Using Loose/Milled BP for shell Booster?

[PhoenixRising]

Just recently I started to wonder why people dust rice hulls with flash-based boosters instead of loose BP or Meal D?

 

To be clear, I'm only proposing this for shells that only need a little extra power where you'd dust the Rice Hulls.

 

Flash bags are clearly the most potent and cheapest way of breaking a shell, so my question is only for the situations where it'd be appropriate.

 

My thought is this: While Rice Hulls do speed up flame propagation, the hulls themselves also absorb a certain amount of heat compared to straight BP.

 

Milled BP would "stick" to the RHs just as well as any other booster.

 

Clearly, metal-fueled boosters are more potent, but from a cost perspective is it cheaper to use 2 or 3x the amount in BP dust?

 

I'm guessing someone may have explored this already but I couldn't find anything on it. Food for thought if nothing else.

Edited October 27, 2018 by PhoenixRising

[Arthur]

Usually with paper ball shells small shells need a strong break but bigger shells need proportionately less break. Some people will use 1:1 meal on hulls in 12" and 16" shells but increasing to 7parts of meal to 1 part of in 3" shells. Some people will use a flash bag at the centre containing 1 - 2 grammes of flash, some will use just a small amount of fine BP.

 

Once you have made some product you can see how it works for you and see whether you have what you want, then precise break is very much part of your design. An over broken shell can look sparse, an under broken shell may just look small or become cluttered if the effects don't separate as you intended.

 

A high meal or BP break will be dense and the shell may feel heavy, then you have to calculate the lift to suit the shell weight and your target break height.

 

Personally I dislike flash boost because it puts a lot of light at the centre and the stars and effects that you carefully crafted can be lost in the flash and the eye burnout.

[Arthur]

For those that like plastic hemis with little or no pasting/spiking BP usually needs a boost in shells to 8".

 

Again, your design includes how big you want the break to be and that is largely determined by the break and the strength of the ball.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Arthur

[PhoenixRising]

I understand there's situations where the potency of "proper" booster simply can't be matched.

 

Where the milled BP may be useful is for those times where people say "oh just throw a little whistle mix in there" or the likes.

 

Good BP breaks can be quite impressive with no booster added. I guess it would be for a very limited number of situations.

 

In the end you're really just turning your 4 to 1 hulls into 5 to 1 or however much extra you add.

 

Could be a quick and dirty way of testing different rice hull potencies without making extra batches.

 

Some settling may occur, but that already happens with regular booster, The rough finish on the RHs 'should' soak most of it up.

 

Using Dextrin-free BP to do this could possibly help even more, but as with anything only testing can really tell.

Edited October 28, 2018 by PhoenixRising

[Arthur]

There is technique of putting a tiny flash bag directly onto the inside end of the time fuse, and in the centre of the ball. The flash bag is 1/4" diameter and about the same long. It's supposed to ensure a quick and central burst initiation to keep the stars as spherical as possible, Whether it does I can't prove I haven't done tests.