Aerial Shells

[crazyboy25]

ok im still confused you rolled BP plus 15% MgAl stars and then put MgAl in the middle?

[flying fish]

^^^ He means firearm cartridge primers - it's like a cap that the firing pin in a firearm hits, but you can use them as popping cores for stars.

 

By the way, 325 bright flake flash is the same thing I use for a booster in my shells (which are usually very small). I use between 0.25 and 0.5 grams in a 1-3/4 inch plastic shell, depending on the effect I want. I really like it; I wouldn't use anything faster nor slower.

[qwezxc12]

crazyboy25,

 

I used these as cores:

http://www.lockstock.com/images/CCIPRIMERS.jpg

and rolled the BP/MgAl star composition around them.

 

 

flying fish,

Thanks for the tip. As I said, I was planning to try that next; the -425 seemed a little hot.

[crazyboy25]

oh i get get it i thought thats what you meant it just seemed weird to roll stars on live primers for ammunition.

[Dman65]

I am still trying to learn everything I need to and put together the tools and chemicals to build my first shell.

 

Since strenghtening the shell by wrapping it with a paper mache' mixture, strapping tape, twine, etc. is necessary to make the break stronger (from what I understand) I was wondering if anyone has ever epoxied the outside of a shell with epoxy or an epoxy + filler combination. I didn't know if there would be safety concerns with this or something.

 

Thanks

[Zmuro]

Zmuro,

 

Those are nice shells. The Chrys8 shell looked particularly nice - nice even break. Looked like the fiberglass pasted shell shattered some stars when it broke and the break wasn't any bigger than you other shells. Interesting experiment, though.

 

I'm curious about your D1 glitter - it does glitter, bit it hangs more like a firefly. Nice effect. What type and size Al are you using in it?

It also looked like you used large stars in the shell. I only counted 23 or 24 stars. What size were they? I typically use 90 to 100 3/8"(9.5mm) stars in a 3"(76mm) spherical shell.

 

 

Anyway, if the rain ever lets up, I've got a 6in, two 4in, and three 3in shells to shoot tonight. I'm trying a few new things with the break and construction.

For D1 glitter I used 300mesh spherical Al. The composition was ball milled for 45min (except Al and half of charcoal, to get a small tail). Stars were round and 15mm in diameter, maybe a little to big. In the fiberglass pasted shell, I maybe used too much FP and the stars were pumped with 10ml syringe and not as hard as round one.

[Mumbles]

I don't know how well epoxy would work. I would be somewhat afraid of sharp fragments landing on the ground. Cost may come into play as well. I am fairly certain that epoxy is somewhat more expensive than paper and paste or fiberglass tape.

 

Things like this have been used in the past before, such as with cherry bombs. They used a sodium silicate based mixture to coat over the actual cylindrical casings.

 

There is a pyrotechnic application similar to what you're describing. It offers no reinforcing quality though, just a beautiful rising effect. A shell is made as normal, then comp is rolled over the entire shell in multiple layers. Generally fusing is done with a short spolette so the rising effect lights it, and it goes off shortly after the effect ends. So you'd use a 3" shell, and roll up approximatly a half an inch of comp over the entire thing and fire it from a 4" gun.

[Zmuro]

I used fiberglass and polyester resin and it costs 4$ per litre so that isn't so expensive. I agree with you that the epoxy is to expensive. The advantage of fiberglass and polyester resin is that you finish pasting you shell in 2-3 min and it is dry in one day or less.

[Zmuro]

3" Canister shell with TT stars and 5 reports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znMza_-XI94

[Mumbles]

The stars and break look great. I don't know if it was planned, but yout may want to consider a longer delay on the salutes. Was that a flash burst.

[Zmuro]

FP was standard 70:30 (Perchlorate:German Dark) and each salute cointaned 2g of this FP. In future I will make longer delay for salutes as you suggested.

[qwezxc12]

Zmuro,

 

I think Mumbles was asking (and so am I) if the *shell* was broken with flash, not the contents of the salutes

 

Nice shell.

[crazyboy25]

nice shell love the tigertail what were the dimensions of the salutes?

[Zmuro]

Sorry, my bad. It was canister shell and for the burst I used only meal coated corn cob. Salutes ware small, just to hold a 2g of FP.

[psyco_1322]

It was 10g of 70:30 flash in a bag the was hot glued and string to a passfire tube and had another plastic barrier applied after that. The bottle isnt green that was a sideways pic, the liquid is green. Its not methyl borate. Keep guessing, its my secret! Its alot brighter burnig than methyl borate. We was thinking of using a different shape of bottle, it'll be somewhere between 8-12" maybe bigger if need be. So dont miss next years convention.

 

Heres the link: Must have broke when I moved the video.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/psyc...pareInsert5.jpg

[Mumbles]

Methyl Borate is clear anyway.

 

It took me a while to figure out what you were using in there. I thought it was right side up and you had some sort of jelly.

[ULTRABUF]

Look what I have accomplished.

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee243/u...stinpyro013.jpg

[lnstantkarma]

those are nice^ how long have you been making shells?

 

but im wondering if a star comp can be a different color on the ground burning in powder form than in the sky rolled into a star

specifically I'm using blue from the veline table

[psyco_1322]

Interesting, your mine looks nice also, gonna get us some vids?

[Mumbles]

You can't compare a powder to a bound star. A star can look different on the ground than in the air. Often times I find that colors look washed out on the ground, but excellent in the air.

[pudidotdk]

How would one normally add those small rising shells to a bigger shell?

Either add them to a canister or spherical shell...

[Mumbles]

I've only seen rising shells on spherical shells, It is done in two ways. One is to place them in a bag on top, and they will be shot free during lift. The other way is to tie them onto the passfire loop. This is the loop of string or rope at the top of the shell that is used to help lower the shells. After the shells are tied on here, paper is normally pasted around the string so they shells don't flop around. The last time I did this, I didn't secure them at all, and they worked just fine. A piece of masking tape would probably be fine as they would break off during the lift and be free. You don't really want them going off on the surface of the shell, as this may compromise it.

[ULTRABUF]

those are nice^ how long have you been making shells?

Thanks, I've been attempting shells for like a year, but had multiple failures until this past fourth of July. One of the four shells in the pic is one I lit off already but the time fuse (visco) didn't take fire so I found it and put a new lift cup on. I made sure to put a nice glob of prime on all the fuses this time. And this will be the first time I've lit shells with rising comets on them. I'm thinking I will light them off on Sunday.

 

Thanks psyco, I think I posted the video of the mine a couple pages back but here it is again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjV0ijvwAgs

[hashashan]

Guys, the weirdest thing ever happened to me today. I launched a shell, the spoulette caught fire and was seen as expected 3 seconds in the air and then nothing, no explosion ..... just nothing.

 

What could be the problem?

[crazyboy25]

did you find the shell? if you made the spoulette yourself it could have been defective. one more thing did was it spherical or large if so did you use quick match or BP filled tube these could misfire.