In this project were making a miniature colored smoke bomb keyring, based, just for fun around the game Fortnite. But you could make it an even simpler shape if you wanted to.
Keyring smoke bomb
It was always my intention to make a keyring smoke grenade at some point, and with the phenomenon of the game Fortnite it seems a good idea to build it based on a design in the game, just because it was so cool looking. Whether you like the game or not, you could simplify this build if you wanted to. Just keep the shape of the container plain. The important part of this build is the size and shape of the nuts and bolts so you can fit the ‘off the shelf’ smoke pellets inside.
Coloured smoke bombs
In this build I use simple cheap 3 gram smoke pellets available online or in hardware or tool stores. In the UK you can find ‘smoke pellets’ for testing flues cheaply online at Toolstation or Screwfix, these are usually flameless orange or grey/white. You can of course buy them from eBay or Amazon, but they may cost more. At a burn time of 45 seconds they are reliable and let out a decent amount of smoke.
I also tested some dubious non-brand 3rd party smoke pellets from eBay and while they did smoke more (on occasion) they were less reliable and made my eyes sting. All colored smoke pellets emit a horrible dye that can stain anything they come into contact with and you should never breathe any smoke of any description regardless of what the product says. Lungs are designed to breathe clean air only!
How to make the keyring
The body of the smoke bomb is made from a long M16 hex nut coupler (nut) and a M16 stainless steel bolt. The M16 thread allows the 3g smoke pellet to fit inside the finished smoke keyring with just enough room for a single wrap of aluminium foil. Make sure you have the same thread pitch on both the nut and bolt or they will not screw together. I used M16x2 for both.The handle was made from some scrap 5mm aluminum, and the decorative sides were 0.5mm scrap aluminum sheet.
The handle fits to the body of the grenade with small 3mm bolts I found in the shed. A 3mm tap to make the thread can be bought cheaply individually on eBay if you don’t have a set. Again, make sure that the pitch of the bolt thread and tap match. If I’d have thought about the design the handle could have cut into the screw top slightly, then it would have looked more game original and saved me a bolt and tapping a second hole. You live and learn.
Using a drill as a lathe
I don’t have a lathe, I can’t afford one. You can see in the video my drill – vice – mini clamp stand-in worked pretty well once you get past the initial ‘lumpy’ start.
Fortnite keyring grenade template
The template below can be used to print off and cut around if you wanted to make your own.
The above project is aimed at adults for education and entertainment purposes only, not to replicate. Anyone doing so takes full responsibility for their own actions.