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When you withhold a device from a friend when he asks why the fuse is soooo long...

Though it is not a fireworks cake it is a cake 🎂 🎂 .!! Delicious doll cake made by me.

After long time made few shells of 3.5 and 4 inches with flash burst. VID-20241214-WA0024.mp4 Another angle VID-20241213-WA0027.mp4 3.5 inch - crackling microstar commet Size of commet is 22mm - pressed and cut Used rice husks aa bursting charge to reduce the throw of the stars VID-20241214-WA0022.mp4 3.5 inch - Blesser white strobe VID-20241214-WA0020.mp4 4 inch Red & Green stars VID-20241208-WA0008.mp4 3.5 inch Red, Green & crackling star VID-20241214-WA0019.mp4 4 inch - Pumped fast burning red commet with Rice husk burst VID-20241126-WA0005.mp4 Flash burst - 3.5 inch C6 VID-20241214-WA0023.mp4 3.5 inch rolled N1 to red star. Need improvement on the star timings. Flash burst, so not expecting much symmetry

i’ve read with great interest the podts some of you serious pyrotechnicians have done on crossette inserts, and admired your video posts to the extent that i simply HAD to try it. i had played with the inserts and lit a few on the ground until i got one that seemed to work, si i assembled and fired a SMALL test shell this weekend. it was a 1.5” can shell with 6 tiger tail crossettes in it. it was burst with 4-1 mill dust coated rice hulls. the crossette inserts were made with my typical pyrotechnic blasphemy. i made them in my 1/2” star plate, pressed the slightly moistened tiger tail composition by hand with a 1/2” dowel until the hole was full, then cut the cruciform shape with a flat bladed screwdriver pressed about 3/8” deep, 1 indentation at 90 degrees to the other. a couple stuck but most were ok. i then carefully pressed them out of the plate with the 1/2” dowel and dried them in my dry box. when dry, i used a VERY slow drill press to cut a passfire hole to 1/8 inch from the flat end. into that i put a piece of blackmatch, added about 1 grain of 70/30 flash, hot glued a cardboard disk over the cruciform, and wrapped top 3/4 of the insert with two wraps of masking tape, with the excess tape folded over the cardboard disk. finally i touched the bottom to a damp paper towel and pressed it in black powder, around 4fg. typing the description takes longer than making the inserts this way. i know they need a lot af work yet, but for such small (1/2”) crossettes, i was happy to get something recognizable. thanks for letting me ramble on. IMG_1178.mov

Also an observation from punching filled inserts.... I did notice that because the tubes were filled, the punch created a small, completely enclosed, tube like opening of paper which extends past the inside edge of the tube and into the granulated flash. The tube was formed from the paper it pushed out of the way to make the hole, but not torn as much because the fill acts as a support of sorts (like using sand as a casting mold around a object you want to cast, except in this case it's paper around a punch). So I tried piercing an empty tube from the same batch of homemade tubes, it did push paper into the tube, but it did NOT make a fully enclosed tube like the filled inserts. I believe Mumbles speculated on this as being a potential factor that could affect timing, and may be a reason at least some of the Maltese shops still pierce them filled. I think I agree in concept based on what I observed, in my mind its like a mini spolette once filled with B.P. slurry, where the length of the formed mini tube extends the time it takes to get to the comp inside the insert. I also realize that I may not have the consistency in my process *yet* to capitalize on this factor and manipulate the timings on the inserts. Sorry for the long posts, I wanted to capture and share what I learn along the way (for better or worse, success or failure), in hopes it will help someone else. At worst, I didn't want to put everything into a document that people would have to download and/or may eventually get lost.

Just an update to track my progress.... I dug out my old 1t arbor press, bolted it up to some scrap wood and drug it out to the yard. The ram was not pre-drilledlike I thought (similar to my 3t arbor press), so I just hose clamped the brass punch to the front face of the ram (see 1st photo below) I used scrap wood to make a V block to act as a centering jig and hold my inserts in-place while they were punched. I put a wood "bridge" over the V block to wipe the inserts off the punch when the ram is lifted. I used scrap wood blocks as a depth guage by placing them under the ram to restrict its travel and prevent the punch from piercing both sides of the tube. The photo is a bit fuzzy, but here's a look at my quick set-up (minus the plywood shield I scrapped together which stood betwen me and the press, only exposing my gloved hand to the insert if the worst happened). (The long handle extension is also obscured, but it was just electrical conduit pipe slipped over the existing handle.) For safety, I set up a good distance from my house (my shed is pretty far from the house anyways, about 25 - 30 feet behind where the canopy is.) I ended up getting all my inserts punched with this setup, by just changing the depth blocks for the different sized inserts. In full disclosure - I will say that I did not enjoy the suspense of waiting for an insert to be set off by the friction from the punch, since I granulated the comp. I had a lot of safety in place and knew the risk of being seriously hurt were minimal - yet the suspense was not any less. Thankfully, it did not happen. ( I only show the larger inserts here, I went back and finished the smaller inserts after taking this photo) I made up some small 5/16" inserts to test the Gum Arabic (GA) slurry timing out of a star gun. My plan is to determine if 5% incremental increase of GA is enough to provide time / separation between rings of inserts. They were made up with 10%, 15%, and 25% GA slurry, which I hope will provide the rhythm you hear in Maltese beraq videos.

The video you have linked is a different composition that is used for colour smoke. It uses cooler during potassium chlorate and lactose with an organic dye which is atomised by the burning process. You will not be able to get colour using potassium nitrate and sugar as it's burn temperature is too high resulting in the dye being burnt. Back in the day when I used to make the potassium nitrate/sugar/wax mixtures I used this method: • Potassium nitrate 60% by weight • Icing sugar or standard white sugar 40% by weight • Paraffin wax +40% (same weight as the sugar) The potassium nitrate and sugar were well mixed in a bowl. The paraffin wax was melted on a stove top and then poured into the bowl containing the smoke mixture and well blended until uniform. Then the mixture was packed into cardboard tubes. Now, a characteristic of this mixture is it burns terribly and barely ignites when out in the open in a pile or open ended tube This mixture performs best when it has some confinement in a tube with plenty of ejection holes for the smoke to exit. The ideal container was a thick walled cardboard tube with one end plugged. Ejection holes (abut half a centimetre diameter) were drilled along the sides of the tube before filling with a power drill. I used to do one line of holes on each side of the tube and another along the top spaced about 2 cm apart or less if a small tube. So looking at the tibe front on you have them at 12 oclock, 3 oclock and 9 oclock. The bottom quadrant was not done as the tube would be laid flat when igniting with this side down. The tube was filled with smoke mixture and then the other end plugged. A hot burning fuse (sparklers were great) was stuck in one of the holes at an end of the tube and it was ready to go. The three parallel lines of ejection holes in 3 different directions of the circular tube also helped produce decent coverage in all directions and quite an efficient smoke cloud/screen for a simple KNO3 comp. The mixture burns extremely slowly with the 40% extra wax but you still must have plentiful ejection holes available to disperse the smoke produced.

I think you may have meant www.cannonfuse.com in the supplies section Chuck. I'd agree with the above list and suggestions that cmjlab gave. I've also had good success with https://pyrodirect.com/ as well for supplies. There are a few more specialized suppliers for specific things (primarily mortars and wholesale supplies) if you need any suggestions. In addition to that, a lot of useful things can be found at big box stores and hardware stores. This is mostly consumable supplies like glue, paper, string, some select chemicals, etc.

Green star is nitrate based B.nitrate : 53 Sulphur: 5 Metal: 18 ( i have used MgAl as metal here, you can also swap 400 mesh spherical Al as 50:50 with MgAl) - This will add very little tail behind the stars Charcoal: 5 Dextrin: 4 Pvc: 15 You can swap the PVC with Parlon to achieve the colour density but that will also affect the burn rate.

When you pay as much attention to drought reports as a farmer does, despite not growing anything.

Yer not going fast enough. 100MPH should help. OMG who are these nut cases?

Probably belongs in Chemistry or Random Discussion threads. Fair warning - I've never tried this, and it's pure speculation. I've no idea the risks other than it's a flammable material. Anyways, what about kerosene mixed with Vaseline as a gellant (?) Should make a thick flammable mix to help keep it in place and better transfer heat. (Kerosene & Petroleum Jelly = a form of napalm is my understanding).

From source- BaO4C4H6 + 2KNO3 --> Ba(NO3)2 + 2KO2C2H3 Therefore one needs 255g of barium acetate and 202 g of potassium nitrate to start with, giving a final yield of 196g of barium nitrate. Since crystallising out the barium acetate is unnecessary, it is simpler just to weigh out the barium carbonate, then react it with sufficient vinegar (add until reaction ceases, then add a little more barium carbonate to neutralise excess), and mix this solution with the potassium nitrate solution. When doing this, for every 202g of potassium nitrate, you should start with 197g of barium carbonate (which will react to give 255g of barium acetate). Using typical distilled vinegar, just less than two litres was required to react with barium carbonate

It depends on how you process, weight of shell, granules size of lift, cylindrical or ball shell and clearance between shell and mortar tube, purity of ingredients used and milling time. First we dry KNO3 for 4 to 5 hours in sunshine and immediately grind it using coffee grinder to fine powder that should pass atleast 100 mesh, also Sulphur is passed through 100 mesh screen , we use commercial Extra fine charcoal for lift. Mix all ingredients 2 times with 40 mesh screen and 3 times with 80 or 100 mesh screen. Then mixture is damped with clean water with little use of water just to avoid floating it's fluffy airy nature and prevent floating during milling operation. It is screened with window screen to spread water equally into mixture in order to damped it. Then it is poured into wooden base housing as shown in image above and rammed for 1 to 2 hours till powder burns fast enough tough it still has minimum moisture we do burn test between milling process. Then powder is again screened to break lumps and allowed to dry in sunshine. Next binder is added 2 to 3 percent using 60 mesh screen and it is granulated and dried. Size of granules depends on size of shell. Note:- Operateor who is ramming with iron rod should ram in center part of wooden base only and second operator pushes mixture continuously towards the center using long handle spatula to keep his hands safe and away from rammer. This is the method we have been using since many years and not to be recommended professionally it is revealed only for curiosity.

Oh I should add - I've never "moulded" it around the bridgewire though. I suppose that would work, but would take an awfully long time to make any real number of igniters. I've always created a thick slurry (close to the consistency of pancake batter) of copper / mg or copper / Al thermite with NC lacquer. The consistency was thick enough to only need one dip, but thin enough that it would still smooth out into the typical ematch looking head, then once dry (usually by the time you have dipped a hundred ematches or so) then go back and dip them in the NC lacquer of thinner consistency.

We are looking into the use of copper thermite to create igniters capable of burning at higher temperatures than standard commercial igniters. To initiate the reaction, we are using nichrome wire attached to the ends of our copper wires. However, we are uncertain about the best binder to use with the thermite to effectively mold it around the copper/nichrome wire assembly. Do you have any recommendations for a binder or alternative methods to develop exceptionally high-temperature igniters?

I can't cook worth a damn unless it comes in a box. I'm going to starve if my wife ever leaves, or go broke from fast food take out.....

The colour might be faded due to other ingredients which you have used in composition? Like due to excess use of 999/666 aluminium fuel and lower chlorine donor percentage? It's very hard to tell without knowing composition details. Can you mention other ingredients used in this composition? I prefer to dry strontium nitrate first before making any strontium base composition or I postpone my work if weather is an issue. Lab grade strontium prices are double or too much. You might give a try again when weather is good but I am sure colour faded due to excess fuel like aluminium.

What's wrong with that one? In all seriousness I thought it was a nice red with metal sparks, and a most impressive height. The red didn't look orange at all to me, perhaps one of your fuels lightened up the red a bit, but it could have been the camera too. I have seen darker amd lighter red variations between batches of strontium nitrate that I've used in the past, amd ruled out the other components as culprits. I even had one with a orangish yellowish to it. I liked it!

here’s a picture of one of my 1/2” screwdriver cut tiger tail crossettes, as requested. this was obviously “pre-filling.”

I recall reading/hearing somewhere. That's it's very important for the slurry priming to dry well, for precise timing. Like on the order of weeks not days. I can see the higher concentrations of GA. Possibly taking longer to dry. Just an FYI not trying to discourage you from testing them.

All solar panels are based on Si. By old I was meaning obsolete. New ones would work too. Yes, Si is about as hard as glass. Using some steel media works well. A magnet can remove the iron if you really want pure silicon but it wouldn't matter when used in a prime.

Eagerly waiting to see results... Nice job, wel done .!

Looking forward to your results! Did you test the different GA concentrations in a star shooter as well? It would be interesting to see what % GA increase correlates to what timing.

Please show us the pictures of the 10 USD tooling that can replace 236.50 USD - 278.50 USD tooling.

This is true, you have to experiment the tooling for a given size and type of rocket. But once the parameters are recorded, it will always work. Afterwards, the tooling can be reproduced cheaply. 236,50 USD - 278,50 USD for a pro tooling? A homemade tooling set less than 10 USD, and it's good for a variety of sizes rocket,nozzleless BP, WM. In factory fireworks where there is mass production, much cheaper tooling is often used. I think the price difference is worth a little experimentation.

I'd get the nozzled coreburner set. You can use it to make nozzleless rockets too. The nozzleless set won't form a proper nozzle though, so it's not as versatile. You would easily lift 4 and 5" ball shells with that tooling, nozzled or nozzleless. With Hot BP or even whistle-boosted BP in a nozzleless configuration you can lift up to a 6" ball shell. 6" is pushing it though, tbh.

I am piercing them once they are complete (minus slurry). I'm tracking on the risks associated with flash, and flash inserts, but thank you for bringing it up. Since I want to share my progress here, I should also include my safety mitigation steps. To be honest, I'm still not sure I care for the idea, but I want to see firsthand what difference there is between punching before fill vs. after. I will punch them out away from anything else, using an extra 1 ton Arbor Press I dont use anymore. Since the press ram is pre-drilled to accept a 1/2" OD accessory, I will use a 1/2" OD AL round stock, turned down to 1/8" ID at the end as a depth guage to ensure a consistent depth on each insert (which consistency is the most important to timed inserts IMO). To hold and center the inserts under the punch, I will use a wooden V block clamped to the press table. This also mitigates accidentally punching through the tube and hitting the steel press table. For a shield, I could use the shield off my 3t Arbor press, but more likely will use a sheet of 3/4" plywood, setback a couple feet from where the inserts will be punched. In my experience, that should be plenty of setback to ensure the plywood doesn't turn into shrapnel if the worst should happen while punching the inserts. In order to rraxh the handle on the press, i have a 4 ft. extension fir the press handle, which puts me more than enough behind a shield. I will wear eye protection....bit that will be a large part of the assumed risk. Shrapnel from an accident getting my eyes which won't be behind the shield (I still need to see what I am doing). Gloves, cotton clothes, and other obvious stuff will be used. In the end, I hope there is no difference between punching before and after - the safest way is not to punch them after they are filled. However, I still bet there is a noticeable difference......

Pyrogarage.pl I have bought from them several times and so have my friends. They are also correctly available by email. The package is discreet and they are very reliable. And you can buy with PayPal from them. They have everything you need available. But they are not selling KClO3 and KClO4 for invidual users! There is a huge difference in reliability between the two companies.

I use 2 to 3 percent for lift and upto 6 percent for stars.

1-use more lift till you get desire height, height of shell in video is not too low if still you wish you could add a bit more. 2-additional layer to the ball makes shell burst a bit more than present no of layers if your prime is hot enough stars may survive and shell will spread far. 3- milling bp is most best option, if you can't mill just sure all chemicals are fine enough atleast to pass 100 mesh screen, In India two types of charcoal available one is normal and other is ball milled air float which is best for lift. Sieve all ingredients 5 times through 80 mesh screen and don't make granules bigger 2 mm is good choice for 3 inch shell and also keep amount of binder not more than 2 percent as binder affects burn rate. Flash boosting isn't good idea it increases sound unnecessary during launching of shell plus it may destroy shell if it is not reinforced well and will cause shell to burst in a morter sometimes not every time.

Hi guys... I have something to ask related to this topic. I have made some 3 inch ball shells recently (1st time making ball shell). My mortar length is 21". I initially used 10% lift charge. Which did not give sufficient lift. So subsequently I increased the lift charge to 20%. Still I am not happy with the altitude. My lift charge is not ball milled, but finely sieved and 4-12 mesh granules. There was 1-2mm gap between the shell and the mortar - inside. I am attaching some videos. Please have a look and hope you can throw some light. My questions are 1. What should I do to increase the altitude? 2. Does adding more layers to the shell to make it more confined to the mortar negatively impact the shells? Will that destroy stars? 3. If the quality of my lift charge is the issue, can I boost it with some flash powder? (Ignore the quality of stars in shells 1 and 2. I randomly filled them with whatever old stuff I had) Welcome any other suggestions... Shell 1.mp4 Shell 2.mp4 Shell 3.mp4

See: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/pyrohub.eu The old (pyrohub.eu) redirected to blast-tec.com. Currently the only webshop in EU what are selling 40% KClO4, KClO3 mixed with 60% water, so it can be sold this way to private individuals because its in the EU Explosives Precursors Regulation limit. But customers feedback is very mixed. Doubtful webshop, not one of the completely reliable ones. Buy only with PayPal, if the package do not arrive, you will get your money back! To be honest, I would only buy from them if there was nothing else. But if someone need KClO4 with other chemicals, choose them and if there is a problem let the pyro community know. KNO4 potassium pernitrate I think there is no such thing, there should be a safety data sheet and the name of the manufacturing company. It is not a raw material that can be produced at home. I haven't heard of any manufacturer or distributor in the world who would produce something like this. This is a very unstable peroxide bond. The URL of the website has changed, who knows what happened. This is a red flag!

Apparantly it is gimmick to get around the restrictions on perchlorate to individuals in EU. It is a blend of 60 KNO3 and 40 KClO4.

I always use finer mesh for my charcoal effect. It enhances beauty of effect.

There is high chance that most of formulas from patented literature just dont work. You may try out this I just tested it over ground not in shell mine or fountain....I just made a stars and ignited over ground....it produces molten slag and it is throwed against high wind it flashes with yellow strobe type effect. The formula is also collected from google patent document. KNO3 50 Sulphur 15 Sodium bicarbonate 15 Magnelium 10 Charcoal 10 Sieved with 40 mesh screen and mixed well. Then using NC lacquar stars are formed.

Mad☆boy20240516_154617.mp4 Gun powder burning test in paper

One more thing I forgot to mention in my last post. If you run into problems trying to get fast enough BP without a ball mill, and you just can't wait, try out Rcandy to get your rocket fix. All you need is an old pan and an electric hot plate. An old electric deep fryer like a Fry Baby works even better (once again look at a Good Will or other resale store). If you don't know what Rcandy is; It's 65% KNO3 and 35% sugar. You can dry melt it (which means you have to have finely ground KNO3 and sugar) and pack it into your rocket tube, or you can dissolve it in water and boil it down until the water is gone. I have gotten better results using the water method.

A little tip: hit up the resale shops like GoodWill and look for old kitchen blenders. Make sure to get two of them; one for oxidizers and one for fuels (this is important for safety!) Blenders grind up your chemicals very well and fast too! You can reduce charcoal to airfloat in no time. Even after you get your ball mill, the blenders will still come in handy. Another safety tip; don't put mixtures in a blender!! Only single chemicals! I use mine rather often. By the way, IMHO a ballmill is NOT an option, it is a necessity for this hobby!

Hey SW, Link is broken it seems. Yes, i had to break couple of my stars which i followed tri-layer prime, where prime is about 3 mm including all layers and its slow buring which made the Orange color more visible. I don't have a oven with me, i used to store my strontium nitrate in air tight container and i used to feel its hydroscopic nature whenever i am making rolled stars. It used to pick up lot of water. Even one puff of spray will make good round stars to mushy one. Last week i have made both nitrate based green and red star and left it dry in shade for 5 days. Its kind of humid here due to starting of mansoon season so red took entire 5 days to dry, where green is dry as marble with three days. Again priming the red star with water is where i made mistake.. after 4 days of drying cores are moist and prime has hardened. My prime is Si and Mgal based prime. where my Si is 6% and mgal is <5% coated about 1mm and another 1mm of green prime. I have checked my log book.. i used less mgal. Lit the green and red stars in star mine, where all stars lit beautiful and color is good. Video in attachment. When i tried it by shell, the stars went dark. In shell i have used green star. silicon based prime.. Any suggestions, does it went blind due to hard break? I have IPA and acetone in my stock. Both are cheap enough. VID-20210620-WA0005.mp4 VID-20210620-WA0006.mp4

I never had the to hot of fuel problem. I use the 76/23 benz with oxychloride on my 1lb super black powder spindle and i lift 500 grams easily.sali just wont work for me on anything but a lws setup at 76/23,and my top half of fuel must be toned down like recommended. It just catos everytime over 4 increments on BP spindle and on my 3lb extreme strobe spindle, it blows at 4 increments also. I hate sali for that reason,lo its to damn hot all the time,benny 76/23/oxy works everytime as long as you side fuse it correctly and it lifts like a workhorse for me personally. So what im trying to say is for me personally,sali is useless except for the notable extra power when i use it as a delay,it blows up mostly for me,but benz works on anything,BP,strobe,or homemade spindle as far as i can see,even a crappy one made from a stainless bolt i got at a surplus store. And it lifts ridiculous weights,high up in the air,i never once thought boy I wonder how i could make this shit faster.....They already take off so fast a cellphone is useless to record because its gone and off the screen before you even realize it,two of my friend nick named them missles,lol there insane as far as i am concerned... Please dont flame me ,i am a amatuer and claim to be nothing else,just sharing my personal experience

File Name: Red, green and white flying fountain (Uron Tubri) File Submitter: BengaliFireworks File Submitted: 23 Sep 2020 File Category: Rocketry Uron tubri Click here to download this file

Good summary, I did exactly that one year for am impromptu rocket. I also agree that it may need the nozzle to get the thrust Phil mentions. I will say as a way of encouragement though, buy a cheap rock tumbler and make your life easier.

Buen trabajo amigo, mas gente de la tierra por el foro. Saludos!

All the time (and I've used it myself) I hear about using double base smokeless powder for making n/c lacquer. Is there a reason for using this instead of single base? From what I've researched, single base is still available and one wouldn't have to worry about nitroglycerin. Just curious.

File Name: Rocket Calc File Submitter: Eduardo File Submitted: 09 Aug 2013 File Category: Miscellaneous The Rocket Calc is a simple Excel sheet that calculate the BP suggestion compositions for 1 oz. until 8 lb. rocket engines and a table of a lot of engines sizes (I.D., Wall, etc in inch and cm). It is for a beginer, like me! Enjoy v.2.0 included the hand roller tube calc. and all translated to english. Click here to download this file

I think that chlorate organic reds work very well without an additional chlorine donor. I use a modification of a Hardt's formula: Potassium chlorate 67 Strontium carbonate 18 Red gum 6 Shellac 4 Dextrin 5 The formula has a good burn rate, while it benefits of the color enhancement from the shellac. I think it's the most beautiful chlorate/SrCO3 red I've ever done. No hygroscopicity issues.

It's my own comp I use 67 KClO3 13 Cu oxy 8 PVC 5 Shellac 5 Dextrin

You know guys, the idea of these type of jokes is to not use common sense, and be some what comical. Bad example: You know you're a guy when.................you have a dick. Well no shit. Good Example: You know you're too drunk when...........Senators Kennedy and Packwood shake their heads when they walk past you

Hi, my name is Nelson and I'm a recovering alcoholic. Everyone else: "Hi Nelson". This is my first 24 hour chip and I feel great. Everyone else: "::::clapping:::::" AA is great and with the support from God and everyone here I know I can make it.... LOL, I couldn't resist and no, I'm not actually and alcoholic or recovering from being one. AA really is preitty fun though.