I missed this because I was on vacation, but I want to talk about fireworks again. Some friends and I enjoyed a constantly escalating infatuation with the explosive arts over several years.
It all started when two of my college friends married each other and bought a house in a place where fireworks were completely legal. They invited everyone over for a New Year's party with fireworks. I contributed by buying a single cake (a.k.a. repeater) for about $30 at a stand near their house. That was a successful enough party that another was planned for the following 4th of July. That time I spent over $100 on a huge pack of mortars. It was 200 total breaks, but I'm not sure how many shells. It only escalated from there, with parties at every 4th of July and New Year's.
By the end, we were buying our fireworks from a wholesaler to save money. You've got to spend nearly a grand for that to be economical, and since you're buying by the case you have to accept a little less variety than you might expect, but it means getting several times the amount of explody goodness for the money.
We also set up a wireless electronic ignition system using rechargeable 12 volt batteries, custom designed circuit boards, and hundreds of electric matches so we could sit back and enjoy the show instead of running away from lit fuses all night. We had spent hundreds of dollars and several days one year making a couple hundred reusable mortars and mounting them in portable racks so that we wouldn't have to spend any time during the show reloading tubes, too.
Sadly, various factors have prevented us from blowing anything up for over a year, and it doesn't look like that will change any time soon.
Topic: ♥ Fireworks ♥ (Read 32560 times)
