comets from star comp

[hondo]

when I make color stars I will also make some 3/4 inch comets with the color comp, usually 10g and pressed with my press at 1000psi, the comets work well but some burn back to the ground, I shoot them out of a 7/8 tube with about 1g of FFg powder, adding more lift just shoots them blind, is adding meal powder to the color composition the best way to increase the burn rate or should I be doing something different like press only 5 grams and at 500psi? the black powder comps like the willow and crans, firefly and glitters seem to burn out just right with 10g at 1000psi and 1g of lift

 

Thanks

Hondo

[yellowcard]

I should drill a core through the whole comet. This makes is burn at the same speed, but more surface at a time is it's burnt out quicker. You also get a bigger flame and a brighter color.

I think it would be wise to prima the core with fast meal.

[Bonny]

As yellowcard suggested, drill a core into the comets, or try using a faster burning comp rather than trying to modify the one you have (risking colour quality). You could also make the comets shorter. If more lift is shooting them blind, try using a different prime.

[flying fish]

^^^I agree with the above statements...possibly look into better primes (remember that you want your stars to light uniformly and not just at a point) and a hole through the comet will also certainly help. However, I prefer not to drill - I made a simple cylindrical star pump with a brass rod fit into a dowel, which naturally creates the hole when the star is pressed. The hole through the star causes a "quickmatch effect" and ignites the length of the star from the inside. Stars which will produce gobs of fallout without the hole seem to burn up well with the hole. I learned that the hard way when I broke up some of my "no-fallout" comets into chunks and put them in a small shell, and lot of hot fallout landed on my roof! Edited September 14, 2008 by flying fish

[Seymour]

I happen to be in favor of modifying the composition. If the star is metallic, adding more metal should speed up the burn. Adding lampblack or airfloat charcoal should absorb IR radiation and pre heat the composition, in theory at least. If you are using metal salts that retard burning like carbonates or oxalates for colour, replacing them with nitrates should speed things up.

 

If you don't want to radically change things the addition of a catalyst should speed things up and aid in ignition. While I do not know what composition you have been using, Manganese dioxide and Ferric oxide are commonly used as catalysts in fireworks.

 

Coring comets is a worthwhile thing to try and will work well, especially for larger comets, but for 3/4", which is really just a large star I think that it is tedious and could make them liable to turn into a starmine as it fragments.