I was chatting to a grinning, semi retired elderly uk pyro yesterday, and he told me how he used to make salutes.

You need 2, 12 guage, or other identically sized shotgun cartridges, one of which you remove the primer from. Into the now vacant hole you insert and glue the fuze.

(I'll be using epoxied-in PIC, but he used soft parcel string that had been marinated in a slurry of saltpetre)

You then partially fill one cartridge with comp, before folding it slightly to insert it into the open end of the other, pushing them all the way together. You can tape them together, but he had the best results by wiring them together. He recommended using a hacksaw to put two notches on each cartridge base, and then using some copper wire or coathanger to bind them together.

For comp he used weedkiller and sugar at 70/30. He also said that they made a chicken wire cage to put over the top to catch the brass ends - that sounds a bit pussy to me though, and I'll just be throwing them as far as I can.

What with Nov 5th coming up :D , I'm anxious to have enough stuff made up to really enjoy myself, so this really quick and easy salute is going to be a big help - hope you guys have some success with it too. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Edit: Obviously, you need some cartrides, but a mate has helped me out with a bagful. If you're not in such a luxurious position, I'm sure you can ask at a gunshop or clayrange, or at worst, wander round any forest or bit of farmland and you'll find loads of 'em .

<small>[ October 19, 2002, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: Arkangel ]</small>

Something I would use for salutes if I was going to make them for Novemeber 5th <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> would be to use newspapers and glue from flour/water. I tried using this "glue" recently, and although it stays softish for a couple of days, it goes really hard in about 3-4, perfect for casings. Plus, you can use cheap newspaper, which will minimise costs.

Perfect idea to buy The Sun newspaper then?

I think I might give that water/flour casing a try.. :)

Find a friend in a shop that issues reciepts on those small rolls, or EFTPOS reciepts, the small cardboad casings are about 1/2 the internal diameter of shotgun shells, but I can get them by the hundred.....

they are perfct ! extremely thick, easy to aquire, and cost nothing... I can't think of anything better. only downside, they are a little small for some pyro obsessed. still, for a bang with little danger, can't go past them.

otherwise, roll your own from paper / glue around dowel, they never fail.

for end plugs, use quick setting building filler, two part stuff that stinks, but sets hard in five minutes and adheres well to cardboard and paper.

I don't like to use shotgun shells for fireworks, to dangerous with the metal ends. 20 guage (smaller) are alright though, much smaller, and I usually tape them to something anyway.

Funny your should mention that because I use to make salutes from rolls of reciept paper (I am a cashier at a department store). There is a hard plastic tube in the center about ¾" in diameter (about 2cm) and I use it when the reciept paper left on the roll is about ½" thick. You just have to use A LOT of strong epoxy (because the reciept rolls are so thick that you may just blow the epoxied end out and not have a very good burst). I find that it is good to scratch into the plastic tubing before applying the epoxy just so it holds better. The tube is about 4 inches (10cm) long. I always used homemade BP mixed with a little Al and extra KNO3 to accomodate for my composition.

Here is a diagram of my reciept salutes:

....I....
|xxxIxxx|-- ½" epoxy
|xxxIxxx|
|:::I:::|-- ½" tissue paper
|:::I:::|
|oooIooo|
|oooIooo|
|ooooooo|-- 1" composition
|ooooooo|
|:::::::|
|:::::::|-- ½" tissue paper
|xxxxxxx|
|xxxxxxx|-- ½" epoxy

Just as a note, I only used fuses a few times when making these salutes because I found fuses to be for the most part unreliable and a waste of money so I almost always used electrical.

Assuming your epoxy was done right, you will get a hell of a bang along with lots of flying paper (I always recommend using paper or cardboard casings when doing tests like these because using schrapnel throwing materials--metal, wood, pvc, etc.-- can mean taking a chance on having to explain to the doctor why you have a chunk of it embedded in your chest).

<small>[ October 20, 2002, 08:28 PM: Message edited by: NoltaiR ]</small>

I make casing by taking a peice of dowel rod and cutting it into little sections. Then I drill amost all the way through it but leave like a 1/2" of wood before the end. Then I cut a 1/2" peice of dowel to fit the hole then I glue it in and, drill the fuse hole, fill with comp and coat with polyurethane laquerr. But then I always do like to over complicate things.

I've tried using wine corks as casings, by cutting off a layer, and drilling a core. When using flash powder it makes a pop, a small thump, and a decent flash. Nothing spectacular, but it's good for when you just want to light something, but noise may be an issue.

Usually I just stick to rolled paper tubes, using 1/2 centimetre sections of the dowel they were created on as end-caps.

My casings vary from what I have on hand. I usually use piece of newspaper raped tightly around a dowel. I then cut two pieces of the dowel off and epoxy one in one side of the paper tube. I then punch a hole in the side and put my fuse in. I then fill it with my flash, AP, ect. After I fill it I epoxy the other plug on. They make fairly good and strong casings. When I fill them with flash I get a nice sharp crack.

My salutes are made by strong rubber balloons filled with oxygen and actylene in a 3-1 ratio... :rolleyes:

I take an A4 paper, cut it in two lengthwise and roll this around a marker and glue them together. Endcaps consist of pressed newspaper with 1cm of silicone glue on both sides. Fuse can be a drinking straw filled with BP. With KMnO4/Al/S the bang is tremendous.

i make my casings with water/flower glue or i don't use any glue at all(the casing breaks into hundreds of pieces instead of blowing the endcaps oud or something).

my composition i used:
KClO3 66 / Al powder 34

KMnO4/S/Al

KClO3/C

blackpowder Can make a nice bang, but if you're looking for something loud this proboubly isn't an option. (atleast not in this small quantities)

I had a couple of receipt-roll tubes, mine were 57mm long, 13mm ID, 15mm OD. I filled one with armstrongs (Now I think about it, that wasn't so smart...), it had clay end plugs and a simple sparkler as fuse, it made a tremendous echoing bang when it went off - and made an 8" blast mark where it went off, a hole in the ground surrounded by pummeled dirt with no grass. I wish I had taped it to an aerosol can now :mad: . Anyway if I could find where to buy those tubes in Aus, I'd purchase them by the hundreds, they are perfect.

My usual casings are just polumnas - these are quick and easy to make for a decent bang, however you cannot tape them too tightly, or stick them in the ground, as they have to expand a lot to "pop" whereas a cylindrical salute does not really expand at all.

You can make a decent salute tube by getting some A3/A2 paper, putting craft glue all over one side, and rolling it lengthwise around a piece of dowel. When dry, it can be taken off and cut to size. I believe Kraft paper would be a good choice for this too, and the tubes could be made thicker for use as rocket motors.

Inferno, go into any shop and ask them to keep the rolls for you. Noltair, you're getiing different ones to the ones I mention (close enough) but the one I use are cardboard so I'd assume they were (slightly) safer.

anyway, just go into any shop that uses eftpos, and tell them you need a hundred rolls for a school project or something. a little imagination and you'll get them by the truckload.

Reciept rolls are good, because once plugged, i leave them on a sheet of paper and the plugs dry perfectly straight, so the end result looks quite proffesional. add a dab of red paint if you want, they look very presentable.

so, get those reciept rolls, because they really are the best (and simplest) to use. I still remember, back in the day, rolling paper round dowel..... never again.

Visiting an fireworks company is also a very good idea, i've done this and i have hundreds of tubes now, in many sizes... And for free!
And you don't have to act strange, like saying it is for a school project or something like that, the people at the fireworks company thought it was cool i needed those tubes for salutes... and they were very interested in my stories about home made fireworks...

The tubes were from old firework cakes, so there may be some Sulfur traces in it(from the lift composition) so be carefull if you use chlorate based compositions....

Good tips there Mr Evil,

I've been gathering old cakes to use with the Stinger Missile kit that I got from Skylighter. I'm testing comps at the moment, but Sodium Chlorate/sugar was going to be one. I hadn't thought about the risk of sulphur in them. (BTW, the tooling on the stinger kit makes GREAT nozzles in about 30 seconds)

Also, now that you mention it, rather than buy tubes from Skylighter I'm going to try and blag some from a pyro company in my own country!

Cheers. :D

Edit - multiple goddam typo's :rolleyes:

<small>[ November 04, 2002, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Arkangel ]</small>