Introduction: How to Make an Electric Detonator! (Electric Matches)
Step 1: Intro
An electric detonator can be very useful when you are working with fireworks or if you like to experiment just like us. Things can go wrong when you are making your own pyrotechnics. This is why it's very important to have some kind of a detonation system so you can light the fireworks or explosives from a safe distance.
Step 2: What Do You Need?
A battery; the battery we preferably use is a 12v battery. In this video we’re using a 12v battery from a drill.
A switch; The switch is used to let through the electric current to the ignitor. Tie Wraps: We’ll be using tie wraps to mount everything secure. Alternatively you can use hot glue or duct tape. A piece of wood to mount all the individual parts on. A Thick Copper wire. We’re using a copper wire from an old speaker. We will also need Matches for the sake of ignition. Wire management pins. We will be using these to create some nice wire management A spare wire to establish the main connections with on the detonator. A big long wire; this is used to create the distance between you and the fireworks, the more distance, the saver you are, so you can use a wire as long as you want. We’re using 4 meters because we’re only igniting smoke bombs in this video for explanatory purposes. We will also be using an amplifier female connector so we can easily connect new wires.
You will also require some basic tools like a screwdriver and wire cutters.
Now that you know what you need, let's get started with making our very own detonator.
Step 3: Lets Start Building!
Now that you know what you need, let's get started with making our very own detonator.
First; let's grab the 12v battery and connect 2 wires to both of the poles. We like to mark 1 wire so we know which of the two is positive. When you are done you should have something that looks like this.
Alright, now we’ll get to the most complex part of this tutorial but, we’ll show you that it is still pretty simple to do.
2. Let's put the switch on our piece of wood and attach it securely with a tie wrap. Now when you have this you are ready to attach the Female speaker connector on to our “Soon-to-be detonator.” It should look something like this.
3. Now, let's connect the poles to the switch and the Speaker connector. Be sure to first connect the positive pole to the positive pole on the speaker connector. Once you did this you can similarly connect both negative poles with each other. When you are done it should look something like this.
4. Now let’s take care of some wire management. After all, you don’t want your wires to be all over the place, you want them ordered nicely. Attach the wires neatly to the wooden piece and voila.
Now we are going to create the detonator that is going to light the fuse.
5. So let’s take out a match and make a small cut in the head of the match. Now strip a copper wire. We are stripping a speaker wire that is pretty thick. When you don’t have a wire stripped you can light the plastic on fire and slowly burn the plastic that’s around the wire away so that’s why you need to strip the wire first.
6. Now let's get a small piece of copper wire. When you have your small piece of copper wire put it on the match head just like this. Now when the on/off switch is turned on the 12v from the batteries passes through the small copper wire. When the electricity passes through, the wire heats up and ignites the match. Just as you can see here!
Alright, now it's time to test the detonator. We have a small potassium nitrate smoke bomb ready from one of our previous videos. With the detonator inserted in the smoke bomb the ignitor should ignite the smoke bomb while we keep a safe distance.