4" mine

[Rooster]

This tutorial teaches you how to make a pyrotechnical object called a mine. Most people who have been into some pyrotechnics know what a mine is. A mine is essentially any pyrotechnic garnitures that are shot straight out of a mortar standing on the ground. It is assembled with a fuse that goes down to the lift powder, ignites it, and throws whatever is on top burning into the sky. Mostly these garnitures are stars, but also salutes (maroons), spinners, whistles, and other items can be used.

 

In this tutorial I will make a 4” mine, but the same technique can be used for any mines ranging from 2” to 6”. In this tutorial I will load the mine with stars only, not other garnitures. That does not mean you have to do the same. The only way to learn and achieve breathtaking effects in the night sky is to experiment!

 

Making the mine casing:

 

Start by cutting a strip of paper (I use kraft for its strength in handling). The paper I use for the 4” mine is 25x65cm. This will make a bit more than 2 turns on a 4” former. I like to make neat, straight cuts, so I use a ruler. 2 turns is appropriate for my medium-weight kraft paper, and the mine can be handled quite roughly without it being destroyed.

 

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010069.JPG

 

Now you should have 2 round discs, and one rectangular piece of (kraft) paper:

 

Find a plate of corrugated cardboard/carton, and draw a circle around your case former. My case former is my ~3” mortar. I used an old wine-box for the carton(it is the stuff grocery stores get their stuff in, banana boxes, anything). It does not really matter if the carton is strong or very strong, just make sure it is not more than 1cm thick. Mine is around 3mm.

Cut out the circles you just made.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010070.JPG

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010071.JPG

 

Now roll it tightly around your case former, and attach it to itself with a piece of tape. It should look like the picture below:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010072.JPG

 

Put the carton disc inside the former, making it rest on the top of the former. Ideally your former does not have a hole in the middle, like mine, but it’s not a big deal.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010073.JPG

 

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010075.JPG

 

After this, pull your canister off the former till you have enough paper to get to the center of the disc when you fold it down.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010076.JPG

 

Cut the paper protruding from the former into 1-2cm strips(not too big), and fold it outwards, leaving the end disc exposed like the picture below.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010077.JPG

 

Smear carpenters glue or wood glue(what I use) on the surface of the end disc.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010078.JPG

 

Start pleating down each of the small strips of paper towards the center, like seen above. Put glue on top of these again, so the next set of strips will adhere to them again.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010079.JPG

 

When you are done, it should look something like this. Make sure you pull the strips when gluing them to the end disc, so they stay tight and you get a smooth finish:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010080.JPG

 

Then, gently, pull the mine can off the former, and let the glue dry. When the glue is dry, the can should look like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010081.JPG

 

Now, weigh out your lift powder. I use 20grams of pressed black powder (I just run it through a 5mesh screen after smashing it), but since you most likely do not have the exact same lift as I have, you should experiment with your own. You can use a variety of lift powders, including pressed BP, granulated BP, and benzolift. The amount of lift powder I use, does not even cover the bottom of the can:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010083.JPG

 

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010084.JPG

 

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010085.JPG

 

Make 5 small holes in the disc you have left. One in the middle for the quickmatch or stickymatch to go through, the other four for the fire from the lift powder to ignite the garnitures we will add later.

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010082.JPG

 

Now push your quickmatch or stickymatch (I use my own variety of stickymatch, blackmatch in duct tape) through the hole in the middle:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010086.JPG

 

Secure in on the underside of the lift disc by taping it, trying to not tape over any of the other holes in the disc. Bottom view:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010087.JPG

 

Top view:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010088.JPG

 

Then, gently push this disc down the mine can, so that the match goes down through the middle of the lift disc to the lift powder like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010089.JPG

 

Add stars or whatever other garnitures you would like to add. I use chrysanthemum 6 stars of different size here, since I had many of them left, and I didn’t want to use them in shells, since the stars are very spiked (non-smooth surface). After adding stars, it looks like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010091.JPG

 

Then, twist the paper above the stars (garnitures) together, so it looks like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010093.JPG

 

Tie the paper shut with a clove hitch right above the stars. I use linen thread because of its strength, but cotton thread will for just as good. Then it should look like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010095.JPG

 

I like to rip off the excess paper above the knot, since I find it better looking. It has no practical use anyway. Do what you like. Looks like this:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010096.JPG

 

I write what the effects are on the side of the mine, so that when I make many mines, I can distinguish them from each other:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/P1010097.JPG

 

 

And congratulations! Your mine is done, ready to load in the mortar!

 

 

Action shot from a 4” D1 glitter mine:

http://freepgs.com/rooster/4inch_mine_result.jpg

[aquaman]

Nice job.

[Frozentech]

Great tutorial ! Very similar to how I've made them, and those methods do work great ! You've inspired me to make a couple of 3"ers I like your stickymatch there too.

[BigBang]

Well, this is a VERY nice, in depth tutorial. It is going into my book Wow, I sure have a lot of tutorials in it, wonder when I should submit it?

[Pyrohawk]

Woahhhhh Your lift is enormous!! That actually works well??? Your lift is as big as some of my small stars!!

 

Good lookin mines ya got there Rooster! Nice tutorial!

[maximusg]

Lift size varies a fair bit depending on the properties/qualities of the BP used. Personally my lift is finer than that, but not much. You have to use what works

 

Nice, clear tutorial.

[Mephistos Minion]

Oi Rooster,

Nice job on the tutorial, I like the way it is sort of a combo between bag and can method.

Does that Black Match in duct tape quick match realiably?

[Rooster]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

 

Pyrohawk: The lift is pressed and corned BP. It is very fast, and as you can see on the last picture (that used the same type of lift), the stars get high enough with good speed.

 

Mephistos Minion: Yes, the black match is very reliable. With other types of tape, it does not work at all, but with strong duct tape it is quickmatching just like it should. Takes less time than rolling quickmatch tubes too.

[TheSidewinder]

Learn something new every day.... NICE tutorial.

 

Duct-taped blackmatch works like quickmatch, eh? I thought that you HAD to have the "airspace" in the tube around blackmatch to make it work as fast as it does. Obviously not, since the last picture proves it.

 

M

[Kilo_G]

Shame on you, black sox and jeans? LOL.

 

Nice tutorial.

[Pretty green flame]

Rooster: Is there any special techniqu for wraping BM in duct tape. i have tried small legths and it works really well , faster than my piped match, so i would like to try a longer strand of BM. Please share your procedure for wraping it.

[justanotherpyro]

Mephistos Minion: Yes, the black match is very reliable. With other types of tape, it does not work at all, but with strong duct tape it is quickmatching just like it should. Takes less time than rolling quickmatch tubes too.

It really depends. Masking tape it several times and it works. My original " quick " match was a line of BP down a strip of masking tape. ( highly not recommended, its a pain in the ass.) It was frustrating to get the BP in a line with enough of the sticky part to close it, and it wasn't fast. More layers of masking tape though made it fast.

 

Also, it depends on how you roll pipe. For me its as simple as cutting a 30" piece of paper off of my 12" long roll of super light craft, putting a rod on the corner and with one swift motion and piece of tape I have a 32" long piece of pipe ready to go. ( if anyone is really interested in how I do this i'll show/ explain how and what I do because its hard to understand what I just said)

 

All in all both methods are good, just depends on what you want/ have avaliable. Although duct tape is more expensive.

 

Great tutorial BTW Rooster.

[Rooster]

The way I do this is I take a meter-long strip of dut tape, place it glue-side up on the ground, put the blackmatch EXACTLY in the middle of the tape, and fold the tape over, cm by cm. Important not to get too much wrinkles. I never get any wrinkles, and I learnt to do it quite fast.

[Mephistos Minion]

I just tested this with a foot long piece of REALLY old black match that I found in my cupboard, it had been there ages and was all flakey. I put it in the tape as Rooster described and took it out back for a test. I lit it and watched it burn, I was severely dissappointed when it burned slowly inside the tape...

 

 

...for about an inch that is! It took off and burned so fast the whole thing jumped about a foot in the air and 3 feet sideways! Amazing stuff even with crappy BM. Thank you rooster for pointing this trick out, fuck rolling thin QM pipe that is a pain to get off the former. Tape is the way to go, and at $5 for 100' its a bargain.

 

EDIT: Holy crap. Ok so I noticed that Rooster folded up his tape QM leader; So I decided to see how well it works after being folded and everything. So I took my last piece of crappy BM (really scraping the bottom of the barrell here) and put it in tape, then I folded it, unfolded, re folded and unfolded it. Took it out and lit it, this time it jumped even higher burning so fast I couldn't believe it! Really reliable stuff.

 

EDIT2: Rooster, may seem like a stupid question, but how do you get the bottom disk and paper remnence of your mine out of the mortar? I have a 3 shot 3" mortar rack, and will soon have 12 mines, so I will need to figure out how to clear them out...

[Spoony]

Made my first starmine with this tutorial the other day, I used tiger tail stars, and it was pretty impressive. I'll try it again with some better stars.

[TheSidewinder]

Mephisto,

 

Our club has a long stick, into which is driven several small, sharp nails at various angles to resemble a medieval Morning Star. Stick into bottom of mortar, press and twirl, pull out. It removes enough of the paper debris to keep you going. We always clean up the next morning and dump the remaining crap out of the mortars as we put them away. There's never much stuff in the bottom.

 

M

[Rooster]

Good question! Forgot to write about that. I usually turn mu rack upside down and tamp it lightly. But the stick and nail thing works nice too, the only reason I do not use it, is that I have cardboard mortars, so the inside will roughen up if I do that. For plastic, glassfibre or metal, the stick thing is better though.

[Mephistos Minion]

Thanks guys, I also use cardboard mortars, but I imagine with some care the stick and nails will be fine. My mine casings are fairly tight in the mortar, they slip in easily but won't go down form their own weight. I'll post some videos of test mines (going to make some extra non competition ones to get the camera set up right) in this thread and the rest of the ones I am entering in the mine competition.

 

Please post them here. Good to see some other pics of how these things work. You are welcome to add video links too, as long as the mines are representative for this thread.

 

-Rooster

[justanotherpyro]

I just made a 4" mine with 50g pressed BP lift and 500 grams of miscellaneous stars. I hope it isn't too much.

[danst6]

Nice tutorial. Any way to get the pictures back up? I'd love to see them. Thanks.

[Pretty green flame]

Nice tutorial. Any way to get the pictures back up? I'd love to see them. Thanks.

You can see it here, i copied it to my site (with roosters permission)

 

http://petelin.gozdis.si/~jakal/mines_by_rooster.htm