27 replies to this topic

[knackers]

My ball mill, i couldn't imagine life without it, it would take me days of grinding to get nowhere near the same results i can achieve in a few hours, but i do value my multi sizes of mortar and pestles for grinding up those quick small amounts of oxidisers for special purposes

[alany]

everyone has missed the one thing no pyro could be with out, digital scales!!!

When I first started pyro I had only a home-made two pan balance (made from a ruler, jam tin lids, some fishing line and a paperclip). I used 10 cent coins as masses. This may be where I got the habit of reducing composition ratios to their smallest common divisors. 15:3:2 FTW! I was about 12 at the time, and had to ask my parents for change to buy saltpeter in china town and sulfur at the chemist.

I agree about the ball mill, for so long I slaved with mortar and pestle!

When I learnt I could screen together compositions it was the bee's knees. For some reason the utility of the screen didn't immediately dawn on me, it took until I was about 14 for that penny to drop.

When I finally got a real metal rocket tooling set I thought I was in heaven.

I think my favorite tool is my body. Brain, hands and eyes. All of which are still in good working order despite almost 20 years of doing pyro and other ill advised hobbies on and off. Determination and a bit of common sense allowed me to safely persue a hobby with one of the steepest and least forgiving learning curves around. The wonderful thing about being human is that combination of brain and hands let's us build an unlimited variety of tools to suit whatever the task at hand might be.

Uniquely human is also our language, that wonderful symbolic, recursive structured, communication tool that has allowed us to accumulate and share our knowledge and master nature in a way no other product of evolution on this planet has before. From this comes my second favourite, The Internet. Without it I'd never have met fine chaps such as yourselves to learn from and share with. I was (un)fortunate enough to start messing with pyro before the Internet, so I experienced the dark days of scratching around in library encyclopedias reading misquoted Kentish death mixes. Mercififully I never procured the chemicals needed to really hurt myself before the wonderful resource that is the 'net became available.

[phildunford]

To replace a lost post - my Ohaus 3 beam old fashioned balance...

[Vic]

i have an old hand powered kitchen mincer( just like "granny" used to have) for charcoal, makes crushing charcoal a breeze

One of the most useful bits of kit I have bought, I grind up all my apple wood charcoal with one. I use it for all my 1lb rockets.
It's predominately eighty mesh and I just pass it through a 40 mesh screen if I am after a nice slow lift, or ballmill for 5 minutes if I am looking for more power.

[dr thrust]

so there you go, its now been proven, great minds think alike

Edited by chris m, 30 July 2010 - 06:32 PM.

[ener]

By far my japanese starroller, unfortunatelly have to wait one week before I get him.
The Ballmill is the most usefull, no pyro can life without one.

[PyroCreationZ]

I'd go for the ballmill as well. I remember the first time I tried making BP (green pwdr).

Grinding the chems with mortar & pestle. So much labour and getting such weak results

No mill, no pyro simple as that.

Then again I do love some other tools such as a starroller, rocket/fountain tooling, starplates, ...

Edited by PyroCreationZ, 02 August 2010 - 10:19 AM.

[PyroSkitz]

i have to say ball mill shouldn't be counted as it is a staple tool of any keen pyro , IMHO id had to say a cheese grater + a good set of screens, i hope other people out there will agree with me on this one as well

[seymour]

I borrowed my parents cheese grater once, and liked the black powder granulated with it so much that I went out and bought myself one.

[PyroSkitz]

haha same...but i did it in reverse..i used my mum and dads cheese grater and they had to go out and buy there self a new one....haha

[PyroCreationZ]

I borrowed my parents cheese grater once, and liked the black powder granulated with it so much that I went out and bought myself one.

I hope they didn't reuse it afterwards

Edited by PyroCreationZ, 28 August 2010 - 08:17 PM.

[seymour]

They did, and I do too.

Black powder washes off very easily, and since all three chemicals are food ingredients (if unusual ones) I personally see no problem.

[PyroSkitz]

haha, i have to say i have no problem using it again, i like a bit of black powder granulated on top of my lasagna lol... but my dad saw otherwise and let me keep it, with a bit of f'in and blinding of course haha