Originally Posted by Mokothar

Welcome
(work in progress)


On the board, the regulars of BB welcome all new pyros with open arms, as long as you keep in mind that we are very careful about safety and such. This means both your safety, and that of your kin/neighbors/anyone around you. If you blow yourself up, that is not a good thing. If you blow up someone else, you deserve whatever happens to you. If you are not fond of someone else's safety, we are not fond of you.

“Rules”

Obviously we follow the general Totse forum rules, but there are sevral unwritten rules you will have to take into account. You get to correct people,no matter how respected they are. If someone makes a mistake, it would be childish of him/her to be mad at you. Neither of you have the right to start ranting at one another at that point.

• Ranting at regulars won’t be generally accepted anyways. Even the flaming of “kewls” has severely diminished lately. Don’t start hate-threads, don’t spam the board, if you wanna insult someone, do it over MSN, so the rest of us don’t have to watch you being ignored.

• If you have a question, it has most likely been asked and answered before. Google is the key word, and the search button on the site works miracles as well. A lot of members have sites of their own, if they seem to be using some formula a lot, it’ll probably be explained there. Always be careful with shrapnel hazards, we’re very peculiar about that. Learning how to use the search functions would be a start, as you'll need to track down the "informational links" thread.

• Make an attemp to use proper English, we won’t go grammar-/spelling nazi on you, but it would be nice if we can know for sure what exactly you’re trying to tell us

• Try to be a bit sane about what you post, an airosol can in amicrowave doesn’t deserve a tread, or a post.

Starting with Pyrotechnics

If you have interest in learning about pyrotechnics/making explosives, please read on. I have decided to try and release this world of several misconceptions about pyro. Do not expect to find any bomb "recipes", or ways to total a car with household chemicals in this guide, or even simple explosive compositions. After reading trough, I hope you’ll be able to find those yourself.

Starting out
Using google, anyone can find all the info you’ll need. Good words to run a search on are: Pyrotechnics, blackpowder, flash, compositions, salute, polumna, polumnia,
bad words, which you should not google
making bombs, cobs, pipe bomb, household chemicals

If you spend enough time searching and reading basic information, you can start making up an idea for your first project. Try to follow this order:

* decide what you want to make
* do research on it (materials, safety, etc…
* *stress* cross refence ! *stress*
* see if it’s fesible
* see if you can get the chemicals
* if so, make it
* carefully use it

If needs be, you can ask on forums for info, but only if you have done an adequate amount of research. Asking things like “how do I make gunpowder”, can be very frustrating. Make sure to check existing threads too. Most of the time, a beginners question has been asked dozens of times.

Not all forums will respond the same, some will help you immediately, others will tell you to get lost. To minimize the chances of being flamed, try and follow these simple guidelines:

* Don’t abbreviate simple words like (mate = m8, sorry = soz, thx, …
* Don’t curse, don’t try to insult people
* as a matter of fact, restrain from profanity altogether
* Don’t think you know more about something than a forum’s regular = no smart talking
* Try to use propper spelling and grammer, when a post’s easy to read, you’ll get better answers
* If you do get flamed, don’t indulge in flaming back, either fix what went wrong, or turn away, plenty of other forums out there


Slang

Pyro slang isn’t hard at all, once you know it. different people will use different words, but most will always be the same. The first big problem you’ll be confronted with will be the endless list of abbreviations. A nice forum will not mind anybody asking about these, but I do suggest you look around a bit first. Also asking can be done trough mail as well, so try looking for contacts

Backyard Ballistics:
My most frequented forum. Don’t be fooled by the numerous flaming and high amount of newbs and n00bs, the people are quite nice, and very helpful, as long as you mind a few things.

* we don’t like the word bomb, use device
* we don’t harm people (physically, mentally, financially) trough pyrotechnics
* we are very fond of our bandwidth, don't waste it
* nobody will care if a mod deletes pointless posts, so mind what you put on the net


Researching

The first object you’ll have to tackle is finding sites. Easy enough, there are plenty. The second obstacle, is determining whether information can or can not be trusted. It’s easy enough to copy and paste the url into a post, and ask if anybody has ever tried it before, but there are better and faster ways.

1)site lists
Plenty of forums offer enormous lists of good sites. The minimal quality will greatly depend on the members of the board were the links got posted. It’s a good idea to search trough these. If you already know what you are interested in making, use google to see if it’s on a site or not (“site:www.”url”.com “project”), this can save you a lot of time, but looking trough the actual sites will also teach you other things, and perhaps sharpen your interest on a subject, or give you ideas for future projects.

2)Begin your search in a pre-verified source.
When a forum regulars recommends you (or someone else before you) a specific site for a specific project, the info will most likely be correct.
Sites like www.wikipedia.org wil also provide quite a bit of useful information, but mind that anybody can submit. The part about making rust for thermite for example, was copied directly from the anarchists cookbook

About that “cookbook”, do not trust sources like this. Cookbooks are sources for cooks, I personally enjoy cooking and eating, as do I enjoy pyrotechnics, but that doesn’t mean I use the same sources for both. “Books” like the Jolly rogers cookbook, the poor mans james bond, or any other file with a title containing cookbook, anarchy or similar should not be trusted.

I do however suggest you read them, it greatly improves you ability to tell if someone you’re asking questions, believes that BS himself. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be able to separate good shit from bullshit. If you know something to be bullshit in advance, it’ll make the job easier.

3)Cross referencing
When you get two sites on a subject, take a look at them both. The basic info will most likely be the same, or differ only slightly. For example, one site may state ratios like (70.20.10) an other one says (69.15.16). The bigger part of the time, ratios get adjusted by the user, because they found them to work best for them. Mind that all of these people use different chemicals, figures they use adjusted ratios.

More important when cross referencing, is the additional info you get. One person gives you this little thing, another one gives you that additional piece of safety information, a third one gives possible substitutes for chems and so on. The more you read and learn the better.

4)Commercial fireworks
Studying commercial fireworks if available is also a good way to learn. Reading about firecrackers, polumnas and fountains is good, actually seeing for yourself how they’re constructed, is way better. Those devices are often safe enough to take apart, but be as safe as possible none the less. Always wear at least eye protection and gloves. Try and go for fabric gloves for durability and sturdiness.

Taking apart fireworks, will also yield supplies. You can get fuse of good quality from these, which *should* be safer than what you make yourself. Getting explosive powder out of them is far from cost-effective, and you'll never know for sure what it is you're getting out of there.


Asked questions + answers from Backyard Ballistics:

Q: anyone know easy to make explosives with household items

A:heh, better get your fireproof suit on dude, because you are going to get so flamed for this one.

First: nothing related to this hobby is 'easy', not like you're used to it, so get prepared to work a little.
Second: We are not here to teach you everything you need to know, google stuff, read the files section here on totse, look around a bit and them come to us with more than a vauge request to 'tell me how to make stuff'
third: We will not help you make a grenade. Grenades are used to hurt people, just like bombs. No one here makes bombs or grenades, we make charges, devices, salutes, and displays, but we do not make bombs. We do not advocate hurting people.
-Seraph
__________________
"I'm off to chlorinate the gene pool"

Originally Posted by handgernade14

(Sticky?)

First things first, is saftey, and what not to do, and recomendations.

Alot of people here have notebooks or binders, or save everything on your computer.
If you want to remember everything, I would suggest making a binder for your projects, and note books for chemical properties, synths, ect.

You do not want to EVER make anything with a metal casing, that would make shrapnel. Don't ever make bombs, or use the word bomb. Bombs hurt people, and also make it seem as if practitioners are bombers.
If you want to get flamed talk about gasoline, aerosol cans, and match bombs. They are all stupid and take no thought. This site mainly focuses on LE's, HE's, and pure pyro (fireworks).

Never get ancy and start a synth if you are not prepared/knowledgeable of thing you are trying to synth.

You should always have proper saftey knowledge and equipment. Follow instructions.

Don't store acids next to metals, don't store sensitive substances (kmno4 flash, Acetone Peroxide, NI3).
Don't mix Chlorates with sulfur.

Now their is alot missing, partly because I can't cover it all, but also because research is a huge part, you won't be spoonfed information, you need to find it, and find more than one account of information, and make sure the account of the information is credible.

Most begginers start with smoke mix


SMOKE MIX
Ingredients
--Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
Also know as salt peter, or nitrate of potash is a oxidiser often used as meat preservant and fertilizer. It is found in Grants Stump Remover, and other stump removers in near pure states (Not in Australia).
--Sucrose (Sugar)
Sucrose is common table sugar. It's mixed with the KNO3 and acts as a fuel. The Sucrose burns ineffeciently, and the unused energy is released as smoke.

Making it
--Ratio 4:6 Sucrose:KNO3 of 3:5 but I haven't tried it
It can be plainly mix or melted. Melting has to be done on a hot plate. NO OPEN FLAMES. This will ruin you, and your kitchen, if you put this in a pop can casing, it will completely obliterate the can, that's how hot it burns.
Heat it on low heat, until it becomes soupy, and remember to stir often, while soupy pour it in a case and insert fuse.

Well, thats's all i have, and I'd like additions and corrections.
I got alot of this from moko in the other thread that a begginer posted, so it's not all me