lighting a gross a bottle rockets all at once

[dirtysouthpyro]

I remember reading an article on Skylighter sometime around July about how to light off an entire package of bottle rockets all at once. I can't find the article now and I was hoping someone was familiar with the process. If I recall correctly the basic gist of the technique was to take an old metal coffee can and cut it to maybe 5" high. After this you break all the sticks of the bottle rockets to make them short enough to fit inside the coffee can. After your bottle rockets are the correct height but prior to inserting them into the coffee can you drill a small hole near 1/4 inch from the bottom of the can and insert a piece of visco. You fill the bottom of the can with a small amount of black powder (I'm guessing ~15g would be more than enough?) after inserting the visco and then you fill the can with your cut down bottle rockets. At that point you like the visco which ignites the black powder and hopefully ignites all your bottle rockets all at once.

Has anyone done this? Does anyone happen to have a link to the article? I don't doubt that it would work in principle but I am a little uncomfortable playing with the amounts of powder trying to get it to work and would like more specific instructions (or a better idea to mass light over a hundred bottle rockets at once) before doing any experimentation.

Any input would be appreciated

[RalphieJ]

I used to put a gross minus one in a 4" mortar, light and drop the last one in. They don't go off all at once, but pretty damn close!

[PTFan]

I like the way this guy fuses them up. Just my opinion,I'm not him and I'm sure there are other ways to do it. Not sure I would ever cut the wooden sticks, seems like they would be unbalanced and dangerous?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mMS4WzW524Y

[Kenny East]

Seen people use peg board with 4+ per hole up to the fuses... Then sprinkle the whole thing with a layer of bp. Kinda like this...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJ4_CFDoHA

[dirtysouthpyro]

I used to put a gross minus one in a 4" mortar, light and drop the last one in. They don't go off all at once, but pretty damn close!


Great idea! I'm going to do some experimenting with this. Even if I got a 90% success rate I would be happy and it is still cheaper than buying Saturn Missile Batteries. I have some 3" mortars not being used I will try this with.


I like the way this guy fuses them up. Just my opinion,I'm not him and I'm sure there are other ways to do it. Not sure I would ever cut the wooden sticks, seems like they would be unbalanced and dangerous?




You only trim the sticks so the rockets sit low enough in the coffee can so that all the fuses are ignited by the BP. You should be using a container narrow enough that when it is full the can itself is holding the rockets straight up. They are all going to shoot more or less vertically anyway since the can is essentially acting as a mortar assuming you match the can and stick height properly the only difference being the BP acts as an ignition source rather than a lift charge. I considered fusing the rockets manually but it seems like there has to be a better way.


Seen people use peg board with 4+ per hole up to the fuses... Then sprinkle the whole thing with a layer of bp. Kinda like this...


This is more or less the same idea of what I was thinking minus the can and with the addition of the pegboard. If this works I'm confident the coffee can method would work as well.

[countryboy7978]

Saturn Missiles should be cheaper than whistling bottle rockets. With pure retail pricing by me in Indiana a 100 shot Saturn Missile cake costs $3-4, a 300 shot costs between $9-$12 and a gross of Whistling Moon Travelers run $5-6. Factor in the extra work and potentially the cost of BP and the premade saturns are a deal.

Now if you are using fancy non-Whistling rockets like Black Cat Silver Fox then I’d agree on the 3” mortar method. No need to cut sticks. You can prime your fuses with BP/Nitro lacquer but it’s not nessesary. Just don’t go sticking your face over the tube to see if they all went unless you like the pirate look. Inevitably a few are left cooking in there for an encore.

[thomask280]

The tin can method works if you use whistling bottle rockets. you need to use these rockets because the whistle comp will ignite best. The BP will ignite the rockets all at once. You must remove the fuses and cut the sticks to about 5 or 6". I've made many of these and they all worked great. You can also use paper tubes instead of a tin can.