Making smoke obscuring devices.

[zombiemedic]

I've been fascinated with smoke grenades since I was a young teen and as a older teen I used to make them by caramelizing sugar and stump remover(potassium nitrate) and pouring it into a short 2" pvc pipe with the caps touching and with the top cap having several 1/4" holes drilled into it with the fuse in the middle hole.  These fit perfectly in a grenade pouch.  These worked OKAY,  the problem being they were essentially rocket candy (a hobby solid rocket fuel) with smoke as a by product.  They put off a lot of flame causing them to be a fire hazard and breathing in the fume from molten PVC isn't exactly good for you. I have used the enola gaye smokes over the years but never bought any in bulk and the ATF seems to be banning all the larger ones.  Several years later I found these youtube videos. 



I made a few dozen of these using the 2"x4" heavy wall kraft paper tubes form pyrocreations.com .  I used high quality visco fuse and used hot glue to plug the vent hole and to hold the fuse in place. The pressure and heat from the smoke mixture displaces the hot glue easily.  I also used a generic flexseal like spray to waterproof the devices.  These are heavy but have a decent output of smoke with burn fairly cool and I can even hold my hand directly over the  vent hole with no ill effect.  These are actually pretty good and fit into a specter or condor 2 mag pouch very nicely.  

A few weeks ago I found these videos and I think he's onto something. 



I'm not sure how I feel about using the mineral oil vs paraffin wax but the pull string igniters seem great, especially using the larger storm proof matches to ignite the smoke mixture.  I'm probably not going to use tiki torch canisters but I ordered some empty pint size paint cans to try out.  These are slightly larger than the paper tubes but will hold twice the volume.  I'll post further findings in the next few weeks. 

[zombiemedic]

Here is a video a went ahead and uploaded onto my youtube off my phone from a year or two ago.  Ya'll should probably ignore my thick southern accent and also fat shame me into doing better but it's a good example of one of the tech ingredients versions of a smoke device made from the thick wall kraft paper tubes. 

[corvus]

Former coworker now has a class 3 / FFL business and sells the Enola EG18X smokes.

No idea how they compare as they are the onky ones I have ever tried.

Sportsman Guide sells a British surplus pouch that is a good fit for them. The pouch was made for a British smoke of some kind.

[zombiemedic]

As a update I bought the firefox pull string igniter kit and I followed the instructions but they did not work reliably at all. The pint paint cans, even thought they were lined with Durhams' water putty, got VERY hot and I think I will stick with the thick wall kraft paper tubes form pyro creations.