What did you do today in pyro?

[memo]

good ideas mikeee

[patsroom]

I have looked at the circular cutting blades at the craft stores and they can get expensive buying 24 cutters for a tool.

Cannabalising a a kitchen utensil or something from the dollar store might be an option.

(24) pizza cutters at the dollar store would be about the same cost as (1) circular cutter from the craft store.

Ebay might have something that would also work.

Look into eBay herb mincers you could get one with about 9 circular cutting blades for about $3.50 US. Making a star cutter would not be hard or costly.................Pat

[Pyrophury]

Got the 4mm cut stars primed with a 1/2mm layer of strobe igniter...

http://pyrobin.com/files/White%20Strobe%201.jpg

 

http://pyrobin.com/files/White%20Strobe%202.jpg

 

These are the white strobe from the Spanish PDF, containing -200 mesh magnalium and a lot of sulphur. On the ground they don't strobe so much as flicker very rapidly, I'm hoping they work better in the air (better than the Bleser strobes anyway, which blew out).

[ExplosiveCoek]

Looking good! Did you roll them with toro? Manually or with the star roller?

[Pyrophury]

Looking good! Did you roll them with toro? Manually or with the star roller?

 

Star roller, sprayed the stars with an airbrush, was very sparing with the composition and kept them on the wet side. I had to use my hand a lot, especially at fist, to keep the pile tumbling otherwise they would just slide... and just took my time.

[ExplosiveCoek]

Thanks!

 

They look quite hard and stiff already after slicing. Do you use a wooden frame or something to be able to press the composition together?

I always have difficulties with cutting stars, either too dry and crumbly, or too wet and sticking to the cutting device.

[AzoMittle]

 

44...Potassium Nitrate

12...Charcoal, Mixed Hardwood Airfloat

12...Charcoal, 80 Mesh Ferrotitanium, 30-60 Mesh

12...Charcoal, 36 Mesh, Commercial

10...SGRS Phenolic Resin

05...Sulfur

05...Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle -325 Mesh

03...Hexamine

These do NOT work, avoid this combination. Even with thick priming they dont take fire, they also don't burn hot enough to light the feti. Waste of chems

[dagabu]

My double voice crackers from PGI 2016.

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by dagabu

[AzoMittle]

Rolling some slow burning lampblack willow comet mix on top of those aluminum stars I posted the other day in this thread. They are at the point that they just eat up composition like there's no tomorrow but still have quite a ways to grow before they will be ready. Time to go hit the mill with more mix I guess.

 

I also made up a batch of Majdali's parlon purple and a batch of experimental modified parlon purple. First time I've tried binding with parlon/acetone, and god damn you guys weren't joking when you called it "stringy". It cut fine and didn't stick to my blade like I expected it to though. I swapped out 20 of the KP for AP (partially because AP colors are so pretty but mostly because I wanted to get rid of the last of my AP) and 4 of the copper oxide for copper oxychloride because it makes such nice blues on its own. I'm hoping for a purple that's more blue than red. I'll post a video when I get a chance to test them but I'm hopeful about this one!

 

Steve Majdali's Original Parlon Purple

50...Potassium Perchlorate

15...Parlon

13...Copper Oxide (Black)

08...Strontium Nitrate

07...Red Gum

03...Magnalium (200-325 Mesh)

 

My Experimental AP Parlon Purple

30...Potassium Perchlorate

20...Ammonium Perchlorate

15...Parlon

09...Copper Oxide (Black)

08...Strontium Nitrate

07...Red Gum

04...Copper Oxychloride

03....Magnalium (-325 Mesh, Dichromated)

 

edit: formatting got all screwy on me...

Edited August 17, 2016 by AzoMittle

[lloyd]

Good luck! Launch them HIGH... they're going to burn much more slowly than you might assume.

 

Lloyd

[AzoMittle]

Thanks Lloyd!

 

So I realized that I might be an idiot since I ended up mixing AP with strontium nitrate. How likely is it this ended up getting converted to AN instead? The experimental stars are noticeably different, a tiny bit soft on the underside and slightly sticky, the control batch is rock hard.

 

On the ground at least: Both batches burn hot and quick with a very large flame and little smoke, like a go-getter they ended up jetting off when I lit them. Control stars are nearly a pure blue with a slight tinge of red-violet near the base. Experimental stars are pure blue with no noticeable red or purple, not exactly what I was hoping for but actually quite a nice sky-blue regardless (slightly lighter than this: http://colors.findthedata.com/l/313/Deep-Sky-Blue).Again, this was tested on the ground, I will post a video of them in shell come end of September-ish if I get a chance. If I could change anything I would swap the Strontium nitrate for Strontium carbonate and use probably twice as much. Never thought I would catch myself saying "carbonate over nitrate" but I guess there's a first time for everything.....

 

edit: I cut them to roughly 1" square and 1/2" tall.

Edited August 17, 2016 by AzoMittle

[lloyd]

Strontium nitrate is not generally thought to cause a double-displacement reaction with AP. Potassium nitrate surely DOES do so.

 

(How are you going to employ 'pancake' stars, shorter than they are wide by half?)

 

Lloyd

Edited August 17, 2016 by lloyd

[AzoMittle]

Strontium nitrate is not generally thought to cause a double-displacement reaction with AP. Potassium nitrate surely DOES do so.

 

(How are you going to employ 'worm' stars, longer than they are wide by twice?)

 

Lloyd

 

Well that's a new word, I wouldn't call them worm stars though, they are more of 'squished cubes' than cylinders. Roughly 1" wide/long by 1/2" tall, see here: http://imgur.com/a/OFm85 KP is the brown ones, AP is the blacker ones.

 

By the time I roll on a hot prime, then a glitter, then willow, then a dusting of meal they will be somewhat round, not perfectly round little balls like true rolled stars but close enough.

Edited August 17, 2016 by AzoMittle

[grimreefer24601]

Not today, but last night. I was testing a gold glitter gerb mix (Haha gerb fails the spellcheck here?). I did a similar test choked, but this unchoked version works much better. It still suffers from a tremendous buildup of dross. I plan on trying adding layers of BP mix to blow out the dross. Any other ideas on combating dross?

 

[NeighborJ]

I am always amazed at the power of whistle and also bp. Today I made some various veline colored rocket headers. And in an effort to create more even breaks I've pasted the 1.75" paper shells with fiber reinforced tape before the normal paper. In order to test them I made one bp salute with this pasting process and fired it off with a 4oz whistle motor formed on a end burner spindle. This tiny motor, only3/4" of whistle fuel and titanium bp delay took my 53gram header out of sight and the pasting job worked awesome. Very loud for such a small header.

[AzoMittle]

Rammed my first few rockets (cored and nozzled 1 lb'ers, cross fingers they don't cato), I'll build headers come launch time. Scale reads the motors at 100g, with 35g tube weight. And pasted some a dozen 2.5" willow comets for shell tails. Still need to dip the comets in NC and some BP granules to prime but waiting for the gum tape to dry first.

Edited August 23, 2016 by AzoMittle

[grimreefer24601]

A few new trials in my gerb making.

 

[dagabu]

I got done with all 45 drivers (#1) for the dolas this weekend as well as 5 shells, ran out of time, would have liked 8. I am bringing the video camera this weekend, wish me luck with the video.

[chuckufarley]

Good luck Dag.

 

Have to say, I've been waiting to see those dolas in action for awhile.

 

If life didn't always get in the way I might have a few of my own by now.

[dagabu]

Your wish, my command!

 

[DaMounty]

Finally got around to using my allpax cutter. Holy jeepers this little tool is awesome. Worth every penny!

 

DaM

[joeyz]

The circular blades came from some herb mincers I cannibalised, the spacers are just 1mm thick washers/shims and they are held on the 6mm shaft with a pair of shaft collars.

 

http://pyrobin.com/files/Star%20Slicer%202.jpg

i thought they were CD ROMS lol

[joeyz]

changed the 9V battery to my ERL (Estes Rocket Launcher)

 

[OldMarine]

My humidifier hasn't arrived yet but I was getting antsy about the humidity since I'd seen a bit of mold on my bench so I moved my drying box back to the house in order to dry the more hygroscopic chems. I have batches of all my nitrates dried or drying and am bagging them inside the supposedly airtight containers.

Actually I'm grateful to find something to do while the humidity is so high it impedes breathing if one doesn't chew the air first.

[OldMarine]

Picked up another outdoor work table today that has a small sink built in for $10 at yard sale. Filtered rainwater on tap is awesome. I've got an critter proof catch bucket to stop the Bambis from sipping a poison liquor.