mine construction

[aquataur]

Greetings,

 

I am writing from Austria, where we are not allowed to make any pyrotechnical devices or compositions.

 

I have a training as professional display operator and as such I can readily utilize all commercialy manufactured devices.

 

Keeping in mind that all transports are dangerous goods, plus the need of a bunker for storage, you have a hard time trying to remain competitive, unless you exploit what is doable - law inclusive.

 

Apart from utilizing off-the-shelf items, the only relative freedom we have is making mines, projecing commercially available items like aluminium stars (that are usually shot from pistols with blank bullets), whistles, reports etc. with commercial BP.

 

The basic construction is therefore known. Online tutorials tell no different.

More advanced mines stay, nevertheless, a mistery due to lack of experience.

 

Now I come to the point:

 

I have seen you guys making wonderful mines yourself, so I wonder if you were willing to trade your secrets (which may be unspoken in your place only because seeming ubiquitous and not worth writing up...)

 

One of the things that does not seem available here is Glitter.

Composition formulas and star making recipes are abounding, but out of spec for me.

 

[ton of questions ahead...]

* Is it possible to load a mine with loose composition?

* These glitter mines I see on your videos, do they use stars? They look like a cloud of loose composition.

 

* Also, I have access to tons of Aluminium grit, I guess 60 mesh.

Can this be put to any use? (It will be hard to get any of the fine stuff mostly required...). Remember, I may put on top of my ejection charge whatever I want, but not go into self-making.

 

* If I want a coloured flash or cloud spitting out stars from my mortar, is it feasible to use something like bengal powder between my star charge?

 

Many questions...

looking forward to read your answers, thanks.

 

 

 

-helmut

[InRainbows]

Mines are typically made with stars, loose composition would look more like a short lived fountain. Glitter is made primarily with antimony trisulfide, look in the compositions section for Winokur. Star mines are typically lift charge filled mortars, with stars on top.

 

http://www.pyroguide.com/index.php?title=Mines_-_3_inch

 

The site uses Dan William's guide, but it has a lot of other things, including some Winokur comps.

[Pyrohawk]

If your looking for a glitter try D1. It's not the best but looks very nice in my opinion and most importantly doesn't use antimony trisulfide. Look around and you can easily find a video of something with D1 stars in it. If you can't find any I'm sure I can dig one of mine up and post it.

 

D1 Glitter

Source: APC Forum

Comments: White Glitter star

Preparation:

KNO3..................................58%

S...........................................16%

C...........................................10%

Al (atomized 325mesh)..........6%

Sodium Bicarbonate...............6%

Dex.........................................4%

 

But if you can't make your own stars I really don't know what to tell ya... But I did do a few mines with just lift powder and a lot of medium mesh Titanium powder before and it was a pretty cool effect, very glittery. But not very tall....mine was in a 2" mortar and maybe the glitter cloud was 10ft tall or so? You will notice there area few D1 stars in there as well but most the flash came from the Ti.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/pyrohawk_15/crapstarmine.jpg

 

Loose comp won't make a very nice mine. It will just be a flash, I've seen it done many times when you just want like a bright flash of color but it won't have the tall, star mine look to it.

 

Oh and yeah, loading soem loose comp in with your lift powder will make a nice flash when the shell fires, just experiment with different comps so you can see which ones look nice. I would say that adding a lump of that 60 mesh aluminum on top of the lift powder would make a decent effect.

[asilentbob]

While antimony trisulfide can be used to modify glitters, it is not at all "primary"... Glitter is a complex reaction much like strobe compositions in that it has different phases... It seems to be dependent on potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal... (see senko hanabi, the most fundamental glitter composition)... (no, it wont work as stars)... Its... complex... The book below explains it very well.

 

If glitters are what you are REALLY interested in google search for:

Glitter the Chemistry Techniques by Lloyd Scott Oglesby

(you might be able to find it as a .pdf floating around online, but a tangible copy is always the best IMO)

 

Also go to the compositions section of this forum and find the thread listing Robert Winokur's 40 glitter compositions...

 

D1 glitter composition is gennerally one of the first glitter compositions people will try out... it doesn't use too exotic chemicals... You can search for the formula and further discussion of it at your leisure.

 

I really don't know what your chemical situation is in Oz... so yeah... even whats common for us US guys might be rare for y'all.

[Mumbles]

Heh, ASB, try the complete opposite side of the globe next time. Austria doesn't have many kangaroos I would imagine.

 

They are right. Antimony Trisulfide isn't required for the glitter effect. The first glitters did not have this chemical in their formulations. However, it's addition does enhance the effect in some ways not otherwise obtainable. Regardless, very pretty glitters are completely possible without the use of it. The winokur thread here will be a good source for information on them. Might I suggest winokur #20. It is a very pretty effect with a long hangtime.

 

To make a white glitter, you could try to replace the sodium bicarbonate common in many of the antimony-less glitters with strontium or barium carbonate.

[hst45]

* Is it possible to load a mine with loose composition?

* These glitter mines I see on your videos, do they use stars? They look like a cloud of loose composition.

I'm not sure if I completely understand the question so forgive me if I'm answering a question for which you already know the answer. I'll give you the short version of simple mine construction that I use for 2" mines.

 

Using the cardboard inner roll from a roll of toilet paper, cut 12 slits in it lengthwise 1-1/2" inch long, cut out every third of these leaves, and fold the ends over to form a base and tape them together with scotch tape. Cut out a cardboard disk from a cereal box or similar source the diamiater of the roll, puncture 20 or so 1/8" holes in it, and tape it to the bottom of the tube. Cut 12 more slits about 2 1/2" from the other end. Fill this tube with about 1-1/2" of stars, and fold the top "leaves" together and tape these together with scotch tape. This will make a conical nosed, flat based container filled with stars. Tape a bag of lift under the base of this (about 10% of the weight of the "shell" is a good starting point).

 

The tube holds the stars and lift charge together so it's easy to load into the mortar, and honestly the round cardboard base probably isn't necessary, but it's what works for me. It takes a grand total of about a minute to make one of these and they work great. If you have access to stars that you can "borrow" from other devices and something that will work for lift I'm sure you can easily make this work. I love doing these little mines with either glitter or granite stars as the whole effect seems to just hang in the air.

 

Good luck, and I hope this helps.

[aquataur]

Thank you folks for your quick response.

 

And yes, Mumbles, Austria does not have too many kangaroos.

(She has probably more similarites with the North of America)

 

I think Pyrohawk you got to the core of my problem.

Your TI flash is exaclty what I am looking for. I will try the Aluminium grit.

 

Glitter stars really are the thing, maybe I will borrow them from some other device.

 

Some of the sources you mention I do already know. The Oglesby book is new to me. Will hunt for it on the net.

 

A little history for you to clarify the scene, in case you are interested:

 

We guys here are in a funny dilemma, they do want us to have in-depth knowlege of pyrotechnical devices when we approach our exams, but they do only allow us to gain academic knowledge.

Personally I still profit a lot of reading and of guys like you

 

Most of what can be made by one self can also been bought as far as finished devices goes. This is ok for a payed display. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, selecting a desired effect for a hobby display operator is subject to too many factors: availability, transport, amount, price and more, so I usually end up buying the swiss army knife in what is readily available like bags of stars, whistles, flash reports and the like - on the account of sophistication unfortunately.

 

Apart from infringing the law, making compositions is out of spec for us Austrians for other resons too.

Starting to mill your own BP for instance does not pay. Commercial BP is relatively cheap in bigger quantities (25kg bags - who wants to have that much explosive lying around at home?). If you want to buy the more exotic chemicals you probably land on a watch list. You need workspace aside of inhabitaded places, pretty rare and expensive here. It´s dangerous, and we do not have anybody to learn from. (Loading mortars galore is dangerous enough).

 

I read of horrendous accidents from guys who still can´t resist and have to pay the toll for their exorbitant overestimation of their capabilities.

 

Too many reasons speak against DIY.

 

My device - I try to know what I am doing beforehand. So I will continue to have an eye on you guys

 

Take care,

 

-helmut

[bmarley5780]

Well -

 

I dont have much experiance with all the other glitters that require the exotics, but I will say that the D1 glitter is a very nice effect. It also doesnt requrie you to breakout your life savings on for the chem's...

 

-Joe