Microstars

[BPinthemorning]

I have several 1" aerial shells that I am planning to put into a 6" shell. My only problem is I never truly mastered the art of making microstars. Any help as to the process of production of microstars would be appreciated.

[Bonny]

I have several 1" aerial shells that I am planning to put into a 6" shell. My only problem is I never truly mastered the art of making microstars. Any help as to the process of production of microstars would be appreciated.

 

 

As with most things, it will take practice to master.

 

There is a tutorial on passfire for making coreless microstars with a star roller. Otherwise you could try a few different methods such as:

Rolling stars on very small cores

Making small cut stars, which could be aided by using the noodle cutter idea (also on passfire)

I'm not sure if it was on passfire, but i remember reading about making microstars with a drilled out garlic press...

 

Hope that helps

[Frozentech]

As with most things, it will take practice to master.

 

There is a tutorial on passfire for making coreless microstars with a star roller. Otherwise you could try a few different methods such as:

Rolling stars on very small cores

Making small cut stars, which could be aided by using the noodle cutter idea (also on passfire)

I'm not sure if it was on passfire, but i remember reading about making microstars with a drilled out garlic press...

 

Hope that helps

 

I use a garlic press for making dragon's eggs, I don't know how well it would work for other comps though.

[psyco_1322]

Id say just lay out a sheet of very thing comp and start cutting, its just a small star. Dont make it any more difficult than it is.

[Swede]

Could you substitute short cut segments of falling leaves fuse? Or is that too small?

 

Consider a 1ml insulin syringe with no needle. Cut off the luer tip, pack the body of the syringe, compact the mix by placing the open end of the syringe on a firm surface, then gently tap the piston... then extrude and cut. Those stars should be maybe 1/8" or less small cylinders.

[DeepOvertone]

Consider a 1ml insulin syringe with no needle. Cut off the luer tip, pack the body of the syringe, compact the mix by placing the open end of the syringe on a firm surface, then gently tap the piston... then extrude and cut. Those stars should be maybe 1/8" or less small cylinders.

 

You took the words out of my mouth. I saw a website that described this for making cores for rolled stars.

[LGM]

Why not try a drinking straw as a former?

[Mumbles]

I have my doubts about the drinking straw. Generally one wants some sort of resistance when forming pumped stars. The composition is not wet nearly as much as with cut stars, so the composition must be compacted harder in order to stay together until the binder dries and fully binds the composition.

 

Anyway, why not just granulate the composition through a screen? These tiny shells more or less seem to just be splashing the sky with color. No one will notice any small size variation in the stars. You could always screen them after they were done to size them to useful fractions.

[BPinthemorning]

Im gonna end up just doing what mumbles recommended, then swirl them around in a metal bowl in an attempt to make them round then let them dry and prime them with bp...

 

Thanks mumbles. always helpful!

Edited August 3, 2008 by BPinthemorning

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

When using a starroller it's quite easy to make micro stars.

Just take a easy to roll composition, perc and redgum as main ingredients do very well.

Just wet the composition as you do with polverone and rub it true a kitchen screen as you will do with pulverone, let it fall into your starroller.

There will be a big variation and you'll need to sizing the tiny stars quite often. Nevertheless will they be pretty round if you use a easy to roll composition. Just take out the biggest stars and drop them back in your starroller when the rest of the stars have the same size.

Mustard seeds are very small (1mm), most of the time I use these. Bofore I had mustardseeds I rolled stars the way as I discribed above.

[Karlos]

Dutchman & others: Do you have experiences with NC lacquer and making round stars? Shimizu describe 10% NC solution, really only 8% solution with acetone, but how density have this solution? I usually making torro pase with composition and vater/alcohol, but what these possibilities with NC lacquer? NC and acetone is not possible to wash with vater.....many foulness....

Karel.

[Yankie]

I use an insulin syring and it works great, you can pump out quite a few stars in a reletavely short period of time.

[Mumbles]

Those percentages are given in mass per volume usually, which is not related to density as weight per weight would be. I'd feel that NC lacquer may evaporate too fast to be used in the toro method. I've tried it a few times and it is rather difficult to get the consistency right. Something as volatile as acetone would quickly change the viscosity I'd think. The evaporation rate could be modified of course. I've rolled stars with NC lacquer using a more traditional spray bottle and dry comp. I had to dilute the solution down to around 2 or 3% which still has plenty of binding strength. You'd need an industrial paint sprayer to use the 8 or 10% solution as is.

 

And yes, it requires more acetone or other solvents in order to clean up.

[Karlos]

Which type of dragon eggs are in comercial chinese shells? Cut? Rolled? NC paste is recommended for this composition but acetone evaporating very quickly. Maybe amyl acetate is better for crackling microstars, but I have only acetone. How size is the best for crackling stars? 2... 3 mm? Is it possible, use for crackling composition alcohol and red gum binder?

Granulating proces through screen is not so professional, or not?

Karlos. Czech Republic

[Frozentech]

Which type of dragon eggs are in comercial chinese shells? Cut? Rolled? NC paste is recommended for this composition but acetone evaporating very quickly. Maybe amyl acetate is better for crackling microstars, but I have only acetone. How size is the best for crackling stars? 2... 3 mm? Is it possible, use for crackling composition alcohol and red gum binder?

Granulating proces through screen is not so professional, or not?

Karlos. Czech Republic

 

Very small (2mm), that look rolled. Possibly they are extruded and cut, like pasta, then rolled in prime. That's just from the appearance, not a real analysis.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Which type of dragon eggs are in comercial chinese shells? Cut? Rolled? NC paste is recommended for this composition but acetone evaporating very quickly. Maybe amyl acetate is better for crackling microstars, but I have only acetone. How size is the best for crackling stars? 2... 3 mm? Is it possible, use for crackling composition alcohol and red gum binder?

Granulating proces through screen is not so professional, or not?

Karlos. Czech Republic

 

Some cracking compositions can be bind with dextrin and water. To prime them it's better to use another type of solvent and binder.

[Mumbles]

Commercial NC lacquer isn't made with acetone anyway, at least not entirely, so the evaporation rate is a moot point. Every commercial dragon egg I've seen recently sure looks granulated through a screen to me. It has that rough uneven texture that extrusion or rolling wouldn't give. And no, it's not just the surface. They are kind of porus throughout.

[jadesource]

For my NC laquer i like to use MEK instead of acetone i find i like the slower drying time much better. The only real draw back seems to be the slower time it takes for the NC to go into solution. And the smell is more like an alcohol smell which is nice. Its just easier for me to work with rolling stars or primes. The extra drying time makes everything easier..

[superdank]

I have several 1" aerial shells that I am planning to put into a 6" shell. My only problem is I never truly mastered the art of making microstars. Any help as to the process of production of microstars would be appreciated.

 

Do you have a ruler?

 

Or anything with an edge

[Speed]

I found when rolling stars for the 4th show this year that I would get some wet comp sticking to the side of the bucket. I was using bird seed as a core for my 8-10mm stars. I found that if I used my finger to 'push' off the wet comp from the bucket, those clumps would form cores themselves. Running at my milling speed of ~64 rpm, I found that those clumps would round themselves out and making stars in the 2-4mm range was easy. I used these to create "splashes' of color in the sky and I'm planning a shell of shells using them too. Hope this helps!

[sparky]

I found when rolling stars for the 4th show this year that I would get some wet comp sticking to the side of the bucket. I was using bird seed as a core for my 8-10mm stars. I found that if I used my finger to 'push' off the wet comp from the bucket, those clumps would form cores themselves. Running at my milling speed of ~64 rpm, I found that those clumps would round themselves out and making stars in the 2-4mm range was easy. I used these to create "splashes' of color in the sky and I'm planning a shell of shells using them too. Hope this helps!

I usually put a little comp in my star roller and then mist with whatever solventit needs and then little balls form they are really tiny and seem to be strong thats what i do works great