But First:
If you do something dumb and burn yourself bad, don't blame me.
If you do something dumb and a cop is involved, don't blame me either.
And, for the love of God, please don't share this with Arsenul or the other crazy kids like him. Please.
These things, with just the black powder, produce a small pop-bang and a decent bit of smoke. If there's wind, it will be gone quickly though. And they do flash brightly at night.
Here's a vid of one in action.
Ignition:
My method involves two standard heavy washers, two strips of toy cap-gun cap rolls, office tape, and a small piece of flash paper. All easily obtained at your local hardware or convenience store. Except the flash paper. Unless there's a magic shop around go order some off of Amazon.
Lay two strips of the caps on the metal washer. They MUST be lined up on the metal, not over the hole or off the edges. Wrap the excess around the edge.
Tape the excess on the back of the washer with the office tape. Leave the center hole OPEN.
Tear off a bit of flash paper and lay over the cap strips. Make sure there it is also covering the hole. When the caps pop they will ignite the flash paper and the bit over the hole will ignite the black powder and whatever you've mixed with it for various effects.
Gently lay the second washer over the first, trapping the flash paper and cap strips between them. Tape them together firmly. Be careful here. Don't drop them together or the thing will go off and you get to start over.
This is your finished ignition system.
The Rest of It;
This requires the ignition system, the office tape, a square of tin foil, and black powder. Look at your local hunting and gun shops. For extra fun you can add in a few things to the powder but we'll save that for the end.
Put the ignition onto the tin foil and crinkle up the edges to a bowl-like shape to catch the black powder.
Pour in enough to cover the ignition. Uses more if you want a bigger bang and some more smoke. Be CAREFUL. Static electricity has been known to set black powder off. Don't be paranoid, but just take it nice and easy, okay? Make sure that the bottom of the ignition is flat against the tin foil and has no powder between it. This is important for setting it off later.
Gently pull the ends up and form a tight lump out of it.
Completely tape the lump shut, all sides, wrapping the office tape around it. Good and tight. We don't want powder leaking. It's okay to double layer if you need to. It will blow it right open later.
The smoke bomb. Notice the flat side which I'm holding up? That's the washer ignition system. You will have to throw this sucker FLAT and HARD on a hard surface to set it off.
Poof, went off on the first try.
REMEMBER: Throw it flat, throw it hard.
It may take some practice at first but it comes pretty easily after a bit. Flat and hard.
Now, these things seem safe to carry. If you have one on you it probably won't go off unless you fall and take a massive jolt.
You carry these things at your own risk, so be smart, be careful.
You can mix in other substances to get more or different colored smoke. Sugar is a good one as it produces thick white smoke.
Dark Wolf and someone else told me about cinnamon: pleasant smell, more smoke, some sparks.
I am going to grind up colored smoke balls and add some color to mine. Grey Man has ground up sparklers and I'll add some to play with and see what happens.
Have fun, experiment, tell us how it goes.
Grey Man has a different ignition system based on lumps of metal, key slugs, which I used in my first bombs. I'll have him make one and take pics and post them. His has the advantage of four bits of metal and four strips of cap rolls. It's cool, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to set one off if you fell on it. They do pop beautifully.
