Chunn7704 Posted January 20, 2016 Posted January 20, 2016 Hello everyone! Im pretty new at all this. I have always had a passion for fireworks. Im interested in making mortal shells. Last night i made up a 3" paper ball shell. i Used a snow cone cup for the lift cup. For some reason it barley came out of the tube. Deff not a good thing when the wife and kids are watching and ur trying to impress them due to my first shell and me having to yell run run due to it comming back down hitting the ground and exploding. no good. i have lifted baseballs and never once had a problem. My powder is very hott. Its driving my crazy wondering why it didnt go up. i used 10% of the total weight. 111 grams so i used 11 grams of lift. The only thing i can think of is the shell had to much play in the mortal tube. The shell was 3 inch ball shell and i was using a 3 inch mortal tube. Only thing i can think of is mabe i didnt put enough gummed tape layers on it. i think i did 4 layers. Anywaz any help would be very appriciated thank you guys.
lloyd Posted January 20, 2016 Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) If the cone cup was too long, it would have created too much 'dead space' between the bottom of the mortar and the shell to allow a proper full-force explosion of the lift. Try _exactly_ the same experiment (using the cone cup) with one of your baseballs, then try it as you usually do (probably - I'm guessing - with the ball down against the lift. For best force to be delivered by the lift, there should be no more room between the bottom of the shell and the bottom of the mortar than is necessary to fit the powder in there. Lloyd Edited January 20, 2016 by lloyd
Chunn7704 Posted January 20, 2016 Author Posted January 20, 2016 Never thought of that. wow. thank you so much. that explains everything. and yes all the other time i just taped it to the ball and never had the problem. first time using the cone. thanks again Mr. Lloyd.
lloyd Posted January 20, 2016 Posted January 20, 2016 Heh! Yep! Eleven grams probably didn't quite fill the bottom inch of that thing! <G> Lloyd
Chunn7704 Posted January 20, 2016 Author Posted January 20, 2016 U are exactly right. thanks again buddy. i will make sure not to make that mistake again. haha
OldMarine Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 Mortal shells? They're all mortal if you build then right! Hello everyone! Im pretty new at all this. I have always had a passion for fireworks. Im interested in making mortal shells.....
lloyd Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 FWIW, Chunn, there's no such thing as a "mortar shell". They're 'shells'; period. Shells are fired from mortars. The rare shells that DON'T fire from mortars are given special names to differentiate them from the ordinary kind. (and there are only a handful of types). Lloyd
gregh Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 So is there no leader on that shell? Is that short piece of visco the only fuse? Do you light it and then drop it in the tube?
lloyd Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 I think he's not into quickmatch, yet! <G> Lloyd
gregh Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 Lloyd, seeing the short piece of visco just made me wonder if the shell possibly didn't go all the way down and seat, if he was lighting and then dropping.
lloyd Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 That could also have happened, Greg, and it would have worsened the problem; as you surmise. But with as large a powder bag on that shell as he showed, it wouldn't have lifted properly, even if it had been down all the way. (unless he deliberately crushed the powder bag). LLoyd
Chunn7704 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Posted January 21, 2016 yea im just using visco at the time. slow visco. i understand it isnt the safest method. im working on making quickmatch. As far as the shell seating, i do know it went all the way down due to the shell being lose in the mortar. i will eliminate the extra space and im sure that will fix the issue at hand. As far as quickmatch what is the correct cotton twine i need to be using?
lloyd Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 Ordinary quick match is made with three to four ply cotton, passed individually through the slurry, then with up to 8 strands brought together into a single strand to form 'stout' black match... three or four strands together for thinner match. After drying, a minimum of three strands of the finished match are piped together in a couple of turns of 30lb kraft to make traditional piped match. Note: the 'piped' version is not "Quickmatch" although it's incorrectly called that. The bare black strands are 'quickmatch' (as opposed to slow match, used on matchlock firearms). When you put quickmatch in a paper pipe, it becomes the super fast-burning stuff we use for leaders. Lloyd
Chunn7704 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Posted January 21, 2016 Ok, Great! i will pick me up some and see what i cant come up with seems simple enough. Thank you again Mr. Lloydcan u use the same type of string to spike canister shells?
lloyd Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 No, it's not strong enough. Usually 8-10-strand cotton, doubled (side-by-side yarns) are used for spiking -- at a minimum. Lloyd
Chunn7704 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Posted January 21, 2016 ok sounds good. thanks for the help buddy
FloridaCracker Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 Mortal shells? They're all mortal if you build then right! You mean there isn't techno music playing in your head with some ass screaming "mortal combat"? Guess it's just me. And technically I guess that ass is me also.
Chunn7704 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Posted January 21, 2016 haha. been quite a while since ive played that gamei went to hardware store and got some 5 ply cotton string. hopefully that will work for quick match. they didnt have any 3 or 4 ply
gregh Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 Here's a link to an article by Ned Gorski on Skylighter's website. He outlines one method for making blackmatch. You should also considering subscribing to his site: Fireworking.com. There is so much information over there for beginners and even seasoned pyros. http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/tiger-willow-ball-shells.asp
Mumbles Posted January 21, 2016 Posted January 21, 2016 I'm a big fan of this thread as well: http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/7665-learning-to-make-blackmatch-the-right-way/ 2
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