Aerial Shells

[lebanj12]

This video was already posted by zmuro, but here are shells sorted by nick names.

 

[aa92td]

Very nice shell Zmuro great simetric.

[Zmuro]

Well Done Zmuro. I like that effect. You always seem to have a good lift charge and break charge. What did you use for break charge?

The break charge was BP on puffed rice, and 5g of whistle mix.

[qwezxc12]

Really nice...The contrasting effects of the TT and the long hang of the Win20 worked very well together.

[aa92td]

That winkour makes a Dragon eggs effect.

[marks265]

Here is my first 6" shell attempt. One of them blew blind and I think I know why. The second shell had a poor break and some input as to what happened is appreciated.

 

The shell had a 3" inner hemi filled with green magnalium stars, the outer was white KNO3 based star which I did not like. Black powder rice hulls were used, 2" of time fuse between cross match, 2 teaspoons of whistle mix were all also used. I wanted to use KP on hulls but did not have perc. at the time. The shell was arcing when it burst so it should of been at apogee but it seemed like it was still traveling too fast? The comets fell off but so what/big deal at this point.

 

I pulled a shot of the break out of the video if it helps. Thanks in advance!

 

http://www.apcforum.net/files/2petalbreak.jpg

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

 

video (mpg2)

 

http://www.apcforum.net/files/2withgreen.mpg

 

YT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JblEsMDunM0

[Mumbles]

Not to worry. 6" double petal shells elude me too. The two I've gotten to break well I've blow most of the stars blind. One of these days I shall conquer a 6" double petal.

 

It had a rather odd break. If I hadn't seen shell, I would have sworn it was a canister shell from how it broke. It looks like you possibly didn't put enough power to the burst, and it just opened up and the upward velocity of the shell put a significant portion of the momentum into the stars. I don't specifically remember how big it was, but for a 6" it seemed to break rather small.

 

There is another thing that makes a world of difference, but may not seem so obvious. Try putting a piece of quickmatch from your time fuse to the center of the shell. Pushing it over the time fuse should expose some bare match out the top, this is good. Tie off the paper around the timefuse and the exposed black match. This creates a high amount of pressure inside the paper tube. When it lights, it should literally explode and spray fire everywhere inside the shell. I've GREATLY improved symetry and burst strength since I started doing this.

 

I personally use KP, or similar mixtures in my 6" shells. I do know several people who do indeed use BP on hulls though. You may have seen Richard Black's shells. He uses BP on hulls, 4:1 I believe, not sure on the booster. He made the 6" winokur 20 shells. It's a gold glitter that seems to strobe in the tail.

[marks265]

I had some time to think about this and I am thinking the paper maybe the culprit. I bought the 60# paper from the Home Depot paint section which is I would guess to be recycled paper. I even had problems with my 3" shells and that is mostly the only thing that changed. I used some of my old stars and made new ones for the weekend. Some would light and most would blow blind so that was a shock to me. I can say my technique needs some work for the 6" but not the 3" at least for the stars i was using. I shot 2 Chyr 6, one was kind of crappy and the other was not so bad.

Everyone I had input from agrees on an odd break so I really wonder.

Well I guess I will just have to try it now won't I.

[crazyboy25]

Did you use any flash or whistle booster? I know big shells usually don't need one but that break didn't look very powerful I usually but a tablespoon of whistle per hemi in my 4" they break perfect with no to minimal pasting.

[marks265]

I suppose I should have added that. I used 2 teaspoons of whistle mix. 4:1 bp on rice hulls. And then a bunch of beer much later

[psyco_1322]

The first 6 are new, shot just the other night. Short on time but decided to just post them so everyone could see. Ill fill in on details later or you can jsut ask and ill tell. Prefire pics I thikn I posted awhile back, like 4 shells that were spiked, maybe pasted, idk. Also a bunch of PGI picks got put up if you look in that album.

 

http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/psyco_1322/

[TheSidewinder]

Just a thread bump to test a report that this thread (among other things) is causing problems for some people re: not displaying all the pages.

 

It's working fine for me, but am testing to make sure we don't have more Host issues.

 

TheSidewinder

[nick2354]

Hello,

 

Today I fired some small 7/8" plastic shells filled up with bp. I fired about 4 using different lift amounts. I found 1/10th of the shelll weight works the best, which is what everything I have read suggests.

 

The height my 7/8" shell reached was about less that 10 metres (32 feet), because I try more lift and it flys up but dosent ignite.

 

Also no one laugh at me, because I lauch 7/8" shell, I did that for a test, It was my first Mortar firing. If it was only meant to reach about 10 metres than I guess it was a succes and I will move up to 1 7/8" shells.

 

My question: Is it only meant to reach about 10 metres?

 

thankyou, any help is appreciated!

[GalFisk]

That's about the height I got with shells of similar size, larger shells will go much higher. Such small shells have more surface area compared to mass, this makes them slow down more due to air resistance.

[justanotherpyro]

If you're shells are not igniting when you lift them too hard try priming them with bp( if you aren't already doing so). Basically just mix some BP with water to make a slurry then dip the end of the fuse in it. It will help ignition a lot.

[Zmuro]

One 4" round shell from yesterday http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4qfffRLdY

[lebanj12]

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

One 4" round shell from yesterday http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4qfffRLdY

Nice shell!

 

Question 1, how did you fill the shell? Totally filled with stars and a flashbag in the midle?

Question 2, 15 grams of BP for lifting a 400 grams shell? sounds weird to me...

[nejc@]

Zmuro`s BP is very, very fast.

Firstly, as I remember, he used normal amounts of lift(about 1/10 mass of shell) and shells flyed so high, that they weren`t visible...

[Richtee]

Question 2, 15 grams of BP for lifting a 400 grams shell? sounds weird to me...

Dude's got some HOT powder, eh? Even if using Benzo, which is not recommended for more than 3", he'd need prolly 25 grams. I suspect a typo/mismeasurement.

 

Nice break tho!

[Zmuro]

One 4" round shell from yesterday http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4qfffRLdY

Nice shell!

 

Question 1, how did you fill the shell? Totally filled with stars and a flashbag in the midle?

Question 2, 15 grams of BP for lifting a 400 grams shell? sounds weird to me...

Yes, the shell was totally filled with 15mm round stars and I only used 15g of BP because thats enough, I used 45g for 1100g 6" shell and it went high enough. That the BP I use: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uefUudBjHTs

[nath0r]

I was just about to say the same thing as above, 15g of lift for a 400g shell seems very little.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Your BP seems to be very quick. But i wouldn't recommend it for cannister shells.

 

What kind of charcoal do you use?

 

I find the effect time quite short for 15mm stars, do they burn that fast?

[Richtee]

Yes, the shell was totally filled with 15mm round stars and I only used 15g of BP because thats enough, I used 45g for 1100g 6" shell and it went high enough. That the BP I use: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uefUudBjHTs

Man... nice stuff. Possibly a good tight fit on the shell too, right?

[Zmuro]

I use alder buckthorn charcoal. I had a few flowerpots with canister shells, but from now on I use a mix of two different BP, one slow and one fast. The shell was 3mm smaller than 4" mortar ID. I used pepper seeds for star cores about 3-4mm ID and thees stars burn quite fast.