Aerial Shells

[Chris]

Say, what is the comp for "red Chrysanthemums"?

I think it was Bleser KP.

 

Potassium Perchlorate 70

Strontium Carbonate 15

Red Gum 10

Dextrin 4

Charcoal Airfloat 1

 

 

I just realized that I mixed between chrysanthemum and peony. So the shell was a Peony shell infact.

[Guest pyrokid00000]

Whats the best knot for spiking?

[Frozentech]

Whats the best knot for spiking?

clove hitch aka 'the fireworks knot' http://www.apcforum.net/files/clovehitch.jpg

 

Mumbles, why can't I past that link in as a IMG tag ? I get an error saying I can't use that extenstion. No jpg files allowed ?

[Mumbles]

I don't know what problem you had, I can post it as am image just fine.

 

In case yo can't figure out how the knot is tied(though it's pretty easy to see), here is a flash animation of it. http://www.goals.com/ClassRm/knots/clove.htm

[Frozentech]

Made up 200 grams of Balsa charcoal BP. Here's a vid of a 3" ball shell lifted with 18.5 grams. The stars were 3/8" winokur #12, with a ring of 1/2 Win 12 around the 'equator'. The smaller stars all shattered from the break charge, the larger stars took well.

 

My 6 yo daughter loves pyro too, as you can tell from her commentary

 

http://i1.zvhost.com/1/f/fugt671k.jpg

[Pretty green flame]

Made up 200 grams of Balsa charcoal BP. Here's a vid of a 3" ball shell lifted with 18.5 grams. The stars were 3/8" winokur #12, with a ring of 1/2 Win 12 around the 'equator'. The smaller stars all shattered from the break charge, the larger stars took well.

 

My 6 yo daughter loves pyro too, as you can tell from her commentary

 

http://i1.zvhost.com/1/f/fugt671k.jpg

Pretty shell you got there.

 

Making others happy, that's what pyro's all about. You may just possibly have invented a new pyro breed of children

[PyroPicasso]

Did you use balsa bp to break the shell also?

 

Has anyone ever used plastic drinking straws as quick match tubing, I’m getting tired of rolling those small tubes.

[Chris]

Did you use balsa bp to break the shell also?

 

Has anyone ever used plastic drinking straws as quick match tubing, I’m getting tired of rolling those small tubes.

Yes, in cakes and similar. Also, a fast way to prepare quick match is to fold papertape(or any thick-walled tape) double over a strand of black match so that the match is left betwenn two, or more layer of tape. That way there is no need to prepare papertubing for the match.

[Frozentech]

Did you use balsa bp to break the shell also?

 

Has anyone ever used plastic drinking straws as quick match tubing, I’m getting tired of rolling those small tubes.

I used KP on rice hulls with 2 grams of 'Ofca dark flash' for the break. I don't think that quick match made of straws would be flexible enough for most applications. I do use plastic straws sometimes as cannule to extend a passfire from the top of my 1/4" time fuse to the center of ball shells. I have some that I slip over the time fuse with the crossmatch bent upwards into the star, cut the straw off even with the top of the hemi, and fill the remainder of the straw with BP so the break begins from the center of the sphere.

[Mumbles]

I've used them before when I was in a fix, and didn't have time for anything else. They worked fine. I didn't need them for anything flexible, so the flexibility wasn't an issue. It was cool when they burnt, you could see the hot gasses shoot through, My only complaint is that they left molten plastic in my mortar. It was easily broken off though.

[Chris]

How would a paste made from water and dextrin perform for pasting shells? The problem with wheat paste is that unless you have it in powdered form, it doesn't hold for very long. It's also hard to make in small quantities. Any experiences?

[ravaz]

I made a few shells for this past weekend and we caught some of it on video and I thought I would share with the forum members. The shells were 4's, 6's, 8's and 12's. We only got video of the 8's and 12's and unfortunantly we did not have enough room to get the complete break on video.

 

Well here are photos;

 

Shells:

http://www.ravaz.com/fireworks/DSCF0891.JPG

 

Triple Petal:

http://www.ravaz.com/fireworks/DSCF0887.JPG

 

Assembly:

http://www.ravaz.com/fireworks/DSCF0879.JPG

 

http://www.ravaz.com/fireworks/DSCF0886.JPG

 

Me and shell:

http://hpjvids.com/ravaz/me.jpg

 

Video:

http://www.hpjvids.com/ravaz/April_08_2006.wmv

 

Let me know if you guys have any questions.

 

-B

[dragonman586]

Yhea I have two questions.

1) Where in god's name do you live to be able to shoot those bahemoths?

2) Will you adopt me?

Dam those things were beautiful. It is lightyears ahead of my noob-ass stuff. Man your stars are bigger than my shells. Great job.

 

P.S.- I was serious about the second question.

[ravaz]

Yhea I have two questions.

1) Where in god's name do you live to be able to shoot those bahemoths?

2) Will you adopt me?

Dam those things were beautiful. It is lightyears ahead of my noob-ass stuff. Man your stars are bigger than my shells. Great job.

 

P.S.- I was serious about the second question.

1.) I live in the City.

 

2.) I can't adopt you, I'm only a kid still!

 

Thanks for the compliments.

[PyroPicasso]

How far away do you have to drive lol. They are by far the best armature shells I have seen, keep up the good work!

[ravaz]

Only about a 20 minute drive from my location. Not too bad.

 

Thanks!

[justanotherpyro]

Like all the others have said, excellent job! How many of your materials are home made?

[ravaz]

Stars, burst, black match are all home made. I use commercial Japanese hemis and commercial Goex 2FA. I use gummed tape to paste my shells.

[Douchermann]

Wow, very nice ravaz. I curious, how long have you been making shells?

[Frozentech]

Stars, burst, black match are all home made. I use commercial Japanese hemis and commercial Goex 2FA. I use gummed tape to paste my shells.

How many layers of the gummed paper tape do you use ? That could *really* speed things up for me.

 

Inspiring shells, man !

[PyroJoe]

More questions! lol, how long have you been doing pyro? How old are you? How much lift do you use for your 8 inch, and 12 inch? Also how long did it take you to build up to a 12" shell from say a 3 or 4"? Have you ever had a 12"er go horribly wrong and explode in the mortar or something? Sorry for so many questions, but you inspire me!

[ravaz]

How many layers of the gummed paper tape do you use ?

For a 12" Chrysanthemum shell, I'll paste between 15-20 layers overlapped by 1/2. Which is really 30-40 layers.

[d4j0n]

Quick question, do you guys still use granulated BP for 2" plastic spherical shells? Has anyone tried masking tape to strap these shells? Waitin for my 2"ers to arrive.

[ravaz]

More questions! lol, how long have you been doing pyro? How old are you? How much lift do you use for your 8 inch, and 12 inch? Also how long did it take you to build up to a 12" shell from say a 3 or 4"? Have you ever had a 12"er go horribly wrong and explode in the mortar or something? Sorry for so many questions, but you inspire me!

Doing pyro since I was 13 or 14, that is lighting 1.3G items.

 

As for how long I've been into manufacturing, I'd say about 3 years. I

started in 2001 but took a year and a half off in 03-05.

 

I used 6oz for the 8" (should have used another 1/2 oz), and 16.5 oz for the 12". Commercial Goex 2FA.

 

I started building 3's and 4's back in 2001. Then jumped to 6's and 8's. I'd say by 2003 I built a few 10's and 12's, but nothing special. I really started focusing on them in 2005 and this year.

 

I've never had anything flower pot, but did have my first 2-3 3" shells land in the lake. For any size. I hope I don't jinx myself now. I wouldn't want that to happen to anything above 6"!

 

As for my age, I'm 25.

[ravaz]

Quick question, do you guys still use granulated BP for 2" plastic spherical shells? Has anyone tried masking tape to strap these shells? Waitin for my 2"ers to arrive.

In my experience, for a 2" plastic ball shell I've used anything from 7:1 H3 on hulls with whistle mix or flash to 4:1 whistle coated rice hulls, or flash coated hulls. Depends on how you want the break.