These electronic igniters will reliably light any firework with a fuse on it. They are designed to use in conjunction with my Fireworks Controller, but can be used with any electronic controller that you may have built already, or even any 12v battery. They are relatively simple to construct and are made of common materials already available in your house or at a local hardware store. You don't need nichrome wire to construct these igniters.

Use these igniters ONLY IF:

It is legal to launch fireworks where you live
You are using factory/store bought fireworks
You are far away from dry grass
The launching area around the fireworks is clear
There are adequate safety features on your controller to reduce the chance of an accidental detonation while connecting the igniters

The author (Systemf92) is not responsible for any accident, damage, legal trouble, encounter with law enforcement or death that may occur from the use of these electronic firework igniters. Use at your own risk.

Step 1: Acquire Your Materials

The parts you will need shouldn't be to hard to find, if you don't have them around your house, then your local hardware store should carry them.

Parts Needed

Any small gauge insulated hookup wire, stranded or solid, around 20-24AWG (Size doesn't matter that much, as long as the gauge is not smaller than the steel wool you will be using. You will need about 6" per igniter.)
Matches, one per igniter
Electrical tape
Grade #3 steel wool (commonly used to remove paint and clean engines)

Tools Needed

Scissors (or teeth, for cutting electrical tape)
Wire strippers (if you don't have any, try using scissors)

Step 2: Tape Wires to the Match

First, cut two 3" pieces of wire for your igniter. Strip about 1/2" off of each end. Line up the wires on both sides of a match, with one end of the stripped wires lined up with the match head. Wrap electrical tape around both wires and the match to hold them in place. Make sure they have stayed on opposite sides of the match after you tape them to it. See the second picture below for the placement of these wires.

Step 3: Wrap the Match Head With Steel Wool

Now that the wires are taped to the match, we can add the heating element, steel wool.
Take your ball of steel wool and look for a long, thick piece. The pieces are not uniform throughout the ball, so find a good one that is about 3" long. Extra length can be cut off when we are finished, so don't worry about having a piece that is too long.

First, pinch the end of the steel wool strand between one of the wires and the match, as seen in the first photo below. This will keep it from slipping off when we wrap it around the match head.

Wrap the steel wool around the head, around the wire on the opposite side, and back to the wire you started on. Then, do this once more (wrap it around the match twice). When you have done this, you should have two strands of steel wool crossing each side. See photos below for more detail.

The number of times you wrap the steel wool around the match head is important because if the steel wool wraps around too many times it will just conduct and not heat up. Too little, and it burns up before it can ignite the match.

After wrapping the steel wool around twice, loop it around the wire you started on a bunch of times to take up the extra length and hold it in place.

Step 4: Secure the Steel Wool

After the steel wool is wrapped around the match and connected to each wire, fold the ends of the wire back over the loops in the steel wool to keep them from sliding off the end of the igniter. This is the final step, and you are ready for ignition.

Step 5: Using the Igniters

To use the igniter, connect it to a long run of two conductor cable such as speaker wire with alligator clips on one end. Connect one alligator clip to each lead on the igniter, as seen in the picture below. Connect the opposite end of the long speaker wire to one channel on a fireworks controller. These igniters are designed to be used with 12v DC power, which is the right amount to correctly heat the steel wool. If you do not feel up to the task of constructing an entire controller, using a 12v battery will work fine too, just connect the leads of the speaker wire to the terminals when you are ready to fire. This isn't the safest option, but it works.

Depending on the thickness of your speaker wire, you should be able to prop the igniters up in a way that will keep them near enough to the fuse of a firework to ignite it. Leaning the match heads right up against the fuse itself has worked well for me so far.

Things to consider:

Make sure that the alligator clips are not touching each other, as this would cause a short circuit
Make sure the exposed wires near the match head of the igniter are not touching each other
If the igniter does not ignite after 1-2 seconds of pushing on the ignition button (applying power to the circuit) stop pressing it or you will short out your controller/battery because the full current is flowing back to it, rather than having the resistance of heat in the steel wool.)
When the igniter is used up, it ideally will completely break the connection between the two wires, but sometimes it doesn't, so a channel might show up on your controller as still being unfired, even if the match has already been burnt up. Keep track of what you have fired already, because there is usually at least one igniter that does this in a batch of 12 being used at once.

Video of ignition

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83 Comments

matthewr258

4 years ago on Introduction

Yeah thats a great way to ignite fireworks i have used matchheads and steelwool speaker wire and hairspray to coat the steelwool and a 9 volt battery i used2 to3 matcheads powder it up and spray the hairspray into the steelwool and a scrap plate to roll a length of steelwool into the matchhead powder it will stick to the steelwool and though messy it works nicely with speaker wire and 9 volt battery tape a plastic sheet over the fuse and wired fuse you made and it blocks the wind and keeps moisture off. Nice inscrutable as well be safe peace out.

Jerimiah40

13 years ago on Introduction

How would you recommend attaching this to the actual firework?

3 to 1 launch

7 years ago on Introduction

cool method. thanks :)

Raydoom

13 years ago on Step 5

nice Igniter , How many volts did you use ?

im3733

10 years ago on Introduction

Theoretically, one could use several strands of a much finer grade of steel wool, like 00 or 000, since you can light 0000 with a normal match and it will smolder itself to oblivion, theoretically, using something a little thicker would both have the advantage of increased resistance, meaning more heat, and being burned up by the lit match. This would decrease the likelihood of a fired channel showing up as unfired on the box.

static

12 years ago on Introduction

An interesting approach, but here I would think the breeze would blow out the match before it lit the fuse.

kscience

11 years ago on Introduction

actually- a dipped tantalum capacitor, wired reverse polarity will ignite nicely from a 12v gel cell; it will also stay lit, as I found out once on a project that was not supposed to ignite. :P

Introduction: Fireworks Igniter