“Fireballs” Ultralight 2g Cotton Ball Fire Starters

[Rocco Speranza]

I've updated the design to the classic cotton ball fire starter. I dubbed the name accidentally when making the video. :P

I've improved them in several ways:

1. Lighter (1-3 grams each vs. 3-5 grams each)
2. Smaller
3. Less messy
4. Easier to make
5. Still just as effective as the classic ones

I made a video on how to make them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rotV4PLebws

Edit:
Here is a comparison of mine vs the other styles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxqMP-yuqg8

Tell me what you think!
Thanks for looking!

[Erik Basil]

Rocco,

I want to check it out, I really do! Sixteen minutes of vid is too much for me, though. I have the attention span of a squirrel in that Over the Hedge movie. :)

Can you boil down "the answer" to either a quick description or a radical new editing project that concentrates the information into a shorter video?

[Randy Amos]

Good idea man but way too much video for what it is.

Essentially, Cut the cotton ball in half, heat up petroleum jelly to liquefy it. just barely dip the half cotton ball into the liquid petroleum jelly.

Less petroleum jelly and smaller cotton ball = less weight but still has similar burn time to full size cotton balls hand dipped in room temp petroleum jelly.

[Ben C]

Thanks, Randy, for the down and dirty. Like Eric, I did not have the patience to watch the end.

[Rocco Speranza]

Yeah, guess you are right… I do tend to over explain everything in videos I make.
I think it's a habit from my other channel "Mechrocktech". When you have to explain to people how a computer works and they have no clue how, I have to go step by step.

I'll see if I can make a shorter one, but in the mean time Youtube added an awesome scrubber feature so it makes it much easier to look through longer videos like this.
Hover over the load bar and you should see a mini picture pop up of what is being shown in the video at that time.

Edit:
Also, Randy pretty much explains it perfectly for those wondering!

[Ben C]

Thanks for contributing, Rocco. Hope to see you in the NC hills soon. I was out there last weekend.

[Bill Segraves]

Have you considered trying paraffin rather than petroleum jelly? I've been making cotton balls fire starters using melted paraffin and so far they seem to work pretty well. And no mess.

Cheers,

Bill S.

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