q&A
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 [...]
Continue reading...What’s your most “burning” question about making black powder?
16 April 2012
This is the time of the year when all of us start making black powder for our 4th 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.
Continue reading...Making Black Powder Coated Rice Hulls
29 February 2012
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.
Continue reading...The Fallacy of Electric Matches – Do They Really Make Fireworks Safer?
16 February 2012
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 [...]
Continue reading...Make Black Powder: Quick, Cheap, Easy and High Quality
17 December 2010
At some point fairly early in every pyro career we realize we need to be able to make good black powder (BP) from scratch. BP is used in aerial fireworks shells as lift and burst powder. It is also used, in one way or another, in almost every other pyrotechnic device and component--mines, stars, black match, and the list goes on.
Continue reading...Everything You Need to Know to Start Making Fireworks Rockets
5 October 2010
Obviously, in this introduction to rockets, we won't be discussing military rockets, which have a long and rich history. Neither will we be discussing rockets designed for space exploration, which we'll leave to NASA. But leaving those aside, there is a wide variety of rocketry that folks can and do explore for purely recreational purposes. Such rockets include model rockets, amateur rockets, high-powered rockets, and fireworks rockets. The purpose of this article is to discuss fireworks rockets. However, in order to distinguish fireworks rockets from the other types, we will briefly mention and define each of these.
Continue reading...4-Ounce Black Powder Rockets
20 August 2010
"4-ounce" rockets? What does that mean? Well, if you're interested in the history of the term and some further background information on rockets in general, you can find it in the Introduction to Rockets article. But if you're more interested in getting started, let's go! Specifically, in this project we are going to make a 4-ounce (1/2-inch ID), nozzled, cored, stick-stabilized, black-powder skyrocket with a bag-shell heading.
Continue reading...New Products Announcement
6 August 2010
Realgar & Orpiment My old pal Bob Winokur has been doing some pyro-sleuthing and came up with a small stash of two pyro chemicals which are largely unobtanium now: Realgar and Orpiment, both arsenic compounds. He was able to supply us with a little of each. You can order it below. This has been an interesting process. Both of these chemicals are naturally occurring minerals.
Continue reading...What ARE you gonna do with all those Rubber Stars you’ll be making? Huh?
9 June 2010
If you don't already have specific plans for them, you're gonna love the next fireworks projects from Ned Gorski. They can all use your new Rubber Stars. For Ned’s next act this week, he's gonna show you how to make two different kindsa mines.
Continue reading...Stars & Shell Inserts: Garnitures
24 May 2010
“Garnitures.” Kind of an old-fashioned word, not heard very often in conversation. But, as used to describe the class of fireworks components we are about to look at, I’ll be darned if I can find a better word. From “Traditional Cylinder Shell Construction, Part I” by A. Fulcanelli, found in Pyrotechnica IX: “Garnitures. The general [...]
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23 April 2012
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