Aerial Shells

[ULTRABUF]

Cool, hopefully I dont have that problem again. It kinda pissed me off lol.

[deadman]

One time I stepped on a plastic hemi. I'm not sure how much pressure I actually put because I pulled my foot up as soon as I heard something crack. It was actually only the inner locking lip of the male hemi that cracked. The main body of the hemi is still in great shape.

[psyco_1322]

I think them hemis are made of PS (polystyrene). Just some info.

[psyco_1322]

Hay pudi I was actually thinking about making a palm. Just not sure what all to have it do. Thinking a TT shell with about 3-4 small green shell inserts and a rising tail of some sort, maybe a win20 or D1.

[Mumbles]

By default a palm tree shell needs to have a rising tail. I myself am partial to exploding coconuts. Just an option.

[psyco_1322]

wait maybe I put that wrong, I thinks its suposed to be a green shell with something like the exploding coconuts. Ya the rising tail is a must but Im not usre what to make it. Might use something with a long tail. Never made slow gold before- how would that work. Umm maybe this should be transfered to the aerial shell thread?

[Mumbles]

I think slow gold would make an excellent rising tail. It is very long hanging and the tail is very long. Generally palm shells have comets or large stars in them that are projected in a generally downward direction to give a palm tree effect. Most palms have no green in them at all. For some reason gold streamers, such as the blonde streamer comp, seem to be the most popular.

[ULTRABUF]

So to get the stars to shoot downward would you just put them in the bottom half of the shell and fill the rest with burst, or would you want the upper half to be mostly inert to get a soft break?

[Mumbles]

All the diagrams I've seen have the upper half being inert, and heavy. This ensures orientation. Clay is the material of choice I believe. The granular cat litter right from the bag is just fine.

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

I am also led to believe that the proper way for a palm tree shell is to fill half with stars and the other with a heavy inert substrate. I have used the same clay I grind down to make nozzles out of. I am sure kitty litter would be more than satisfactory. I was also led to believe that the color has nothing to do with it yet the true effect is just the rising tail and downward break. The couple I made were gold glitter comets for the tail changing to white/silver glitter for the shell itself. Only one of the three I made actually broke downward though...so I deffinitely could work on the palm tree shells some more.

[Mumbles]

Here is some stuff I posted about palm tree shells on the old forum.

 

I also made a few diagrams.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mum...ShellBottom.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mum...lmTreeShell.jpg

 

And a picture of my super sweet 2" palm tree shell.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mumbles/PalmTree2.jpg

 

I have since made a few more palm tree shells, I made a 5" one that looked excellent actually. Same method, but there were about 6 or 7 7/8" blonde streamer comets for the fronds, and a rising silver streamer tail. I think it still needed some exploding coconuts though.

 

 

This is my new project.  I have one shell drying right now.  I've decided to share my procedure with you all.

 

For those who do not know the effect I will describe it.  There is a long tail (charcoal usually) on the way up.  This is the trunk.  At the apex the shell bursts shooting out stars again with a long tail making the fronds of the palm tree.  Here is a picture, but it is lacking.

 

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0...eworks/images/p ic_palm.jpg

 

On to the preparation:

 

There are two ways to do this.  Method one almost has to be used for smaller shells due to burn times, need for a stronger burst and stuff.

 

Method one: 

 

You will only be using half the hemisphere.  The shell is fused just like any other shell.  The top of the hemisphere is filled with clay.  The granules of it that come in cat litter work just fine.  I put a piece of plastic bag over this and twisted it tight and melted the twist together so it did not unravel.  The top is filled with clay to keep the shell upright and save chems as the stars in smaller shells need to be fired downward. 

 

The bottom is tricky as it depends on the size of the shell due to angle purposes.  For smaller shells you add about enough stars to line the hemi half way up.  Stars that are approximately 1/4 the diameter of the shell.  2" shells use 1/4" to 1/2"  4" shells use 3/4" to 1".  It will only take about a line and a half.  Fill the rest of the hemi with a proper burst.  H3 is recommended*.  Once you get to 4" you can probably use meal on substrate, and once you get to 6" you can use granulated meal.  Paste a fair number of layers on.  They recommend 13, but they use a modified base hemi that is incredibly weak.  I used plastic with 2 layers of paper pasting.

 

For the tail there are 2 options. You take three more stars from above and glue them on the outside around the time fuse so they are also lit by the lift.  The other option is to make a pancake like comet(3" diameter, 1" hole diameter, 1" height recommended for 4" shell), and make a hole so it can go over the time fuse.

 

A nitrate based "H3" is given in my references. 

KNO3 - 75

C - 25

Dex. - 3

It's recommended not to use airfloat as it burns to slow.  Instead they recommend activated charcoal.  Hay or straw charcoal would probably work too though.

 

 

Method 2:

 

The only difference is the top is filled with burst too.  It is used when the clay is too heavy (i.e. large shells).  You can get away with using just the substrate as the filler if you are low on BP.

 

Side Knowledge:

Once you get to bigger stars some recommend drilling a hole through the middle for a shorter burn time with a thicker tail.

 

Some Star comps:

Any chrysanthemum

 

Meal -14

Atomized Al (coarse/med) - 3

SrCO3 (or any carbonate) - 1

Sb2S3 - 1

Dex. - 1

Nitrate - Al reaction not a huge deal due to using coarser atomized (low surface area) Al.  Still be careful though.

 

Meal - 40

KNO3 - 30

Ferrotitanium - 25

Dex - 5

I imagine you could use Iron, titanium, perhaps coarser Al, or another metal to make sparks.  Perhaps you could use coarse C.

 

There is more information in Best of AFN II on pages 146 to 149.

[ULTRABUF]

Here's the 4" shell I've been working on, I dont know when I'll shoot it off but I will do my best to get video when I do.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee243/ultrabuf/dustinpyrosmall.jpg

[qwezxc12]

Has anyone used Lancaster Yellow Glitter in a shell or mine?

 

Meal Powder...................................70

Sodium Oxalate..............................10

Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese needle...8

Aluminum, spher, 20 micron..............7

Dextrin............................................5

 

I don't have any Sodium Oxalate, so I substituted Cryolite...thinking that the Sodium is a colorant only and the glitter will be from the SbS3 and Al.

 

If anyone has used this or has photos / videos of it in action, please let me know. I was planning to use this in my first 8in shell because it's cheap and easy and I'll need a lot, but I probably should have stuck with something I'm familiar with.

 

Thx.

[Mumbles]

I've never personally used it but heard of it being used in large shells quite often. More on the order of long streamers than a bushy tail, decent glitter from what I've seen. 5/8 to 3/4" stars should do you well.

 

For future reference, NaHCO3 is a better replacement for the Oxalate. The oxalate will serve as a delay agent as well in this comp, something cryolite will not do to my knowledge.

 

For a video, check in the competition section for entries by a guy named "ravaz". I know he is pretty fond of using it as the first effect for the outer petal of his shells.

 

I was actually considering using this formula too for my first 8" shell. I went with a modified slow gold instead.

[qwezxc12]

It's too bad, the link for the 8in shell submission that Ravaz posted is MIA.

 

One of the posters at Passfire felt the same...the Cryolite may even suppress the glitter effect, acting as a fluxing agent...I'll have to test fire one of the 1/2" pumped stars before proceeding. Crap. I didn't use Slow Gold because I only have -36 mesh Charcoal and I didn't want to bother milling it finer. Double crap. No I may have to start over and hope they dry.

[Draco_Aster]

I thought you would glue the stars to the upper hemisphere to make them curve upwards then fall down. Little 1"hers of these sound good. Not wasting too much comp on the rising tail and I could make heaps.

 

I have a question - Is it possible to coat rice hulls with dirty flash (KNO3/Al/S) for break in small 1-2" shells? This stuff burns hot and much slower than any other flash I have made. Might give them a sharper report too...

[NightHawkInLight]

I've been using that kno3 flash in my small shells for a couple years in flashbags. I have only once tried coating hulls in it, and only for the outer coat. I had poor results. You may do better, I've always thought it made a perfect break for the smallest of my shells, 1.5". It seems to burn at just the speed so as to not shatter the stars.

[qwezxc12]

Just finished taping a three 6in and an 8in plastic shell. Not too shabby for a first attempt, I think:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/6intaped.jpg

http://www.apcforum.net/files/6and8intaped.jpg

 

There's three 50% overlapping layers (effectively six) of fiber re-enforced kraft gummed tape wrapped on three different axes so the tape doesn't pile up on the poles. The tensile is about 3x that of plain 60lb gummed tape so we'll see how it works. The biggest bitch was sawing 3" and 2" rolls in half width-wise to 1.5" and 1" with my sawz-all (poor man's slitter)

 

Once I got rolling, the taping process was easy. Can't wait to see how they break...I probably have way too much flash booster...

[ULTRABUF]

Nice job gwezxc, are you going to get some vids for us? What comps did you use in those?

 

I have a couple questions about making farfalles. For a tube 2 1/2" long with 1/2" ID, about how thick should the plugs be? And also, I think it would be but I figured I would ask just to be safe, is it ok to ram a comp with atomized Al in it like reeper silver for the farfalles?

[hst45]

qwezxc12, sorry we didn't get a chance to burn a fuse or two this week, but I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss these little beauties! They're great looking. What are the shells? That sounds like a stupid question; I mean what's IN the shells.

[qwezxc12]

I just taped up four more 4in shells and put them in front of the fan to dry with the larger ones:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/4-6and8intaped.jpg

 

They're a little more ragged then the 6in because the 1in wide tape doesn't conform to the smaller diameter as nicely. On the up side, it takes only a little longer than throwing on fiberglass strapping tape, it's much cheaper and I'm hoping for more consistent breaks.

 

ULTRABUF & hst45,

 

I'm trying a few new things this time...

The 4inchers are Reaper Silver to Ruby Red, Reaper Silver to Emerald Green, MgAl BP over shotgun primers, and MgAl BP over Shimizu B70.

 

One of the 6inchers is my aborted modification of Lancaster Yellow Glitter originally intended for the 8in shell (probably won't glitter but at least I'm hoping for a yellow(ish) star. The second is Chrys6 over yellow.

 

(Fingers crossed), the third is an Emerald Green Titanium Palm with supplemental soft streamers and three exploding FeTi coconuts. I'll attach three or four FeTi / Charcoal streamers for the rising "trunk". I took my cues from previous posts on palm shells and went with it. Here's what the components look like. I swabbed the inside of the 1.5" salute shells with PVC cement and did a shake-n-bake with 10-50mesh FeTi hoping for a fuller burst of the metal. The Green Ti comets got a NC dip and Si prime dust:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/PalmComponents.jpg

Shell hemis; the top is filled with kitty litter and should keep the orientation correct for a downward break of the lower shell:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/PalmComponents2.jpg

 

The 8in is filled 1in streamer stars with a green ring...totally new territory here, so I'm bracing for major disappointment. I'm also trying new lift made with Alder charcoal.

 

The biggest immediate problem is the 8in shell weighs too much...my scale only goes to 2000g and the shell feels somewhere ~8lbs...I'm going to put it on the postal scale at work tomorrow so I can portion out the lift. Videos (good or bad) will follow the shoot.

 

Oh, and ULTRABUF,

 

I've never made farfalles, but I have rammed endburners with both atomized and flake Al before. I think some may frown on it, but I thought it was safe to ram BP with non-sparking metals.

 

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Thanksgiving!

[ULTRABUF]

That stuff all looks great! I cant wait to see how these turn out, I was planning on trying Reeper Silver to red in the spring, will be nice to see how that looks beforehand. When are you planning on shooting these off?

I'm going to make a farfalle or two sometime soon and test it before I put any in shells. I hate winter, too cold for me to do much pyro!

[qwezxc12]

Kinda funny...

 

I've was trying to think of a way to weigh the 8in shell because the scales at work are broken and I had an epiphany...Take it to the Post Office!!! So I put it in an 8in box and had my friendly USPS staff weigh it for me... It tipped in at 7lbs, 11.8oz or just about 3,510g. I'll subtract the weight of the empty box (~60g or so) later and get the weight of just the shell.

 

Incidentally, it'll cost me $20.55 to get it shipped to Los Angles via Priority Mail...BWAHAHAHA!!

 

ULTRABUF,

They'll go off tomorrow or Sunday night...weather allowing.

[psyco_1322]

So you have 9 layers of tape on them? Love to see the video. They look impressive:)

[hst45]

qwezxc12, wonderful looking shells. You said you're using shotgun primer cores? How in the name of Jesus H. Christ can you roll 209's?, I have a bitch of a time starting WW 108's! I've thought about trying Federal 215's for the bang-factor, but they're too pricey for me (cheap unemployed bastard). Do you start them with a layer of Elmers glue?

 

Anyway, wonderful professional looking work as always. Good luck on the weather conditions for the shoot; I think we're in for some high winds. I hate wind.