Aerial Shells

[Yankie]

Don't know about using spherical or granular Al, but 2Al + 3S → Al₂2S₃ is very exothermic and when made with flake Al, it will light from ordinary visco. It's a cheap and easy thermite igniter. I've used it for both Fe₂O₃ and CuO thermites. You could try it with your granular or spherical and see if it works.

 

Easier still is to get some cheap -350 coated flake from Hawk Mtn, and make a slow booster from KNO₃, S, and Al - given the cost of Copper Oxide these days, it'll probably save you some money in the long run.

 

The S:Al 3:2 works brilliantly with 200 mesh granular, it just needs a tiny bit of meal powder to get it going but it works great. Thankyou very much for that it has made my life alot easier (and cheaper).

[GraafVaag]

@Tentacles

Thanks on the spiking, I looked it up in Fulcanelli pt1, great explanation there.

 

I'll make some whistle next time, still got some benzoate somewhere.. 75/25 perchlorate/benzoate with 4% dextrin to pulverize it?

And how do you arrange the whistle in a can? Just thrown in loosely between the BP? Or do you make a core for it?

[ULTRABUF]

Hey, haven't dropped by for a while, figured I would an check out the shells that you guys have been making. Nice job all, I especially liked that beraq!

[oskarchem]

Maybe this is in the wrong forum, but to answer your question shortly; he's a big lyer, telling people their parcel is on it's way, but when checking the trackcode it seems he posted the the parcel much later. Shipping should normaly take a view days to every country in Europe, but when ordering from him it can take 2 months or even longer.

 

btw, I thought you're from France?

 

Aha, thank's for telling me, because I was gonna order some AP and some spherical aluminum. Yeah, I'm from France, but born in Poland, and all of my family is Polish.

 

To stay on topic, I can never get my spiking to look like that on shells. I've been reading about it on Passfire, but I can never get nice squares...Maybe I'll throw some shells together during this 4 day weekend.

[Miech]

It takes some practice to make a good spiking, no one will do it perfectly at the first try. It helps a lot if you first practice at a piece of scrap cardboard tube, as it doesn't matter if you screw it then. Also, read carefully through the papers of Fulcanelli, especially part 1 is really helpful if you want to make good cilinder shells. The other parts are for somewhat more complicated shell construction.

 

Nice shells though, I like that tiger tail shell. I've made something similar with C6 +10% titanium pumped stars, which I'll be shooting at new years eve.

[oskarchem]

Thanks, I'll try to find the first part of the Fulcanelli papers. I really enjoy cylinder shells, maybe more than round ones.

[psyco_1322]

You can just make the whistle as if it was for rocket fuel, since that ends up with the most completely mixed end product. You could rice it with about 2% red gum, that would yield hard granules that still have punch. Just dump it into your burst charge, mix it in with it, like it was a ball shell, just adding it to the burst - sprinkled in the center. For a 3" cannister I would say to start with about 5g, you may need more if you find it too weak still. 75/25 would be ok, anything from the 76/23 to the 70/30 will work, more oxidizer yield faster burn rates of the fuel. For booster it wont really matter, just how much time you want to spend weighing out to the exact amounts. Good luck.

[Mumbles]

Short of flashbags, I never measure my burst. Just fill up the canule, and away you go. It's easier to adjust canule size that worry about masses. 5/8-7/8" canule should be good for a 3" shell. I've used whistle as a burst once, and it worked too well. It set off all of my siattines. This was probably due to poor siattine construction than excessive burst though.

 

There is a trick to nice spiking by the way. It might seem dumb, but it really helps. Mark off the location of your verticals on your enddisk. I just eyeball it, and they turn out fine. I only do the top and am able eyeball the string perpendicular. Also really yank on the spiking string, both horizontals and vertical. You want it to very visibly bite into the disks. My shells will often be a bit narrower in the center than the edges, like an eggtimer. Extremely solid though. I've lifted quite a few large multibreaks and have never had an issue. I off center spike, and it's nearly impossible to get the string even if you don't mark off the locations. The horizontals I actually make smaller than usual, more rectangular than square usually.

[Mumbles]

6" Lancaster Yellow Glitter

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Gold%20Glitter.wmv

 

8" Double petal - Outer modified slow gold, inner Wilbur blue

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Brocade.wmv

 

 

Some of my latest shells.

[Richtee]

6" Lancaster Yellow Glitter

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Gold%20Glitter.wmv

 

8" Double petal - Outer modified slow gold, inner Wilbur blue

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Brocade.wmv

 

 

Some of my latest shells.

 

Man, that glitter hangs around for ever! Very cool shells. You edited the vids pretty tight tho... I rather enjoy the launching thump that was cut out.

[Mumbles]

Not my edit job. I got them from someone else. The launch thump was not included. Besides compressing the raw video, I actually only edited about a second off of the brocade video which contains my name.

[qwezxc12]

Nice to see some of your stuff...

[Pretty green flame]

Awesome shells Mumbles, Lancaster's yellow glitter looks fantastic.

[psyco_1322]

Great shells mumbles. Did the lancaster one have an inner petal too? It kinda looked like there were some non-glitter stars in the center of the burst. Both cannister shells?

[50AE]

Very, very beautiful shells, congratulations Mumbles ! Especially the glitter one. That's a show.

[Mumbles]

Both ball shells. I wish I could get that kind of symmetry from canisters, or have the money and resourced to make 8" canisters. The lancaster glitter was just a single petal. They should all have been glittering. Perhaps it was just the burst carrier burning that you saw at the center, or perhaps I demolished some stars.

[Zmuro]

This is my way of spiking cylinder shells and it gives quite symmetrical breaks.

http://shrani.si/t/3i/2g/4EMU2IRc/4in-cilinder-shell1.jpg http://shrani.si/t/3I/a8/4W6z5iLt/4in-cilinder-shell2.jpg http://shrani.si/t/Y/rK/iXASqm1/4in-cilinder-shell6.jpg

[psyco_1322]

Thats some nice off-center spiking Zmuro.

 

Oh a question for you, about those great shells you posted a few pages back. The Spider with Ti for the ring in the first shell, what was the specs on that Ti?

[Zmuro]

Thats some nice off-center spiking Zmuro.

 

Oh a question for you, about those great shells you posted a few pages back. The Spider with Ti for the ring in the first shell, what was the specs on that Ti?

I used 5% of titanium sponge.

[mormanman]

Zmuro, how do you get the two parallel strings like that (the top view.) I've never understood that part.

[Frozentech]

Zmuro, how do you get the two parallel strings like that (the top view.) I've never understood that part.

 

Offset spiking is covered really well in the Fulcanelli articles in Pyrotechnica IX and XI. Basically, using a 3" shell as an example, you would mark the end disks at 12 points around the edge ( like the hours on a clock to make it simple ). When you wrap the twine up over the top, at say 12 o'clock, it crosses the top of the shell, and wraps down at 5 o'clock, instead of directly opposite at the 6 o'clock position. Same thing on the bottom of the shell. After 12 vertical wraps, it comes out looking like that. Practice it a few times and it becomes almost automatic.

[mormanman]

Ok, I'll work on it.

[Mumbles]

Frozentech left off one important detail I feel. The reason you start at 5 o'clock instead of 6, is to give the off-set. You then have to skip an "hour".

 

Assuming you're looking down at the top of the shell with the string tied off to the time fuse, and it starting at 12 o'clock on top the order would go:

 

12

 

5

10

 

3

8

 

1

6

 

11

4

 

9

2

 

7

(12)

 

You will notice I placed a line break between each set. This is the vertical section you will see. Try drawing it to get the hang of it. A circle with 12 dashes around the circumfrence. Now connect each of the sets I mentioned, and you should get a nice offset pattern. I just did it myself and I got it to work.

[mormanman]

And it will look exactly like zumuro's? Unbelievable, I'll try it.

[Richtee]

And it will look exactly like zumuro's? Unbelievable, I'll try it.

EXACTLY. No Doubt. Quod erat demonstrandum.