Articles & Guides
Step-by-step manufacturing tutorials, tooling walkthroughs, safety procedures, and construction guides.
Making 1.75-Inch Bag & Piston Mines
In its simplest form, a fireworks mine is a device which shoots a spray of stars skyward from ground level. This dramatic low-level effect, complementing and co...
14 Great Cut Star Fireworks Formulas
At one time, we were engaged in the commercial manufacture of stars. During that time we assembled (developed, borrowed or modified) a series of star formulatio...
2.5-Inch Paper Ball Shells
This article is geared toward building professional-style ball shells with a symmetrical and spherical burst pattern. Use this article as a guide to create an i...
How to Make Firework Shells Quick & Easy Using Plastic Parts
These little, quick-and-easy shells are perfect for testing stars in a star shell, and also for simple shells for a backyard display. You can even attach gold g...
Why Make 2-Ounce Black Powder Rockets?
While these rockets are similar in scale to a consumer-fireworks black powder rocket, the motor is larger, and the aerial display is more impressive.
Festival Balls 20-shot Fiberglass Mortar Rack
The Mighty Fourth is closing on us and you haven't even begun designing your fireworks display, right? "I've got plenty of time," you say. And every year, you t...
Making Basic 3-Inch Plastic Ball Shells
Maybe you've never made an aerial fireworks shell before. Or perhaps you are just stepping up in size to 3-inch shells for the first time. Or perhaps you've jus...
How to Make 3 Pound Double Voice Crackers
Double-voice crackers (DVCs) are effectively a mortar shot without a mortar tube. You can pump these out really fast, and have aerial effects in no time! In thi...
3D Printed Mini-Shells You Can Assemble and Shoot at Home!
Fireworks making uses a lot of pretty primitive tech. Over the years creative fireworkers have augmented their age-old art with new methods and occasionally som...
4-inch Daylight Shells for Beginners
Have you ever wondered how to make a simple daylight effect shell without using sensitive, sometimes toxic, chlorate based smoke star compositions?
Fireworks Shell Making Using 4-Inch Plastic Balls
In this article I am going to describe a way that I make 4" plastic ball shells. I want to emphasize the "One Way" part of this article's title, though.
Make a 4-Ounce Black Powder Rocket
"4-ounce" rockets? What does that mean? How can I make a rocket? Well, if you're interested in the history of the term and some further background information o...
4 Quick Tests Guarantee Your Stars Will Work Every Time
I get really excited every time I'm about to start making any new kind of stars. Of course, I always wanna jump in and start making them right away. But don't g...
8 Ways To Make Your 4th of July Backyard Fireworks Display Better
Come June, here in the good ole US of A, every Tom, Dick and Harriett is scrambling to put together his or her fireworks display for the Mighty Fourth. So, natu...
ADVANCED SAXONS, FIREWORKS SPARK WHEELS
This is the second part of a two-part series on saxons. Before embarking on these advanced saxons, you should have learned all the techniques in the first part,...
The First Step in Making Aerial Shells
Fireworks shells are incredibly popular to make. About half of all new fireworks makers tell us they want to learn to make shells first.
How to Make a Model Ammonium Dichromate Volcano
I marvel at what a simple thing it is to just light a pile of a pretty orange-colored chemical, and watch it turn into the what looks for all the world like a v...
How to Make a Force Gauge for an Arbor Press
This project will show you how to take a couple commonly available devices, and create a homemade force gauge, for about half the price of what you can buy one...
Ball Milling Media Cautions
This article on choosing milling media for a ball mill by Ned Gorski is a side article that goes with the "Ball Milling 101" article.
Cheap Barium Nitrate Emerald Star Formula
Here's some firework stars you can make with all that barium nitrate once you grind it fine. I know: "it's impossible to get a great green firework star using b...
BASIC SAXONS: SIMPLE FIREWORKS SPARK WHEELS
It's the dead of winter. You want to make fireworks--"something," just to smell the smoke. Perhaps you'd like to entertain the party-goers with a pretty device....
Finding the Right Black Powder For Fireworks
Confused or having a hard time making sense of all the black powder grades? Well, here's how to find the "right" type black powder to use in your fireworks.
How To Make Black Powder Coated Rice Hulls Burst Charge
Black powder coated rice hulls are commonly used as a burst charge in aerial shells. Many people have trouble finding commercial-quality fine black powder (comm...
How To Make Black Powder Coated Rice Hulls Burst Charge
Black powder coated rice hulls are commonly used as a burst charge in aerial shells. Many people have trouble finding commercial-quality fine black powder (comm...
How To Make Black Powder Rockets
One of the most enjoyable pyrotechnic devices a person can make and become proficient at is the black powder rocket. Many reasons contribute to its attractivene...
Blender Comets
--Note: This article was originally published in Best of AFN VII. It contains some "questionable" manufacturing methods and is reposted here for amusement purpo...
Blender Rockets
--Note: This article was originally published in Best of AFN III. It contains some "questionable" manufacturing methods and is reposted here for amusement purpo...
How To Make Fireworks: Blue Steel Gerbs
This little gerb project is from The Best of AFN III (BK0011). It is part of a larger article entitled "Micro star Bursts-Without Micro stars." Thanks...
The Blues: Part 1
This article was taken from the FPGA newsletter after a competition they held at a shoot. The competition was who could make the best blue firework star composi...
The Blues: Part 3
In the endless pursuit for the very best blue firework star color available, we consumed a large quantity of time and firework chemicals. I have seen what I per...