Red star composition using strontium carbonate

[Pyrophoric30]

Good day pyros, can you share your best red star composition using strontium carbonate. I know that using nitrate will give better result but the thing is sr(no3)2 is so expensive here. Someone here in the forum told me that veline system is not very rewarding. Is buell red good? also red gum and shellac are not available here. 

[Zumber]

Plus you dont have magnelium.

Try to get magnelium atleast.

[Pyrophoric30]

11 minutes ago, Zumber said:

Plus you dont have magnelium.

Try to get magnelium atleast.

We have magnalium here. Its just that it is so expensive. Thats why im trying to find cheaper alternatives. If there's none i will get magnalium.

[All10Fingers]

There's a page on skylighter with some good carbonate reds. I don't recall if it's shimzu or winkor, or hardt.... Maybe bluet. Idk it's something red #3 on skylighter. I made a batch and even substituted pine for red gum in that one and it looks... Pretty good. God how I miss pyrodata. 

If you bite your lip and just spend the money on some nitrates, youll probably feel bad until you make your first batch of some really cool colors. Then youll probably decide it was worth it all along. I only regret not buying more to save me on shipping 

[Pyrophoric30]

Pyrodata is my go to website when it comes to composition but the server is down. i will check skylighter for that. 
 

Well if it is couple bucks higher than what you guys have there in the US or other countrt then why not. But here in my country, you cannot make your own pyrotechnic devices unless you are licensed. Raw materials are 10x-20x of what fireworkcookbook has to offer. A kilo of magnalium will cost you 90$ nitrate are 60$ if you convert. Too bad i got to live here. 

[LiamPyro]

Here is a 2.5” ball shell with Buell Red, primed with Fencepost Prime and then BP. The color and ignition is good, although there is a slight trail left behind, probably from the coarse parlon (might be better to screen it first and just use the -100 mesh stuff). Don’t mind the low break… the short 4 oz end burner didn’t have a long enough burn to lift it very high 😬. 

 

 

 

 

[Pyrophoric30]

14 hours ago, LiamPyro said:

Here is a 2.5” ball shell with Buell Red, primed with Fencepost Prime and then BP. The color and ignition is good, although there is a slight trail left behind, probably from the coarse parlon (might be better to screen it first and just use the -100 mesh stuff). Don’t mind the low break… the short 4 oz end burner didn’t have a long enough burn to lift it very high 😬. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks! Have you tried priming it with plain bp? Will it ignite? 

[Arthur]

The issue with pyro is that some chems are expensive, but without them you are limited to charcoal stars and charcoal lift and burst.

However when displays really were charcoal based people had to be more inventive with fountains and wheels and girondola and some fascinating machines driven by charcoal drivers. Search youtube for Maltese mechanical fireworks wheels. There are many videos of interesting fireworks that can be made from charcoal drivers, of course they can be made with colours too.

Carbonates can produce good colours but only with hot fuels like magnalium

[Zumber]

2 hours ago, PhPyro69 said:

Thanks! Have you tried priming it with plain bp? Will it ignite? 

Most of star will fail to catch fire in sky when shell burst.

I use hot prime then normal bp for colour stars.

Edited April 11 by Zumber

[Pyrophoric30]

1 hour ago, Arthur said:

The issue with pyro is that some chems are expensive, but without them you are limited to charcoal stars and charcoal lift and burst.

However when displays really were charcoal based people had to be more inventive with fountains and wheels and girondola and some fascinating machines driven by charcoal drivers. Search youtube for Maltese mechanical fireworks wheels. There are many videos of interesting fireworks that can be made from charcoal drivers, of course they can be made with colours too.

Carbonates can produce good colours but only with hot fuels like magnalium

Yes thats true and thats what im experiencing right now. Ive made a decent charcoal stars (n1 glitter and metallic charcoal stars) but i somehow want to add variety in my shells thats why im asking for much more experienced pyros here.

[Pyrophoric30]

5 minutes ago, Zumber said:

Most of star will fail to catch fire in sky when shell burst.

I use hot prime then normal bp for colour stars.

My only experience is charcoal star but most of them dont need priming. Ive seen some pyros prime their colored stars with c6. Is this reliable?

[Zumber]

C6 is slow charcoal prime.

It could imporove ignition a bit but hot prime in the sense it should have metal in it.

Bp plus 10 percent silicon is most common prime for begineer.

Another thing is Bp plus magnelium like wise.

This prime will helpfull

Potassium nitrate 5000

Barium nitrate 1000

Sulphur 1500

Charcoal 1500

Magnelium 200 mesh coated 750

Dextrin 600

Followed by plain bp at the end.

[rellim]

See Latest Recipes & Formulas to Make Fireworks | Fireworks Cookbook

 

[Arthur]

Star prime is a complex topic. It must take fire easily which usually means a fast compound and a rough surface, then it must pass heat to the star. Easy to light stars sometimes just get a dab of BP slurry hard to light stars will get three different prime layers if different burn rates and heats. ALSO stars can contain many chemicals and each has it's incompatibilities so prime layers may be used to separate incompatible ingredients.

[Zumber]

Kosanke "pyrotechnic chemistry" covers phenomenon of star primes.

Really helpful information alongwith diagrams.

Edited April 11 by Zumber

[Mumbles]

Priming and positive ignition are two interrelated problems to me.  Priming is simply does the star light?  There's more that goes into that with regard to thickness, how much heat is transferred to the star or retained as slag, shape of the star itself, etc.  The positive ignition is the more complicated one.  It's not always enough to use a prime that can physically ignite the star.  What we really want is a prime that lights the star and ensures that it functions as intended.  This is where how fast the star is traveling, how long any hot slag can stay on the surface, geometry of the star, etc. really come into play.  You have to set your stars up for success.

The velocity a star is traveling is often kind of overlooked.  A lot of primes can light stars, but they can blow out or not achieve self-sustaining ignition if they're travelling too fast.  I often see poor star ignition blamed on the prime, and then people start looking for more exotic or hotter primes to solve a problem that doesn't truly exist.  In many instances just a thicker prime layer or backing off the break strength will be the real solution to the root cause.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but there is a reason you often see big or hard broken shells regularly have a streamer or tail first before color kicks in.  Those types of compositions typically have better critical wind velocities and can allow the star to slow down before the color kicks in.  

[Zumber]

10 hours ago, Mumbles said:

Priming and positive ignition are two interrelated problems to me.  Priming is simply does the star light?  There's more that goes into that with regard to thickness, how much heat is transferred to the star or retained as slag, shape of the star itself, etc.  The positive ignition is the more complicated one.  It's not always enough to use a prime that can physically ignite the star.  What we really want is a prime that lights the star and ensures that it functions as intended.  This is where how fast the star is traveling, how long any hot slag can stay on the surface, geometry of the star, etc. really come into play.  You have to set your stars up for success.

The velocity a star is traveling is often kind of overlooked.  A lot of primes can light stars, but they can blow out or not achieve self-sustaining ignition if they're travelling too fast.  I often see poor star ignition blamed on the prime, and then people start looking for more exotic or hotter primes to solve a problem that doesn't truly exist.  In many instances just a thicker prime layer or backing off the break strength will be the real solution to the root cause.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but there is a reason you often see big or hard broken shells regularly have a streamer or tail first before color kicks in.  Those types of compositions typically have better critical wind velocities and can allow the star to slow down before the color kicks in.  

I use slow charcoal streamer (thick layer) followed by bp final layer (medium layer) for most of my colour stars and It works well for me even if for hard broken shells.