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Aerial Shells


Chris

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Who says you have to use expensive tape? Paste with 3 horizontal wraps of light craft. It gives me a powerful, symetrical break every time.

Right on, bud. :-)

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VERY NICE job on the construction, Al!!!

 

I, too, can't wait to see this go boom.

 

M

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I remember in the last shells you gave the burst weight, lift weight ect'...

Did you weight the paper case in this shell? (Just to know if only my cases are so havy ^_^ )

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Very nice Al. I made one similar, but I don't have a mortar to fire it. It was supposed to be a 3" but after pasting its to fat for my 3" mortar. :(
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wow very nice shell !! beautifull shell! :rolleyes:
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The shell weighed in at 824 grams, and is lifted by 55 grams 3fa. Sorry I did not weigh the empty case, or the burst.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9...canfinished.jpg

 

Can't wait to light it! I am now making strobe shells, and then two 6" saturn shells. expect pictures of them soon!

Mind sharing the strobe formula you'll be using for your strobe shell.

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Sure, Here they are:

 

White: (regular blesser strobe)

Barium Nitrate 51

Sulfur 19

Magnalium 100 mesh 18

Potassium Nitrate 7

Dextrin 5

 

Green

 

46 Ammonium Perchlorate

18 Magnesium (100-325 mesh)

18 Barium Sulfate

10 Barium Carbonate

8 Saran resin

2 Potassium Dichromate

 

Orange

 

60 Ammonium Perchlorate

24 Magnesium (100-325 mesh)

13 Calcium Sulfate

8 Calcium Carbonate

5 Potassium Dichromate

5 Saran resin

 

Red

 

50 Ammonium Perchlorate

18 Magnesium (100-325 mesh)

16 Strontium Sulfate

10 Strontium Carbonate

8 Saran resin

2 Potassium Dichromate

 

So far I have only tried the white and orange, they both work very well. I just need to coat my Mg in dichromate. Of course the AP / Mg strobes are only storable for 4-6 months. So I am trying to get the altered white blesser to work as a green by adding chlorine donors. I tried by adding 12% Saran resin, and it did not perform that great. I will work on it and report back when I have a good formula.

 

I will also try to get some video's of the strobes in action.

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Yes, it'd not uncommon to see Mg based strobes. I honestly don't know if I have ever made a magnalium based strobe.
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First of all, I am not a pro-pyro like many of you guys. I am more into rockets, but today I made my first aerial shell!

 

I made four insert-shells that holds about 2,5 grams of 60/40 KClO4/MgAl flash as report(s).

I used about 4 grams of home-made 'winecoal-black powder' for break and about 50-60 assorted stars I made this summer but forgot to mark...

Here's a pic!

post-4-1143750453_thumb.jpg

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Very nice

 

Get some pictures of it as its going off if you can. (Just video tape it and use a program like windows movie maker to take a snapshot of a section of the film.)

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Did you roll that case yourself, and out of graph paper? Well, If it is rigid enough, it might survive. I would suggest vertical and horizontal spiking, lest you get a bad break.
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It looks as though the endcap has just been glued on there :huh: How many times did you layer it? But then again I guess its not a major deal if you dont get a symetric break with salutes. :P
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It looks a bit sloppy, make sure the gas seal is supertight. Pasting does this. You should paste at least one layer of some paper on the outside. Or else the chances of you getting a starmine instead are large :(
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Hehe... everybody seems overwhelmed by my shell. Yeah, that's how a pro like me make 'em :lol:

 

But I am not worried about leaks since I used vast amounts of 2 comp. wood glue to seal it up and glue the endplugs. I use 3 discs on each side(glued together).

 

But the casing is a bit to thin, I know that. And I realised now that I don't have any room left(in the mortar) for spiking.... I just rolled a thin piece of paper with large amounts of glue as the final layer. I hope it will work OK.

:)

 

I'm gonna fire it tonight and film it. I live in Sweden, so 'tonight' is about 8-12h from now!

 

BTW. Since the casing is not the strongest ever made by mankind, how much lift (75:15:10 -corned) would be ideally?

post-4-1143802870_thumb.jpg

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BTW. Since the casing is not the strongest ever made by mankind, how much lift (75:15:10 -corned) would be ideally?

Unless you give us the weight of your shell we won't be able to help you.

But the general rule of thumb that i use on my shells is 1/10th of the shells total weight, i might use less if the shell fits in the mortar tightly.

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Thanks pretty green flame! The shell weights 70 grams. I'll be using 8-10g then... (and som small Mg stars, just because I've got lots of them).
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I made another shell. I filled it with 15 grams: 60:10:15:15 (KClO4, KNO3, Ti, MgAl).

I hope for an intense flash that last longer than traditional 70:30. Hopefully it will be dry enough to shoot later today!

post-4-1143826817_thumb.jpg

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If you are concerned about the shell not handeling the break, you can cut a styrofoam circle the size of your shell, and put it between the lift and the shell. It will take much of the stress off the shell. You can even make a small hol it it to be 100% sure your fuse lights.
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About the fuse, what kind it it, it looks like a spollette but the powder looks like it wasn't rammed hard enough.
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Rooster: Smart idea! But I think it will handle the lift now as the shell is dry!

Pretty green flame: Yes, it's a spollette. But the powder is not rammed that hard, instead I made a slurry with ~3% dextrin and gently pressed it. Now it's rock hard. Hopefully it will work fairly well... :)

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