What did you do today in pyro?

[RiderX]

Rider,

There's an odd phenomenon with charcoal stars. If you're using water/dex binding, pressing them too hard can actually result in some 'rebound' of the fairly-elastic charcoal particles, and it can cause stars to crack upon emergence from the pressing mold or shortly thereafter. Sometimes the cracks aren't evident, but they're still there. I don't press above about 1250psi on anything, color or charcoal.

 

Further, too-fast drying can cause what you see. Charcoal stars should be dried several days in a warm but shaded spot, so as not to shrink too much on the outside as the inside is still swollen. Time is your friend -- don't get in a hurry. If the outside shrinks while the inside is wet, they will crack.

 

AFTER drying for at least 2-3 days in the shade, they can usually survive being put in a heated, dehumidified drying chamber, but not over about 100 degrees F. They take - typically - at least a week to dry thoroughly, depending upon their size.

 

'Hope that helps!

 

Lloyd

part of my issue i believe is the super high temps and super low humidity 95*+ and 2-5% humidity is making them dry super fast , im thinking about taking my lil portable evaporative cooler and having it on low blowing over the stars while they dry

 

the tails survive but the stars dont

 

when i make bp with redgum/alky its dry and useable within an hour , when it should take 3 hours or over night for best from what i have read , but im not going to complian as the bp works great

Edited July 31, 2017 by RiderX

[dagabu]

Packing up for PGI.

[chuckufarley]

Built up some new frames for some 30 and 40 mesh screens today.

[lloyd]

This was one of those 'crap' pyro days.

 

I set out to make some 'special' shell casings for a client. I set up my materials, got ready to work, and the power failed! It was off for more than 2 hours. (and no clue why... no weather in the area!)

 

When it came on, I turned on my air supply, because pretty-much all my machines use air for counter-balance or brakes. As soon as I did, I heard a big leak about 14 feet above my head.

 

Now... Saturday, I'd used air... no problems. Sunday a.m. I turned on the air and heard a REALLY BIG leak 'up there'. So I got out the extension ladder, and climbed up. (I'm a pilot, and I can fly upside-down in an aircraft with no qualms, but climbing a 20' ladder to the very top scares the CR*P out of me!).

 

I found a squirrel had chewed through an elbow and part of the horizontal line. So, I spent the time cutting out all the bad sections, and replacing them with new fittings. (yeah... 20' up!). Then I went on to 'other work', and let the unions cure overnight.

 

This morning, I got set up to work on the shells, had the power failure, then finally went out and turned on the air. I heard ANOTHER leak! (yeah... 'Up there'). I figured I probably screwed-up the job, and didn't properly glue one of the fittings. So... out comes the ladder, and back 'up there' again.

 

Only... I found that the NEW fittings had been chewed-through -- AGAIN! DANG IT!

 

The tree-rats around here no longer have ANY quarter! I am driving 20 miles tomorrow to buy some rat poison, and I've got the .410 loaded! I worked HARD today, and got 'nothing done', except capping-off the bad line, so I could go on with work tomorrow.

 

Doggone it! Sometimes, even "pyro life" doesn't go the way you want it to.

 

Tomorrow, an hour later than my usual start, I'm making some shell casings! (AFTER climbing up that darned ladder AGAIN to position the rat poison)

 

Lloyd

Edited July 31, 2017 by lloyd

[OldMarine]

I had some red gerb comp with strontium nitrate that had a baggie failure and had pulled what weighed out to 1.26oz of moisture into a lb of comp. I dried it in the sun and wind yesterday then left it open in the shop with the dehumidifier running and it's within .5 oz of the original weight. I'm going to put a large silica gel pack in it and then give it a try tomorrow evening. It's only a pound but waste not, want not.

[RiderX]

making a ton of these lil bastards right now

lil bp in the bottom, couple stars sprinkle some meal on the stars then more granulated bp ontop with about a gram of flash ontop and cap

http://i.imgur.com/J0Q86nj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/iK8cVrR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ELdtlyf.jpg

 

 

so quick and easy to make and they look cool , i really want a weaker top cap for them but not sure what i can use , then i wouldnt need the flash

[RiderX]

made a single 2.5 shell today but the big one was making 30.3 ounces of bp , that should last me a couple of days.

 

i actualy wanna burn up this skylighter kit so i ca buy some milled 325 mesh nitrate and better charcoal

[RiderX]

i shot that 2.5 tt/d1 shell tonight , the shell wasnt much , but omg the tail on this thing , i know just how im making my tails form now on

 

edit

 

youtube is messing up ill post again when the video is ready

Edited August 4, 2017 by RiderX

[RiderX]

 

and looks like i didnt shatter my stars this time

[Baldor]

I'm still dialing in my camera to capture greens and blues without washing out or 'bleaching' of saturated colors. Its an 'exposure' adjustment in the camera submenu.

You must underexpose a little if you want to avoid to wash the brighter spots. Since in fireworks we are interested in the bright spots, there is no need to worry about darkening the shadows too much, so you usually can underexpose a lot. If you want to capture some of the background at the same time, then is when you have a problem, there is not enough dynamic range to capture both well. As always in extreme exposure conditions, the exposure should be set in manual, and preset before starting shooting.

[rogeryermaw]

Pumped my first crossettes this weekend. Learned a good bit doing so too... They can be very finicky getting the cruciform to release cleanly. Got best results if i press the comet then pull the rammer out of the sleeve and use a flat 3/4" dowel to press the comet out of the sleeve. Only way i could get them out without deforming the cavity.

[OldMarine]

Pressed a pound each of ¼" pink and blue stars for some cotton candy headers I want to try. They look good but that's a bunch of work for some tiny stars. Used phenolic resin as the binder so they were dry in an 1½ hours.

[Sulphurstan]

i shot that 2.5 tt/d1 shell tonight , the shell wasnt much , but omg the tail on this thing , i know just how im making my tails form now on

 

edit

 

youtube is messing up ill post again when the video is ready

Rider. Would you mind to share the comp you attached to the shell, the tail is just wonderful (please) 👍

[RiderX]

Rider. Would you mind to share the comp you attached to the shell, the tail is just wonderful (please)

4x TT 1/2 inch cut stars + 2x 1/2 inch D1 stars as tails

Edited August 7, 2017 by RiderX

[RiderX]

TT comp

http://pyrodata.com/compositions/Tiger-tail

 

and the D1 that was posted in my thread by another member

otassium Nitrate - 53(!)
Sulfur - 18
Charcoal airfloat - 11
Aluminum atomized, 325mesh - 7
Sodium Bicarbonate - 7
Dextrin - 4

[lloyd]

Try "Buttered Popcorn Glitter" (by someone 'close' to me)

 

lb oz

Potassium Nitrate 18 12

Charcoal 3 12

Sulfur 2 8

Antimony Trisulfide 2 14

X-Fine Aluminum 2 8

Sodium Bicarbonate 1 13

Dextrin 1 13

34 lb

[Mumbles]

Pumped my first crossettes this weekend. Learned a good bit doing so too... They can be very finicky getting the cruciform to release cleanly. Got best results if i press the comet then pull the rammer out of the sleeve and use a flat 3/4" dowel to press the comet out of the sleeve. Only way i could get them out without deforming the cavity.

 

 

I don't know who's tooling you have, but the following works well with Wolter tooling. I only specify due to the Nituff coating he uses. I honestly can't say whether or not it plays a role. I press the rammer through the tube to totally eject the comet, but still on the cruciform. The comet always expands a little bit upon exiting the tube. Pulling the tooling back into the tube will cause the comet to catch the lip just enough to pop off usually, right into your hand.

[starxplor]

 

Try "Buttered Popcorn Glitter" (by someone 'close' to me)

 

lb oz

Potassium Nitrate 18 12

Charcoal 3 12

Sulfur 2 8

Antimony Trisulfide 2 14

X-Fine Aluminum 2 8

Sodium Bicarbonate 1 13

Dextrin 1 13

34 lb

 

 

Why does my calculation come out to 29lbs instead of 34?

[patsroom]

Because you are not dding up the total oz side, just the lbs. add up just your lbs and it comes to 29lbs............. Pat

[starxplor]

haha, I was thinking it was two different columns, for making large and small batches... This is why I always prefer metric, heh.

[RiderX]

i made my own nesting hemi for a 2.5 inch shell , ill prolly test it it out tommorow , hopefully it works , i boosted the shell with a few grams of booster hopefully i didnt over due it

[Sulphurstan]

Thanks guys for the "tail comp"

[RiderX]

Thanks guys for the "tail comp"

 

yw

it seems it needs to be lifted as gently as possible to get that really long tail i got in that video , ive tried 2 more times to replicate it and the tail is really short , but ive also been lifting the shells harder then before

 

or i imagine using actual 3/4 inch or so comets instead of cut stars for the tail would help when lifting them hard

Edited August 8, 2017 by RiderX

[lloyd]

Nosir! Any comp capable of making a tail will leave a LONGER tail when the device (shell/comet/whatever) is moving faster.

 

Something else is wrong.

 

Lloyd

[RiderX]

this s the shell i made the nested hemis for , and use booster .

in person the shell looked damn near perfect huge round break, on video it didnt pick up all the stars , no sure if its because i changed the white balance iso speed or because i filmed in in 60fps

 

 

im going to play more with the nesting hemi's for sure

Edited August 9, 2017 by RiderX