How to make a smoke bomb out of household items

Smoke bombs entered our lives long ago and with success: we use them at celebrations to surprise guests with a kind of mystique; to signal distress if we are lost in the woods; even against insects. It turns out that making a smoke bomb at home is not so difficult. We are happy to tell you how to do it with your own hands.

What you should remember when experimenting with smoke

It is forbidden to keep smoke bombs close to the fire, as they are easily ignited.
Smoke bombs have a short shelf life, so make them just before use. Old smoke bombs can let you down: at best, they won’t light, at worst, they can start a fire if stored too long.
If you use flammable compounds, lacquers, especially saltpeter, do not work in the apartment under any circumstances! An open space outdoors, away from residential buildings is best.
The smoke from the tinderboxes is harmful to the respiratory organs, so even outdoors, stay away from the smoke.
Need a special outfit when working with smoke checkers: gloves, respiratory protection (mask, respirator), shield for the eyes (special glasses).Consider also special old clothes for experiments, so that they were not so sorry to throw away in case of damage.

A checker made of manganese, sulfur and activated charcoal purple

To make yourself such a checkerboard, we prepare the components according to the following recipe:

two ordinary boxes of matches;
A plate of activated charcoal;
2 sachets (pharmacy packaging) of dry manganese dioxide.

How we proceed:

All matches must have the brown sulfur heads broken off;
free the tablets of activated charcoal from their packaging and crush them;
pour the manganese powder packets into a metal container;
add the heads of matches and crushed activated charcoal to the container, mix all three components.

Carefully ignite the mixture and quickly move a decent distance away. Purple clouds of thick and saturated smoke from the homemade tinderbox should rise up to 2 meters high.

The smell when the mixture burns is expected to be unpleasant, so it is better to observe this beauty from a distance.

How to make a soap smoke bomb at home

It is also possible to make a smoke bomb from ordinary soap. To do this, you need to prepare:

a bar of laundry soap;
a metal grater with medium holes;
a bucket;
10 liters of water;
a stick for stirring;
a stack of newspapers;
a stone as a press.

The sequence of actions will be as follows:

First we have to grind the soap on a medium grater. You should end up with fine shavings.
Then we pour water into a bucket, pour out carefully soap shavings and stir the solution until homogeneous using a prepared stick.
We dip the newspapers into the prepared soap solution and press them with a stone, so that all the newspapers are hidden under water and are well soaked in the soap solution. Leave the newspapers in the water for half an hour.
Now take out the newspapers, spread them out and dry them thoroughly.
To make a soap smoke, you need to crumple up and put the dried newspapers in a metal bucket and light them on fire. Such smoke is usually not corrosive or toxic, so you don’t need to be very far away from the smoke screen.

Don’t forget the safety precautions! When the action is complete, be sure to extinguish the smoldering newspapers to the end, do not let the flames spread!

Making a smoke bomb out of ammonium nitrate and newspapers

To make such a smoke bomb you will need:

ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate), which can be purchased at a fertilizer store;
10 sheets of newspaper;
a one-liter bottle;
a sprinkler on the bottle;
water;
duralumin beer can;
matches.

Now let’s proceed to making the smokescreen itself:

Pour a third of ammonium nitrate into a liter bottle and pour water to the brim. Thoroughly stir the mixture until the powder is completely dissolved. The bottle with the prepared solution will cool in your hands after the chemical reaction, this is normal. A foam will appear, which should be removed.
Put the sprinkler on the bottle and spray the composition on the spread out newspaper. The newspaper should soak up the liquid. It is better to work outdoors, away from furniture and people.
Soak each sheet of newspaper out of 10 prepared, laying them tightly on top of each other and pressing. After soaking the last tenth sheet turn the whole stack, press it well for better penetration of liquid.
Leave the sheets to dry.
After drying takes one sheet, gently fold in half. Folded sheet roll in a very tight tube to the middle.
Subsequent sheets of inserted into the previous tube and all the time fold tightly to the middle. Do the same with all ten sheets.
After the final twist rewind the entire structure with scotch tape and tamped at the ends.
Now cut off the lid and bottom of the dural prepared jar.
In the body of the jar we put our twisted tube so that the ends peeked out 1 cm.
Light one end of the tube, wait for the smoke (it is not dangerous) and then cast it aside.

Note: If you want to make colored smoke, you can add a henna or food coloring of your choice to a bottle of saltpeter.

Always remember about safety precautions: wash your hands thoroughly after working with saltpeter and smoke grenade, keep children away from the process of making smoke grenade.

Checker made of potassium nitrate, sugar and dyes for paintball

If you have an interest in such a smokeball, you will need to prepare the following things:

sugar (2 tablespoons);
Potassium chloride (4 tablespoons);
a small saucepan;
baking soda (1 teaspoon);
food coloring (3 tablespoons with a heap), or manganese or henna;
a toilet paper sleeve (or an ice cream cup or small box);
duct tape or foil;
a lighter;
a pen or pencil;
firecracker fuse;
a cotton pad;
Heat-resistant gloves.

Let’s start making a colored paintball cap:

Pour the sugar and potassium chloride carefully into a saucepan. Mix thoroughly.
We put the pot on low heat and stir the contents constantly.
The mixture should boil for 10-15 minutes to get a brownish color.
When the mixture has the consistency of creamy butter, remove the pan from the heat.
Allow the contents of the pan to cool slightly and pour 1 tsp. of baking soda slowly into it. The baking soda may cause a violent chemical reaction, be prepared for this.
Now you can add 3 tablespoons of food coloring (color of your choice), you can also use henna powder or ordinary manganese acid potassium (manganese oxide). Thoroughly mix the dye with the contents of the pot, achieving an even consistency.
We fill evenly our prepared container (a sleeve, an ice-cream cone, a box, etc.) with this mixture. The mixture is still hot, you need to use heat-resistant gloves.
Now insert a pencil or a pen into the center of the hot and malleable mixture. Sink the pen or pencil by 2/3, no more.
Leave our product for an hour and a half to harden.
Wrap the cooled checker on all sides with masking tape or foil, leaving room for a fuse.
We take out a pencil pen and with a piece of absorbent cotton disk insert a real firecracker fuse in this place. The cotton disk ensures that the fuse is firmly attached to the structure. The fuse should enter halfway into the firecracker, and the other half (no less) as a wick remains for ignition.
We light the smoke checker with a lighter so that this process goes quickly and clearly. When the wick is a little hot, toss the checkerboard aside at a safe distance and watch the colored beauty from afar.

Note:

All precautions must be observed when mixing chemicals;
it is best to use safety glasses;
when filling the container with the mixture, avoid all sources of fire in the vicinity;
when lighting the fuse, ensure that there are no children, fire or flammable objects nearby;
use the smoke grenade in an open outdoor area;
after burning down check that the checker is not smoldering, take measures for complete elimination of sparks.

Recipe for the original smoke bomb – foam rubber, nitrolac and foil

To make such a checker we use:

nitrolac (buy it in a hardware store);
foam rubber;
wooden stick (15-20 cm);
an old bag (or a piece of polyethylene);
foil;
lighter.

To get the described checkerboard:

open a can of nitrolac and place in it a piece of foam rubber;
using a stick we thoroughly soak the foam rubber with nitrolac;
then with the same stick squeeze out the excess liquid and lay the foam rubber on a piece of polyethylene (old package) to dry;
wrap the dry foam rubber with foil, but not completely, leaving part of it as a fuse;
using a lighter, we ignite the ready-made checker and throw it away to a safe distance.

How to protect yourself from mosquitoes with a homemade tent

Such a checker with a safe smoke can be constructed using the following components:

hunting matches (larger than usual);
duct tape;
scissors or a hunting knife;
lighter.

Act in this sequence:

We take a match and wrap it with duct tape. We leave the head of the match available for ignition.
Insert the match into the ground with the head up and light it.

A hunting match burns longer than a regular match because of its size, but it still has a short burning time, but the pesky mosquitoes will leave you in peace for a period of time. This type of checker can be slightly improved. In order to prolong the burning time of the smoke flare, you can use not one but several hunting matches. To do this, stack them overlapping one by one and wrap the construction with duct tape just like in the previous case. You can use such a checker for fumigation of beehives at the apiary. The smoke in this case will not harm useful insects at all. A little more useful information in the following video.

In this article, we have tried to present a variety of options for making smoke bombs at home. All of them are quite simple and convenient both in terms of materials and the process of making and further use. Determine which smoke bombs you need, and act! Good luck and have fun! Do not forget about safety measures!