I mean what are you doing on the fourth. Going to the Fort, Going to the Lake, Blowing UP Herb's Mailbox!

Have you Oreegonion's gone across the bridge to get your illegal fireworks yet? Remember if it moves, shoots across the ground or into the air they are illegal in Oreegone. Just because your neighbor the cop is launching mortar's over your house don't mean you can do it ya know!

My son is so incredibly bummed about this. He wants to shoot off Roman candles tomorrow, though verboten here in OR. Firecrackers?- no. His attitude is "what's the point if it doesn't do something destructive?"

Alcohol and explosives an American tradition!

Checking out the Beavers game with the family and celebrating my birthday!!

"Remember if it moves, shoots across the ground or into the air they are illegal in Oreegone."

So much for my big, fantastic MX tours in Pendleton, then........

Fireworks....not crazies on bikes! Saw a show a little while back and they were showing bad landings.....made the old family jewels hurt just watching! But then you never had that happen to you right!

"But then you never had that happen to you right!"

Hahhhaaaa......I wish......................

Hopefully I will get invited back to ft Bragg for a conference this year, I need to restock up on artillery simulators, those things are to an M80, what a M80 is to a little firecracker.

Fireman's breakfast and old-fashioned 4th of July parade in the morning up in Harrisburg...and then the largest fireworks display in Lane County at Alton Baker park in the evening!

oh yeah...maybe a beer or two in between

Just came back from Depoe Bay's fireworks display.

Geez, they were exploding way over my head and towards points East. Me thinks they're gonna move the safety line out more next year.

7am-Kiwanis pancake breakfast at the Springdale Job Corps Center. Cheerful conversation with the Mrs. and fellow breakfast eaters.

11am- Rode with Warm Springs Tribe/Cascade Locks entry in Corbett July 4 parade. 100lbs of candy thrown in 2.5 miles. Didn't listen to the Mrs, failed to apply sunscreen, became krispy kritter.

2pm- back home, fed and romped around with dog, ate lunch, small chores, small nap, the Mrs. and I watched Judge Judy.

5:45pm Gave dog a vet-prescribed tranquilizer to prevent doggie fireworks freak-out while we're gone. Turned on conservative talk radio station to keep dog entertained while he's on drugs. Far out.

6pm-Blue Lake Park for Gresham Outlook BBQ, music, telling tall tales, drinking just a bit, fireworks at 10pm. Followed official "Grouchy Cuss" procedures whenever screaming small children ran by.

10:30pm Fireworks over (great show, by the way), spent time wishing we hadn't gone to Blue Lake park for fireworks, as no traffic is moving. BILLIONS and BILLIONS of vehicles, all idling in place. Take THAT, Metro and other global warming fans.

11:30pm Still rue the day we decided to go to Blue Lake Park for fireworks, as traffic still jammed solid. Mrs. and I pass the time by going to worlds most disgusting porta-johns. I'm not kidding, these units would have killed Satan himself. As a matter of fact, I could have sworn I saw Satan down there in my porta-john.

11:45pm Still rue the day. Traffic cops force us to turn westbound on Marine Drive--the wrong way for us. Along with billions of other vehicles. Kept mouth shut as the Mrs. second guessed "lets go to Blue Lake Park" decision.

12:05am Less rue the day, more speedy travel on I-84 easbound from 181st, safe and sound back home. Fantastically huge and orange half-moon rising in the eastern night sky. Very cool.

1:39am Rue the day I decided to read "just one more post" on PDX radio web site. Curse you, PDX radio.

Dry Ice, some water and a few plastic drink containers.

Legal, substantial booms with a nice drama "Just when will it blow?" factor.

(Done right, they will rattle the windows!)

Missing--

Here's anuddah way:

Half-fill a 2-litre plastic bottle with vinegar, then fill a glass test tube with baking soda. If you have a large test tube that's even better because it can be filled up more. You'd need a little more vinegar then, and also a wider-mouth bottle. Put a cork in the test tube and drop it (ever so gently!) in the vinegar such that it floats.

Throw the bottle with enough force into the distance, preferrably hitting it against something hard like a tree or a large boulder. This will shatter (or at least break in half) the test tube, releasing the baking soda into the vinegar. Screw the cap on the bottle TIGHT--like, so tight you can't open it with your hands. (Pliers work very well for this.)

RUN LIKE HELL and possibly duck behind something if you can because the blast from an exploding 2-litre bottle will create a loud, substantial boom! Afterwards walk to where the bottle blew and look at the still bubbling mixture all over the ground and what about ~300 PSI of pressurised CO2 can do to a plastic bottle.

Done right, this too will rattle the windows!!

So--that's what my friends and I blew up on the Fourth.

Nice --but messy.

I'll have to give that a go one of these days. The broken glass bit is worrysome though. There has just gotta be something else that would work.

I really like the dry ice, because then cleanup only involves the parts of the bottle you can reasonably find. It's a slow thing, so there is plenty of time to deal with placing the bottle, unless you really go nuts on the dry ice.

This year was kind of different. Normally, I go for a few illegal goodies and launch them in known safe locations. Didn't have that chance this year, so we had to play it straight. That means no M-something in the roll of toilet paper bit this year I like that one!

No biggie, but for the kids really wanting a coupla loud booms.

Crunching the Picallo Petes works well, but they've really beefed up the plastic on those --and loosened the bases. Both of these limit the sheer boom one can get from those. (you wrap it with electrical tape after crunching, but before lighting. Lots of work, and lots that can go wrong too) Messy, and this year was about clean and fun, so that was just out.

I'm pretty sure modding the fireworks is illegal, so I decided to step back and revisit the dry ice bit.

The first one was just hilarious. We armed ourselves with the tools: gloves, small hammer to break up the dry ice, some water. After assembling the thing, I tossed it out of the way and the kids soon lost attention. They had no end of fun playing with the dry ice though.

...and this was the idea! I said, "guess that didn't work, let's do some other stuff". Took about 15 minutes for the dry ice to reach critical pressure.

When it went off, the kids were absorbed in finding things to put onto and mix with the dry ice. Excellent surprise! They all had that, "WTF?" look that's just priceless.

Of course, when they recovered, we set about making another really big one, after a brief lecture on how dangerous something that loud really is. If it sounds bad ass, it simply is bad ass. .

The first was a 20 oz bottle. Pretty harmless really. The second was the two liter one. That packs a punch and is best enjoyed at a considerable distance. (which is what we did) It's amazing the difference between the two. The 20 oz one sounded like a really great firecracker.

The two litre one rattled the windows on a few houses! (I didn't expect that kind of boom, frankly!) Let's just say it was the difference between nice and loud and worrysome, "hope somebody does not call somebody" kind of, "crap that was really fricking, gonna see trouble kind of loud." Beware.

I've always wanted to try one of those multi-gallon water jugs, or something similar. That's pretty big though... maybe I'll just stick to known territory. That stuff seems to scale nicely --a bit too nicely. After the 2 liter plastic bottle, I'm not sure I want to go bigger than that, without some solid planning.

hmm . . . dry ice isn't easily available as baking soda and vinegar. theoretically, one can haul around baking soda and vinegar in one's car until a boom is needed somewhere!

So, does somebody have the correct formula for maxiumum boom? (Its been a while since I've been in the seventh grade.)

Like KSKD, I don't like the glass test tube . . . is there something else that will do the job?

There might be something else besides glass, that's just what I have always used.

You could use a paper coffee filter but because that kind of paper is designed to have a high percolation rate (heeheee) it starts to fizz up almost instantly, and you won't have much time to prepare (or get the cap on the bottle!) before the big boom. The key to using a test tube tho, is to be in an area where there's lots of obstructions, like a heavily forested area (but still enough of a clear path so you can throw the bottle out far enough so it hits.) Wide open spaces won't work too well (has to have something around to break the capsule of baking soda) and there's not too much cover to take from potentially flying test tube shrapnel!! (There's usually lots of cover to be had in a forested area, preferrably one away from much civilisation.....)

Incidentally, Kimax tubes tend to work better for this than others........don't shatter as much. (They tend to break into about two or three large pieces.)

If nothing else wear a helmet and possibly goggles! In some areas a chest guard/roost deflector might also be particularly useful (assuming you have one of those.....I don't myself as I mainly am a "helmet/gloves/goggles/and that's prettymuch it" rider..........)

"So, does somebody have the correct formula for maxiumum boom? (Its been a while since I've been in the seventh grade.)"

I don't really have much of a precise formula, other than about 1/2 of the bottle full of vinegar (about 1 litre or so) and a 500gm test tube filled up all the way with soda.

Sure got our strange neighbours' attention in Gdale on Wednesday tho, thinking we was lahk, maykin' bawmbs or sumthin'......

As if they didn't get pissed enough at us as it is riding our own dirt bikes on our own land of which my folks actually hold the deed to.....!!

Fun times.

Next year make a catapult and launch them at your neighbor dude!

That thought has tempted me more than a few times.......

*clunkplccchttttFssssSSSSSSSS........* SURPRISE!!! *BOOMsplash*

"'Rick' (name changed) that there dayhmn motor-crawsser kid shawt one o' his vin'gar bombs next to ah trailah!!"
"So 'Verna' go clean it up and tell 'im awff!"

Aw come on people, it's the fourth of July! Just because you're a couple of old sticks in the mud (possibly literally, even she looks practically dead!) doesn't mean you need to spoil the fun for everyone else! Carpé diem.

Disclaimer: Don't try thisat hopme kids, it is extremely dangerous!!

OK, for a REALLY REALLY big boom, here is what we used to do;

Take one of the 30 bushel plastic leaf bags and fill it 1/2 full of Oxygen and 1/2 full of Acetylene. If the mixture is a little Oxygen rich that's OK it makes for a louder BOOM!

If you are going to ignore the disclaimer, make DAMN sure you take the tip off the torch and just feed out of the handle. If you don't the gas entering the bag will cause a static build up and when the mixture gets just right, BOOM in your hand. Net result is you won't hear for 3-5 days! Experience talking here, trust me!

When the bag is sufficiently inflated, twist the top of it then tie it very well with nylon cord.

Next, take a full sheet of newspaper and tear a 3"-4" wide strip diagonally from it and fold it into a "V" lengthwise.

Tape the newspaper "fuse" to the side of the bag. It really doesn't matter what kind of tape you use!

Take the bag bomb well away from any houses. Light the fuse and get the heck out of there!

In about 2 min, you will see a bright white flash and one of the loudest BOOM's you've ever heard!!!!

In comparison to the aerial bombs that they set off in a commercial fireworks display, this is 20+ times louder!!!

Where I grew up in St. Louis, our back yard bordered a golf course.

I made one of these, took it across 2 fairways and 1/2 of the practice area. When I set it off, after the BOOOOMMMMMMM subsided, all I could hear was glass hitting the neighbor’s driveway!

The last one I ever made was my lesson in static electricity. (refer to the RED part above!!

I lit a smoke bomb and a sparkle snake.

Oregon is no fun for fireworks. Geesh.

i think i will just blow up my new doll I bought from Fantasy Adult Video ..........Boy there are going to be Fireworks tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!