Fireballs, liquid

[cplmac]

And aviation fuel is very different from gas. Basically it is like kerosene. I have had a lot of success using five gallon buckets. I bury the 5 gallon bucket in the ground in as tight a hole as I can make it, put about 2 cups of 2FA in the bottom of the bucket evenly spread, tape a squib to the bottom, stick a tight fitting paperplate over the 2FA open side up, then top off the bucket with powdered calves milk. If you pack it down you will get a decent concussion but the fireball won't be as nice and you will get some unlit creamer on the deck. As for the liquid type, again the 5 gallon bucket above ground this time. Fill the bucket with gasoline and place a donut shape flash charge under the bucket about the diameter of the bucket, remove the metal handle from the bucket first, and the fireball is large rolling and very hot. From about 300 feet away you can feel the temperature change every bit of five degrees maybe more. This type device will start grass fires in a dry area and will brown the grass in a 75 foot circle in a wet area. Be sure to keep a good distance and have plenty of water on hand. I recommend having at the very least a hose that will reach to the far side of the fallout area if not a water trailer with pump and hose. This is absolutely NOT something for the neighborhood backyard, but if you have the space and the proper safety gear it is a tremendous effect.

[cplmac]

Another place to check would be the pest repellent section of a hardware store. They use naphthalene for more than just moths. It seems everything hates the smell. I specifically remember a bat repellent. It was nap balls coated in sulfur. Those must be fun to have around.

 

The smell from the Nap was filling my car before during transport. I now keep the shit outside in a plastic bag to relatively protect against the elements. Not sure how winter will fair on it though.

A partner of mine had filled a 5" gun with naptha powder and stored it in his garage over the winter. By the time this spring rolled around he couldn't shoot it off fast enough. His garage still smells like naptha, and where we fired it off smelled like naptha for a month. I would not recomment naptha, it smells terrible for a long time, is very unhealthy, and does not produce the same quality fireball that creamer, gasoline or dry sweep does.

[qwezxc12]

My friends and I shot a large number of liquid fueled fireballs for our last 4th of July show; we also use them as a sure-fire (pun intended) bonfire lighter.

 

I use -350 mesh Aluminum flake / Pottery grade CuO thermite as lift. The caloric heat value that the thermite puts out along with the near instantaneous ignition makes for a nice fireball. It also leaves very little flaming gas on the ground; almost all of the fuel is atomized and consumed. It makes a nice thump and as an added benefit takes zero time to prepare compared to good BP lift.

 

"Normal" ones use a coffee can. 30g of thermite are placed in a 2" little circular cardboard project boxes they sell at craft stores, spiked with one or two wraps of fiberglass tape, and placed in the bottom. Ignition of the thermite is e-match or fuse in a prime of 5g of 2:1 Al/S. Fuel is appx. 1L of plain old gasoline in a ziplock freezer bag.

 

The video is of a normal one during pre-4th of July testing. Use the yellow coffee can as scale for the size of the fireball. Obviously, you can hear we are pleased with the results

1L gas fueled fireball

The XL version triples the lift and uses 1 gal. of gas in a metal pail. We did 4 normal and one XL fireball e-matched and set them off in a series to open the show. Awesome.

[bleedin label]

naphthalene smells real bad, I keep mine in 6 plastic bags and thats in a suitcase... thats the only way i have kept the smell at bay. Il be blowin up my first fireball tommarow... Any tips? Its going to be electronicly ignited so ive got plenty of distance.

[h0lx]

Damn! Never thought of thermite as lift. Always tought BP is too valuable for me to waste in fireballs, I'll start making CuO right away.

[qwezxc12]

...I'll start making CuO right away.

The ratio I use is:

 

CuO 44.5g

Al 10g

 

Should be stoichiometric... basic chem was a looong time ago, though.

 

Let us know how it works for you

[WisdomElf]

my first successful liquid fire ball :

[Caramanos2000]

Could I use Iron Oxide and Al for the lift thermite instead of using the Copper Oxide?

[aa92td]

Caramanos.....just try BP i am using bp and its works great every time.

you should have fast BP and its cheaper then CuO+Al

[qwezxc12]

Could I use Iron Oxide and Al for the lift thermite instead of using the Copper Oxide?

In short, I doubt it...even if you use blackhead Al and superfine Fe2O3, the reaction will not be fast enough to lift and atomize the fuel...I'm sure the molten products will vaporize any liquid, but I doubt you'd be satisfied with the resulting fireball.

 

My whole point with trying CuO/Al is it's capability to deflagrate with little or no confinement - Iron Oxide thermite won't do that.

[fight fire with fire]

Have any of you tried coloured fireballs? Using methanol? I'd love to see a video if you have.

[Doubl3_HeLiX]

Colored fireballs would be simply amazing, although not sure if possible. I have seen colored flames with methanol, could someone share some insight if using this type of solution would result in a colored fireball?

[cplmac]

I'll try it this weekend, I've been wanting to do it for awhile and just keep pushing it back on the docket. Should have video by Sunday night. I'll do red, one cup fluid.

[deadman]

Colored fireballs are very much possible. They are known as Ghost Mines. I actually had a green one on a cake I made for the comp, that I lit off instead of recording. I believe there is quite a bit of info at the calderwood site, as well as a skylighter archive

[evilgecko]

Here is a 3L Petrol Fireball using 70g BP in a pipe which was immersed in a 4L paint can with 3L of petrol in it.

 

 

The sound and video are slightly out of sync after encoding to flv!

[optimus]

Have any of you tried coloured fireballs? Using methanol? I'd love to see a video if you have.

You can find a video containing ghost mines here:

 

http://www.secac.com/120.0.html

[FrankRizzo]

Here's a few of mine form last summer:

 

1gal 50:50 unleaded gasoline and used motor oil

 

1 gal 80:20 unleaded gasoline and fresh motor oil

[cplmac]

My first red ghost mine, 1 pint methanol heavily overlifted.

 

1 gallon fireball from 5" steel gun

[mormanman]

Hey guys I noticed that this thread hasn't been used for a while so to get to the point.

Can you use bp as lift for liquid fireballs?

[TheSidewinder]

Unless I'm badly missing the point here, yes, BP is *normally* used to lift Dragon's Breath. At least, all the ones I've seen at the WPAG shoots were fired this way. A plastic bag of BP, with an e-match inside, taped or waxed or leak-proofed somehow, is lowered into the mortar. Gasoline, kerosene, or your favorite flammable, is poured in the tube then it's fired. Voila, Dragon's Breath.

 

Hope that's what you meant.

 

M

[mormanman]

O my goodness that sounds great and yeah thats what I meant.

 

Thanks

[Mumbles]

I know you're talking about Paul. They use some sort of epoxy to coat the plastic baggy filled with the BP. He uses the following mix for good flames. 70% Gasoline, 20% Diesel, 10% Methanol. It makes a nice bright orange fireball without the normal black smoky covering.

[cplmac]

Dragons breath is kind of a weak rolling fireball right? If that is correct then you could use BP but you need to hit it hard enough to atomize most of it or it's gonna come down wet and burning. Here is a quick video of a 1 gallon straight gas fireball kicked with flash.

 

Sorry there is a minute or so of junk cakes opening the video

[Pretty green flame]

If you my friend call those junk cakes you should see what a good cake is where i live.

 

Other than that the fireball was excelent!

[optimus]

I'm pretty sure Dragons breath refers to both Zirconium-laced shotgun rounds, or Lycopodium powder ignited in a dust cloud - kinda like an extremely expensive, efficient creamer fireball.