Aerial Shells

[TheSidewinder]

I fixed the formatting on that post by J.A.P.

 

In case anyone missed my note, always put in a carriage return before starting the IMG tag.

 

TS

[psyco_1322]

I can only get about 2 layer of fiberglass tape on a black plastic 4" before it gets to big, so yes I have seen a simular experience with my own stash. But some say not even to paste a plastic shell, just solvent bind the hell out of the seem so its all one wiht the shell and break it nice and hard.

 

Oh on the video what was the size of those blues stars? Most blues seem to burn slow and even small stars seem to start coming down.

[Mumbles]

The only way I've gotten symetrical bursts from plastic shells without reinforcement is with a heavy flash bag.

[RubenE]

I know someone who are not pasting their plastic shells at all, and still get really nice breaks. They just use a good dash of xylene in the seam, quite a few grams of flash and leave their shells in a press while the solvent is drying. It does also depend on the tickness and quality of the plastic hemispheres. I heard a story from a fellow pyro who had made two 6" shells the exact same way, he used one set of plastic halves from Pyrocreations, and one set from Plasticos Gamon. When he fired the shell with hemispheres from PG almost all the stars blew blind, while the PC shell worked excellent. Personally I use one layer of gummed paper tape and a nitrate based flash powder as a booster when I make plastic shells.

[ST1DinOH]

dang man buying from others! how rude!  The casings both Steve (pyrocreations) and tony (asshole eyes cannonofuse ) do in fact come from the same company. There are only 2 other companys out there that I know of that makes plastic hemi's. The ones from the company that the two above companys buy from seem to be a little tighter then the company I buy from. When making 6's at WWB we didnt seem to have any issues with tightness of the shells in the guns, and this was with atleast 2-3 layers of strap tape.

 

HAHAHA

 

lol @ asshole eyes, best laugh of the day so far.

 

i got thoes months ago bro...before i found something better . just picked up my 6 inch HDPE this weekend at the lemas buy and noticed the difference when i got home.

 

i guess i'm just being paranoid...i can probably get away with 2 layers of fiber tape i'm just concerned that 2 may not be enough. that was realy my whole point. seems like i should be ok though.

 

Now as far as how much you need to make it "look good" in the sky. I have shown many of people how only 1 layer will work just fine with a "hard" break (aka 50-60 grams of FP). I know alot of people are going to be like WTF are you saying, are you out of your mind? As long as your stars are WELL primed they will light! At WWB I had a group of people that were looking at me crazy at the event until the tried my way of doing it! here is a little video just so you can see how hard these shells break. http://www.pyrotubes.com/images/WWB19-RobW-SatShells.mpg

 

Bay

 

 

wow...

 

thoes are sweet breaks on thoes.

 

time to order some chems...

[Bayarea510]

now when your shells break do the look more "clumped" together or do you get good spread using the slow FP?

Bay,

 

Thanks for the details on your shells. Best example I have of my construction is this one: 6in C6 to Yellow

It's plastic...details are in the competition forum.

 

I notice that I'm timing longer and shooting my 6's a lot higher. I use the following as a guide:

Time Fuse Delay Times

Shell Size...Delay Time

(in.)...........(sec.)

3.................3

4.................3.5

5.................4

6.................5

8.................6

 

As an example, the 6in Blue and Silver from your vid only took 117 frames (3.9 sec) from lift to burst, whereas mine took 169 frames ( 5.6 sec).

 

That would change the apparent spread and speed of the break, making my higher shell look smaller and slower. I may try a "less lift and less time" experiment to make mine break lower and see the difference.

wow 6 sec's for an 8"....thats alot of time IMO but thats just me. now keep in mind those shells you seen in that video was not mine but a buddy of mines. We and my building buddy tend to always over lift our shells. Im trying to get him to get me some of the video of the last shoot we had 2 weeks ago so I can post them. we will see how that goes. Most the time on 8's I start out with 2" of time fuse before I butterfly 1/4 each side. here is a photo of one of the 8" shells we shot that weekend. Ill try and kick him about the video...

 

 

Bay

 

http://pyrofreedom.kicks-ass.net:2006/gallery/albums/userpics/10180/normal_DSC01316.JPG

[TheSidewinder]

That's one nice-looking shell in progress there, bay.... I assume that's the FP spread around the center?

 

Videos of the shot would be nice.

[Bayarea510]

yeah those are one of my babys from that weekend. We did a total of 4 I think 8's and 6 6"s and about a 6 4"s along with 12 3" salute cans. I know alot of people think im crazy to just do the FP right on top of the hulls but it works for me. Im not a big fan of Flash bags.

 

 

Bay

[TheSidewinder]

You're not the only person I've heard say that.

 

I've heard a couple say they do the same with a good dash of whistle mix in their smaller shells.

[justanotherpyro]

With that quantity of FP I think that the flash bag would be pointless.

[psyco_1322]

That's one nice-looking shell in progress there, bay.... I assume that's the FP spread around the center?

 

Videos of the shot would be nice.

No thats Portland Cement.

 

I too just dump the booster in on top of the rice hulls. I did put a flash bag in that 4" canister I made but havent shot yet that I posted a link to the pic of a while back. < yah make sence of that! But that was following the exact procedure as the article in the BAFN II about the 4" spiderweb shell. It was only about 30g or so.

 

A question to the experienced:

I was wanting to put 3 timed 1 7/8'' plastic ball shells on a 4'' plastic ball shell as a rising effect. I dont want them to break away in random directions but follow the shell on a straight path. How should I go about doing this? I tend to break them small ones hard, will this cause any problems?

[NightHawkInLight]

A question to the experienced:

I was wanting to put 3 timed 1 7/8'' plastic ball shells on a 4'' plastic ball shell as a rising effect. I dont want them to break away in random directions but follow the shell on a straight path. How should I go about doing this? I tend to break them small ones hard, will this cause any problems?

I'd try to pop em nice and light so the stars hold the momentum from the lift. If you got a hard break it might just look like a typical small shell. Just enough break to split the hemis would get that nice fan shaped tailing effect. Kinda like how a mine looks, only happening 50' in the air

[ST1DinOH]

A question to the experienced:

I was wanting to put 3 timed 1 7/8'' plastic ball shells on a 4'' plastic ball shell as a rising effect. I dont want them to break away in random directions but follow the shell on a straight path. How should I go about doing this? I tend to break them small ones hard, will this cause any problems?

I'd try to pop em nice and light so the stars hold the momentum from the lift. If you got a hard break it might just look like a typical small shell. Just enough break to split the hemis would get that nice fan shaped tailing effect. Kinda like how a mine looks, only happening 50' in the air

great idea.

 

so do you basicly just extend the length of the fuses on each in a manner so that each one is slightly longer than the next or are they chain fused in such a was that they fall away from the shell on the way up?

[Mumbles]

Actually ST1DinOH, it can be done both ways. I feel the former way is easier. I believe in one of the AFN it gives a description of the method where they area all in a chain. Forgive the comparison, but the assending device looks a lot like a set of anal beads on top of the shell.

 

It's a bit harder to describe how to attach rising shells to bigger shells when everything is plastic. Normally small loops of string are placed on top of the smaller shells, pretty much like the string loop that the leader goes through to ensure the shell doesn't spin as it is being lowered into the gun. The leader loop on the big shell is then threaded through the insert loops, and you're done.

 

You could probably do this by threading the string around the ring at the top of the shell used to hold the leader, and hot gluing it to the smaller shells. You will probably want to tape them down to the shell. The force of the lift could maybe cause them to break away or break open if allowed to swing around free. I personally fuse my 4" shells at 4 seconds, or about 1.25" of timefuse. This would make it easy by using .5, .75, and 1" of time fuse respectively on the rising shells, assuming you want them breaking sequentially. Hard breaking shells should be no problem, at least if you're worried about it prematurely setting off the main shell.

 

You might want to do a test fit, using masking tape on the 4" hemi to make sure it will fit in the gun properly. I've only done this on 6" ball shells. I used 2" shells on these too. It makes me think that perhaps three of them would be too large on a 4" shell. Mine were canisters, but the fit is still relative. I have a picture somewhere. I'll try to find it.

 

Related, but totally off the current topic. I had a certain PGI grandmaster assure me that the rising effects were all going to go off right away upon lift. I assured him that they would survive. They did indeed function as planned.

[RubenE]

Just thought I could share a movie of a 4in plastic ball shell I fired tonight. It was made the way I said above. With one layer of gummed paper tape and 4g of nitrate-flash.

 

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8022/cimg1345go3.th.jpg

 

 

Here's the film (Sorry about the poor sound quality):

 

What do you think?

[TheSidewinder]

I think ya done good.

 

Great lift and break, good spread and very nice effect.

[TheSidewinder]

That's one nice-looking shell in progress there, bay.... I assume that's the FP spread around the center?

 

Videos of the shot would be nice.

No thats Portland Cement.

 

I too just dump the booster in on top of the rice hulls. I did put a flash bag in that 4" canister I made but havent shot yet that I posted a link to the pic of a while back.

 

A question to the experienced:

I was wanting to put 3 timed 1 7/8'' plastic ball shells on a 4'' plastic ball shell as a rising effect. I dont want them to break away in random directions but follow the shell on a straight path. How should I go about doing this? I tend to break them small ones hard, will this cause any problems?

I got yer Portland Cement right here, pal.

 

That 4" should be fine just about any way you do it, I'd think. Bagged or poured, if it's "tight" it shouldn't migrate too far.

 

Get video!

[irkacek]

Hello

 

This is my little 2in canister shell with D1 stars.

 

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=XakuE0xPgCA

 

 

Regards

Irek

[ST1DinOH]

Actually ST1DinOH, it can be done both ways. I feel the former way is easier. I believe in one of the AFN it gives a description of the method where they area all in a chain. Forgive the comparison, but the assending device looks a lot like a set of anal beads on top of the shell.

 

It's a bit harder to describe how to attach rising shells to bigger shells when everything is plastic. Normally small loops of string are placed on top of the smaller shells, pretty much like the string loop that the leader goes through to ensure the shell doesn't spin as it is being lowered into the gun. The leader loop on the big shell is then threaded through the insert loops, and you're done.

 

You could probably do this by threading the string around the ring at the top of the shell used to hold the leader, and hot gluing it to the smaller shells. You will probably want to tape them down to the shell. The force of the lift could maybe cause them to break away or break open if allowed to swing around free. I personally fuse my 4" shells at 4 seconds, or about 1.25" of timefuse. This would make it easy by using .5, .75, and 1" of time fuse respectively on the rising shells, assuming you want them breaking sequentially. Hard breaking shells should be no problem, at least if you're worried about it prematurely setting off the main shell.

 

You might want to do a test fit, using masking tape on the 4" hemi to make sure it will fit in the gun properly. I've only done this on 6" ball shells. I used 2" shells on these too. It makes me think that perhaps three of them would be too large on a 4" shell. Mine were canisters, but the fit is still relative. I have a picture somewhere. I'll try to find it.

 

Related, but totally off the current topic. I had a certain PGI grandmaster assure me that the rising effects were all going to go off right away upon lift. I assured him that they would survive. They did indeed function as planned.

thanks mumbles, that awnsered all my questions.

 

when i do make my first 6 inch shell i was probably going to atttach some 1.75's for the rising effect. probably glitter or fish breaks every 1/2 second. like 5 or 6 of them in a chain. would look cool i'm sure.

[psyco_1322]

Why dont you people upload your videos to some other site other than youtube. There video player is so freaking retarded anyways, other than being blocked by about everyones firewall.

 

I dont remember what I was going to put in that 4" shell, it was going to look nice with the TT rising though. I think Ill just make something up. Any suggestions?

[FrankRizzo]

Nice shell Irek. It looks like your stars were a bit large for the shell, but it made for a neat pattern.

 

Quit yer bitchin' psyco If you don't like having to add new sites to no-script, stop using it.

[qwezxc12]

Hello

 

This is my little 2in canister shell with D1 stars.

 

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=XakuE0xPgCA

 

 

Regards

Irek

Beautiful break for a little can!

[hashashan]

Hi,

I finally put my hands on some fiberglass reinforced tape.

How many layers should I use it for pasting 3", 4" etc... ?

[psyco_1322]

no-script? You might have to inform me on what that is, because....yah...I dont know. But hay the player is pretty dumb. OK im done "bitching"

 

As for the fiberglass tape, I put about 2-3 revolutions around my 3" ball shells, Id do 3-4 around my 4"s but it wont fit in the gun then. It kinda matters how thick the tape is also.

[Chris]

Hi,

I finally put my hands on some fiberglass reinforced tape.

How many layers should I use it for pasting 3", 4" etc... ?

Assuming you are not talking about reinforced gummed tape but rather ordinary 'transparent' filament tape, there two or three patterns you can use. Dont waste your tape by wrapping your whole shell in it in a pasting-like fashion. That will become costy, and will prove inferior to other patterns. For 3" shells you should make three wraps around the shell, each of different 'strand', and each crossing the two other strands. Each strand should go all the way around the shell and meet up with the other end. See my attached sketch. I'm sorry for not being able to provide a real picture. My description can be a litle confusing, not to talk about the picture, but bare with me on this one . The other method is smiliar, but with four seprate strands. On 3" usually one loop of each strand is enough. On four-inchers I use two.

 

 

Edit: Oh, I almost forgot; be sure to cover your shell with final layer of aluminium tape for instance to separate the fiberglass tape from the hot lift gasses. The tape won't do any good if its not there.