a couple 4 inch cylinder shells

[24pyro97]

Got the chance to send up a few shells on memorial day and thought I would post them up here my crappy camera skills dont capture what they looked like in person and the camera could seem to pick up the blue in the 2nd shell.. don't mind the kids they were having a great time too.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by 24pyro97

[ronmoper76]

Nice man! Im bombing out currently with cylinder shells,I repeatedly have flaming shit falling to the ground from everywhere. I can't get them cut small enough and my star plate is way to big for 2.5" shells.

[24pyro97]

thanks, and what size stars are you making for the 2.5 inch shells ? and how small are you cutting them ?

[ronmoper76]

Eyeballing them up to this point,1/2" after prime i bet.. I got a piece of wire im guessing is 4 mesh and a made a 2x4 wood frame for it and tried skylighters sliced rubber stars out today,It didn't do well and the patty kept crumbling on me bad so i got mad and rolled it all out and cut with a knife again but cut about 1/4" this time. I'm hoping i get it this time.

Edited June 8, 2021 by ronmoper76

[SharkWhisperer]

Eyeballing them up to this point,1/2" after prime i bet.. I got a piece of wire im guessing is 4 mesh and a made a 2x4 wood frame for it and tried skylighters sliced rubber stars out today,It didn't do well and the patty kept crumbling on me bad so i got mad and rolled it all out and cut with a knife again but cut about 1/4" this time. I'm hoping i get it this time.

Half inch primed can be pretty big for 2.5'ers, especially with long-burning ones. Hand cutting should be pretty simple with rubber stars. Neighbors tend to get pissy when flames from heaven hit their property. Maybe test all in a stargun to be sure you have no ground-burners? The bigger/slower ones can be set aside for larger shells for another day. Rubber stars are pretty simples once you cut a few batches. Keep a spray bottle of acetone nearby (fine mist like recycled Febreeze containers work best) to keep the surface "damp" and receptive to prime application. I roll out my rubber stars on wax paper with a liberal handful of hot prime underneath, roll them out, coat with another big handful (or two) of hot prime, and cut away. Roll 'em around in a bowl with a spray bottle and some more hot prime/acetone and they're rounded and mostly dry within a few minutes. Then a handful of slow prime with some sprayed on solvent as needed (not too much or you'll get the rubber stickies) and they end up nicely rounded, thickly primed, and ready for business. Leftover prime can be recycled/reused but if I have a lot I do a test burn to see if it's closer in speed to the hot prime or the slow coating prime. 15 g stars in a 1" stargun with a 1-1.5g good lift and you immediately know your burn characteristics, ignition efficiency, and appropriate shell size for those stars.

[ronmoper76]

Half inch primed can be pretty big for 2.5'ers, especially with long-burning ones. Hand cutting should be pretty simple with rubber stars. Neighbors tend to get pissy when flames from heaven hit their property. Maybe test all in a stargun to be sure you have no ground-burners? The bigger/slower ones can be set aside for larger shells for another day. Rubber stars are pretty simples once you cut a few batches. Keep a spray bottle of acetone nearby (fine mist like recycled Febreeze containers work best) to keep the surface "damp" and receptive to prime application. I roll out my rubber stars on wax paper with a liberal handful of hot prime underneath, roll them out, coat with another big handful (or two) of hot prime, and cut away. Roll 'em around in a bowl with a spray bottle and some more hot prime/acetone and they're rounded and mostly dry within a few minutes. Then a handful of slow prime with some sprayed on solvent as needed (not too much or you'll get the rubber stickies) and they end up nicely rounded, thickly primed, and ready for business. Leftover prime can be recycled/reused but if I have a lot I do a test burn to see if it's closer in speed to the hot prime or the slow coating prime. 15 g stars in a 1" stargun with a 1-1.5g good lift and you immediately know your burn characteristics, ignition efficiency, and appropriate shell size for those stars.

duly noted. I don't have a star gun exactly,more like a star mine. I can fit a handful of 5/8" stars down the barrel,lol I test out over a river and i had stars slapping off the water everywhere the last 2 mortars i launched,it was ridiculous. I'm used to rockets traveling much higher. You mentioned rubber stickies,i had that shit all over my hands and knife. Stuck to the rolling pin,and the giant clear polyethylene mats i use to work on everything. I see now how important the wax paper is now.

Edited June 8, 2021 by ronmoper76

[SharkWhisperer]

duly noted. I don't have a star gun exactly,more like a star mine. I can fit a handful of 5/8" stars down the barrel,lol I test out over a river and i had stars slapping off the water everywhere the last 2 mortars i launched,it was ridiculous. I'm used to rockets traveling much higher. You mentioned rubber stickies,i had that shit all over my hands and knife. Stuck to the rolling pin,and the giant clear polyethylene mats i use to work on everything. I see now how important the wax paper is now.

You can make a simple 1" x 6" stargun from a cardboard tube, hand rolled if desired. CannonFuse sells them for like a buck or two, but that's overpriced for what you get (especially with shipping). Or a piece of pipe. Simples. You just need a plugged tube that'll tolerate a few grams of BP going off in it. The usual ratio is 1:6 inner diameter/length, but that' pretty flexible. Shorter for a mine, taller for a high shot. A lot of folks use smaller even. I have 4 iron pipes welded to a flat iron base that go from perhaps 3/8" for single stars (rarely used) to 1.25" for maybe 10-15g of stars (gets the most use). Fuse holes in the bottom. A cut down 1# or 3# rocket tube epoxied to a chunk of 2x4 works fine for quite awhile. Best to drill a short hole and glue in a wood plug for the tube to rest over before gluing the tube down, for a little better durability. Super useful and you don't need to use handfuls of stars in a large mine just to test out the burn characteristics--you can do that right after! Guessing you're using a cut down 2 or 2.5" mortar, which would use up a lot of comp and be more of a show than a test platform. Smaller is better when you don't want to nick the neighbors and don't feel like slogging on down to the riverside just to test some stars. Even a 1-1.25" stargun/mortar will be reasonably eventful and not so dangerous. My 1.25'er launches 5/16 primed stars up to 50 feet with ease.

 

The stickies suck but are avoidable. Gloves help. Also not working/cutting it until it's "just right" is a matter of patience. Unlike DEs that turn to rock quickly after rolling out, rubber stars are more forgiving. And rolling out on a nice pile of hot prime, and dusting, hell smothering, in a little prime before rolling and then a lot of prime after rolling keeps the surfaces from being sticky. And you're going to want that prime on the sides of your stars, too, so if you have a bunch on top of your patty, it'll fall down the cut lines and help keep your knife from sticking. Prime is your friend. When you're ready to cut, maybe stop and wait a few more minutes. During that time, dump a reasonable shitload of hot prime on top, maybe lift the patty edge and toss some more underneath, and then start cutting. I've heard of folks pre-coating their blade with a thin layer of silicone oil or cooking spray to prevent sticking (and I considered it after the first few times I cut super-sticky DEs, ffs), I've never found that necessary if you use enough prime and your timing is right. So that idea seems like a crutch that may or may not help. You'll get your own timing down after a few bathes and then it'll be second nature, like making good BP. Did I say prime is your friend? It really is.

[Carbon796]

Nice man! Im bombing out currently with cylinder shells,I repeatedly have flaming shit falling to the ground from everywhere. I can't get them cut small enough and my star plate is way to big for 2.5" shells.

 

Cut stars for 3" cylinder shells. Are traditionally 3/16-1/4" for color, and 1/4-3/8 for streamers. Generally they will be patty cut, rather than loafbox cut.

[24pyro97]

Eyeballing them up to this point,1/2" after prime i bet.. I got a piece of wire im guessing is 4 mesh and a made a 2x4 wood frame for it and tried skylighters sliced rubber stars out today,It didn't do well and the patty kept crumbling on me bad so i got mad and rolled it all out and cut with a knife again but cut about 1/4" this time. I'm hoping i get it this time.

If speed isn't a concern you can always just cut water bound stars, takes a bit longer to cut each patty and a longer drying time but it would eliminate the crumbling problem and you could easily cut them smaller.pumping your stars would be a good alternative also .And if your having problems with your stars burning to the ground are your components fine enough to get a good burn rate?

Edited June 9, 2021 by 24pyro97

[ronmoper76]

Yea time is irrelevant. I have a big area out back by the garden away from houses where i dry stuff. My star plate i got from firesmith is 5/8" for 6 inch shells,not suitable... I'm seriously considering buying a 1/4" plate with my next check,it's so much easier. I even tried rolling a while back with a makeshift rigging using bird seed,and it just kept pissing me off. Nothing would roll at the same speed,I couldn't keep the water completely on the stars,the bowl would get a thicker coating than they did and 6 other problems with it,i gave up. I love star plates,if only they didn't cost a arm and a leg.

[BetICouldMake1]

Yea time is irrelevant. I have a big area out back by the garden away from houses where i dry stuff. My star plate i got from firesmith is 5/8" for 6 inch shells,not suitable... I'm seriously considering buying a 1/4" plate with my next check,it's so much easier. I even tried rolling a while back with a makeshift rigging using bird seed,and it just kept pissing me off. Nothing would roll at the same speed,I couldn't keep the water completely on the stars,the bowl would get a thicker coating than they did and 6 other problems with it,i gave up. I love star plates,if only they didn't cost a arm and a leg.

 

I think you will find, as you did with your black powder, that if you take the time to learn the correct technique cutting stars is not difficult. It will certainly be far faster than pumping unless you have a very large (and expensive) star plate. Rolling is probably the fastest way to produce large amounts of small stars but, as you found, also requires learning how to roll stars. I don't roll stars but I imagine the learning curve is far steeper than for cutting.

 

Also, very nice shells 97. I love the gold streamers in the second one. Could you see the blue in person?

[24pyro97]

thanks, and yes in person I could see the blue stars and they looked nice in comparison with the gold but them being only 1/4" they didn't have much area too put out enough light so they were overpowered by the streamers and the camera had a very hard time picking them up.

[Carbon796]

Very nice, full breaks on those shells.

 

If you're jumble filling them, fill them 1:3 or 1:4. Streamer to color. Gives more fullness than a color only break. But, enough color saturation, for it to show up. If your doing an inner/outer effect, put the blue as the outer color. With the streamer as the inner, and shorten the inner stack up some.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Carbon796

[24pyro97]

Yeah both these shells were a stacked comet outer with a cut star inner. my camera just has issues with blue but in person they looked decent they burned up quite fast

[Carbon796]

That's quite common with cameras and blue. Sometimes, using a brighter blue, rather than a saturated blue. Can show/look better, with glitters or bright streamers.

[24pyro97]

Yeah and I'm actually hoping to make a few blue outer with a gold inner for the 4th but I have quite A few other on my list so we will see