Rope Bangers

[pigeon controller]

With the cost of commercial rope bangers going up I did consider making my own. I’m able to buy a “ Penny Banger” type firework but the rope fuse has had me beat. I’ve tried cotton rope, jute, sisal , hemp to no avail. I’ve looked at Utube and they tend to make fast burning fuses. Is there a product I can soak the rope in to allow it to smoulder more effectively or am I barking up the wrong tree!!

[ditchman]

ammonium nitchate.............saturated solution in hot water....add cotton rope or some natural fibre toit and soak it ...then dry it out on a radiator

 

or if you want something super fast burning...........cotton rope soak in a 50/50 mixture of nitric acid and sulpuric acid 1 molear strenght add the sulphuric acid until the yellow nitric acid goes clear......add rope ..soak for a while until the lignin strcture accepts anothe nitrogen atom....take out and wash carefully in metholoated spirits and let dry...............

now that sucker will burn quick...so quick infact you wont feel the heat in you hand...

Edited December 13, 2021 by ditchman

[chrisjpainter]

Strepticide (stump remover) is your friend...

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by chrisjpainter

[Old Boggy]

8 hours ago, ditchman said:

ammonium nitchate.............saturated solution in hot water....add cotton rope or some natural fibre toit and soak it ...then dry it out on a radiator

 

or if you want something super fast burning...........cotton rope soak in a 50/50 mixture of nitric acid and sulpuric acid 1 molear strenght add the sulphuric acid until the yellow nitric acid goes clear......add rope ..soak for a while until the lignin strcture accepts anothe nitrogen atom....take out and wash carefully in metholoated spirits and let dry...............

now that sucker will burn quick...so quick infact you wont feel the heat in you hand...

That sounds very technical Ditchie. Were you involved with pyrotechnics in your working life?

OB

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, Old Boggy said:

That sounds very technical Ditchie. Were you involved with pyrotechnics in your working life?

OB

noooo   fooling about like what school boys do............nothing sinister...........if you went to the chemist now and ordered that up ....the flying squad would be waiting for you outside

[DUNKS]

10 hours ago, ditchman said:

ammonium nitchate.............saturated solution in hot water....add cotton rope or some natural fibre toit and soak it ...then dry it out on a radiator

And where today might I buy or obtain Nitric acid please. I have been trying to get some for rust blacking .

or if you want something super fast burning...........cotton rope soak in a 50/50 mixture of nitric acid and sulpuric acid 1 molear strenght add the sulphuric acid until the yellow nitric acid goes clear......add rope ..soak for a while until the lignin strcture accepts anothe nitrogen atom....take out and wash carefully in metholoated spirits and let dry...............

now that sucker will burn quick...so quick infact you wont feel the heat in you hand...

 

[Old Boggy]

46 minutes ago, ditchman said:

noooo   fooling about like what school boys do............nothing sinister...........if you went to the chemist now and ordered that up ....the flying squad would be waiting for you outside

Ah yes, I remember now, we used to make small canons with brass tube , a touch hole for a Jetex fuse and a mixture (I think) of charcoal, salpetre and sulphur. These were fired using home made lead balls. My brother thought it a `jolly wheeze` to make a bomb by drilling, tapping and screwing in a plug in the end once it had been loaded with the aforesaid mixture (minus the lead ball). He place it at the bottom of the garden, lit the fuse and we retired to a safe distance. Unfortunately, my Dad`s greenhouse wasn`t within that safe distance and the blast shattered most of the panes in his homemade greenhouse. He wasn`t too pleased I can tell you, but I think that he had a certain admiration for my brother`s initiative, although he never showed it. It did leave quite a hole in the ground. As Ditchie said above, try anything like that today and who knows who would be knocking down your door. Kids just don`t know the meaning of `Risks` these days. Perhaps that`s just as well.

OB

[amateur]

Ditchie's nitric, sulphuric acid and cotton recipe is similar to one that I used in the back of the sixth form chemistry lab to trinitrate cotton wool and make gun cotton (recipe very kindly set out in Vogel's textbook), which when dissolved in acetone made a very handy slab of BANG.

It's amazing what we got away with in those days.

Edited December 14, 2021 by amateur

[old'un]

42 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

Ah yes, I remember now, we used to make small canons with brass tube , a touch hole for a Jetex fuse and a mixture (I think) of charcoal, salpetre and sulphur. These were fired using home made lead balls. My brother thought it a `jolly wheeze` to make a bomb by drilling, tapping and screwing in a plug in the end once it had been loaded with the aforesaid mixture (minus the lead ball). He place it at the bottom of the garden, lit the fuse and we retired to a safe distance. Unfortunately, my Dad`s greenhouse wasn`t within that safe distance and the blast shattered most of the panes in his homemade greenhouse. He wasn`t too pleased I can tell you, but I think that he had a certain admiration for my brother`s initiative, although he never showed it. It did leave quite a hole in the ground. As Ditchie said above, try anything like that today and who knows who would be knocking down your door. Kids just don`t know the meaning of `Risks` these days. Perhaps that`s just as well.

OB

Remember as a kid making my first penny banger gun out of a length of copper tube, amazing how as kids no of us ever suffered some serious injures from these home made guns.

[pigeon controller]

Thanks for all your replies but I’m after the slow smouldering type fuse between the penny bangers if any body can advise??
 

I made copper tubing bombs as a kit with sugar and weed killer and at work we made a brass cannon and shot it and it put a half inch ball bearing through a inch thick wooden door, dangerous youth!!!!!

[ditchman]

5 minutes ago, pigeon controller said:

Thanks for all your replies but I’m after the slow smouldering type fuse between the penny bangers if any body can advise??
 

I made copper tubing bombs as a kit with sugar and weed killer and at work we made a brass cannon and shot it and it put a half inch ball bearing through a inch thick wooden door, dangerous youth!!!!!

use the ammonium nitrate reciepe..........that makes a good slowburning fuse

[humperdingle]

A mate used to make his own bangers with flash powder (potassium perchlorate and aluminium powder, from memory)

I say bangers, they were more like mini sticks of dynamite 😲

Sadly, he passed away at the tender age of 36. But not due to his pyromaniacal tendencies.

[Stephen-H]

26 minutes ago, humperdingle said:

A mate used to make his own bangers with flash powder (potassium perchlorate and aluminium powder, from memory)

I say bangers, they were more like mini sticks of dynamite 😲

Sadly, he passed away at the tender age of 36. But not due to his pyromaniacal tendencies.

Me & my friends used to make are own bangers with that stuff used to scrape it out of cap gun rings ( took us ages ) & then wrap it in masking tape with a wire wool fuse connected to a 9v -12volt fuse. Although one day I did make a fuse from cellotape with flash powder inside it straight to the banger. Worst thing I could of done still get ringing in my ears from time to time & the burn mark's on my hands to remember that one second fuse 😂 the things you do when you are young.

[Stephen-H]

If these are still available & haven't been banned yet these would be perfect tied upto a slow burning rope in the field very loud for such small firework 

[39TDS]

Soak the rope in a potassium nitrate solution and allow to dry.

You will have to experiment with strength of solution and length of rope required.

[John_R]

There was a chap selling rope banger kits on eBay, saw them when the first effects of  the general license changes came about.