garden fireworks

[johnnypyro]

With our small gardens, here in the UK we have the tradition of fireworks that can be safely viewed at 5 - 15m, typically 8m. Over the last three years, inspired by this forum, I've been working on creating small fireworks that I can fire in my 25m x 10m space. After getting decent BP, I've managed to progress to bombettes with a 1g star payload and 0.15g MgAl flash as break, and have been focussing on consistency before moving on to multi effect cakes. 

This is three bombettes with Emerald green (1/3) and Yankee's purple with (2/3) with flying fish fuse. Would be interested to hear about anyone else similar experiments.

 

 

 

[Almostparadise]

I think they are looking great so far. Some w more valuable input than mine will likely chime in. Have you thought about dragon eggs or rather dragon flowers I think they are sometimes called?

[johnnypyro]

Thanks for the encouragement AP. I have crackle, but at the moment I'm trying to keep the noise down as I get on with my neighbours and want to keep it that way! 

As we get into October, Guy Fawkes is just around the corner and you begin to hear commercial fireworks around the neighbourhood, so that will be the time to give it a go.

 

[Almostparadise]

3 hours ago, johnnypyro said:

 I'm trying to keep the noise down as I get on with my neighbours and want to keep it that way!

 

Absolutely! I've been making mostly charcoal streamers and glitter stars. Still learning the basics of ball shells. I've have started building very small cylinder shells and slowly scaling them up. I am planning on making some colored microstars for these shells. It's great though to see what you've been doing with small scale color effects. I'm going to grab my popcorn here and see if I can't learn a little more. Guy Fawkes sounds like a great time! 

[johnnypyro]

Buell Yellow (62:38 Green:Red) with Jopetes Fuchsia #1 and then Tiger tail

 

 

[pyrokid]

Great work! Miniature effects are very interesting to me. I wonder how small you could make a tourbillion...

[johnnypyro]

This is really a post for myself to record the outcome of many experiments over the last few months and years. The aim is to create small bombettes that can be used to deliver a payload of around 1g of stars to a height of 8-10m as the basis of multi-effect cakes that can be viewed from a safe distance of 5-8m.

Once you have the casings and stars, the bombettes can be filled and launched in under 3-5 minutes which makes them useful for testing new compositions, different milling times, colour combinations and different ratios of colours, different amounts of break composition, and so on.

The bombettes are launched from a 13mm ID, 80mm height cardboard mortar using 0.9g of BP lift made with willow charcoal that has been in the rock tumbler for 12 hours with ceramic balls and then wetted (75% water, 25% alcohol), grated with #10 and sieved -#10/+#20. 

 

Bombettes are made from virgin kraft paper. A sheet 120mm x 180mm is rolled on an 11mm diameter form along the longest edge, wetted with sodium silicate. After drying the tube is cut into 6 x 30mm lengths. Two 15mm diameter paper circles are glued together with a tiny amount of cyanoacrylate glue and pushed into a form with a 9mm rod to create an endcap. The rim of the tube is wetted with glue, and the endcap pushed through. When dry, a hole is pierced in the endcap, a short length of 2mm visco fuse (I use flying fish fuse as it makes a visible rising tail) glued in place with about 5mm protruding internally, and the entire end is painted with sodium silicate. Takes a couple of hours to dry completly.

 

1g of stars is loaded into the casing along with 0.17g of MgAl/KNO3/S flash powder. The KNO3 and S are screened though #100 and the MgAl(#400) diapered in. A single layer of kraft paper forms the endcap. The open rim of the bombette is wetted with glue and the endcap carefully inserted and pressed into place all round with tweezers. With a bit of practice, this bit can be done in under a minute.

 

The fuse is cut with a blade at an angle at a length of 7mm giving the right flight time, and it's ready to go.

Edited September 25, 2024 by johnnypyro

[Richtee]

If you ever experience early pops on those shells. wrap your fuse with a couple layers of light glued paper to prevent ignition further up the fuse than the end.

Edited September 25, 2024 by Richtee

[Foguete]

On 9/17/2024 at 5:42 AM, johnnypyro said:

With our small gardens, here in the UK we have the tradition of fireworks that can be safely viewed at 5 - 15m, typically 8m. Over the last three years, inspired by this forum, I've been working on creating small fireworks that I can fire in my 25m x 10m space. After getting decent BP, I've managed to progress to bombettes with a 1g star payload and 0.15g MgAl flash as break, and have been focussing on consistency before moving on to multi effect cakes. 

This is three bombettes with Emerald green (1/3) and Yankee's purple with (2/3) with flying fish fuse. Would be interested to hear about anyone else similar experiments.

 

 

 

Very nice display,very quiet and discrete.

Good Job

[Foguete]

On 9/17/2024 at 12:33 PM, johnnypyro said:

Thanks for the encouragement AP. I have crackle, but at the moment I'm trying to keep the noise down as I get on with my neighbours and want to keep it that way! 

As we get into October, Guy Fawkes is just around the corner and you begin to hear commercial fireworks around the neighbourhood, so that will be the time to give it a go.

 

You could try some strobes instead of crackle, these will look good for sure.

[johnnypyro]

Sadly I can’t make stars big enough for strobes that fit into the bombette. 

[johnnypyro]

Winokur's Silver C as a gerb needs milled black powder to give the necessary power. It's a really great effect

BP 0.68

Barium Carbonate 0.10

Antimony Trisulphide 0.14

Al (250 mesh) 0.08

2x15g in 0.5inch diameter tubes, no choke:

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2024 by johnnypyro
video size

[johnnypyro]

Go-getters:

KNO3 0.55

C 0.21

S 0.09

Dex 0.02

Milled for 5 hours then screen in Ti (20-40mesh) 0.13

1.5g hand pressed into 11mm diameter cardboard tubes painted with waterglass inside. No fuse or core (tried it, but didn't make any difference)

 

 

[Zumber]

On 10/28/2024 at 11:00 PM, johnnypyro said:

Winokur's Silver C as a gerb needs milled black powder to give the necessary power. It's a really great effect

BP 0.68

Barium Carbonate 0.10

Antimony Trisulphide 0.14

Al (250 mesh) 0.08

2x15g in 0.5inch diameter tubes, no choke:

 

 

 

Excellent 👌 

[Zumber]

1 hour ago, johnnypyro said:

Go-getters:

KNO3 0.55

C 0.21

S 0.09

Dex 0.02

Milled for 5 hours then screen in Ti (20-40mesh) 0.13

1.5g hand pressed into 11mm diameter cardboard tubes painted with waterglass inside. No fuse or core (tried it, but didn't make any difference)

 

 

Thats really great effect.

Congratulations 👏 

[johnnypyro]

That’s very kind of you - thank you 

[johnnypyro]

This winter I have been working on several star combinations for my micro-fireworks. One of them has been tiger tail + Pinko KP blue both primed with monocapa, with the deep orange and blue colours a classic of commercial fireworks. This is the sequence of firings in order until I finally get something like what I'm looking for, although still a bit of improvement left to go. So many variables to play with: composition milling times, star sizes, amount of flash burst, and fuse length for burst height. 

 

 

[Zumber]

It was beautiful..!! blue is pretty, I missed deep orange may be not ignited well??? Burst need to be a bit more.

Cool video..!!

[ThunderEx]

Very nice! All of it. I like the small scale challenge. The waterglass is for rigidity, not to fire proof the bombettes? I guess you have found the minimum amount of paper needed  

[johnnypyro]

Yes, the waterglass was applied as both a glue and for rigidity and to use the minimum amount of paper to make the bombettes so that there was as much space as possible for the effects.

I thought it would be interesting to post all my "failures" in a timeline before finally getting something like the effect i was trying to achieve (the final firing). As we all know, there's a lot of trial and error to get these things working. Mostly error. 

 

[johnnypyro]

Testing out metal additives to comets as I'm looking to fire five in a fan shape as a small firework. Used C6 as a base milled for 6 hours in my rock tumbler. 11mm diameter pumped 1g comets fired in a 13mm diameter 8cm tube. Then added 12% metals MgAl and Al.

 

 

[Almostparadise]

Beautiful!

[Foguete]

1 hour ago, johnnypyro said:

Testing out metal additives to comets as I'm looking to fire five in a fan shape as a small firework. Used C6 as a base milled for 6 hours in my rock tumbler. 11mm diameter pumped 1g comets fired in a 13mm diameter 8cm tube. Then added 12% metals MgAl and Al.

 

Very nice! 

 

[Darkonez]

I’m loving this especially being another uk fellow lacking space and availability to materials. 

[Czx7]

I have been thinking about experimenting with some micro aerial stuff like this for awhile. Johnnypyro, what kind of life are you getting out of the mortar tubes? Is the same tube being reused?