braddsn Posted April 1, 2015 Posted April 1, 2015 Also Wiley, snap a few pics of your timefuse cutter if you don't mind. I have been meaning to make one, just haven't had the time. It would be super handy. I just mark my fuse and cut with sheetmetal shears. lol. Crude I know.
FlaMtnBkr Posted April 1, 2015 Posted April 1, 2015 You may want to be careful cutting with shears. Fuse has been known to ignite that way. A razor blade or anvil cutters are the safest option.
Wiley Posted April 1, 2015 Author Posted April 1, 2015 Before building the cutter, I found that a pair of pipe cutters like this: https://cdn.mscdirect.com/global/images/ProductImages/8162806-24.jpgworked pretty dang well. It cut easily, and only at a slight angle. It'd be more than adequate for funky onion-shaped shells , but I have to admit, using my TF cutter was much, much faster when cutting a bunch of the same length.
braddsn Posted April 2, 2015 Posted April 2, 2015 FlaMtnBkr, yeah I know this can happen. However, I have TIG welding gloves on when I do it, and the fuse is not connected to anything. So worse case, if it were to ignite, I would just be wasting some fuse. I am either gonna build a cutter or buy one soon though. Sooooo much easier than the way I am doing it. LOL. I cut 300 time fuses last night. My hand was sore to say the least.
Wiley Posted April 5, 2015 Author Posted April 5, 2015 (edited) Made some salamis! That's about 15 to 20 hours worth of work sitting there. The lift charges haven't been added yet; that will be done individually as I test them. Oh, except for the two lil' single breaks on the left. I hope to shoot those for Easter Edited April 5, 2015 by Wiley
braddsn Posted April 5, 2015 Posted April 5, 2015 LOL man... you flat out got with it!! That will make a nice little show! You gotta film some of em.
WonderBoy Posted April 6, 2015 Posted April 6, 2015 A nice looking line up you've got there! What's the difference between the fancy and regular timed reports? WB
Wiley Posted April 6, 2015 Author Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) More inserts. The first "fancy" shell has 18 1/4" tube reports, half of which should form a spiral, then the next nine will be a ring, followed by a bottom shot. The second has four 1/2" inserts timed to go off one after the other, followed by a ring of nine 1/4" inserts, and a bottom shot. Oh, and happy Easter, everyone! These babies will be goin' up this evening. The shells, that is. The bunny is just gonna die Edited April 6, 2015 by Wiley 1
coogan1997 Posted April 6, 2015 Posted April 6, 2015 I have to say those really look nice! Did you manage to light some?
Wiley Posted April 6, 2015 Author Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) Yeah, here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJaQGbXKxIY&feature=youtu.be Perchlorate inserts/bottom shots are so much louder than the nitrate mix I was using previously. The timing on everything looked ok, including on the report ring, though I don't have a video to prove it. That shell broke easily as wide as a consumer canister shell, and I got a nice round ring of reports. I was unable to tell if 8 or 9 of the inserts fired, because it broke bigger than my camera frame. The bottom shots from that and the 5 timed REALLY pounded. Much louder than anything I'm used to. Edited April 6, 2015 by Wiley 1
braddsn Posted April 6, 2015 Posted April 6, 2015 Sweet! The D-1 shell would have been beautiful in the dark! And the last report on that last shell.... wow! It THUMPED... I could tell by the echo that it had power. Perc flash is king! The timing on that last shell also seemed on the money. Well done. I was gonna fire some shells tonight but when I got all done with Easter stuff, it started raining.
Wiley Posted April 6, 2015 Author Posted April 6, 2015 Well that stinks. I was looking forward to some Easter shells ala braddsn. Maybe a a 6" or ten. Hint hint.
braddsn Posted April 6, 2015 Posted April 6, 2015 LOL! I will get em in the air tomorrow night probably! But only if you stop shooting D-1's during the DAYTIME! That shell would have been beautiful at night! I promise I will film my next 6 incher.
Wiley Posted April 6, 2015 Author Posted April 6, 2015 Ok, I promise to shoot my next glitter shell at night 1
Wiley Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 I granulated lift today, onto a sheet of unprinted newsprint. The paper soaked up some of the still-warm water from the granulated powder, leaving big wet spots which dried stiff. Needless to say, I nitrated my paper. Will this hurt the performance of my BP?
Shunt Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 I granulated lift today, onto a sheet of unprinted newsprint. The paper soaked up some of the still-warm water from the granulated powder, leaving big wet spots which dried stiff. Needless to say, I nitrated my paper. Will this hurt the performance of my BP?I usually let my powder fall onto a non-porous surface. Cheap Al foil from the local dollar store, sheet metal, whatever you have at hand. The main thing is to do the same thing, the same way, with the same comp every time. Then you have some assurance that it will perform the same as the last shell you made. Even then the outcome is not certain. I read a post from a well respected commercial firework vendor that had many pounds of BP of different varieties, he just mixed them all together and built hundreds of shells after some test fires. BP is in some ways similar to a woman leaving big wet spots which dried stiff. Needless to say, I nitrated my paper, the next batch may not come out exactly the same way but I sure look forward to mixing the next batch
braddsn Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Wiley, for what it's worth, I granulate my bp onto kraft paper.. the kraft paper soaks up some of the moisture letting the bp dry faster. I have no idea if this hurts the performance of the bp or not, but I have been doing it this way from the beginning. The first couple batches I made, I granulated onto some plexiglass, and it took FOREVER to dry. Letting it dry on something that can soak up moisture makes it dry 10 times faster. Drying time is more important to me than possibly losing 5% power (if I am even losing any at all).
FlaMtnBkr Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) I have a bunch of plastic trays that i have always granulated onto in about a 1/4" layer. They have a lip on the edge so nothing falls off and I can stir every hour or so to get damp powder to the top. I dry in the sun and sometimes add a fan. I've found if it takes more than 2 or 3 hours to get nice crunchy dry the performance goes down and if it takes over night to dry the performance can get pretty bad. Anyways, I don't notice any dry nitrate crystals on the plastic after it has dried. But I doubt the little bit that leeched out of your powder will make a huge distance. You can always test some to make sure you get adequate lift. And you can always boost your burst with something if you feel the need. Of course this batch probably won't last all that long and you can modify your process next time if you're worried about it. It seems like I remember some guys who do this for a living mentioning that they line there drying screens with sheets of paper. I know for making stars but not sure about for BP. They probably buy a lot of BP but surely make their own pulverone for filler as well as for other specific uses. And if they are using drying screens they would have to line them so it doesn't fall through. But that's all hearsay and not how I do it. Annnyways, that's part of the hobby is learning how to do things that work well for you. If you stick with it you will be making tons of BP and will figure out a process that works well for you and that makes a good product. You can follow others but will likely put your own spin on most things and find what works for you. Plus it gives you the opportunity to experiment and test and smell lots of smoke in the process. Wow, I'm tired and rambling when a 'it should be fine' would have sufficed. Edit: no more taking sleeping medicine and posting on forums! I must have been sleep writing as I don't remember doing so and it's a fairly ridiculous wall of text to a simple question. Geez... Edited April 12, 2015 by FlaMtnBkr 1
Wiley Posted April 13, 2015 Author Posted April 13, 2015 (edited) FlaMtnBkr, I appreciated the wall of text. You made some good points there. I tested the powder, and it seems just fine. This is 5g of lift loose under 75g of stars, with just a loose disk between the powder and stars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5eBFaA6Hk&feature=youtu.be Oh, and I made some N1 glitter! These are about 3/8" cut with no prime. Richer color and longer duration than D1 with the same chems! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFkOs3E8iAw Edited April 13, 2015 by Wiley
Wiley Posted April 13, 2015 Author Posted April 13, 2015 (edited) Finally shot some shells! These were all lifted with the newsprint-dried BP.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Y1ShrNck4 Edited April 13, 2015 by Wiley
coogan1997 Posted April 13, 2015 Posted April 13, 2015 Dam those bs where loud!! All of them were nice but that last shell was my favorite. Do you use a canulle to fill the color shells? or do you just bulk fill them.
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