Aerial Shells

[Rocket007]

hi.

 

i am new hear. 2 days ago i made a 1,5" shell. it is my first.

weight of shell: 80g

lift : 8g

 

the shell faild because the spollette burns to long. now i will put a 3s spollette in my next shell.here is the wideo and pictures. tell me what you think.

 

picture

 

video

[Mumbles]

I would suggest more like a 2 second spollette.

[justanotherpyro]

The lift seemed really weak to not put the shell out faster, but my experience with small shells is with 2"ers.

 

I'm so damn itchy for making shells and its only been a few weeks Being away from pyro sucks.

[TheSidewinder]

Without some reference point in the video, it's hard to see how high it went, but it did look like a low shot, and the delay was too long for that height. A couple suggestions:

 

1) Increase lift by 50%. Try 12 grams, more if needed. With the proper height, that spolette would have been OK.

 

2) The break was a little "off", suggesting an improper confinement.

 

Are you are spiking and pasting the shell? If so, with what? I'd suggest better confinement, in addition to more lift.

 

Better confinement and construction will greatly reduce the danger of flowerpotting with the additional lift.

 

As with all things pyro, you'll have to experiment.

 

And that was a GOOD first try, actually, better than some I've seen. Keep at it.

 

M

[Rocket007]

i made some explosives like AP, MEKP, HMTD, TMDD, GOLD POWDER... i made some mines, comets, sugar+KNO3 rockes, smoke boombs,..........

 

the shell wasnt pasting it was only spiking. what do you think with "the break was a little "off"?????? i think the break was ok.

 

i dont think that my lift was bad. i thik that i let to much air betwen the shell and the mortar. i made now a new shell here is a picture. it is spiking and pasting now

 

picture-2"shell

 

picture-2"shell2

 

picture-2"shell3

[Ozzy]

what im saying is put your lift on a screen and pour some flash over it, so your lift is coated in FP. It makes a nice break

[Mumbles]

Those pictures are too blurry to see anything.

 

Also, coating lift in flash as a burst is shitty in many ways IMO. First, it puts a bright spot in the center of the shell, which can be bad for charcoal stars and such. If you are bursting ball shells, it is incredibly wasteful and add so much extra weight. It's not consistant in the least. So what works one time may not work ever again. Lift is normally far too big to be bursting small shells with. If you are bursting large shells where lift sized granules would be fine, it is incredibly wasteful like I said before, and adds way too much unessasary weight.

 

I think this about sums it up. If you need additives to make your shell function correctly, you need to find a new method. Instead of adding flash, use smaller granule sizes of BP or more pasting/spiking. Additives are not consistant, and consistancy is key in pyro.

[Pyroman2]

Hello

I fired my shell one week ago and I have nice movie.

First I give you next pictures from my manfucaturing

 

my favourite Gold serpents shell:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/piroserwer/tomek/mini_GS_01.jpg

 

http://members.lycos.co.uk/piroserwer/tomek/mini_GS_02.jpg

 

http://members.lycos.co.uk/piroserwer/tomek/mini_calosc_02.jpg

 

http://members.lycos.co.uk/piroserwer/tomek/mini_calosc_01.jpg

 

Movies have many MB, but They're good quality.

 

TT & strobe

Golden TT

Golden Rain

Green

Gold serpents

Silver

White Glitter

Regards

Tom

[rocket]

Great work on them shells mate, they would be even better if my computer wasn’t lagging so bad.

[Pyroman2]

I have small question, Who knows how to do a butterfly shell?

Is it canister shell?

[Mumbles]

I've only seen pictures of them. I would imagine you could do them with either canister or ball shell though. Just making images in my head I know how I would start making a butterfly with a ball shell. Now that I think of it, the picture I saw was on a Japanese firework site, so chances are it was probably ball shell.

[d4j0n]

If I use H3 and my stars are primed with sulfur containing bp, what are my risks? They are seperated by tissue paper in each half of the shell, but I'd imagine they would mix through the seams when the shell is fully assembled.

[ADP9]

Great work Pyroman2! Those are some really great videos. For your lift do you use just granulated BP? Also what is you're general ratio on lift charge to total weight? Do you use whistle mix as a break charge?

 

As for H3 coming into contact with prime I would not worry much about that at all. Only significant friction of such a mixture would be a bad thing. Just be careful and you'll be alright.

[Pyroman2]

Hello ADP9

 

Lift powder:

I use meal powder (75/15/10 charcoal - willow +4% dextrin), who is rub through the screen (I wrote about this).

I don't have general ratio shell's weight : lift powder,

 

My amount the lift (check by experimentally)

 

(example weight)

2" canister (72g - 90g) 6g Lift

3" can. (283g) 35g lift

3" can (gold serpents - 555g) 50g lift (I think that 40g should be enough)

 

3" spherical (120-140g) 25gLift

4" spherical (340 - 380g) 45g lift

 

My bursting charge is also BP (but charcoal for grill) on the grass seeds (ratio 4BP: 1carrier). I use add Fb bag, put on the delay.

 

I used H3 for long time and I didn't have accident.

I've used BP for cauple months and I feel safely..

 

Regards

P2

[Von Bass`]

I have a question. I made my first aerial shell today, as I managed to aqquire a large parrallel wound tube from a fent shop .

 

It is a 1" canister shell, with Tiger Tail stars, I didnt take any photos of the manufacturing process, but it is fairly standard I think. It is delayed with a length of 1/16 Visco fuse, with the powder core cut at an "\" angle with a razor.

 

Very simalar to Woulters tutorial.

 

It weighed 27g, which should have been 5.4g of lift (20% of weight is what I use) but I rounded it up to 6g, as I want to avoid the shell exploding near to the ground.

 

I am sure the stars will work, as they are from a batch that I have been using in star mines, and so far, all have been perfect.

 

One thing, I am worried that as the lift charge ignites, it will obliterate the fuse entirely, as in it will not ignite only the end, but all of it. Can I be assured that this will not happen?

 

Is there anything I could do to make sure that this doesnt happen, e.g. coating the fuse in hot glue or Kraft?

 

Thanks for any help

[BigBang]

I've heard of coating the fuse with a healthy glob of BP slurry. This should give the fuse a bit more integrity, as well as aiding with ignition. It is only a 1", so there isn't too much harm in testing it to find out. If worst comes to worst, you spent a bit of time practicing your shell manufacturing abilities.

 

Out of curiosity, what size are your stars? I woulkd guess around 1/8" correct?

[shadopyro]

Depends what size the shell is really and what effect one would be after id say. Though i usually make rather large stars about 1/4" in small shells.

I have a container fulla 1/2" meal n metal stars about 1/2" but have nothing to put them into...

[Mumbles]

Visco is made to not ignite by the side. I had to hold the lighter to the side for sometime in order to get it to finally ignite. I think essentially I just burnt away the string and what not to get to the core. The short duration of the lift almost certainly will not ignite the side, This was with decent quality 1/8", I have never tested on 1/16". The only thing I could think of is if there is a lot of fuse sticking out the end is that it could break and then ignite.

 

To keep my fuse from igniting from the side I coat most of in Aluminum foil, about 2 or 3 turns. This also serves as a good delay. I can keep a small amount of fuse on the outside and not worry about premature ignition from side spit.

[hst45]

I do something similar as Mumbles, but I use electrical tape. I wrap three turns tightly around the visco and hot-glue it into the shell. Trim the tape back with a razor knife to yield whatever delay you want, based on the burn-rate of your visco. Keep most of the time fuse on the inside of the shell so only the tip will catch fire from the lift charge. I daub a little NC lacquor on the take-fire end and dip this, while wet, in meal powder. You could probably just slash-cut the end and it would work fine.

 

i used to screw-around with a cross-match of a piece of really thin blackmatch, which way WAY too tedious, until some kind soul here advised me to try the NC/meal route, and it has worked fine.

[justanotherpyro]

I have found that the technique of taping the fuse is a must for shells using visco. Many tutorials say something like an inch of visco for 2" shells which to me is absurd. I always use 1/2 inch of visco that has 1-2 wraps of masking tape around the whole fuse. This gives exact timing because the shell doesn't go off from spitting, it goess of that split second that the fuse spurts out of the end inside of the shell.

[d4j0n]

I use masking tape to cover the side of my fuse, but that's just american 3/32"...I only use masking tape and don't use foil for my 1/8" but I probably should. My 1-1/2" shell takes 4 seconds to get to apex...I find that an inch is actually insufficient (using chinese 1/8" as timefuse).

[Von Bass`]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, really put my mind at rest. I'll use some aluminium foil like Mumbles suggested, and I'll prime it with a good blob of BP!

 

My stars are approx 5 - 7mm, a little big, so theres not many in there, and its my first, and its only a 1 incher - so a break with lit stars at a good height would be more than enough to satisfy me!

[d4j0n]

If you're doing 1 inchers, try using thinner fuses, as you will need all the space you can get. I highly recommend against using the 1" spherical shells as there is no room for anything, use the cupsets if you can. With smaller fuses foil isn't really necessary. For 3/32", about 1.5" legnth of masking tape is sufficient.

 

Break with granulated bp cut with a pinch of flash. Adjust flash until satisfactory break is achieved.

 

Star size depends on composition. Something with a burn time of about half a second is good.

[itwasntme]

How about using 2 2 liter bottle caps as a shell? I measured them and they're 1.25 inches in diameter and 2 stacked together are 1.25 inches tall and weigh 2.7 grams each. I used to use them as salutes but bangs are boring now. Someone try it out and post the results

[d4j0n]

I believe bottle caps are too strong... won't make a good break. Can't seal em good enough.