a newbs progress and question thread

[RiderX]

just going to start this so i can ask whatever question i need to without starting a new thread each time , and also so ppl can follow along with my progress as i learn and improve my shells

 

my first couple shells were less then good due to bp lift issues but most of that was due to error on my part by not pasting them enough

 

ive got 5 more shells ready to go and are finished to the proper size , and now they are lifting properly , if the rain stops tonight i will light a couple off and take videos

 

 

progress so far is making homeade bp , d1 stars and zinc cut stars in 3 inch shells ,whether they are good or not is yet to be determined

Edited July 20, 2017 by RiderX

[RiderX]

can anyone tell me the formula for these/any blue glitter/strobe stars , or point me in the right direction to find it

 

i dont recall ever seeing blue glitter/strobe anywhere before

[greenlight]

Found this:

 

Blue Strobe Cut Firework Stars from Russ X

 

Ammonium perchlorate 25

Guanidine nitrate 55

Copper, atomized, -100 mesh 7.5

Copper oxide, black 5

PVC, suspension grade 7.5

 

Russ’s notes: "Bind with nitrocellulose lacquer, enough to bind them together, but not enough for them to be tacky. Copper powder is used in the best blue strobe pyrotechnic formula in Pyrotechnica XIV (BK0114). Playing with this as a base, I have lifted shells that contained blue strobe firework stars. I cut them into 1/4 - 3/8" cubes, then 'roll' them in a bowl to consolidate them. As you roll them in the bowl, they become denser and take on a round profile. A light misting of 1:1 MEK/lacquer thinner is sometimes needed to keep the surface from drying out too fast. You have to be gentle when you start rolling these fireworks stars so that they don't crumble. For some reason, the crumbs don't like to reconsolidate into fireworks stars that will strobe. I prime them with a thermitic perchlorate prime (superprime) after they have dried for a couple of days. The issue with making this on a regular basis is the guanidine nitrate availability and the pain of cutting the fireworks stars and then rolling them to consolidate them."

 

The guanidine nitrate is difficult to acquire for some probably unless you have the raw guanidine and access to nitric acid.

Found more on this page, author states a lack if testing of some of them though.

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/copper-green-blue-fireworks-stars.asp

[Mumbles]

Given that those are commercial, they may be barium nitrate based. You can make okay green strobes with barium nitrate, sulfur, MgAl, and a chlorine donor. I have a formula for an aqua strobe that is basically the same, but with a little copper oxychloride added. The green isn't that good to begin with, and the copper does make it sort of aqua. The biggest issue is that hexachlorobenzene is the best chlorine donor for this. More common chlorine donors don't really work and just make it burn continuously.

[RiderX]

thanks guys , i actually do have access to nitric acid( i use it in gold recover/refining) , so something i could try in the future when i get the hang of some other stars and colors

 

need to find out what guanidine is and if i can get any

i saw that and was like damn that pretty would be awesome if i could make my own someday

[greenlight]

On second thought it is probably easier but more dangerous to synthesise the guanadine nitrate yourself if your really serious about it.

There is a tutorial on youtube from Chemystery for making it from urea and ammonium nitrate.

 

Thats is really a nice effect though and I haven't seen twinkling/strobing blue before that video.

[RiderX]

On second thought it is probably easier but more dangerous to synthesise the guanadine nitrate yourself if your really serious about it.

There is a tutorial on youtube from Chemystery for making it from urea and ammonium nitrate.

 

Thats is really a nice effect though and I haven't seen twinkling/strobing blue before that video.

urea i actually have use it for neutralizing the acid after gold refining ill have to lookup that video and see whats all involved , more then likely its not something ill be tackling anytime soon im having enough issues with some of the easier to make stars , but slowly getting it sorted out , hopefully the batch of stars i did tonight comes out like they should

 

om deffinatly going to look into it though i saw that video when searching for blue strobe for somone else and was like damn i really really like that , and ive also never seen that until i found that video

[dynomike1]

Dam good looking star.

[memo]

thanks guys , i actually do have access to nitric acid( i use it in gold recover/refining) , so something i could try in the future when i get the hang of some other stars and colors

 

need to find out what guanidine is and if i can get any

i saw that and was like damn that pretty would be awesome if i could make my own someday

 

are you a gold scraper or miner ? I am a miner

memo

[RiderX]

 

are you a gold scraper or miner ? I am a miner

memo

my boss is actually a miner , i just do gold recovery from my own electronics scrap , the specific hardware i use is loaded with gold

 

it looks like no rain today/tonight so im going to do a few shells tonight , really want to try out my ring shell/w center salute , and a shell loaded with mini flying helicopters/bee's whatever u wanna call them, and ill do a full d1 shell as well tonight

Edited July 21, 2017 by RiderX

[memo]

i am testing 1 5 inch shell tonight

[RiderX]

i am testing 1 5 inch shell tonight

nice im not expecting much out of my d1 shell as i got the comp overly wet on the first batch i made , have high hopes for the other 2 shells though , its still not dark here yet another 30-45 mins before i can go out and see what they do

[RiderX]

we promised my friends 4yo son he could come watch tonight but he fell asleep at home , so i only tested one shell , and saved the rest for tomorrow so his son could watch

anyways i lit a d1 shell off not sure why it didnt burst bigger , probably cause im using reinforced gum tape ?

the shell was fired on an angle over the wet field

 

thats from the batch i messed up on so im hoping the second batch is much better

Edited July 22, 2017 by RiderX

[memo]

my test was not good. iy was a can shell. the timimg of the spolette was too short and the burst was real soft. i boosted with slow flash and granulated bp. need to build another and see if i can get it right.

 

memo

[RiderX]

my test was not good. iy was a can shell. the timimg of the spolette was too short and the burst was real soft. i boosted with slow flash and granulated bp. need to build another and see if i can get it right.

 

memo

i have another d1 boosted with some slow flash ill try tonight so we will see how that goes with the reinforced gum tape , i didnt know not to use that stuff when i bought i thought it would be better then the non reinforced but i also didnt relize just how many layers if have to put on the shells .If it atleast if it works witht he slow flash i wont have to waste the couple rolls of it i bought

 

though i watched the shell threw my phone when i lit it and my buddy said it deff broke bigger then it appears on video so i dont know

Edited July 22, 2017 by RiderX

[Mumbles]

How big were your stars? I agree the break didn't look all that large. It almost look like the stars might have shattered upon the break with how dense the break looked. A couple of them seemed to go farther than the rest which can be an indicator that they might have shattered.

[RiderX]

How big were your stars? I agree the break didn't look all that large. It almost look like the stars might have shattered upon the break with how dense the break looked. A couple of them seemed to go farther than the rest which can be an indicator that they might have shattered.

i do believe they shattered ,7/16ths thees eshells were all made with the reinforced gummed tape , i think they are building to much presure inside the shell before it breaks and is busting up the stars

 

heres 2 more i shot tonight

this one was supposed to be a ring made with d1 glitter , i used booster in the break charge to see if it would help with the heavy gummed tape

 

and this was just a shell full of d1 with just bp for break charge also pasted with reinforced gummed tape

 

on the other hand i think ive goten a handle on making bp those are the best lifts i have so far , i had 30 grams of bp under theese shells

the first one was fired on an angle the second one just about vertical

Edited July 23, 2017 by RiderX

[RiderX]

i will say the reinforced gummed tape works well for salutes

 

had to do this one for somone i follow on youtube

[RiderX]

i also dont understand why the tail on the first d1 i shot was so much nicer then the 3 i shot tonight the tails were all from the same batch and the same size , 2 tails per shell ontop

 

i mean they still did there job so i could track the shells but i want them all like that first shell a nice long trail behind it

Edited July 23, 2017 by RiderX

[OldMarine]

There's always the chance a comet will get blown off or consumed by the lift.

[RiderX]

There's always the chance a comet will get blown off or consumed by the lift.

it didntlooklike any comets got blown off on lift , consumed maybe on that first shell i could tell that both comets wer eon the shell and lit , and cant tell that on the last 3 , so maybe only 1 commet on each shell actually lit , i didnt prime the comets , since the directions said since they are mostly made of bp that they iignite very easy , the comets were cut not pumped , as were the stars

[Sparx88]

Your right on the reinforced tape. I personally don't use it for anything pyro except around rocket tubes or other similar items. Makes shells more like salutes and will crush the contents into little pieces. Small flash bag or really good mcrh is the way to go along with good pasting if doing it traditional.

The comets can be wrapped halfway with the kraft tape and either pasted to the shells or I use 30 minute 2 part epoxy. The cheap stuff is fine. They won't blow off using the epoxy, the only way they come off at that point is if they break off which would be the fault of the grain structure of the comet/star comp. Dense is better for this. If a faster burn is needed there are ways to do that without ruining the effect. But that's where you come in, you look around enough you'll find all that info right here at apc. You seem to be doing well just starting out, I look forward to more of your work.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Sparx88

[RiderX]

Your right on the reinforced tape. I personally don't use it for anything pyro except around rocket tubes or other similar items. Makes shells more like salutes and will crush the contents into little pieces. Small flash bag or really good mcrh is the way to go along with good pasting if doing it traditional.

The comets can be wrapped halfway with the kraft tape and either pasted to the shells or I use 30 minute 2 part epoxy. The cheap stuff is fine. They won't blow off using the epoxy, the only way they come off at that point is if they break off which would be the fault of the grain structure of the comet/star comp. Dense is better for this. If a faster burn is needed there are ways to do that without ruining the effect. But that's where you come in, you look around enough you'll find all that info right here at apc. You seem to be doing well just starting out, I look forward to more of your work.

thank you,,, the unreinforced stuff i managed to pick up is super thin so i dont think its right either , but maybe with enough layers to get the shell to the right outer diam it would be fine , ill just have to try it

 

and i thought of a question now that i got a handle on making the red gum bp , can i make mcrh with it or does it have to be water and dextrin bound

 

does anyone know were i can pick up a decent beginners star plate for now the biggest shells ill be doing is 2.5 and 3 inch im assuming a 1/2 inch plate would be a good start, im not liking the cut stars so hard to get them all the same size

Edited July 23, 2017 by RiderX

[chuckufarley]

For smaller (or large) star plates Id check out Caleb's site.

 

http://www.woodysrocks.com

[OldMarine]

Half inch stars are a bit large for those size shells. I'd go with 3/8" max on those otherwise your break will be so sparse you'll be wondering if all your stars lit. I actually just got me a ¼" plate so I could get fuller bursts from my 3" cylinders. I started with a ½" and it was too big.