patrickg
Veteran Member
Hey, seems like there was a lot more folks out there with experience in things related to cannons, fireworks, and other dangerous and LOUD home made activities than I thought. So lets trade some stories. I can't say much about the carbide cannons except I drooled a lot over the advertisements on the back of comic books but didn't have the bucks.
I did get into home brew rocketry (either pre-Estes or ignorant of Estes). I/we (sometimes I had partners) made our own rocket fuel. In grade school I learned from some others that if you screwed a large diameter bolt just a little bit into a nut, filled up the rest of the cavity with match heads and "carefully" screwed a bolt in the other side of the nut and held it with pliers and slamed it down on the road that it would explode and shoot the top bolt (not screwed in as far) quite a ways into the air. A lot dumber than just droping a fire cracker down a pipe fence post and slaming a tin can down as a lid and watching it get shot up into the air or blow the end out of the can if the fire cracker was a cherry bomb but Iwas in civilized Ohio and fireworks were harder to come by in contrast to Oklahoma where they were sold over the counter in the five and dime (Ben Franklin sotre) to anyone who put their money down.
If you roll up an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper around a wooden pencil and secure it with a little glue then glue the broken off sharpened end of the pencil sticking out the one end (nose cone) and then fashion a nozzle out of some of the rest of the pencil, you can make a rocket. The nozzle is made out of about an inch of the body of the wooden pencil. Split it on the glue line and remove the lead (graphite-clay) and carve a converging cone and diverging cone shape in each half. Fill the rocket body with a mixture composed of potassium nitrate and confectioners sugar. First mix some at 50/50 and burn a bit of it. If the residue is mostly black ash, you need more oxidizer (salt peter AKA potassium nitrate). If however the residue has little or no black ash and a lot of little hard globules possibly pink, green, or grey then you have too much salt peter. If you have both indications then you didn't mix it up good enough. ALWAYS use non sparking tools and never use a mortar and pestle on the mixture as the heat can set it off. Fill up the rocket a little at a time with a little tamping and put a little glue on the nozzle and shove it in the end of the rocket.
We used to use home made fuse to light them but the insulated wire Estes brand igniters are safer and more reliable. Home brew fuse was cotton string soaked in a saturated solution of salt peter and dried. Oh yeah, glue a couple say, 3.8 inch ID paper rings on the ends of the rocket. To launch, stick a dowel or somethng small, slick, and straight into the ground vertically (say 2 ft or more sticking out of ground). slip the rocket by its rings onto the rail. For safety sake you try to not be there when it ignites. Successful launches can go a couple hundred feet into the air. Failures might fizzle and burn up on the pad or explode or go out of control fly in any direction and then explode.
Later after one of the local MD's with a wood working shop gave us access we made hardwood nozzles and nosecones on a lathe and used seamless aluminum tubing 1/2-3/4 inch for bodies. Dartlike fins were added for aerodynamic stability mindless to the leathal possibilities. Electrick ignition via an old Ford model "T" spark coil was added for safety. A utility trailer with sideboards became the blockhouse with viewing through a narrow slit between sideboards.
My L A S T launch from my backyard got off good but fizzled at about 100 ft, coasted to a stop turned and fell straight down. It didn't quite "go out" and got going again at full thrust. It burried into our soft well cultivated garden and exploded with just a dull whomp and smoke came up out of the ground in a 3ft diameter circle. I figured, no harm, no foul but hadn't seen the neighbor lady putting out her wash next door, nor contemplated the result of her highly animated report to my folks. Phrases like, I wouldn't be surprised to hear an explosion and see the roof of your house sailing by, etc. etc.) Already my inhouse chem experiments had resulted in a father and son shed buillding project at the extreme rear of the lot. All my aparatus, experiments in progress, and supplies electrical, chemical, or biological were moved out into my "lab". This rocket launch was the L A S T from our in-town lot. I had to go 2 1/2 blocks to the school playground and another couple hundred feet to its edge and shoot out over an empty field. Werner Von Braun never suffered these indignities!
I want to hear about Y O U R exploits and then if there is interest, I could dredge up some more experiences.
Patrick
I did get into home brew rocketry (either pre-Estes or ignorant of Estes). I/we (sometimes I had partners) made our own rocket fuel. In grade school I learned from some others that if you screwed a large diameter bolt just a little bit into a nut, filled up the rest of the cavity with match heads and "carefully" screwed a bolt in the other side of the nut and held it with pliers and slamed it down on the road that it would explode and shoot the top bolt (not screwed in as far) quite a ways into the air. A lot dumber than just droping a fire cracker down a pipe fence post and slaming a tin can down as a lid and watching it get shot up into the air or blow the end out of the can if the fire cracker was a cherry bomb but Iwas in civilized Ohio and fireworks were harder to come by in contrast to Oklahoma where they were sold over the counter in the five and dime (Ben Franklin sotre) to anyone who put their money down.
If you roll up an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper around a wooden pencil and secure it with a little glue then glue the broken off sharpened end of the pencil sticking out the one end (nose cone) and then fashion a nozzle out of some of the rest of the pencil, you can make a rocket. The nozzle is made out of about an inch of the body of the wooden pencil. Split it on the glue line and remove the lead (graphite-clay) and carve a converging cone and diverging cone shape in each half. Fill the rocket body with a mixture composed of potassium nitrate and confectioners sugar. First mix some at 50/50 and burn a bit of it. If the residue is mostly black ash, you need more oxidizer (salt peter AKA potassium nitrate). If however the residue has little or no black ash and a lot of little hard globules possibly pink, green, or grey then you have too much salt peter. If you have both indications then you didn't mix it up good enough. ALWAYS use non sparking tools and never use a mortar and pestle on the mixture as the heat can set it off. Fill up the rocket a little at a time with a little tamping and put a little glue on the nozzle and shove it in the end of the rocket.
We used to use home made fuse to light them but the insulated wire Estes brand igniters are safer and more reliable. Home brew fuse was cotton string soaked in a saturated solution of salt peter and dried. Oh yeah, glue a couple say, 3.8 inch ID paper rings on the ends of the rocket. To launch, stick a dowel or somethng small, slick, and straight into the ground vertically (say 2 ft or more sticking out of ground). slip the rocket by its rings onto the rail. For safety sake you try to not be there when it ignites. Successful launches can go a couple hundred feet into the air. Failures might fizzle and burn up on the pad or explode or go out of control fly in any direction and then explode.
Later after one of the local MD's with a wood working shop gave us access we made hardwood nozzles and nosecones on a lathe and used seamless aluminum tubing 1/2-3/4 inch for bodies. Dartlike fins were added for aerodynamic stability mindless to the leathal possibilities. Electrick ignition via an old Ford model "T" spark coil was added for safety. A utility trailer with sideboards became the blockhouse with viewing through a narrow slit between sideboards.
My L A S T launch from my backyard got off good but fizzled at about 100 ft, coasted to a stop turned and fell straight down. It didn't quite "go out" and got going again at full thrust. It burried into our soft well cultivated garden and exploded with just a dull whomp and smoke came up out of the ground in a 3ft diameter circle. I figured, no harm, no foul but hadn't seen the neighbor lady putting out her wash next door, nor contemplated the result of her highly animated report to my folks. Phrases like, I wouldn't be surprised to hear an explosion and see the roof of your house sailing by, etc. etc.) Already my inhouse chem experiments had resulted in a father and son shed buillding project at the extreme rear of the lot. All my aparatus, experiments in progress, and supplies electrical, chemical, or biological were moved out into my "lab". This rocket launch was the L A S T from our in-town lot. I had to go 2 1/2 blocks to the school playground and another couple hundred feet to its edge and shoot out over an empty field. Werner Von Braun never suffered these indignities!
I want to hear about Y O U R exploits and then if there is interest, I could dredge up some more experiences.
Patrick
