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Hardware Store Flash Powder
by Evil_Tree
Flash Powder is a mix of an oxidizer and a fuel. When lit flash powder burns extremely fast. It can be compared to a high explosive because of how fast it burns. Flash powder is not extremely dangerous if handled carefully.by Evil_Tree
The technical name for the flash powder I describe in this article is called 60/40 Al+KNO3 or 60/40 Mg+KNO3 (depending on which one you make). All of the materials I found at my local ACE hardware store. What you will need is GRANTS brand stump remover. It is mostly potassium nitrate and a pinch of a binder. Beat the prills of potassium nitrate with a hammer into a dust. You can then boil it in water or alcohol to try to remove the binder but I don’t think it’s necessary. The potassium nitrate, or KNO3, is the flash powder’s oxidizer
Then buy a piece of aluminum rod that can be fit into a drill press and a roll of fine grit emery cloth. Cut the aluminum rod into six-inch segments and put them into the drill press as if it were a bit. Place a bucket under the rod and turn the drill press on. Use a piece of emery cloth about three times the circumference of your aluminum rod and hold it there to grind the aluminum to a fine dust. From now on we will refer to aluminum as Al. The Al is your fuel.
A better fuel is magnesium but it is harder to obtain. You can grind the magnesium from fire starter bars using a file or a die in a drill press. Collect it the same way as you would with Al. From now on we will can magnesium Mg.
Now here comes the tricky part, you must measure out your substances by weight to mix them into flash powder. (Buy a small analog food scale for a few bucks.) They should be in a 60/40 ratio. So if you have 6 grams of Mg or Al you will use 4 grams of KNO3.
To set off flash powder you need fuse. Mix 50/50 (by weight) KNO3 with table sugar and put it into water so it is a paste. Cut a length of 100% cotton string to around eight inches. Soak the string in the paste and let it dry. This will be your fuse.
Now you must make a shell to contain your flash powder. Cut a piece of brown paper bag to 6” by 15” and glue apply wood glue to an entire side of it and fold it in half so you have a piece that is 3” by 15”. Take a dowel rod with a diameter of ¾ of an inch and roll the Kraft paper piece over this so it makes a tube. Every turn you make with the rod you should apply more glue to the part of the paper that will touch the roll.
For end plugs to the tube use 6 pieces of Kraft paper cut to 1 square inch squares. Put a dot of glue on each square and spread the glue around. Stack the squares and shove them over the top of the dowel rod. The wedge this into you tube and let the glue dry. Pull them out, trim off the edges, and then glue one back in.
Take the shell and drill a hole in the side of it the size of your fuse and put the fuse in. Take a funnel and pour flash powder into the tube until it’s ¾ full. Glue in the other end plug and wrapped the whole assemble in a layer or two of duct tape. Don’t tape over the fuse though.
Now, here comes the best part: setting it off. Please set the salute on the ground in a safe area, light the fuse, and run fast. This should make a loud deep “boom”. If your salute doesn’t go off don’t attempt to relight it. Kick it into the bushes and go home. No one wants a trip to the ER because they blew their fingers off.
If you need any extra help e-mail me at evil_tree808 at hotmail dot com.