Almostparadise Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 How does this look for a first attempt at strobe stars? Recipe seems straight forward enough. Anything i should take note of w this comp? Nitrate strobes seemed a likely starting place for an intro into strobe comps. Planning to pump with water plus 25% ipa. I'm not sure about the aluminum though. I've no straight 325 mesh. I have Eckhart 120 atomized (200-325 mesh), and 30 micron atomized. Was going to start w the Eckhart 120 and hope it would be close enough to work. Silver strobe stars 40 kno3 20 al atomized 325 mesh 10 Sulfer 5 Dextrin 1 Boric acid It says stars must be bigger than 4mm otherwise they may not work. Why would this be?? Ty very much for any input and or advice before i attempt this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 I have no experience with atomized aluminium strobe but 200 mesh 50:50 works great. Try out Bleser's white strobe if you have magnelium. I never pump strobe stars I use 4 mm rolled star with 2 to 3 mm prime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 I've only coarse 30-60 mesh magnelium atm. Plenty of aluminum though. I'm still looking for a way to use the 60 mesh granular AL I bought eons ago because it was dirt cheap. Is it just personal preference that you only roll strobe stars? Pumping seemed well suited for a small test batch. I'm better at rolling when I have plenty of composition. Still prone to starting with too many cores and ending up with piles of microstars and no composition. Now I weigh the cores and it's getting better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 Pumped stars usually contain more water than other star methods. Sometimes water prevents stars functioning as hoped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 Aside from pressed stars i thought pumped (hand rammed) stars typically had little water? I'm generally between 5-8% w my home made single star pumps. They always dry quicker than my rolled stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 2 hours ago, Almostparadise said: I've only coarse 30-60 mesh magnelium atm. Plenty of aluminum though. I'm still looking for a way to use the 60 mesh granular AL I bought eons ago because it was dirt cheap. Is it just personal preference that you only roll strobe stars? Pumping seemed well suited for a small test batch. I'm better at rolling when I have plenty of composition. Still prone to starting with too many cores and ending up with piles of microstars and no composition. Now I weigh the cores and it's getting better. I just cant make 4 mm pump star its not right size for pumping, besides this strobe works as a dark phase (smoulder) and flash phase too big star(pumped) will take too much time and may fall to ground....it will be suitable for strobe pot. Also small star in shell has more density and beauty. It all comes finally once you know burn rate of star. For pumped star you have to increase burn rate then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 3/8" (10mm) is the smallest I pump. I've got to do some research in order to understand what you are talking about when you say "this strobe works as a dark phase (smoulder)" etc. I'm going to make 100g tomorrow morning and pump a couple different size stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 2 hours ago, Almostparadise said: when you say "this strobe works as a dark phase (smoulder)" Strobe reaction is combination of dark (smolder) reaction punctuated by flash reactions. Thus a strobe composition could be considered to be a combination of dark and flash mixtures. A dark or smolder reaction produces a growing slag layer with no light output and reaction proceeds with development of hot spot over slag, then violent reaction of the slag produces a brilliant flash of light which sounds almost explosive. This is the theory of strobe reaction. Thus most of strobes ( not all) are not like normal fast burning stars and it takes time and there may be a chance it falls down to ground if it is made with large size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Swede Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 That formula does not look like a strobe to me!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 I pumped a few 3/8" stars w this comp. Seems pretty nice. 20240701_152853.mp4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Swede Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 I stand corrected, looks very good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 I want to see this in a shell or Starmine because against high wind pressure it behaves differently than with no wind. I need you to test this in mine or in a small shell to get exact idea about its frequency and intensity. Please do shoot video. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted July 2 Author Share Posted July 2 15 minutes ago, Zumber said: I want to see this in a shell or Starmine because against high wind pressure it behaves differently than with no wind. I need you to test this in mine or in a small shell to get exact idea about its frequency and intensity. Please do shoot I pumped a few 1/2" stars too and they didn't strobe like the 3/8" ones. When I get out of work this morning I'll put together a small star mine for tonight. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 1 hour ago, Almostparadise said: I pumped a few 1/2" stars too and they didn't strobe like the 3/8" ones. When I get out of work this morning I'll put together a small star mine for tonight. 🙂 Sure ..waiting for video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 I ended up rolling the remainder. As of last night they weren't completely dry. I suspect the prime may need to be a bit hotter than mill dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 Note that rolled star takes atleast 3 to 4 days to dry out completely it further depends on weather and humidity in drying area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingkama Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 On 6/30/2024 at 4:29 AM, Almostparadise said: How does this look for a first attempt at strobe stars? Recipe seems straight forward enough. Anything i should take note of w this comp? Nitrate strobes seemed a likely starting place for an intro into strobe comps. Planning to pump with water plus 25% ipa. I'm not sure about the aluminum though. I've no straight 325 mesh. I have Eckhart 120 atomized (200-325 mesh), and 30 micron atomized. Was going to start w the Eckhart 120 and hope it would be close enough to work. Silver strobe stars 40 kno3 20 al atomized 325 mesh 10 Sulfer 5 Dextrin 1 Boric acid It says stars must be bigger than 4mm otherwise they may not work. Why would this be?? Ty very much for any input and or advice before i attempt this. I would use 2% pvb and no water at all but alcool, May behave different but not in the bad way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Picking up where I left off finally. The rolled stars came out ranging from 6-10 mm. A bit smaller than the one i tested above that strobed multiple times. The smaller ones give one flash on the ground. I'm hoping it'll be different if they're flying through the air. I gave them all a heavy prime and put a small mine together which I'll light as soon as it gets dark. I'll post a video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 20240803_213732~3.mp4 I loaded 20 stars. Looks like one flash a peice. At the very end there's a couple that would lead to the party. Unless some of them went twice. I put a lot of Prime on them because they don't like that easy in my opinion.i used Jopetes dragon egg prime topped with a rough BP. I don't know where to start in order to try to control the strobing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 (edited) I had forgotten about putting a half dozen of these Stars inside of a 3" tiger tail hemi rocket header. Right when the shell breaks you hear me saying oh my God because it broke a little low and I wasn't expecting it. I was playing around with the delay composition because it was too slow. Looks like I was a little over ambitious. You can see the strobe stars take forever to get going. 20240803_215201~3.mp4 Edited August 4 by Almostparadise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 You may need to change formula. Present formula seems not to work well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 (edited) Agreed. Even the first one I tested strobed kind of slow. The Forum where I found it said it did not need Prime but if you make cut stars with it to paint the slab w BP slurry prime and it would increase strobe rate. I'm not very clear on all that. It did need Prime. I liked it because it works with the chems I have the most of. I just read NC lacquer can work on this comp, so ill try it next. Edited August 4 by Almostparadise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidF Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 On 6/30/2024 at 6:20 AM, Almostparadise said: Aside from pressed stars i thought pumped (hand rammed) stars typically had little water? I'm generally between 5-8% w my home made single star pumps. They always dry quicker than my rolled stars. Yes, you are right that pumped stars have the least water of the star types, not the most. The moisture range you mention is typical, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Drying stars is an art form of it's own. You can dry the whole stars, or you can dry incrementally. Sometimes stars take months to dry if they are large enough to keep moisture inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almostparadise Posted August 5 Author Share Posted August 5 I just found this same star formulation on a thread here at APC. They are named Yankee Flashing Stars the thread was started by the the person that created the formula Someone just pasted the information verbatim to another forum without listing the source. After reading the thread I think I need to better dial in the size of the aluminum. One Post in particular shows a 3-in shell and I have to say it looks pretty nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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