This is a moment that would have made 15 year old me very proud of present-day me: I’ve just received a DIY fireworks kit in the mail! I love the “Don’t Send This Via Airplane” sticker.
My friend Heathervescent hipped me to this introductory Turbo Pyro kit from Skylighter. The kit supplies what you’ll need to make your own fireworks, including a 206 page eBook that guides you through making ten different fireworks: from tube sparklers to bottle rockets to aerial shells to something called a “Flying Fish Fuse Mine”. I’ve skimmed through the eBook and it looks thorough and professionally done. It has a number of embedded videos in it, which should be pretty helpful.
I’ve only had moments to scan the contents of the boxes, but they include a lot of paper tubes, charcoal, potassium chlorate, clay, potassium nitrate, sulfer, and other compounds (this endeavor involves making your own gunpowder), a few different kinds of ignition fuses, a bunch of mysterious custom tools for packing the fireworks, a digital scale, mortar casings, a large mortar tube, and more. You have to supply some sieeves, trays, measuring spoons, an electric coffee mill, tape, glue, safety gear, and a few hand tools.
I’m going to try the simplest projects first, hopefully in time for the 4th of July. Then, if all goes well (and I have the same number of fingers as I’m typing with right now), I’ll put together some of the big flying stuff and head out to the desert to fire them off.
You can sign up here to be notified when the next batch of kits is available:TurboPyro
Their blog is pretty cool too, I had no idea people had taken things to this level!
26 thoughts on “DIY fireworks kit”
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“and I have the same number of fingers as I’m typing with right now” – how many DO you have now?
That’s classified.
Fireworks aren’t legal to have everywhere…
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_12732762?source=rv
Excellent point. We’re all responsible for determining the legality (federal, state, & local) of what we’re doing.
Here’s some more info:
http://blog.skylighter.com/fireworks/2009/06/fireworking-safety-and-law.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireworks#Laws_and_politics
So, in case after researching all of this it turns out to be horribly illegal for me to make a sparkler, “I was just kidding, your honor, this is all fictitious”.
So much for the video don’t incriminate yourself :)
There’s always http://www.westernpyro.org/.
The difference is those guys had a stock pile big enough to cause serious problems and they were probably selling them. I had a friend that would go to Nevada every year and stock up and sell them at a 300% mark up, safe and sane is only so much fun until you need the real stuff.
Thanks for the heads up on the kits, hey think you can post some video?
Please remember this stuff can kill you. And don’t work with more then you’re willing to blow up in your face when your making it.
THIS – IS – AWESOME!
As a licensed fireworks vendor, I’ve always wanted something like this. Be careful, but really, have fun. Blowing stuff up should be one of our God given rights. Just go slow and I’m sure you’ll have a, um… BLAST!
My kit came in last week. Oddly enough, my scale is a “333” (333.0 grams) instead of a “222” like yours.
As far as legality goes, at a federal level it’s legal to make your own fireworks in all 50 states (as well as high explosives! Google for “ATF Orange Book”. That doesn’t mean state and local laws and regs allow it. Also, making fireworks is what’s legal (again, at a federal level), NOT storing, selling, buying, or transporting. For these things you need a license from the ATF. This means if you make your own, you shoot it on site if you don’t have a license, and you can’t store the stuff overnight. You can’t drive the mixed comp or product to a shoot site. This kit is perfect for building during the day and shooting at night provided you have the space and use your head (and follow local rules!)
-Bob
From my experiences, you have a far better chance of hurting yourself using power tools than building pyro. There’s a huge community out there, and some really amazing ways to “paint the sky”.
Be safe and have a great time :)
Making your own fireworks is a ton of fun, I have been reading articles from http://howtomakefireworks.org.