One of the brothers from Tampa Fire showed me this great idea. It’s simply a wood dowel and a bent nail. This is another effective way to prop open a door. Just open the door, and place the Cherry Bomber over a hinge. Even though it’s on a helmet, it will be added to the “What’s in your Pockets” page. If any of you Tampa guys can send me a name to give credit to, please let me know. -Jimm-
WAYNE TOLZMAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING WHAT WE CALL CHERRY BOMBS. I WORK FOR TAMPA AND HAD THE PREVILAGE OF WORKING WITH WAYNE AT FIREHOUSE 5. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!
Is that dowel also known as a “broomstick”?
Dowel sounds so much better 🙂 Tomayto- Tomahto- It’s all the same.-Jimm-
To improve the product… a Brother from Florida pointed out that when the dowel (or broomstick, lol) gets hot alot of times it splits due to the moisture in the wood. To avoid this, and thus avoid losing your chock and control of the door, wrap the firecracker in electrical tape… holds it all together in case it does split.
Cherry bombs are a great idea. One thing I have noticed is using nails -vs- screws. The nail fell out after time so I changed to screws. I feel it holds in tight and secure. A second option we have used is a 3/4 closed eye hook. We also experimented with a rough 45 degree angled cut at the top of the dowel. This gave us NO better seating on the hindge or improvement on its functuality.
P.S. Great web site with good info.
we’ve had several attempts made by ff’s in our dept with these type door chocks. We found the nail in the dowel method the “best” way to handle it. Some have used hook screws, but that requires a little more assembling than needed. I have recently purchased a 36″ 1 1/4″ dowel and galvanized nails. The nails are 3 1/4″. I considered screws, however, the concern is breaking them when bending them into the hook. I measured hinges on a residence, and a commercial building, and found no difference in the size of hinges worth noting. I’m going to cut the chocks in 4″ lengths to get about 8 of them and drive the nail to about half or more and bend from there. I’m wrapping them with athletic tape you use for wrapping the handle of a bat. I think they’ll work wonders on screen doors. They sem to be quite prevalent here in Florida. Also, if anyone has any other suggestions about removing them in rapid fashion, please post your suggestions here. Stay low, look high…Caro
screen door removals, of course…
new twist on the cherry bombers…We used a 1/8″ drill bit to make a pilot hole in the “side” of the chock. drill nearly halfway and then drive your nail. We bent the nail using pliers. We tried a 90degree bend and then a bend a with a slight bit more curve. The 90 seemed to work best. We also made two diiferent lengths, 3″ and 4″. The 4″ piece, we had to make sure the door completely open. It held the door open at nearly a 90deg angle. The 3″ piece held the door open only slightly less. I will try to send some pictures of them tomorrow. stay low, look high……caro
oh by the way, Chief Rick Lasky will be speaking tomorrow at 0800 at our Public Safety bldg. check the website…
I have sent pics of our finished product. Let me know what you think. stay low, look high…caro
OK, I thought I understood this but, after reading bigpoppa’s comments–I’m a little confused.
Do you just simply hang the nail over the hinge? We tried this with 1 1/4″ dowels that were 4″ long and the door stays open 75 degrees or so. The problem seems to be that when the door is opened fully and allowed to close–the cherry bomb falls out. The 3″ long bombs don’t perform any different.
Am I doing something wrong here?
Thanks and stay safe!
here’s a trademark secret…..make sure the bend on the nail is close to the dowel. the closer the bend to the dowel the more contact with the hinge….I emailed some pic’s to Jimm, but have not seen them posted. You may have to give the door a slight push and roll it forward to hang it on the hinge. It’s like anything else, a litlle trial and error, and practice and wallah. We also used a little dab of gorilla glue to secure the nail even better. The nail goes in the chock on the horizontal. T
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This is as close as I can get without a picture for you. I will try to get you some pics of them in action. We have had several occasions on which to use them here lately.
stay low, look high
caro…
OHHHHHHHH….. I get it.
Stick it in the side! Works much better than on the top.
Just found a little default in the Cherry Bomb… If you plan on not damaging the door you are proping open with the cherry bomb. You should make sure no one tries to slam the door or tries to close the door because it will bend the hinge and slant the door. The door obviously wont close or open properly. A little change in the cherry bomb: make the “broom stick handle” a bigger piece; meaning larger in diameter or in length. Only problem with this is its annoying “in your pocket” and doesnt fit on your helmet.
i made some for my academy and they work great! i changed them a tiny bit tho…i wrapped them in red eletric tape and i used white reflective tape as well…1 stripe for the 1st door, 2 stripes for the 2nd door..ect..that way, you might be able to backtrack or be found a little easier….i have fire control 3 soon, i will keep you updated!