itwasntme Posted September 7, 2006 Posted September 7, 2006 I believe bottle caps are too strong... won't make a good break. Can't seal em good enough. I thought that but it might be worth a shot. I used electrical tape rapped like an X on it to seal it up. I think it would make a good a aerial salute.
BigBang Posted September 7, 2006 Posted September 7, 2006 The key there is salute. Yes, they will make perfectly fine ariel salutes. They will not, however, give the best break for shells. You will most likely have a burst where the two caps join, but the caps themselves won't rupture very well, giving very crappy symetry. Why not just go with the little tutorial d4jon has provided? It is a cheaper, more effective way to make shells of such small sizes.
pyrochris Posted September 7, 2006 Posted September 7, 2006 The key there is salute. Yes, they will make perfectly fine ariel salutes. They will not, however, give the best break for shells. You will most likely have a burst where the two caps join, but the caps themselves won't rupture very well, giving very crappy symetry. Why not just go with the little tutorial d4jon has provided? It is a cheaper, more effective way to make shells of such small sizes. I have actually made a 2" that made a bowtie effect. You can get this effect by not putting a regular amount of mached paper over the joining halves. Works really great!
rocket Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 I fired my first shell tonight and it worked well for it size, it was 20mm can shell with reeper silver stars and a Kno3/Mg burst. Got no prefireing pics didn’t think it was worthwhile at the time Video:http://www.apcforum.net/files/20mmshellKno3Mgburst.MOV
Pretty green flame Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 I fired my first shell tonight and it worked well for it size, it was 20mm can shell with reeper silver stars and a Kno3/Mg burst. Got no prefireing pics didn’t think it was worthwhile at the time Video:http://www.apcforum.net/files/20mmshellKno3Mgburst.MOV It's a very good shell for it's size, good job. Did you use only KNO3/Mg burst or was it a booster?
Rocket007 Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 do you know how high mast be a mortar. nowhere i could found this information. today i will shot 1,2 or 3 2"shells. weight 100glift 15gburst black powder 25 tiger taill stars The mortar is high: 54cm with plug, withouth 50cmIs it to high or to small??????? Lp, Rok
rocket Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 It had a Kno3/Mg core with BP with the stars. The shell was arranged like this: http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k300/ber0006/Shell.jpg Here’s a video of the flash: http://www.apcforum.net/files/Flashpowder2.MOV
Pretty green flame Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 Rocket007, that seems a bit too long for a mortar of that size. I personally would recomend a lenght of 30-35cm (with an aditional 5cm for the plug) That's around 6-7 ID as is usually used. The other rocket , was the shell spiked? And that Mg flash is very fast, what size magnesium was used. I have around 40-60mesh and never goes off with a thump.
rocket Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 No it wasn’t spiked, I thought about it but I was to eager to fire it. The Mg was from a anode I think its around –200mesh it like airfloat. I grind it down with a sanding drum, grit unknown.
Silverturk Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 Perhaps somebody could help me out with this. I've just started making my own shells after making a good rocket motor. I thought this would be the easy part, but i was wrong. I have probably made 10 or more shells, and none of them had a good burst. It's like the black powder won't give my stars any speed at all. I also tried adding a little bit of flash to my burst (0.5 gram for 10 grams of black powder) but that just made a huge bang and it didnt ignite any stars. Then I thought it would be a good burst if i made the casing a bit stronger, but then the tube just opened up a little bit at one side. It didnt even split the tube! That sucks. WTF am i doing wrong?
rocket Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 What type of stars are you using and was the size and shape and the material is the shell. This will help people answer your question more easily.
Silverturk Posted September 8, 2006 Posted September 8, 2006 Stars, tigertail, cut, about 1 * 1 * 0.5 cmShell, about 3 cm ID, cylinderical
Rocket007 Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 the stars will ignite better if you roll hem in wet Bp so that the star becom a cover of Bp. You should put lees stars and more Bp in the shell. My star ignite all yesterday and they were tiger tail but not coverd with Bp. Perhaps are yor stars not dry enought or ..... Lp. Rok
Silverturk Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 My stars have been dried for one week.It's just when I'm adding flash that the stars doesen't ignite.I'll try using a little weaker shell and more black powder to see if that will work.
Pretty green flame Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 My stars have been dried for one week.It's just when I'm adding flash that the stars doesen't ignite.I'll try using a little weaker shell and more black powder to see if that will work. I see, your stars are probaby being blown blind (too strong break). Try just BP for the break and see if the situation improves.
Pyrohawk Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 I have had this problem before as well. Just try priming the stars well. Use a softer burst such as BP or my personal favorite Whistle Powder. Actually the softer the shell the more likely it will be blown blind and/or not igniting. The more resistance there is from the shell the longer the stars will be in contact with the flame from the burst so they get lit better. Make your shells as strong as possible. Also....are you sure you made those stars right? TT is so easy to light almost anything will do it... How did you measure them out?
Rocket007 Posted September 9, 2006 Posted September 9, 2006 i shoot now a 2" shell with 20 tiger taill stars lift: 13gweigt of the shell: 100gfly about 60m-80mthe break was perfect. like a break from a 4". the shell breakd in the right moment. i am so happy. the movie is shit. tomorrow i will also shoot a 2" shell with more burst and 25 tiger tail stars. i hope it will by like today. juhu i am so happy. aja and thank you pretty greeen flame for the information of the high of the mortar. and i shoot also a shell 80g with 8glift and it fly about 50m-65m . Lp, Rok
pyrochris Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 Here is my first attempt at a plastic shell (usually made paper, but wanted to try plastic) its alright, i could clean it up a little but its alright for first time. I used Red white and blue star comps with 11g of lift charge (had some consumer shells laying around ) . http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/marauderrt10/DSCF0933.jpg
Rocket007 Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 nice shell.today i look for my mortar and the plug was 0,5cm pushd out of the mortar . the plug was wery good fixed in the mortar so why happend this??? Lp, Rok
rocket Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 The best explanation for that would be that the plug wasn’t glued in well enough or you overloaded the mortar. Just use more glue or try putting some screws in it next time that will hole it.
Rocket007 Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 theplug was fixed with some nails. i willl make it better now. today i will show a video of my shell if it will be good LP, Rok
Rocket007 Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 my burst is granulated Bp 12-16 mesh. Lp, Rok
Mardec Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 I made tree 2" shells (canister) today. This is not the first time i made them but my canisters never seemed to give good results. I always used C6 stars in my canisters, today was no different. Usually I have a poor break wich doesn't give the C6 the thrust they need to gain good results. Well I was sick of poor results so I Used more break this time. 16,5 grams of my best BP (don't have ball mill) boosted by 1,5 grams of Ba(NO3)2/Al/S flash. In stead of just closing them an spiking them with duct tape I now properly glued them shut. Since my mortars are to small for rope around my shells I can't spike them with normal rope . So I was hoping A good glue job would do the trick. I Glued 2 layers of Kraft paper over the canister and am planning to glue it again in the same manner tomorrow. My shells look very pritty at the moment and feel very sturdy. But when I took one up and slightly shaked it I could hear the start and the bp moving. I am just an starting amature pyro and I don't know if this is bad.. I tried to press the end cap hard enough. Is it normal I can hear evering moving inside the shell. It does not sound like everything can move free, but it doesn't stay at the same place either.. Here are the shell specs: Canister, 2" 1 3/4" inside diameter.2 1/2" High Weight: First one: 85 grams - Second one: 75 grams - Thirt one: 81 grams Is this weight difference acceptable? Can one of you guy please check the specs of the shell to see if this is decent enough or am I going the wrong way? Pictures will follow.
Rocket007 Posted September 10, 2006 Posted September 10, 2006 it sounds great but : -jou spike them with duct tape : thats not good you have to become a biger mortar or you make a litl bit smalier sheeel ( 2-3mm) the weight difference is of course acceptable i wish you a god fly. i let my 2" shell now fly this is the video: ( if you have some qestions ask me them ) video Lp, Rok
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