Boomershoot confetti

On Saturday I purchased a half pound each of three different colors of glitter. Then at the suggestion of Breda I ordered a pound of “Metallic Multi Color Mylar Confetti” this morning. The plan is to use the “Chalk Dispensers” as “Glitter/Confetti Dispensers” and see if that overcomes the problem with the powdered chalk turning into lumps.

The cost is $10/pound for the glitter and, after shipping, $15/pound for the confetti compared to about $1/pound for chalk. But a pound of confetti is going to have a much greater volume than either the glitter or the powdered chalk. The cost difference really doesn’t matter to me if we get the desired display instead of a few lumps of chalk falling, essentially unnoticed, from the sky.

Test results to follow within a month or so…

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6 thoughts on “Boomershoot confetti

  1. Have you tried a 50/50 mixture of saltpeter and powdered sugar? With an ignition source it can produce a huge amount of smoke.

  2. Plus, you get the added benefit of the Mylar chaff obscuring your radar return… just in case 😉

  3. Let me know when. I’m interested to see how the Mylar confetti reacts to the explosion itself. Does it get ripped into smaller pieces or does it actually remain about the same size?

    I would expect neither the glitter or the Mylar to not compress, but I do wonder how much lift it will get. The one down side I see to either of these methods is going to be the possible cleanup required after one goes off, most especially the Mylar.

    B

  4. How much heat are you generating when one of your targets goes off? Plastic products just might melt on detonation. The glitter probably has enough metallic content to stay seperate but clean-up, if the mess bothers you, will be a B—-H! If the glitter is too small to make much of a visible display we used to use something called Flitter on stage. Same content as glitter but larger, flat pieces. You might also try some old-fashioned paper confetti if the heat isn’t too high or prolonged. I’ve dropped all this stuff from stage rafters and shot it from air cannons but never tried explosives to dispense it. The glitter/Flitter needs bright, direct light to properly display. On a cloudy day a cloud of paper confetti might be the ticket.
    JR

  5. USCitizen,

    Such a mixture would be dispersed into the air and I don’t think it would sustain combustion even it it did ignite. And if it did ignite the smoke would need to be colored to distinguish it from other boomers. I think that line of exploration is unlikely to succeed. But thanks for the suggestion. If other alternatives don’t work we might consider that.

    GD,

    I hadn’t thought of that. But that is a nice added bonus. 😉

    Barron and JR,

    Tentative plans are for this Saturday. Leaving Moscow about 8:30.

    I’m not convinced the Mylar confetti or glitter will remain in small pieces. What does 100,000 PSI do to plastic and metal films? Does it weld them together? I don’t think the heat will be much of an issue except for the material immediately adjacent to the explosives. The heat is of very short duration and the heat transmission through the glitter/confetti will be low. Perhaps some melting around the edges like what we see with the zip lock baggies the explosives are in.

    The amount of “lift” isn’t too important. Even if it just expands in a roughly spherical cloud as long as it is shiny and a different color from the explosion byproducts it will be a success.

    Cleanup is a concern of mine too. I’m hoping sunlight will degrade it into nothing within a few months. If nothing else I’m pretty sure the grass will fall down on top of it and it will become part of the soil within a year.

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