Aerial Shells

[swervedriver]

Brocade or willow...

[psyco_1322]

Sidewinder,

Your thought of a sider legged looking break may be better known as an octopus shell. I believe that would be one of a similar description to were the stars just fall softly after a light break.

 

A willow usually comes out the droops over and creates an umbrella shape. A crown willow is broke while still moving up so that the stars arch over and form the umbrella shape.

 

 

Aimlesspayload,

I'm not sure you blew any stars blind, especially those kinds of stars, only Mumbles has the skills to blow spider stars blind

 

The crappy looking breaks I think are coming from not porting your fire to the center of the shell. I believe I read in your description that was a future improvement you planned to make. Lighting the contents of the shell from one side it going to send the explosion in the opposite direction and give you a sort of blown out looking break. Since the stars are being moved away from that side, there is likely to not be any stars traveling that direction. Just roll a 3/8" paper tube to hot glue over the fuse and stick a few piece of black match down there. Cut it flush with the top of your fused hemi. I think this will greatly improve the way your breaks will look.

 

Oh, and yes, 20% lift is just a bit excessive. Most people use from 10%-16% of the shell weight. For larger shells and multibreaks, 16% is the common ounce per pound lift ratio.

[Mumbles]

There is a lot of terminology that gets confused. I would generally call the soft break that dumps stars out at a 30-45 degree angle a dump break. These work for horsetails, and "waterfall" shells, which are pretty much colored horsetails.

 

Octopus shell is another name for a spider shell. I tend to think of octopus shells as having fewer, but larger stars. Sfera shells of this type as well. Like I said, lots of overlap.

 

I've never heard of a crown willow, only a crown brocade or crown chrysanthemum. Probably just different names for the same thing. This is as Psyco mentions a hard breaking ball shell that just slightly stars to droop. There are also diadem shells, which change color as they begin to droop. I think strobes are the prettiest here. Diadem means jewel or something to that effect I think, so you name the color after the precious stone (ruby=red, emerald=green, diamond=white, etc). The strobing gives that shimmering jewel undertone.

 

I agree, pipe fire to the center of the shell. It is probably the simplest thing one can do to drastically improve breaks.

[TheSidewinder]

Glad to see I'm not the only one confused about terminology.

 

So.... that looked like a very nice horsetail/brocade/willow/octopus/umbrella/spider shell, then.

 

But if you intended to make that spherical, ignite the burst in the center as was pointed out.

[Yankie]

I decided to test non pasted shells for myself, and what can I say, I am impressed.

Here are the specs:

1st shell:

3" plastic hemispheres, boosted with whistle, not pasted, 1:10th lift (granulated willow black powder)

1/2" pumped TT stars outer petal and 3/8" cut Yankie's Flash Stars pistil

Yankie's silver rising comet

 

2nd shell:

3" plastic hemispheres, boosted with whistle, not pasted, 1:10th lift (granulated willow black powder)

3/8" rolled stars (random silver>Yankie's green>dragon eggs)

Yankie's silver rising comet

 

3rd shell:

4" plastic hemispheres, boosted with whistle, not pasted, 1:10th lift (granulated willow black powder)

1/2" TT stars outer petal and Emerald green pistil

Purple stars as rising effect (looks shit)

 

I think they all could have used more whistle, the 4" worked pretty well in my opinion.

 

Video:

Dont forget to subscribe to the new account

Edited May 24, 2009 by Yankie

[Aimlesspayload]

Aimlesspayload,

I'm not sure you blew any stars blind, especially those kinds of stars, only Mumbles has the skills to blow spider stars blind

 

The crappy looking breaks I think are coming from not porting your fire to the center of the shell. I believe I read in your description that was a future improvement you planned to make. Lighting the contents of the shell from one side it going to send the explosion in the opposite direction and give you a sort of blown out looking break. Since the stars are being moved away from that side, there is likely to not be any stars traveling that direction. Just roll a 3/8" paper tube to hot glue over the fuse and stick a few piece of black match down there. Cut it flush with the top of your fused hemi. I think this will greatly improve the way your breaks will look.

 

Oh, and yes, 20% lift is just a bit excessive. Most people use from 10%-16% of the shell weight. For larger shells and multibreaks, 16% is the common ounce per pound lift ratio.

 

thanks alot.

[Karlos]

Yankie: Nice rising comet, which composition? KN?

Efects of 1 - 3 was scare and unsymmetric, small amounth of stars.....

[Yankie]

Yankie: Nice rising comet, which composition? KN?

Efects of 1 - 3 was scare and unsymmetric, small amounth of stars.....

 

1 was pretty crap, had crappy stars in it, 2 had good stars but the stars "un-arranged" themselves, and was probably broken a bit hard for those stars/stars burned too long. When I said I was impressed I was reffering to the 4" which had a pretty symmetrical break, the emptyness was because I was using excessively large stars as they were all I had at the time.

 

The silver is my own comp, which is something like this:

BP: 100

KClO4: 10

Al (200 mesh): 20

MgAl (100 mesh): 5

Dextrin: 8

 

I will get the exact comp tomorrow from my note pad, it isn't far off from the one above I dont think.

[Deafaid]

3" silver streamer shell:

the break wasn't excellent but i'm satisfied....and obviously want to make better shells! i'll work on the breaks!

[Miech]

Well, you created a very nice willow . Try using a small whistle booster and/or some more pasting if you want the 'ball' style of breaks, and maybe make your stars a little smaller. You might need to tweak your priming of breaking harder, usually you'll need to get it hotter if your break strength increases.

[Karlos]

Not to excelent. Willow need good break too. If you use KP burst and perfect pasting, will be excelent and without whistle or flash.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

I'm getting the same results with BP and flash break, and have to paste much less than with KP, it's also less expencive.

[Klaaskroegbaas]

I shot a 3 inch farfalle shell with ruby red stars:

 

Also a 2 inch peanut shell was fired:

 

 

The specifications are in the links.

[qwezxc12]

I shot a 3 inch farfalle shell with ruby red stars:

 

Also a 2 inch peanut shell was fired:

 

The specifications are in the links.

 

Very nice - great breaks on the 2's! Also neat to see someone breaking cans with meal coated hulls and booster.

[flying fish]

Just set off my first 3" shell last night. I know I've been around for a while, but I've always stuck to tiny shells for cost and safety reasons. Now I've got a whole lot more supplies...gotta use them somehow. I also included my timing/lift test in the video first (just a shell filled with grass seed and a small cracker to simulate the weight of a real 3" shell). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGhUdp69X70&feature=email

 

Question: Is it normal to get hot fallout with charcoal stars? The stars in the video were very small C6 stars (stars intended for a smaller shell). And yet still the hot falling embers JUST BARELY went out before touching the ground. I imagine that appropriately sized stars would surely give fallout that touched down while still glowing. I've tried three different kinds of charcoal (Pine, Hardwood, Willow), always mill for at least a couple hours, and I always get fallout. Even in stars that have been sitting around for months (and are probably too small to have been "driven in")...so I don't think it is a moisture problem either.

Edited May 30, 2009 by flying fish

[yellowcard]

Geat shells Klaas!

 

@ qwezxc12, that's the way we do it in The Netherlands ! Here is a video of a 4'' farfalle i made a while ago, break charge: meal coated rice hulls and 15g slowflash booster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ejPkRbfX4...re=channel_page (stars after 33 seconds).

[Mumbles]

I used to break my shells with BP on hulls and KP on hulls. I got excellent results. However I started to get concerned about bigger shells I was making that the core gave a soft spot for potential blow through. I developed a new way to break them with granular BP. On 5 and 6" shells I could start feeling the core allowing my hard packed in stars start to soften, and I could push on the top and bottom and get a little give. Probably not a big deal, and would never cause issues, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[psyco_1322]

Some nice farfelle shells you guys are making. Seems like a lot more people are trying them out, and getting great results.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Who's started all this? Edited May 31, 2009 by FREAKYDUTCHMEN

[Chris]

Who's started all this?

 

Umm... the Italians?

[Klaaskroegbaas]

In Holland Freakydutchmen was the first one on a forum to show that he made a farfalle shell. Now a lot more dutch people are trying to build one themselves, with succes.

[Swede]

Klaas, what burst did you use on the 2" peanut? VERY nice!

 

oops, never mind, I did find it on the link. That was some nice work and is the sort of shell I am aspiring to.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Swede

[qwezxc12]

Umm... the Italians?

 

 

Ha-ha!

[Mumbles]

My buddy and I made the first example of these things I've ever seen about 2 years ago, but I would hardly consider either of us innovators or the ones who started it. It was all done off of a picture of the effect on the internet and a description by Mike Swisher or John Reilly (I don't recall which). I know we were early, but probably not the first of the amateur group. Even if we were first, or very early, I have to give you guys kudos. Yours are looking much better than ours.

[Karlos]

http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/tonymcnicol/g...000PNpyrlRz_88/