Alright, I don't have any black powder or anything like that, so my only other option is matchheads. However, my geuss is that it's a pain in the ass to get the bomb to light properly with just matchheads in there since they don't burn that easily. If I soaked the matchheads in lighter fluid and then put them in the empty c02 cartridge, do you think that would work better?

Also, can sparklers be used inside them? Because I have like 300+ sparklers so it would be much quicker to use those if it's possible.

And please, only smart people like Rat Bastard reply

That... won't work... You'd be better off getting the materials to make a proper composition. Matchheads, soaked in lighter fluid and stuffed in won't do anything much, except maybe burn you.

Dousing them in lighter fluid would keep them from burning. Match heads by themselves don't work at all in COBs, but if you scrape the powder off them and fill a COB with that it would work well, I'd imagine. Sparkler powder? No. It doesn't have its own oxidizer(at least I've never seen any that do), plus they don't burn anywhere fast enough to work in an explosive.

Damn, that sucks

Geuss I could try scraping off the matchheads and putting them in....damn thats going to take a long time.

Well, while I'm at it, any ideas for someone with 20ft of waterproof fuse, 300+ sparklers, shitloads of match-heads, etc.

(I'd get blackpoweder but the closest thing to it around here is the stuff from model rock engines which I'd have to travel 6+ miles to get and I don't have a car)

Ive never heard of a sparkler that doesnt contain its own oxidizer. Otherwise, they wouldnt work well. Sparklers can be used instead of fuse, but only with more powerful explosives, since the sparkler is so big, the hole has to also.

Many people have got plain matchheads to work in cobs, but they are a bitch to get in, and you have to make a very big hole to fit them in, so epoxy would have to be used to seal the fuse hole.

Black powder works much better, and can be easily made, and can be found in model rocket engines.

quote:Originally posted by Swartz45:

Geuss I could try scraping off the matchheads and putting them in....damn thats going to take a long time.

That's pretty much your only option unless you go and get BP from the rocket engines.

quote:Originally posted by IcEColdPlaYA:

Ive never heard of a sparkler that doesnt contain its own oxidizer.

Where do you get your sparklers?

It sounds like you have a lot of time available. Why don't you shave off the match head material and use it in that form? If I was desparate, that's what I'd probably do.(more surface area, too)

Since you haven't stated what type(s) of match heads you're using..or rather attempting to use, here's a little match head compound primer:

quote:The friction match (or the stick match), has one end of the stick dipped in a fireproofing agent so that it will not burn readily and the other end is coated with paraffin. The head of the match contains an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate, a substance which oxidizes readily (here's your sulfur or rosin), a filler of clay, a binding material such as glue, dye to give it distinctive color and at the very tip, and a small amount of phosphorus trisulfide, which decomposes and burns at a low temperature, igniting the paraffin.

Safety matches are designed so that the head can be ignited only by striking on a specially prepared surface on the match package. The tip of the safety match contains antimony trisulfide and an oxidizing agent (such as potassium chlorate), again held in place with casein or glue. The difference is the striking surface on the package contains powdered glass for friction, red phosphorus and glue. When the match is struck the heat of friction converts the red phosphorus, which ignites and, in turn, ignites the head of the match.

source (http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/ask_quester/answers_general.html)

You may want to read EP's paper match tests page (http://krimzonpyro.com/ep/projectsdevicesdir/matchtest.html) for ideas and inspiration.

What you are trying to do can work.

EDIT: I see that my response was the last. *sigh* That'll teach me to go fishing for supporting data

[This message has been edited by miscreant (edited 06-22-2003).]

quote:Originally posted by Slithzerikai:

Where do you get your sparklers?

ICP's on the money. I look up lots of common compositions using the PFP D-base. All the sparkler comps. contain an oxidizer.

I'd post the table here, but this software doesn't support the <pre> tags.

Here's a link to How Stuff Works (http://people.howstuffworks.com/fireworks1.htm). Scroll down about half way down the page for some sparkler info. and a link to a U.S. patent.

Um....... why would a sparkler not have an oxidizer?

Of course sparklers have an oxidizer, just less than some other comps in order to produce more sparks!

I was going to use wood matches, unless of course paper matches are better.

Thanks for the link and info miscreant, I appreciate it.

Also, once I grind the match powder up, any ideas on how to get it all into the COB? I don't own a labset or anything, and I'd use a funnel but thats too large and wouldn't work for this, any other ideas?

Those stupid funnel cup shaped things (they put snocones in em) work pretty well, all you have to do is cut off the bottom depending on how big the hole is.

quote:Originally posted by Swartz45:

I was going to use wood matches, unless of course paper matches are better.

Thanks for the link and info miscreant, I appreciate it.



Paper matches are much cheaper, but wooden matches work just as good. That is only if you are scraping the powder off and not just using match heads. If you use just the match heads, the smaller ones work better becuase they are much smaller, and have much more surface are to burn at a time.

Paper matches might be easier to powder. You can buy a brick of like 100 Matchbooks for like $3.00. You might try cutting off all the (paper) matchheads with a pair of sharp scissors, putting the matchheads in a plastic bag, and hitting the bag with a hammer a few times to crush up the match heads.

To get rid of the paper bits after the match heads have been powdered you might try filtering it through a screen, or if you're really a perfectionist you could pick them out with a pair of tweezers.

Just an idea I dunno.

Me and my friend have made TONS of COB's. We almost always use a sparkler as a fuse, and used to use the 'BP' from rocket engines, until we got our hands on the real deal. If you are going to use the sparkler as a fuse the hole at the top of the co2 catridge can be made bigger by hacksawing the neck until the sparkler will fit in. In order to use the 'black powder' from the rocket engine you have to peel apart all the tubing (we used pliers) and then once you have that stick of black stuff, break the clay caps off of both the ends, and then crush the black hard tube up with a hammer or something hard. From there we always use a paper funnel to transfer the powder from the zip-lock to the cartridge. We roll a standard piece of computer paper up and then scotch tape it. On of us will hold the paper onto the COB and the other will pour in the powder ~3/4 full. (That's all you need) From there we stick the sparkler in after we have cut the metal part off, because if you try to bend it the sparkler will break apart, and your fuse is ruined. Once the thing is in we usually tape all around the sparkler where it sticks out of the COB. This is to ensure maximum safety, just in case of the freak chance that when you light the thing, a spark flies in the tiny gap where the sparkler goes into the COB and ignites the black powder. And another thing about rocket engine 'BP.' I do not think it is entirely black powder or what it is, because when a hole big enough for the sparkler is made the COB will make a loud sound and you could swear the casing has been torn apart, but almost 1/2 the time with black powder from rocket engines the casing is still intact. The COB will propel itself when a hole big enough for a sparkler to fit in is made! One time when we lit one it dug it's way straight underground! The soil was soft as it was right next to a marsh, but when I stuck my finger slowly in the hole I couldn't even feel the remnants! It probably lodged itself 6 inches to 2 feet under the earth! Be extremely careful when using metal casings of any sort, and always take the utmost precautions. If you are debating whether or not to save a little extra fuse by making the fuse shorter DONT! Lots of people across the states have accidents every single year due to these co2 bombs. I actually recomend that you use cardboard casings when making salutes, but I am not your father, and you can do whatever the fuck you want. Bottom line - be careful dude, we don't want you to get some shrapnel in any part of your body!

Well, if there's no real difference between paper and wooden matches concerning burn rate and whatnot(like I thought there had been)then I geuss I'll go with paper matches.

I'll just do the method XTheWhitePonyX suggested, put all the matches in a big, smash it up into a very, very fine powder with a hammer, then just put it through a filter into a bowl.

RabidGeneral, I'm not sure what you meant with the snowcone things and I don't happen to have any of those, so any other ideas?

Dont hit it very hard, cause you dont want it all to light up. Do not forget that match powder contains potassium chlorate, so it is a lot more unstable than other explosives, and should never be mixed with sulfer, or sulfides, or even anything containing sulfer or sulfides (black powder, some flash powders). Chloric acid can be produced, and the explosive can go off without warning.

finally, a question i can answer from experience...

for the matches, all you need is a 24 oz. bottle, some boiling water, and a cookie sheet-pan thing. first, cut the heads off of a box of matches, about 50 books worth is the max i found for this method. take the match heads and put them in the bottle, then fill about 3/4 of the way with boiling water. cap and shake vigorously for about 10 minutes, or until all but the cardboard has dissolved. filter this really fast, before anything settles out, and pour into the cookie sheet. let dry for a few days, and you have a cheap, relatively powerful powder for cobs.

as for the sparkler thing, i have found 2 things that work. if you're talking about morning-glory sparklers -- the ones with the powder in a cardboard tube -- the powder works well in cobs. just mix it all evenly, theres usually a few different powders in them. if they're the wire type sparklers, scrape the powder off about a gross of them. me and my cousin used to take about a gross worth of this powder and put it in a toilet paper tube with only one end capped. put a fuse in it, and you've got a simple fountain type device. its kind of expensive and time consuming, but when we created it we were 10 and really bored.

hope this helped...

quote:Originally posted by Slithzerikai:

Dousing them in lighter fluid would keep them from burning. Match heads by themselves don't work at all in COBs, but if you scrape the powder off them and fill a COB with that it would work well, I'd imagine. Sparkler powder? No. It doesn't have its own oxidizer(at least I've never seen any that do), plus they don't burn anywhere fast enough to work in an explosive.

I beg to differ. Crushed to a very fine powder (a morter and pestle works best), sparklers work admirably well in a Crater Maker.

I learned that lesson quickly. I tried to make my first one with large-ish grain (about 3-4mm) It took ages to pack, but it was worth the unexpected result. The Crater Maker took off across the yard like a rocket.

The second one I made, I spent half an hour crushing the sparklers to very, VERY fine powder. Suffice to say, it worked really well.

Not sure if this was discussed or not.. but you can use the morning glory powder from the cardboard catridges (just mix it up well) and fill the CO2 Cartridge with that.. then you could use one of those metal wire sparklers as the fruse, just stick it in the end.. eletrical tape the hole if you need, then stick the metal sparkler through that to make it fit better.. But that will work

I did something similar with an old inhaler. It works.

i have had good results with sparkler powder as an le. i powdered it and put it an a 20oz bottle it exploded.

Using sparkler powder in a soda bottle salute is actually kinda a cool idea.

Ya know what I would do?

wait a month or two and get some fireworks, save your cash till then and stash em

you can have a lot of fun if you make a firework lab

Why did you respond 2 months later?

quote:You might try cutting off all the (paper) matchheads with a pair of sharp scissors, putting the matchheads in a plastic bag, and hitting the bag with a hammer a few times to crush up the match heads.

To get rid of the paper bits after the match heads have been powdered you might try filtering it through a screen, or if you're really a perfectionist you could pick them out with a pair of tweezers.

wouldn't it be easier to just rip the whole cardboard thing out where they're all connected then smash them up. then you could jut take one book of cardboard out at a time. and how come everybody's talking about using sparklers for fuses. didn't he say he had like 20 ft of visco

i am way to fucking lazy to read this whole thing so im sorry if some one has posted this all ready im sorry



I myself have mad sucessful match head cobs i also know zero did to the trick is surface area and confinment never remove the powder as it burns to slow the full match head works best beacause there is air pockets and more surface area i preffer to use the matches that are pure white with carboard stems

good confinment is the trick use Epoxy puddy !