3 replies to this topic

[Bonzo]

First, hello to everyone.

I'm rekindling my interest in pyro which has been dormant for quite a few years now, in fact from a time before the internet made it so much easier to find like-minded people and information and to track down supplies.

I'm slowly reading my way through all the info I can find on the internet before I actually do anything.

One thing that I'm thinking about is where to work. I have a workshop of sorts down in my cellar which I use for non-pyro tinkering around. I don't have any kind of shed in my garden or any other type of outhouse (not a big garden either, just an old victorian terraced house in London). I could build a shed out there, and it looks like that might be the way to go eventually.

At the moment I'm thinking of just doing some basic stuff with BP to get me going before I make any major financial outlay. I am aware of the need to do any milling outside, and I could do that in the garden with a ball mill at the end of an extension lead. But I need somewhere to store supplies and to construct things.

So I'm just curious as to where people do their pyro work? Working anywhere within your house seems to be less than ideal, but does anyone do it? Are there precautions which could make it safer? Or shall I just get me a shed from the outset?

[Creepin_pyro]

Working in ones house is not less than ideal - it's possibly the most stupid and irresponsible thing any amateur pyro could do. When working with energetic materials, you should only be putting yourself in danger. Working in a residential address puts a whole load of other people at risk, especially in a terrace.

It sounds to me that you simply do not have sufficient space to work safely.

How big is the garden roughly?

[Bonzo]

Working in ones house is not less than ideal - it's possibly the most stupid and irresponsible thing any amateur pyro could do. When working with energetic materials, you should only be putting yourself in danger. Working in a residential address puts a whole load of other people at risk, especially in a terrace.

It sounds to me that you simply do not have sufficient space to work safely.

How big is the garden roughly?

Hi CP,

The garden is small, I reckon about 40 feet long by about 20 feet wide. Would a shed at the end of the garden be far enough from the house (and, as you point out, neighbouring houses)? I have no idea of what the worst case scenario is for a beginner pyro explosion. I'm not planning to be making kilos of stuff. I believe that to stick within the regs (COER) I shouldn't make more than 100g of BP anyway.

Is an ordinary wooden garden shed OK?

Bonzo

[adamw]

Hi Bonzo

Please read a copy of MSER to get an idea of safety distances. You will see that a residential of that size is not sufficient for the quantities mentioned within the document, but for 100g AND NO MORE you should be OK.

The easiest way is to consider: Would I feel safe if the neighbor was doing this?

The wooden shed should be sufficient, but please use a metal container for storage. With this in mind you should be fairly well prepared to experiment with small fountains, candles, SMALL rockets (ie 'bottle rockets') and other 'garden' size fireworks (NO SHELLS, LARGE MINES, CANDLES OR ROCKETS)