Turbo Pyro goes LIVE at 12:00 Noon Eastern time today, June 19th
Turbo Pyro goes LIVE at 12:00 Noon Eastern time today, June 19th. You’ll be able to get in then.
Here’s your link for Turbo Pyro:
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I DON’T KNOW WHETHER YOU HEARD THIS YET
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I’ve added *more* stuff to Turbo Pyro. I want to make sure you have fun with your projects, so I added a bonus Smoke Bomb Kit and project–Making Jumbo Smoke Canisters eBook (including videos).
Be sure and get online fast and place your order. Again, there are only 400 Turbo Pyro Supplies Kits available.
Grab yours here:
P. S. You get instant access to the Turbo Pyro eBook and the Smoke-Making eBook right after you order.
P. P. S. Be sure ahead of time your credit card has enough $$ left on it to make the charge. Otherwise you may miss out. (V, MC, Amex, Disc.)
Harry
How to Make Strontium Nitrate Sparklers
The very popular fireworks making book, Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics provides a neat project for making sparklers. Problem is, we can’t ship barium nitrate. What to do? Here’s a sparkler project formulae that doesn’t need either barium nitrate or potassium perchlorate. Thanks to one of our readers, who wishes to remain unanimous.
A Sparkler Made with Strontium Nitrate
Strontium Nitrate Steel Sparklers
| Component: | Parts: |
| Strontium nitrate (CH5543) | 200 grams |
| Sparkler-grade (or any other) steel powder (CH8300) | 120 grams |
| Aluminum, bright flake, -325 mesh (CH0174) | 32 grams |
| Airfloat Charcoal (CH8068) | 2 grams |
| Boric Acid (CH8042) | 6 grams |
| Dextrin (CH8107) | 40 grams |
| +90 ml 25% aqueous ethanol (alcohol) solution | |
Grind unground components (if any) separately. Mix together all components except dextrin. Add 25 ml of 25% aqueous ethanol (25% alcohol, 75% water) to dextrin and stir until it becomes a paste. Break up or discard any large clumps that form. Add paste to dry components and stir. Add 65 ml more ethanol solution, with stirring. Dump mixture into 41 mm OD x 12" long test tube (or pipe, whatever). The wet sparkler composition should be 7" to 8" deep.
Dip sparkler sticks (or wire/whatever) into mix and let dry 24 hours. Then apply 2 more coats in same manner. If needed, add about 5 ml ethanol solution to re-wet mix. Let dry 24-48 hours.
The slag from the sparkler dip is fun to let dry in a pile and light on fire on the ground, too.
Notes:
- You may have to adjust the volume of ethanol solution to make the consistency right; it seems to be slightly more or less every time I do it.
- Sparklers may be difficult to light. Propane torches or those butane cigarette lighters held on for a minute tend to do well. They can also be lit off each other. I sometimes use a prime just for the tip that uses perchlorate [or try a black powder/dextrin slurry].
- When the slag dries, you can notice rust from the steel. This may indicate that coating the steel with linseed oil first may be the way to go, though I haven’t ever had any problems with it. These were made in the Missouri summer, so they had plenty of humidity around.
- The paste can come out a bit clumpy. Larger batches will even out the coatings a bit. I haven’t tried, but thorough mechanical mixing once slurried would probably help, too. It doesn’t affect the sparklers’ burning at all.
I have enclosed a picture of one of these sparklers burning. They burn very nicely, actually a little better than the commercial grade sparklers that one can buy, and they last longer, too. I think this is from a chemistry demo we did in a lab, which is why it’s indoors. Usually I burn them outdoors. Note the safety goggles on the user.
The formula isn’t mine originally–I just modified it slightly. Hopefully this will give you something to tell the people that whine they can’t make sparklers without perchlorates. I’ve actually tried several formulations, including those with perchlorates, and the ones with perchlorates burn too fast, too erratically, and a little too energetically for using as a full coating.
I have found one or two of these perchlorate formulae are useful though, that I will use to coat the tips of the sparklers with just to get them going, since they are easier to light and burn hot enough to get it started.
The New Sparkler Factory Near Liuyang
I have been unhappy with our current sparklers. They are okay. But I want the best. And I want a factory with a sense of quality to make some different versions that are not on the market anywhere yet. So, Annie, Matt, and I are pulling into a different sparkler factory, again with high hopes we can upgrade our product.
As we pull up, I notice the housekeeping is better than most fireworks factories. The building looks clean, not much litter outside (unusual at a fireworks factory). The owner greets us, takes us inside, and sets us up with tea all the way around. He looks clean cut, well dressed, a bit yuppy by Chinese standards, and looks us square in the eye when he talks.
We look at samples of sparklers and packages. Some big name US fireworks vendors. Good sign. Sparklers made for companies and countries all over the world: the US, Sweden, Russia. So, he’s not just making product for internal, Chinese consumption. He knows about exporting—also good.
We test-burn some stuff. More good news. His number 20 golds burn more steadily than mine, have a wider spark radius, and are made on a straighter piece of wire. We burn a bunch of other stuff, including some cute leetle beety 5-inchers. All looks very good.
He tells us his factory is only 6 years old. We go for a walking tour of his buildings, all spread out for safety around the side of several hill, and set in some kind of conifers, huge bamboo, and ferns. Nice atmosphere. Again, the place gets the good housekeeping Gilliam seal of approval. We go into a building and watch some sparklers being packaged. Lotsa gals sitting on stools packing stuff (no child labor, by the way, as is oft-rumored in our US press).
We check out the other buildings. There are a couple with a very large quantity of #8 golds hanging up to dry in wooden racks. This is not high tech stuff. A lotta hand work.
One red light, though. It’s dark in the building they’re working in. No lights. No heat, either (but no heat is normal here, even in downtown retail establishments.) He also does not have many people working. Could that mean his business is “off?”
That could be good for us – he could be hungry. Or it might be bad: if we give him a big order, does he have the people and capital to produce it? On time? Perhaps his business is so young that he’s undercapitalized. But his plant looks good. And I put a lot of stock in that. As Tom Peters wrote in his book, In Search of Excellence, when you get on an airplane, and you pull that tray table down, and it’s sticky and stained, you’re bound to wonder how well they take care of the engines.
Matt and I agree: the thing to do is throw him a bone. Give him a decent-sized order, far enough ahead of time, that we’re not pressed, schedule-wise. Then watch and see. My take is: he’s young, hungry guy, who will do a job for us. But I know I am an optimist. Matt’s greater experience here on the ground tempers my wanting to see a winner to make my products better. Time will tell.
As usual, I take pictures of things that catch my eyeballs. Here’s another shot of the red bundle thingys from my last post.
John Miller guessed right. They’re recently-dyed, red bamboo sparkler sticks. This is the way they dry ‘em. What’s even cooler is to see how the gals make these little symmetrical stacks.
This is the last stop today, and our crazy renta-driver is an absolutely insane speed-freak driving us back to the office. Chinese driving is not for the faint-of-heart. Lines don’t mean anything. Which side of the road you’re on means nothing. It’s nothing to be hurtling north on a 4-lane road and have two cars abreast passing a cop car driving southbound, straight at you on your side of the road. I am not making this up. At a toll booth, our cazy southbound driver actually tried to cheat and go thru the northbound booth (big red X light over it)!
Reminds me of when Tom Weidlein tried to sneak across the border INTO Iraq (for the fun of it, that’s Tom) in the early 80’s. They nabbed him and threw him into Abu Ghraib before being in Abu Ghraib was cool. Nobody back home even knew he was missing until we saw him on the front page of the Washington Post, released, unharmed from Saddam’s prison.)
Our driver gets caught, too, and they back his young ass up, and move him into the right lane. But nobody really cares. It’s just normal driving in China.
Nighttime in Liuyang, 18th floor of the Yintian Hotel.
I’m on the balcony looking down at the Liuyang River. Gold lights from the bridge silhouette the sampans below.
Brightly lit up pagoda in the background on a hill through the light mist across the river. Misty and cold. Fireworks going off nearby in different directions. You can hear the pops and salute bangs. Leaning on the balcony rail, Tsingtao in hand, taking it all in. Chinese background music actually playing somewhere nearby, like the score for this particular, perfect movie scene. The close of another fine day in the fireworks capital of the world.
