KingVinny

It is quite possible this question has been answered in this topic already but having already read severeal pages I have not seen it. Can marbles be used as milling media? (Just plain old glass marbles)

The fuel tablets I got were covered in a lot of wax and had some wax mixed in. They crushed fairly easily and when the wax was removed and the water evaporated off, I was left with a lot of small crystals of hexamine. Smells kind of fishy not sure if it's supposed to.

Easiest way to get hexamine is by buying fuel tablets from somewhere, they are used for small camping stoves. You then need to crush them up and add the powder to some water as most of the tablets are covered in wax. Skim the impurities off, this is fairly easy as they float to the top then allow the water to evaporate and you are left with fairly pure hexamine.

I was lucky a few months back a firework display company in the South East of England did a small display for the school my mum works at. So I went along and talked to the guy while he was setting up and seeing my enthusiasm and knowledge of pyrotechnics (small comparative to a lot of people on this site but nevertheless) he seemed happy to let me, at some later date, come and do some work experience with the company he works for. I am also 17 and he said that I would be able to pretty much do anything except for actually light any fuses , however I would be able to set off electrically ignited fireworks. He said that on the whole you need to be at least 18 if not 21 to work for a company such as his but due to my enthusiasm and him reckoning that I was quite a responsible and careful person, not sure how I pulled that one off , he said it would be ok even though I'm only 17. So I would try to ask around for people that have friends or contacts within the pyrotechnic industry and try to get to talk to someone. If your lucky you may find yourself being offered some work experience or at least a point in the right direction.

I also had a topic dissapear on me, I posted a thread about a pyrotechnic chemistry course here in the UK in the training section of the forum. It is no longer there however I don't see how I broke any rules so I don't know why it was removed as I really wanted to hear peoples views on it.