Fourth of July Powder Question

[wpjson]

Here in Montana we have firecrackers all over the place for a couple of weeks around this time of year. I was wondering how the powder in fireworks differs from black powder we love so much. :hmm:

 

[Stumpkiller]

It would be about FFFFFFFFFFg.

Flash powder

 

[necchi]

Here's some explanation.
Note it's not available with out a commercial license; http://www.powderinc.com/blackpowder.htm#SUPERFINE BLACK SPORTING POWDER

Basically it's pretty darn dirty stuff, leaves a lot of fouling.
I remember about 20yrs ago some off brand powder hit the sporting market, it was all the rage because it was so cheap (inexpensive),,
Dragon? I think it was or something like that,,
Turned out to be a shipment of Chinese fireworks powder that was re-packaged.

 

[fleener]

different chemical composition. Much more sensitive and much smaller physical size.

Fleener

 

[BrownBear]

Aside from all the differences, it wouldn't be worth messing with even if it was the same.

As a kid I did lots of "recovery and reassmebly" of fireworks and powder. It's surprising how little is in them. If I had to put a number on it, I have to guess you'd be paying about $1,000 a pound for your recovered powder.

 

[RedFeather]

As I understand it, firecrackers use "flash powder" containing finely ground aluminum oxide. Might be why it's silvery. I would not shoot it in anything. Not sure how the aluminum oxide interacts with the powder but it might raise pressures. Also, I wouldn't be making my own firecrackers. Could be classified as something else.

 

[wpjson]

I won't be making any home made firecrackers. I have almost made 64 years will all my body parts. My mind wanders around abit, so I often think of off the wall crap. I was thinking, a person could if he wanted to, remove the nipple, drop a firecracker down the barrel, somehow work the fuse out the hole and fire it using a match. Again, let me assure you, while I often think up real stupid things to do, I seldom, if ever, actually do them.

 

[RedFeather]

LOL, actually been there, done that. About fifty years ago, one of our ragged gang of irregulars got himself a toy percussion pistol of the type still sold by CrackerBarrel. This had a shelf upon which to place a cap and smoke would come out the barrel. For whatever reason, there was a hole in the side of the barrel just ahead of the "bolster". Well, it was just right for slipping a lady finger down and fishing out the fuse. After several successful kabooms without any apparent mishaps, another kid volunteered his box of small jawbreakers as ammo. They just fit. Wondering how they would do, the owner fired one into a brick wall from maybe ten feet away. It left a little point of powdered candy, shaped much like those seen in the center of lunar craters. The general consensus was that would hurt some. No further testing was attempted, either through better uses for the remaining firecrackers or common 12 year old's sense.

 

[pa woods roamer]

YEARS ago, My two Brothers In Laws decided to make a Firecracker out of an empty 30-06 Shell and Black powder. They removed the spent Primer and inserted a length of cannon Fuse, half filled the casing and crimped the end shut. After dark, they lit the Fuse and threw the Firecracker ,AKA Bomb,out the Backdoor. The resulting explosion had all the Neighbor`s Porch Lights on and A Town Cop soon Patrolling the area. Now, this was back In the 70`s. If this were done today I am sure the the Swat Team and A whole bunch Of State Cops would be involved.....

 

[Ken Cormier]

I find it hard to believe that you lasted that long without blowing something up. My wife tells everyone that the world is a safer place when before my best friend and I retired. cuz we can think up a whole wheelbarrow of brilliant(stupid) stuff to do. She calls us her old fat juveniles teenagers.It is a good thing our neighbors know we're crazy or else Homeland Nazis would be camped out in the back 40.
Havea great day and blow something up. Try shooting Anvils in to the sky it is a BLAST

 

[fleener]

you ever use a black powder log splitter? We did, just ask metal shaper aka dagwood.

Reminds me, I need to get some logs cut for this years log splitting.

Fleener

 

[Mountain Rifleman]

Actually its 7 FG by GOEX standards

 

[crockett]

Down here you can buy 50 pound complete firework packages in the local supermarkets. Put it out in the parking lot, light the thing, and maybe a 3-4 minute firework display.
AND..... :grin: No deaths, no maimed children,
no nothing. Happy, happy, happy and you don't have to feel like a criminal while you celebrate the fourth. There is usually one or two new furriners around that are really upset about all this fun but within a year or two they get their minds right. :applause:

 

[BrownBear]

They're illegal within the city here, but legal for the week in outlying areas. We live in the outlying area.

Been dryer than dry here, but we're 30 miles from the city and beyond the area served by the fire department. Got the chainsaws sharpened and fueled. Got the brush cleared back. Got the neighbors all on speed dial. Got no sense of humor for idiots, alcohol and fireworks.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

The idiots will be out in force tonight. Few years back, neighbor kids had a huge party with one of the entertainments being shooting a potato gun at my livestock. I wheeled may cannon out of the garage and pointed it at their house, then I called the house and told the host to take a look at MY potato gun. Told here i can call police or shoot back, her choice. Kids scrambled to get out of there. I could hear all the beer bottles hitting the trash can and tires squeal as the kids left.

 

[Paul R]

Awsome mental image.
Paul

 

[TFoley]

As I understand it, firecrackers use "flash powder" containing finely ground aluminum oxide. Might be why it's silvery. I would not shoot it in anything. Not sure how the aluminum oxide interacts with the powder but it might raise pressures. Also, I wouldn't be making my own firecrackers. Could be classified as something else.

PLEASE READ MY POSTS ABOUT ALUMINIUM POWDER AND ALUMINIUM OXIDE.

Remember also that I have been at the wrong end of IEDs that were put together using this stuff as an 'effect enhancing' agent.

tac

 

[10_point]

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/article/policefire/1050911

This is from the local paper , makes a bad name for us dont it? read the part about the black powder made for muzzle loaders

 

[Billnpatti]

As a young kid with a curious mind, I made a rifle in which I used firecrackers as the propellant. The stock was sawn from a piece of 2 X 12. The barrel was a piece of 1\4" galvanized pipe with a pipe cap on one end. I had drilled a small hole in the cap through which the fuse went. The trigger was just a piece of twisted coat hanger that had a small curl in one end that would hold a piece of one of the sticks of "punk" that they sold for lighting your firecrackers. To shoot the rifle, you just unscrewed the cap, put in a firecracker, threaded the fuse through the hole in the cap, replaced the cap and stuffed a piece of pea gravel wrapped in newspaper down the bore, put the piece of glowing punk in the curl on the end of the trigger assembly and you were ready to shoot. When you pulled the trigger, the piece of punk was moved down to touch the end of the fuse and...BANG!!. Of course, how short you cut the fuse determined how long you had to hold steady on your target before the gun fired. It had a surprising amount of power,it could put a piece of pea gravel through both sides of a tin can out to perhaps 20 yards. Of course the accuracy wasn't great but you could hit tin cans pretty regularly out to about 20 yards.

 

[MacRob46]

Here in Montana we have firecrackers all over the place for a couple of weeks around this time of year. I was wondering how the powder in fireworks differs from black powder we love so much. :hmm:

That's especially nice since this is your dry season. When I lived in Great Falls, many years ago, some teenagers set fire to a mobile home lot with firecrackers which destroyed a couple of trailers. When I shot them I went down to the Missouri River to avoid such things.