Salutes

Black powder or Pyrodex Salutes

Flint flash experiment.

On the Left is an silver M-160 vs. an M-80. On the right is the end plug for the commercial tubes (Sorry for the bad pic quality, my camera will have to make due for now)

A Boughten m-80 tube, compared to a poorly home rolled tube. My tube rolling has changed for the better dramatically since this pic was taken. Both have same inside diameter, but as you can see the home rolled one is thicker. Both are filled with 70/30 Potasium chlorate(KCLO3)/600 mesh German dark aluminum.

This is a 1/4 inch piece of a 1/2 inch dowel I used for the end plugs on home rolled tubes. Remember to roll the tube on the same size dowel, & that using dowels as end plugs is far more dangerous, as they can fly at a high speed & injure somone.

Making any salute at all is dagerous & Illegal. M-80s, M-160s, "Quarter sticks", Ash cans, Silver salutes, or any other large salutes are illegal & have been since 1966. Due to The Child Protection Act. (I think Cherry bombs were even banned before that in 1965) The use or manufacture of these will result in serious punishment by law. These Devices are VERY dangerous, & can easily take fingers or a hand. I do not reccomend trying to make them! They have been known to just go off any damned time they please. Traditionally they had 2-3 grams of a 70/30 mix of  Potassium Perchlorate(KClO4)/Aluminum powder. (400-600 mesh) The larger salutes like the "Quarter Stick" have about 15 grams of powder in them. (No relation to dynamite or any other high explosive at all) The M-160s have about 10.

M-80 vs. Quarter stick

Making salutes         I make my own tubes alot of the time. I take a piece of kraft paper I buy from Walmart. About the same thickness of a grocery bag. 1 & 1/2 inches wide, & about 18 inches long.         Roll it tightly around a 1/2 inch dowel,  with Elmers School Glue on one side of it, spread somewhat thinly. I then pull it off let it dry, while its drying, I cut 2, 1/4 in. pieces of the 1/2" dowel. Then I round off  one end to go into tube better. I put a bead of Elmer's glue around the piece of dowel & stick it in. When the tube is dry, drill the hole in (WITH NO EXPLOSIVE IN THE TUBE) the tube, the same size of your fuse so it fits snugly, & a little of you'll never guess what.., Elmer's School Glue around the fuse (around 3 in, or more) to seal it better.  Then put your explosive in about 3/4 of the way up the tube. Do not fill the tube all the way, & glue the other piece of dowel in.         If you have commercial tubes, put one plug in, I push mine in with a dowel, they go in hard. Drill the fuse hole out, glue fuse in again. Fill 3/4 the way with explosive, & carefully push the last plug in with the dowel of the same size of the inside of the plug. If you just ram it in, it may pack the powder, decreasing performance. If that happens your just screwed. It may even go off it you ram it too hard!

There are a couple different Flash        mixes above. Here are some more        also: 1. 50/50 Magnesium powder/Kno3,  2. 50/50 Magnesium or aluminum/Barium nitrate 3. 70/30 KMn04 (Potassium Permanganate/aluminum <DANGEROUS!