PyroJoe Posted June 3, 2006 Posted June 3, 2006 I am probably just going to use the "reeper silver" comp, that blind reeper made. Its in the star composition section. Its just 85 parts meal, with 10 parts aluminum and 5 parts dextrin. I think I will go with the atomized aluminum. In all the pictures I see of atomized aluminum stars burning, the sparks seem brighter and thicker. I am going for a streamer effect with long tails.
Mephistos Minion Posted June 4, 2006 Posted June 4, 2006 I can vouch that it is a very good comp with nice thick tails. I had some stills from a starmine around here somewhere but I cant find them. I have some of those stars left at my site so I will make a quick 2" mine to demonstrate (and becasuse I havnt made anything in ages).
bubbelpower Posted June 4, 2006 Posted June 4, 2006 Im making 800g of Reeper Silver for my graduation celebration 6" Ball shell. Im graduating on friday, so they'd better be drying soon.
Mephistos Minion Posted June 4, 2006 Posted June 4, 2006 My 3/8" cut reeper silver dried in about 4 days in the shade.
Chris Posted June 4, 2006 Author Posted June 4, 2006 Today I rolled a 1 kg batch of Ellern Electric streamer stars. They will take a while to dry, but if they are any good, I will post a better description. If anyone is interested, this is the comp: Potassium Nitrate 40 Charcoal Airfloat 20 Aluminum, flake, bright. -325 mesh, 36 micron 18 Sulfur 10 Dextrin 7 Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese needle 5
PyroJoe Posted June 6, 2006 Posted June 6, 2006 Just thought I would comment that I rolled a test batch of Tiger tail to Blue stars. I have never rolled comps with high charcoal content so my stars were very spiked. They were about 3/8" inch in the end and were dry in about 5 hours! I just tested one 10 minutes ago, and WOW. It was beautiful. I am very impressed with the long thick tail of the tigertail comp, then it changes to blue and its just awesome! I am going to roll a bunch of these stars for some 4" shells. I just hope I can figure out how to roll compositions with high charcoal content. To keep them from spiking, should I always keep the stars a little wet or a little dry?
Chris Posted June 6, 2006 Author Posted June 6, 2006 You should keep them rather a litle too wet than dry. This will keep the stars compact and slow down the burning. When I tried rolling TT stars more dy than normal, the stars became larger but also 'fluffier, and they burned very fast. This applies to any stars with high charcoal content. Also, you should use a litle higher alcohol content in your solvent than usually. This helps the solvent migrate into the comp.
psymon Posted June 7, 2006 Posted June 7, 2006 Last night I had my first shell not light properly. I am using 1/8th chinese visco and i have had every shell light (one and a half inch cylinder) and explode perfectly. However when I examined the 'dud' shell the fuse seemed to have been blown to bits, with green fuse in shreds.When would you bother to double fuse a shell or should all shells be double fused? Are there any negatives to double fusing, like the shell becoming much weaker?
Pyrohawk Posted June 7, 2006 Posted June 7, 2006 So the fuse did light it just stopped burning? If you've never had any problems before (and you have done a lot) I wouldn't worry about it. Fuse is not 100% perfect sometimes you'll get a consumer one that will be a dud. If you do enough shells its bound to happen eventually.... It is frustrating but there isn't necessarily anything you can do for it. I use 1/8" Chinese for my fireworks. Most the time its fine but occasionally you'll get a bad strand that won't burn consistent or just stops.
psymon Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 the fuse seemed to have been blown to bits. It never lit to start off with. OK so my lift may have been a bit too strong this time. So I should carry on with my 1/8th chinese single fuse per shell. I know I have had pretty good results so far and I have made around 30 of these 35mm film can shells so far.
FrKoNaLeaSh1010 Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 Too strong of a lift will deffinitely cause a problem. When I used to use bp lift my 2" shells that were fused with american visco cut on an angle would always ignite. I now use benzolift and If i dont prime my fuse it just demolishes the end of the fuse without lighting it like 50/50.
d4j0n Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 To burst 1-3/4" and 2-12" shells, a site mentions that h3 is suitable for <3" shells and kp is unsuitable. I'd be able to make a whole lot more kp than h3...anyone have experience? I'm actually getting my first shipment of shells above 1".
ravaz Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 To burst 1-3/4" and 2-12" shells, a site mentions that h3 is suitable for <3" shells and kp is unsuitable. I'd be able to make a whole lot more kp than h3...anyone have experience? I'm actually getting my first shipment of shells above 1". KP will work, you just need a high ratio. Something like 8:1 KP on rice hulls.
Chris Posted June 16, 2006 Author Posted June 16, 2006 To burst 1-3/4" and 2-12" shells, a site mentions that h3 is suitable for <3" shells and kp is unsuitable. I'd be able to make a whole lot more kp than h3...anyone have experience? I'm actually getting my first shipment of shells above 1".For 1" shells, I imagine that KP might a litle too weak . However, I've used it with ok results in 2" and larger. I would rather use paper shells than plastic because of the different properties. I would also recommend a small flash booster to be used with KP. I have about 600 g KP rolled from a while ago, which is still waiting to be used. You could also consider granulated KP. It is probably the most usefull form for small shells, but way too strong for larger shells. As for H3, it is very strong, especially when granulated or coated on a carrier. The problem is that you can't (should not) use stars containing sulfur or sulfides with H3, unless you use some sort of burst bag method or similar. Some might argue that a sheet of tissue paper separating the stars and burst would be enough to keep the two components away, but I wouldn't count on that. Btw, don't the Maltese use Chlorate stars with BP burst?
d4j0n Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 This ratio of burst:hull is by weight? I'm using puffed rice, would that change anything? ...and kp should be milled right? ...
ravaz Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 The ratio is KP to Hulls or whatever media you use. So it would be 8 parts of KP and 1 part hulls for example. I never milled KP, just screened the mix together. And for the record, I have used KP successfully in 3" ball shells, but H3 works better.
ravaz Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 Btw, don't the Maltese use Chlorate stars with BP burst? I'm told they prime their Chlorate stars with a BP based prime. I've also heard some don't prime, and throw it in with the BP. No thanks.
AreteVeteran Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 I am going to start rolling a ton of stars, so I can just concentrate on making shells and devices for the 4th, instead of having to roll stars every week. My next few batches will be a large batch of Tiger Tail/some other charcoal streamer and some type of silver flitter stars. Since both these comps are cheap to make. What would everyones opinion be on the type of aluminum I should use for my silver stars? I can get -325 Mesh coated flake AL for 4.00 per lb. or I can get 25-30 micron atomized AL for the same price. Which type of AL would give the longest, brightest, thickest tail? Go with the flake all the way.... /AV/
FrKoNaLeaSh1010 Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 Well idk anything about microns....but atomized aluminum should normally have a longer tail....thickness has more to do with particle size and amount of metal. And aluminum only burns white...so its just gonna be as bright as aluminum can burn.
Mumbles Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 They are approximatly the same size meshwise. The flake will have a thicker tail because it burns faster. The atomised will have a longer tail. The flake will probably appear brighter because it is reacting faster and in a more confined area.
WV-Pyro Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 Ok here is my latest shell. It is a 4" can about 10" long, it weighs in at 1420 grams, and uses 93.3 grams of -6+12 lift powder. There are 30 timed hummers, so 3 waves of 10, which will fire about half a second apart. Then I have 10 Titanium salutes (5 grams) which will go off after the last hummers. Then a 60 gram titanium bottom shot. This should be a fun shell! And yes it was a bitch rolling 40 tubes, then ramming 30 of them with plugs and comp Inserts: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../insertsbs1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/insertsbs.jpg Pasted and spiked: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9...pikedcanbig.jpg Finished: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/bigcan.jpgDo you have a video of this yet? I looked on the latter pages of this thread and couldn't find it. If I missed it I'm sorry. I would really like to see this shell. Looks very impressive.
WV-Pyro Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 Last time I talked to Al, he had yet to fire it.OK, thanks Mumbles. I'll be checking back here every so often to see if he posts it.
justanotherpyro Posted June 19, 2006 Posted June 19, 2006 I attached a rising comet to a 3" shell and it caused it to spin awkwardly. This caused it to loose some altitude. Does anyone else encounter this problem? I think the possible ways of fixing it are: Make the comet shorter so as to have less leverage, only use the rising comet on a larger/heavier shell, or to offset the unequal balance by another comet/object of equal weight opposite from it. If it is unclear I can put a picture up of the shell I shot.
Pretty green flame Posted June 19, 2006 Posted June 19, 2006 I attached a rising comet to a 3" shell and it caused it to spin awkwardly. This caused it to loose some altitude. Does anyone else encounter this problem? I think the possible ways of fixing it are: Make the comet shorter so as to have less leverage, only use the rising comet on a larger/heavier shell, or to offset the unequal balance by another comet/object of equal weight opposite from it. If it is unclear I can put a picture up of the shell I shot. You could try placing a comet next to the fuse or even placing a comet with a cavity over the fuse. I'm guessing the second method would be better suited for spollettes as they need no crossmatch, it might not work well for time fuse as there would be no room for the crossmatch. I personally would go with the cavity comet. You will get more weight on the bottom of the shell so this should prevent spinning.
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