Pyromaniac Sparkler Fire Fountain

Welcome to instructable 121, It has taken me a long time to make it here and I hope you enjoy!

Apologies must be made about the blurry photos - it is quite hard photographing and making an 'ible single handedly without a proper camera and a tripod.

So, without further ado, here is my 121st instructable - Pyromaniac Sparkler Fire Fountain.

You won't be able to make it through fully without a parts list so lets start there:

• One sheet of A4 paper (any colour)
• A pair of sturdy scissors
• A pencil
• Box of matches
• 5 Sparklers
• Aluminium foil
• A hose outside where you will be lighting the fountain
• At least one whole read through this instructable

Once you have found all the supplies, you can make this fountain!

So, you may have noticed we are making stage 2 before stage 1 of the fountain.

This is because we have to make the base first...

Grab the al-foil and pull out a tad more foil than the length of the sparkler - see picture note.

Fold the foil like in the second picture, just a bit longer than the 'sparkly stuff' on the sparkler.

Put the pencil onto the edge of the foil and roll the foil firmly but not tightly around the pencil, if you roll it too tightly it will be hard to get the pencil out! (I rolled mine too tightly and it took a long time to get the foil off the pencil)

Find the end of the pencil in the foil and flatten from there to the end like shown.

Now, remove the foil leaving a tube capped by a flat piece of foil like in the last picture.

This is the second stage of the fountain - it is also the bit that should get the hottest hence why we have put so much foil around it.

Move onto the next step!

Now it is time to make some fuel for your fountain, grab your five sparklers and set aside one of them - don't break this one, it is our fuse.

Start by bending the four sparklers one by one over the paper and breaking off the gray sparkly stuff.

Keep all four sparkler wires, we will need them later.

Make a crease in the paper and put the pile of 'fuel' into the crease, we are going to use this as a funnel type thing.

Once you have broken up all four sparklers we can move on!

Here is the hardest thing about making an instructable for me - single handedly doing the project and trying to take photos along the way without a tripod and using a smartphone! so I apologize for the lack of 'action' photos.

You need to use both hands (As I did, thus no photos of it) and tip the 'fuel' into the tube slowly.

When the tube fills up, you need to stop pouring, grab the pencil and ram the sparklers into the tube careful not to bust out the end.

Once you have packed the 'fuel' into the tube the level will have gone down, fill again and repeat.

Once your fuel is about 3 millimeters away from the top of the tube you can stop packing and then prepare the fuse.

Firstly you need to cut off the wire end of the sparkler leaving about an inch (2cm) of wire on the end like in the blurry photo.

Then you need to stick the wire into the packed down 'fuel' until the base of the sparkly stuff touches the 'fuel'.

Now, we can continue to the next step!

Finally we can make stage 1.

This is going to be the part of the fountain that lights first, make sure you pay attention to the photos and try to replicate them.

Grab a second piece of foil and make it about the length of the sparkly stuff, fold it in half and tightly wrap it around the top of stage 2 - this is the hard part, you need to wrap the base of stage 1 tightly and the top of stage 1 loosely.

You are basically making a funnel and attaching it to stage 2 tightly, creating a seal.

Once your fire fountain looks like mine in the second photo you can continue!

Time to add the last of the fuel into our fountain.

Pour the 'fuel' into the 'funnel thing' the same way as last time and when it gets full, pack it down into the funnel with the pencil again.

It is OK to have the fuse to one side although if you can manage to make it central that's great!

All the 'fuel' should fit into the funnel, pack it down tightly and using the scissors, trim off the top of the funnel if you need to, we want the 'fuel' to be about 3 millimeters away from the top of the funnel.

Now we can make the stand!

Time to make the stand to keep this project safe(ish)...

Remember those wires you put aside earlier? grab those (All four of them in case you make a mistake) and bend them 90* almost at the halfway mark.

Now wrap the shorter end of the wire around the flattened part of stage 2 like I did in the second picture.

Grab the second wire and put it opposing the first wire and wrap it the same way creating two 'prongs' like the posts of a LED (And like the third picture...)

Grab the third piece of wire and position it in the middle of the first two wires and wrap it the same way around the flat bit of the fountain.

If you bent a wire wrong or if you broke a wire, grab your fourth wire and use it as a replacement.

Bend the three wires like mine in the fourth photo and make them so the fountain can stand up on it's own.

Now we can prepare to light the fountain!

Rightio, you have made your fountain, both stages, the stand and prepared your place where you will light the fountain. Or have you?

Preparing the ground is easy, just make sure there is no loose debris within a meter of the fountain and make sure that nobody is within 2 meters of the fountain when it is lit or burning (Except you).

Set the sparkler tripod into the dirt and make sure it is slightly pointed away from spectators and steady.

Now, grab those matches and light the fuse!

Action shots are seen here using the help of a tree outside and a video, I started the video, lit the match (And sparkler) and then grabbed the phone and continued videoing.

Stand back as the fuse burns and then prepare to witness the fountain!

You also should see the aluminium melt and possibly the whole thing droop from the heat.

When the reaction finishes and all the sparkler 'fuel' is burned up the alloy will still be very hot, spray it with the hose until it cools and then spray it more until it is cold. spray it a bit more for good measure :)

Cngratulations! You have made, lit and witnessed a Sparkler Fire Fountain! You can call yourself a Pyromaniac if you like :D

Thanks for getting through the instructable, check out my other 'ible in the fire series: Pyromaniac Chrysanthemum Kusudama

JM1999