Hard vs soft breaks

[Tim1877]

I was wondering what the difference is between a soft break vs a hard break and which stars need a hard break and which ones don't and how do you make a soft or hard break

[MrB]

The typ, and amount of burstcharge, and the pressure the shell can contain is what gives a soft, or hard break. Stars don't "need" either, it comes down to what look you want.

Also, build to high pressure, and the stars will either just burn before you see them, or fragment, burning instantly as the shell expands. Either way, no visual traces of the stars.

[Tim1877]

I use MCRH to break all my shells with a little whistle booster for my 3 inch shells

[Arthur]

The design of your shell is your design! You have to decide what you want to see then find a way to achieve that. A flash salute would be a hard break extreme and most stars would shatter, some would fail to light and the flash from the burst would obscure the light from the stars. A shell looks sparse if the burst pushes too few stars too far out, but with a weak burst may leave the shape undefined because the stars don't fly far before they burn out -likely they'd droop too. BUT sometimes that's what you want (a Nishiki Kamuro is a drooping burst).

[MadMat]

3" shells are a little small for the use of MCRH IMHO. I simply use granulated BP. If I want a harder break I add around 3 grams of flash to my break. I usually use a smaller canulle for the flash booster.

[kingkama]

When I need a powerfull break I use a flash bag and pulverune to lock the stars in place

[Tim1877]

Ok so when do I need a hard break and what type of stars will survive it

[Merlin]

Hard breaks and soft breaks are a matter of personal choice for the display. The horsetail effect is achieved with a charcoal star and a very soft break-actually you just want the shell to dump the stars. You can break most stars hard-how hard is up to you. I prefer a break that results in a symmetrical pattern that is as wide as possible with good density. It's trial and error.

[Tim1877]

So what kind of breaks are these I think they are a little soft but I need some opinions of some more experienced people

[Merlin]

Videos not working on my phone

[kingkama]

For me It's not a question of break power, most is on spiking pattern and i think also pastinG. Please describe building spec.

[Tim1877]

It was a 4 in plastic shell with 1/2 pressed c8 stars broke with MCRH and a 1/2 tsp of whistle in each hemi

[kingkama]

In my opinion some more pastinG will give a better result spherical of that caliber are usually broken only whit mcrh so it's a problem of resistance.

[CrossOut]

I personally hate soft breaks... Waterfall or horse tail shells, bleh! They have their place but not my style. It's easy to get a soft break use lesser or cheaper materials. As for hard brakes, small shells usually need a little extra help such as a booster or different break composition like h3 or kp.

 

Ill generally used the hottest bp i got on hand (usually paulownia) and still boost with a few grams of 70/30. I've added it to the center of the shell and that works ok.. i think dusting all of your hulls with it works best tho.. And when filling, i over fill and really press and tap that sucker together. When i shake the shell there is nothing rattling around inside. It feels solid and hefty.

 

Pasting extra layers helps too! (No plastic aloud!) As long as it fits in the gun! I've gone up to 12 layers on a 4" and and it barely fit in the gun. Some older guns needed a little extra love to get it to go all the way down. But damn they broke like 5" shells! Probably the nicest breaks over ever got from a 4".

 

As for stars, some stars can be fragile, especially charcoal stars when rolled, if you use barely enough moisture to get the composition to stick, it can become light and airy. That makes the start a little fragile. I recommend Toro method for rolling charcoal comps or pressing.. color stars usually won't have any problems either way.

[Tim1877]

I agree hard breaks look the best as for the plastic shells I'm fairly new to this hobby and I ordered the plastic hemis about 8 months ago I wanted to use them all up before I went to paper so I need to figure out how to get good breaks with these plastic shells I used 3 rings of strapping tape I need to learn how to paste if anyone has any good tutorials on pasting please share or pm me

[CrossOut]

There's plenty of tutorials on YouTube for different pasting methods: 3 strip method, 4 pole method. Personally, if i hand paste, i use a roll of gummed tape and mimic the motion the Chinese shell pasting machines use. I call it ring method as I'm not sure what the official name for it is. If you look at videos of the pattern in sure you can replicate it..

[Sulphurstan]

IMHO, the best tutorial for hand pasting with paper strips on a roll,, or gummed tape, is the video from neighbourJ, on this forum.

I use only this method since 4 months now, with gummed tape, and I'm happy with the breaks, the simmetry etc.

Edited July 12, 2018 by Sulphurstan