looking for a Ti glitter comp.

[elstevo]

Your titanium tails (sounds like an alright name to coin) stars seemed awsome in the first vid, whats seems to be a tiger tail, then you see these beautiful white lil twinkly bits, if i had that effect in a shell i reckon it would be sweet.

 

The second formula seemed to burn to fast, I need a formula that burns slowler yet produces the beautiful silver brocade effects i see.

[tentacles]

Janus, did you roll, cut or pump your slow gold stars? Mine were rolled, and not primed in the video - I think it's fairly clear that they were taking fire quite well. Yours are certainly doing something a bit odd, though. Can you elaborate on your chems, was your KNO3 ball milled (or at least very fine), the Ti was it spherical (it looks spherical) or sponge/flake? What kind of charcoal did you use?

[xxxjanusxxx]

Janus, did you roll, cut or pump your slow gold stars? Mine were rolled, and not primed in the video - I think it's fairly clear that they were taking fire quite well. Yours are certainly doing something a bit odd, though. Can you elaborate on your chems, was your KNO3 ball milled (or at least very fine), the Ti was it spherical (it looks spherical) or sponge/flake? What kind of charcoal did you use?

 

I've milled all the components together except for the Ti and 80# charcoal. The charcoal I've used was BBQ-charcoal, from the local supermarket. The Ti is granular sponge. The stars were pumped from a starplate.

 

Can I assume that there is a flake sponge Ti type too? That would explain the effect that occured in my composition.

 

The effect from the firs mine is discussed on a Dutch forum also and the effect was discribed as a 'firefly'-effect. I can live with that, but I don't know if it's the right name for the effect.

Edited November 4, 2008 by xxxjanusxxx

[Mumbles]

Are you positive you added the 80 mesh charcoal in? There is nearly zero charcoal hangtime. You may also want to try not milling it at all. I very rarely mill any of my star compositions anymore. I think that could definitely be part of the problem. As you said, they very obviously burned too fast. There should be significant charcoal left hanging when the titanium lights, and there is a delay before that happens.

 

Flake is different from sponge. There are at least 4 different particle shapes of titanium. Flake, sponge, granular, and spherical. They all have different properties, though the last three behave pretty similarly.

[GraafVaag]

I'm quite certain this is granular titanium, if you've also got it from the PS-shop that is.

[xxxjanusxxx]

It's granular indeed, but I thought it is granular sponge or am I wrong? I will ask at the Dutch forum to be sure.

But if it isn't sponge I added the wrong ingredient actually, so it isn't that odd at all.

 

@ Mumbles: I really have to mill my chems because my KNO3 is actually fertiliser, so it comes in little pallets. It was milled in advance, but there were still some granules visible, so I wanted to get rid of that. I't could explain the burning speed though. The 80# charcoal I used was from very light and fast lumps of it. I crunched a bit with a mortar and pestle. Maybe it was to fast to make a long hangtime, but I could be wrong.

 

Yesterday I've primed the stars, so they can be placed inside a shell. I'm thinking about making a 5'' with these, with a relative soft break to let the stars fall down a bit and don't go straight forward, to make a 'sad' impression.

 

Now I'm going to work on this fomula:

 

Name: kamuro

Source: internet

Chemical Name: Parts: Weigh:

Charcoal, mixed 34

Potassium Nitrate 29

FerroTitanium, 40-325 mesh, 60:40 25

Sulfur 6

Dextrin 6

[Mumbles]

It's probably best to thing of Titanium like scotch. All scotch is whiskey, but not all whiskey is scotch. Similarly, (to me at least), all sponge Ti is granular, but not all granular Ti is sponge.

 

The formula you posted comes from Hardt, and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. I've made it once or twice, and the tail is breath taking. I had trouble pumping it though. All that metal seized up the plates several times. I eventually broke down and cut it. I did use a coarser cut of metal that is stated in your formula, about 60-100 mesh. I don't believe that the original calls for a size range.

 

I never said I didn't ball mill my chemicals, I said I did not ball mill my compositions. I really need to start ball milling my KNO3 again actually. I've been getting fallout lately. Now that you mention it, my KNO3 also has some very hard to crush granules in it. A 60 mesh screen usually removes most of them for me though.

 

It's hard to comment on your coarse charcoal without seeing it. I'm lucky enough to have it commercially available to me, but I realize everyone does not have this same luxury. Different sources will obviously produce different effects. Perhaps the stuff I have is just so completely terrible that it hangs for a very long time. Though, I'd imagine the BBQ charcoal should do the trick.

 

I've also had good luck modifying Blesser's Blonde Streamer, which doesn't require quite as much metal. This was mainly for bigger comets for a longer tail. You'll notice that it's somewhat similar to the formula from Hardt. I wouldn't say either gives quite as defined glittering effect as the slow gold, but there is an, almost shimmering tail IIRC with the Hardt formula. This might just be from the much higher percentage of metal.

 

A video of blonde streamer

http://www.wichitabuggywhip.com/fireworks/goldenstreamer.wmv

 

 

Original:

Potassium nitrate .............45

Sulfur ................................ 6

Charcoal (AF) ....... 29

Dextrin ............................ 5

Ferrotitanium .................. 15

 

 

I was varying the ratio of coarse to fine charcoal to adjust the tail. About 3 parts 36 mesh, 10 parts 80 mesh, and 22 parts AF gave a tail that went from the ground up to around 300 feet with a 3" comet. I believe I may have also dropped the KNO3 back to 40.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Using coarse charcoal uppers the burnrate of the stars, I've made a batch of TT with the half of the charcoal I didn't milled, Burnrate went to almost twice as fast as normal.

To make a nice hanging tail I use pine charcoal, I'm very pleased about it. I think replacing 10 to 50 percent of the bbq or commercial charcoal for lampblack also does the trick.

Normally willow and TT like compositions should be milled for 24 hrs and the use of pine charcoal is recommended.

Edited November 6, 2008 by FREAKYDUTCHMEN

[xxxjanusxxx]

To all of you: Thank you very much! I've learnt a lot!

 

The stars I've made will be well spent so don't worry about that . There's a competition coming up at the Dutch forum and maybe we'll make a nice shell from those stars and make it count for the game.

When lifted it will be posted here also, because the criticism here is mutch more useful than on the Dutch forum. No hard feelings though, but there are just a few with expertise/ experience there.

 

Thanks again!

[Mumbles]

Here's the video I've been promising. It's my modified slow gold. It continued to glitter like that for quite a while. Probably even too long for the 8" shell they were in. Also posted in the aerial shell thread.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Brocade.wmv

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

Nice broccade, what kind of burst did you use? just BP on a carrier?

And what kind of charcoal did you use for the outer petal stars? I guess normal bbq or commercial charcoal.

[DrPyro]

Here's the video I've been promising. It's my modified slow gold. It continued to glitter like that for quite a while. Probably even too long for the 8" shell they were in. Also posted in the aerial shell thread.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/Mumbles/Brocade.wmv

 

Nice shell!

Do you want to reveal your mod on the slow gold formula?

I actually have a batch of SG drying as we speak, but I have this feeling that mine will be too slow.

[Mumbles]

The burst was #46 I think out of Shimizu. I don't remember the number, but it's in FAST.

 

70 Perchlorate

30 Willow Charcoal

+5% Potassium Dichromate

+5% SGRS

 

It was coated approximately 1:1 on puffed rice. I just add it until it is fully coated.

 

A few people thought I broke it too hard, but I thought it was just about right. 5" Inner petal. Pasted in with 15 layers of 70lb virgin kraft. The video makes it hard to tell because it's so dim in relation to the sparks, but it also had a very nice charcoal tail. 3/4" stars, primed with green meal +5% silicon, though they probably didn't need it. Applied with NC lacquer because I was in a hurry at the time. A year later I finally made a shell from the stars.

 

The stars have commercial airfloat and 80 mesh. I am led to believe it is a mix of Maple, oak, and pine. Various scrap woods from building operations.