Novelty smoke grenades

[.Cheese.]

Rather than post the whole thread again, I'll link to it from THR.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=278261

Just letting everybody know.

[K Frame]

I make my own smoke bombs out of potassium nitrate (stump rotter) and sugar.

Melt them together, pack into short pieces of pipe, and insert a piece of cannon fuze.

Nice clouds of white smoke.

[Fly320s]

Mike, what ratio?

Melt it in a pan?  Or microwave?  I'd hate to see what happens if you burn it.

[K Frame]

Mike, what ratio?

Melt it in a pan?  Or microwave?  I'd hate to see what happens if you burn it.

Here ya go...

http://www.unitednuclear.com/smoke.htm

[TF_FH]

Mike... you are my new hero.  Now I have all sorts of fun things to do now!

[K Frame]

One warning I will give you.

There are a couple of different kinds of stump removers out there. One kind that my friend and I tried wasn't potassium nitrate. Not sure what it was, but when we were heating it it was the most incredibly acrid smell you've ever come across. I'm surprised we didn't poison ourselves.

Getting another brand of stump remover solved the issue.

[Paddy]

I don't get it. Why would anybody want to play with smoke grenades.  And what are the by-products of burning postassium nitrate?

[K Frame]

"And what are the by-products of burning postassium nitrate?"

Smoke.

[Paddy]

OK, here's a link to the MSDS:
http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/KNO3.htm

Here are some of the potential health effects:

Eye: May cause eye irritation.

Skin: Dust causes mechanical irritation. Low hazard for usual industrial handling.

Ingestion: Causes gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Inhalation: May cause respiratory tract irritation. May cause methemoglobinemia, cyanosis, convulsions, tachycardia, dyspnea (labored breathing), and death.

Chronic: Prolonged exposure may cause anemia and methemoglobinemia, characterized by dizziness, drowsiness, headache, breath shortness, cyanosis (bluish skin due to deficient oxygenation of the blood), rapid heart rate and chocolate-brown colored blood. May cause kidney injury. May cause methemoglobinemia, which is characterized by chocolate-brown colored blood, headache, weakness, dizziness, breath shortness, cyanosis (bluish skin due to deficient oxygenation of blood), rapid heart rate, unconsciousness and possible death.

Hey, that ain't bad.  Death is only mentioned a couple of times.  In the meanwhile you get to cough, puke, crap, have convulsions and a heart attack, fall asleep and turn blue.   

[K Frame]

I'll have to remember that the next time I take my blackpowder rifle out to the range.

Oh, wait, just going to the range can cause death in the form of a highway accident....

[Tallpine]

Just don't inhale