Aerial Shells

[Arte valdo]

Some shells:

[50AE]

Nice looking shells! The C8 to flash is my favourite one!

[Arte valdo]

Nice looking shells! The C8 to flash is my favourite one!

Me to, but need more altitude

[Xtreme Pyro]

Im having problems with some zinc (granite) stars Ive been making for some 3" ball shells. There burning to the ground, the stars are 3/8" and the charcoal,sulfur,kno3 and dextrin are being milled for 1 hour, and the zinc screened in after milling. Is there any optimal milling time for these stars? Thanks. Edited June 6, 2010 by Xtreme Pyro

[Ventsi]

What comp are you using? I normally make mine 1/4" for 3" shells. Also, roll a layer of fast BP around the outside so the whole star gets lit at once.

[50AE]

Xtreme, you don't have to worry about mesh size. One or two hours in well built ball mill should be enough. I always keep my most fine milled chemicals for BP and I use the coarser for stars. I save time this way.

In the zinc comp, you can play with the charcoal content. For example, you can add 5% airfloat, 3,5% -100# and 2,5% -20#. This will give you more orange tail.

[Xtreme Pyro]

@Ventsi, Im using the following formula I found on pyroguide awhile back. I will also try a faster BP prime, Ive been using a slow meal powder for prime.

 

Zinc Powder 61

Potassium nitrate 22

Charcoal (Airfloat) 11

Sulfur 4

Dextrin 2

 

@50AE, Ill try a longer milling time to see if that helps any, if that doesn't work ill try using slightly smaller stars like ventsi said. I might try messing with the charcoal content like you suggested to see what I can come up with.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Xtreme Pyro

[Mumbles]

The lack of sources is one of the reasons I dislike pyroguide. That formula is a rounded off version of a star from Weingart. Degn made a slight modification, which I've included the original below.

 

Zinc - 20

KNO3 - 7

Charcoal (dust) - 2

Charcoal (coarse) - 1.5

Sulfur - 1.5

Dextrin - 0.5

 

He gives almost the exact same formula for a comet as well. If the stars aren't working for you, try a different formula. Most of the ones I've seen have much closer Zinc:KNO3 ratios. 2:1 if not 1:1. Alternatively, you can always add some meal to speed it up. I think I've used Degn's formula before. The coarser charcoal really makes a nice tail. I think I used 80 mesh.

[Pretty green flame]

I may end up looking stupid but anyway. How do you guys spike a canister shell with time fuse? I've always used spolettes which provide a sturdy support so you can make a right angle turn around it. I don't think time fuse has the strenght for this. So, what's the best way to spike a time fused canister?

[Zmuro]

I may end up looking stupid but anyway. How do you guys spike a canister shell with time fuse? I've always used spolettes which provide a sturdy support so you can make a right angle turn around it. I don't think time fuse has the strenght for this. So, what's the best way to spike a time fused canister?

You should use off center spiking. Search the forum for templates.

[swervedriver]

I may end up looking stupid but anyway. How do you guys spike a canister shell with time fuse? I've always used spolettes which provide a sturdy support so you can make a right angle turn around it. I don't think time fuse has the strenght for this. So, what's the best way to spike a time fused canister?

 

Someone said to make a big loop knot around one end of the canister itself instead of the time fuse. It seems to work fine.

[50AE]

Of course it has the strength, but you should do the off center spiking. Take a look at my 3" canisters.

 

http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/gallery/image/304-pict0534jpg/

[Bonny]

I may end up looking stupid but anyway. How do you guys spike a canister shell with time fuse? I've always used spolettes which provide a sturdy support so you can make a right angle turn around it. I don't think time fuse has the strenght for this. So, what's the best way to spike a time fused canister?

 

Off centre, as suggested above is probably best. You can however do as you would with a spollette, the time fuse IS strong enough to use as a hitching post. I don't make many canisters, but have never had a problem. The only issue is the pileup of string around the fuse.

Edited June 8, 2010 by Bonny

[dagabu]

Here is an example of my 3" timed report shells with offset spiking, there is no time fuse or spolette, just a piece of fast paper fuse.

[Mumbles]

Thats an odd looking pattern you have there Dagabu. I suppose as long as you have the correct number of verticals, it's not so critical though. The two parallel strings are normally directly next to each other, not every other.

 

Mine look something like 50AE's, only with horizontal spiking too.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mumbles/th_P1010039.jpg

[dagabu]

I understand Mumbles, the point is to open up the center as much as possible. I use a more normal pattern when making canisters that I shoot out of mortars, these are for rockets therefore the strange spiking.

[Pretty green flame]

Ofcourse, offcenter spiking. Thanks everyone.

[portfire]

6" Chrys#6 w/D1 tail

 

Shell weight 1kg

Lift 75g

Burst BP coated crispies 4:1 300g, no booster

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw6VOsO03G8

[TrueBluePyro]

Ok, so I built a press and pumped some stars. I put together and shot my shell tonight.

I think there were 5 rows of 3/4" pumped ralphs glitter stars.

I used BP coated on cotton seed for burst.

I was thinking that BP would be enough because I didn't really want to rip the shell open I just wanted to pop it open so it would all droop, but I think a few grams of slow flash would of help it.

The shell weighed 1100g and was lifted with 100g of corned black powder, which sent it to a nice hieght.

 

 

It still looked really nice and I was really happy with my very first attempt at a 5" shell (it is really 135mm which is 5.31")

 

Hope I can improved much more on my next shell http://www.truebluepyroforum.info/Forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif. Which wont be too long away.

 

[Pretty green flame]

Oh, that looks very cool, very bright and nice hang time. Any titanium in the star formula?

[Mumbles]

I agree, it was a very nice effect. The burst, as you mentioned should have been harder. I don't know how you made it, but a few construction things could help the break before resorting to slow flash. BP on media should be able to burst a comet shell pretty well. Using two spiking strings instead of one no matter if you use cotton/jute/hemp/etc would definitely help. If you're using something that can stretch significantly, like cotton, you may also want to soak it in paste first. Probably the most effective thing I did to start improving my breaks was to run a piece of quickmatch from the timefuse/spolette into the burst a little bit. It may seem insignificant, but probably the single most effective thing you can do is to lock the comets in. Whether you use sawdust, clay, polverone, wooden shims, etc. I don't know what it does, but comet shells really benefit from this. You may have already done all of this, but it never hurts to bring it to attention.

 

If you want to compare against a "traditional break", they're normally filled with a 50:50 mixture of 2FA and polverone.

[50AE]

This was my first 4" cylindrical shell and I was very happy with it:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJWwjVweKRw

 

The burst is traight BP hot pulverone. No booster used. The timefuse passfire is extended with BM to the center of the shell. The spiking is off center 16 single verticals, jute string. It was pasted with 30lbs virgin kraft.

Edited June 21, 2010 by 50AE

[TrueBluePyro]

Thanks

 

I used version 1 of ralphs glitter. They can be found here http://www.truebluepyroforum.info/Forum/index.php?topic=175.0

 

It's a really nice formula and is very cheap to make in bulk amounts.

[Voryon]

Hello,

 

I`ve attached my first 4" round shell attempt, here is the shell data:

 

Lift: 30g BP, shell weight 390 g, burst 95 g BP + 5g Slow Flash (5/3/2 KNO3/Al/S) mixed with 50 g rice seeds (yes really not coated), Rising Tail 3/4" Meal + 10% Al comet,

Stars: silvery/gold-Streamer test Stars to blue test stars. I think the blue was much too dimm in contrast to the bright Titanium sparks of the streamer composition. There were also some crap stars in the shell that weren`t primed, so they didn`t light.

 

Please tell me what you think!

 

Thanks in advance

[TrueBluePyro]

I agree, it was a very nice effect. The burst, as you mentioned should have been harder. I don't know how you made it, but a few construction things could help the break before resorting to slow flash. BP on media should be able to burst a comet shell pretty well. Using two spiking strings instead of one no matter if you use cotton/jute/hemp/etc would definitely help. If you're using something that can stretch significantly, like cotton, you may also want to soak it in paste first. Probably the most effective thing I did to start improving my breaks was to run a piece of quickmatch from the timefuse/spolette into the burst a little bit. It may seem insignificant, but probably the single most effective thing you can do is to lock the comets in. Whether you use sawdust, clay, polverone, wooden shims, etc. I don't know what it does, but comet shells really benefit from this. You may have already done all of this, but it never hurts to bring it to attention.

 

If you want to compare against a "traditional break", they're normally filled with a 50:50 mixture of 2FA and polverone.

 

 

Thanks mumbles. Yes, with my break, I'm sure I need to improve on my spiking. I'm using hemp twine at the moment.