Storing my goodies
- Thread starter Cookmatt
- Start date
I think this is what you're looking for:
www.atf.gov
So the answer is "At the end of your work day, all explosives need to be moved to your magazine". The only exception is that components that are under construction but not yet dry are not required to be, and technically should not be, moved to your magazine.
The magazine must be 150' from your process building/site; you may not have an indoor magazine in your process building.
If you are licensed, you of course must have a magazine that complies with the Orange Book:
If you are not licensed, you may still legally manufacture fireworks so long as they are not transported off of your property and you have a magazine that complies with all those requirements even if the ATF is not inspecting the magazine.
Most fireworks have very long shelf lives and can live in your magazine indefinitely. Lampares/liquid fuel devices and some rocket fuels that are hygroscopic are well-known exceptions. As far as I know, the hygroscopic materials don't become dangerous over time, they stop working correctly and need to be disposed of safely.
From a safety perspective, you absolutely want to minimize the amount of explosive material that is in your process building/location at one time. This means that when you stop working on one project, all the material should go back to the magazine before you shift to a different project. People new to the art are often unaware of what is going to happen should a container with "just a pound or two" of stars or black powder ignite in the room where they are working. Most of the accidents suffered by fireworks builders go back to this, that there was just too much composition/stars etc. in the work area.
As an added safety practice, keep lids on your containers whenever you can. For example, when we make several pounds of stars, once they're dry they go into a large plastic container with a lid and then into the magazine. Then when we're ready to make a shell, we take out enough stars for the shell and put them into a smaller plastic container with a lid. Finally, as we're working, we put a handful at a time into a paper food service container or paper plate, and put the lid back on the container. This means that should something happen that produces sparks, the amount of material that will ignite is greatly reduced. It seems as if this process is just going to be a nuisance, but once you get into the habit it doesn't slow you down, and if an accident does occur, "I burned one hand badly" is a whole lot less bad than "I have 3rd degree burns over my torso and face".
I haven't said anything about safety glasses 100% of the time, all-cotton clothing, respirators, etc. but if you don't already know about those things, you need to do a bit more preparatory reading.
Finally, if you're starting to build fireworks, a membership to Ned Gorski's fireworking.com site is $40. per year and is the absolute best investment you can make. He has excellent tutorials and an extensive library of formulas.
Must partially assembled display fireworks be removed from a drying building for overnight storage? | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Yes. At the end of a day’s manufacturing operations, all dry explosive powders and mixtures and partially assembled and finished display fireworks must be removed from fireworks process buildings and stored in a magazine meeting the storage requirements in 27 CFR Part 555, Subpart K. [27 CFR...
So the answer is "At the end of your work day, all explosives need to be moved to your magazine". The only exception is that components that are under construction but not yet dry are not required to be, and technically should not be, moved to your magazine.
The magazine must be 150' from your process building/site; you may not have an indoor magazine in your process building.
If you are licensed, you of course must have a magazine that complies with the Orange Book:
If you are not licensed, you may still legally manufacture fireworks so long as they are not transported off of your property and you have a magazine that complies with all those requirements even if the ATF is not inspecting the magazine.
Most fireworks have very long shelf lives and can live in your magazine indefinitely. Lampares/liquid fuel devices and some rocket fuels that are hygroscopic are well-known exceptions. As far as I know, the hygroscopic materials don't become dangerous over time, they stop working correctly and need to be disposed of safely.
From a safety perspective, you absolutely want to minimize the amount of explosive material that is in your process building/location at one time. This means that when you stop working on one project, all the material should go back to the magazine before you shift to a different project. People new to the art are often unaware of what is going to happen should a container with "just a pound or two" of stars or black powder ignite in the room where they are working. Most of the accidents suffered by fireworks builders go back to this, that there was just too much composition/stars etc. in the work area.
As an added safety practice, keep lids on your containers whenever you can. For example, when we make several pounds of stars, once they're dry they go into a large plastic container with a lid and then into the magazine. Then when we're ready to make a shell, we take out enough stars for the shell and put them into a smaller plastic container with a lid. Finally, as we're working, we put a handful at a time into a paper food service container or paper plate, and put the lid back on the container. This means that should something happen that produces sparks, the amount of material that will ignite is greatly reduced. It seems as if this process is just going to be a nuisance, but once you get into the habit it doesn't slow you down, and if an accident does occur, "I burned one hand badly" is a whole lot less bad than "I have 3rd degree burns over my torso and face".
I haven't said anything about safety glasses 100% of the time, all-cotton clothing, respirators, etc. but if you don't already know about those things, you need to do a bit more preparatory reading.
Finally, if you're starting to build fireworks, a membership to Ned Gorski's fireworking.com site is $40. per year and is the absolute best investment you can make. He has excellent tutorials and an extensive library of formulas.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #3
Thank you so much for a very informative answer!, I knew about the magazine storage, but didn't realize how stage building heavy this hobby can be, so while wanting to be as safe as is possible, i wanted to make sure i was doing things the safe way.
Once again Thank you for the great answer!!
Once again Thank you for the great answer!!
rbarbourbis
Member
I second wrtiii comment about fireworking.com. It's a subscription site. It's worth the money.