Fountains

Fountains are often the first project after making black powder a pyro should do. They are easy, don't take much time and give a good show. For small ones I use a 1/2" ID tube that is 6 inches long. I have made a nozzle tool that helps ease the project. The tube slips over the former, you add the clay and ram. You don't need to make one of these unless you want to. The tool makes the nozzle look good, but I don't se any difference in performance. You can always drill a nozzle into the clay plug. Mix up some composition such as one of my favorites:

Meal powder 50%
green mix BP 20%
steel powder 20%
325 mesh aluminum powder 10%

Ram a clay plug 1/2" thick into the tube with the tooling or a simple flat end plug. Now ram your comp until you get to about 1/2" from the end and ram another clay end plug. If you used the tooling you are finished and can glue the tube to a cardboard base. Other wise now you need to drill a hole in one of the plugs with a 1/4" wide drill bit. Drill slowly and just about 1/2" into the BP. Now you can attach a base. Insert fuse into the vent hole and light! Also when using wood tooling it makes it easy to remove the tube if you spray the nozzle former with non-stick butter spray for cooking. Do not ram the powder to hard, 5 light blows to compact it will be fine. Compact it in increments of about 1/2 - 3/4" at a time.

I made tooling with a 3/4" board cut to about 2 inches wide and long. Then I cut a piece of 1/2" dowel, and a piece of 1/4" dowel. Next I drilled a 1/2" hole into the board, and a 1/4" hole into the 1/2" dowel. The 1/2" dowel goes into the board, and the 1/4" dowel into the 1/2" dowel. I then drilled a 1/8" hole through the side of the board, though the two dowels and inserted a nail to hold them. Everything is glued into place and left to dry. The 1/4" dowel should be tapered at the top.

Drill a hole slightly larger then 1/4" into the center of your 1/2" dowel to form a rammer that will fit over the nozzle former.

Nozzle former