Random Thread #1

[ULTRABUF]

Thats quite a few shells you got there dude, nice job. I really hope you get a video of all that. I got a little bit done today, not much though. I made a nice bit of black match, and I mixed up a 200 gram batch of tigertail, which I will finish milling tomorow, and I mixed up a 300 gram batch of D1 glitter & started rolling some stars with it, which I will also finish doing tomorow. The black match should be dry tomorow as well, so I can make some quickmatch with it.

[mormanman]

Um. Yeah I'm jealous. Wow but still thats a lot of stuff. It looks like that going to be one hell of a show. I wish I could do it or even be there.

 

Hey does anyone know which is better in whistle mix (here are the ratios):

 

Ratio #1

 

Benzoate Mix

Potassium Perchlorate 70

Sodium Benzoate 30

Red Iron Oxide + 1

Petroleum Jelly + 4

 

Ratio #2

 

Salicylate Mix

Potassium Perchlorate 75

Sodium Salicylate 25

Red Iron Oxide + 1

Petroleum Jelly + 4

[frogy]

Define better my good man... lol

 

Salicylate whistle sounds like a much cleaner screaming whistle compated to Benzoate which is normally a scratchy screeching and sometimes choppy whistle...

 

And I thought it was 76/23/1/+3

[pudidotdk]

New pyro forum @ http://www.pyroguideforum.com

[Mumbles]

76/23/3/1 is the standard. It w ill be much more powerful than the benzoate comp, but the sound of a benzoate whistle just has something about it.

 

On the topic of whistle rockets, I've learned about an excellent replacement for vaseline and mineral oil and stuff. Someone told me he was going to use bees wax instead of vaseline or mineral oil a while back in some tests. Now he absolutly swears by it. Same 3% ratio. I think he said he has to kind of melt it into the thinner with a double boiler type thing. They do look very nice. He is looking for a load cell at the moment to do some testing, as he is thinking the bees wax gives more thrust. They certainly do take off like a bat out of hell.

[qwezxc12]

As I use visco for timing exclusively, I thought I'd post a picture of how I cross-match it. I used to split and prime with slurry, then I tried cutting at an angle and priming. Cross-matching with black match is easy and so far it's been reliable and consistent when using masking tape to prevent side spit...a 6in length of tape creates a "fuse" with a snug fit in a 1/4" fuse hole. 1-1/2in wide = 3sec delay for both 3 and 4in shells, 2in wide tape = 4 sec for 6in shells. I use little strips of high-tack masking tape instead of dental floss to secure the cross-match:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/IMG_0947.jpg

 

Non-traditional, but I like the convenience of modern materials like RAP shells and fiberglass strapping tape. Funny, but I do like the paper, string and wheat-paste Italian canister construction...feels so "Old-World"

[jacob]

Man that's a sweet pile of stuff there qwezxc, where do you get your plastic shells? i think i'm going to use all plastic for new years, (well, except for the cans) it's sooo much faster and convenient. anyway get lots of pics/vids of the setup and show, good luck .

[mormanman]

76/23/3/1 is the standard.  It w ill be much more powerful than the benzoate comp, but the sound of a benzoate whistle just has something about it.

So which would you guys recommend me get for my birthday. My moms going to get me somethings, I think. And where should I get a scale. I'm looking at one from harbor freight and it like 10 buck but can only measure up to 17 oz. And tubes and shells, where should I get those? And I'm looking for Kclo4, Kclo3, some al, and some of the Sodium Benzoate or Sodium Salicylate.

 

So just looking for a little help on what I should get. Thanks a lot guys.

[frogy]

Whatever you do don't order those from the same place...

 

I got my scale off ebay... This guy has some decent scales...

http://stores.ebay.com/DIGITECH-ELECTRONICS

 

I also got Al off ebay, but you can get that from many places... matters what kind you need... For fine (-325 or micron) I got IBH for $17 a lb. on ebay... For anything else you could get it from Skylighter\Firefox

 

For KClO4... Discount Pyro has good prices for >1 lb... for only 1 lb. you could get from Firefox, or if you want ripped off get from Skylighter...

 

For KClO3 I'm not quite sure... 1 lb. from Firefox or however many you want from Skylighter..

[crazyboy25]

my friend (superman1451) believes "big shows" (more than 15 minutes long) are never fired by the operator near the mortar. he believes they are all done from far away (either electronically or they have one long fuse and are fused like a cake. i think he is wrong and also retarded. i believe some of them can be set off by the operator by hand crouching next to the mortar.

[mormanman]

Whatever you do don't order those from the same place...

 

I got my scale off ebay... This guy has some decent scales...

http://stores.ebay.com/DIGITECH-ELECTRONICS

 

I also got Al off ebay, but you can get that from many places... matters what kind you need... For fine (-325 or micron) I got IBH for $17 a lb. on ebay... For anything else you could get it from Skylighter\Firefox

 

For KClO4... Discount Pyro has good prices for >1 lb... for only 1 lb. you could get from Firefox, or if you want ripped off get from Skylighter...

 

For KClO3 I'm not quite sure... 1 lb. from Firefox or however many you want from Skylighter..

Yeah once I got some Al from ebay but I looked and I can't find any anymore. And so your saying firefox is cheaper than skylighter.

[Mumbles]

Yeah, he's wrong. I've personally fired show by hand that was far more than 15 minutes. It is however becoming rarer and rarer. Electronic shows are largely taking over, and are absolutely neccesary for any sort of choreography. I think most choreography sucks, but still it is needed. It also reduces the work force needed. I guess he's not wrong, but just not right either. You'd be hard pressed to find any sort of large show still being handfired.

 

I can tell you something, touching off shells is an experience. It's fun, but utterly terrifying at the same times, espcially with sheap chinese shells.

[mormanman]

Also does anybody here know anything about or made a compound rocket?

[frogy]

I can tell you something, touching off shells is an experience.  It's fun, but utterly terrifying at the same times, espcially with sheap chinese shells.

Lol really... I told my friends I'm not setting off any shells unless they are american made, or I made them myself...

 

 

I believe that electrical igniting should be used for the most part... People say "it's too expensive" and the such.... But compare a $300 or cheaper Electrical firing system, a few extra slats, and some e-matchs that are $0.25 or less a peice to paying a work force of 1-10 or more people $5-20 an hour for setup and launching... I don't know really, but your paying out that much in one show to your crew...

 

If it's just you home show or a small local show, light the mortars yourself... Always use cardboard or HDPE for the mortar tubes though

[qwezxc12]

Man that's a sweet pile of stuff there qwezxc, where do you get your plastic shells? i think i'm going to use all plastic for new years, (well, except for the cans) it's sooo much faster and convenient. anyway get lots of pics/vids of the setup and show, good luck .

My current stash (rapidly dwindling) I got in multiple orders from Pyrocreations and Cannonfuse. My next shell order, I'm going to try Pyrocasings...they've got prices cheaper than either of the others...some people over at Passfire have placed orders with them. we'll see how it goes.

 

I finished up my e-matches just a little while ago. No rockets no time to press them. I manged to make:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/IMG_0948.jpg

 

Three 6in balls

One 6in can

Six 4in balls

Four 4in cans

Twelve 3in balls (all are double "peanut" shells)

Three 3in comets

Five 3in salutes (50g and 100g)

Four 3in bag mines

Five 2in comets

Four 2in salutes (20g)

Eight 2in bag mines

Two 1in gerbs (one Fe, one Ti)

 

It'll be shot on 20 queues. Can't wait...

[mormanman]

Well that looks like a lot of stuff with or without rockets. Good luck to you and by the way your signature is rather clever.

[rocket]

I can tell you something, touching off shells is an experience.  It's fun, but utterly terrifying at the same times, espcially with sheap chinese shells.

I know exactly what you mean its great fun, until a cake explode in front of you(this happened to me, I was 1m from it) I then had to light the 2” shell for the first time and watch as sparks shoot out the tube thinking oh fuck don’t tell me its gunna blow, I then realized it was the rising comets lighting early.

[qwezxc12]

Well the show went off with relatively few hitches...some definite lessons learned when stringing together multiple queues in common mortar racks (need better fire-proofing on exposed leaders and paper match!). I'll post a more detailed account in the Aerial Shells thread. For now, here's a pic of all the loaded racks before the show:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/BBQshowracks.jpg

 

Left to right:

5x 4in

16x 2in

5x 3in

8x 2in

10x 3in

5x 3in

5x 4in

4x 6in

 

All 3, 4, & 6in tubes were loaded, but some of the 2in were empty.

[DeAdFX]

bah stupid ammonium perchlorate powder rockets. They either burn to slow and generate zilch thrust or they cato. Bah I hope this next one does explode on me. I don't think they neighbors are to happy with the sound...

 

Edit: woohoo getting slightly better now... I just had the nozzle blow out this time... I think I will make the core about 50 to 60% of the propellant length instead...

 

 

Btw 65/30/5 Ammonium Perchlorate/AScorbic acid/ Copper oxide makes one hell of a nice blue flame before the rocket craps out.

[Dr. Hextromeister]

So much S/S/Kno3 rocket fuel left over from months ago...

 

 

 

Hmmmm......... Maybe I could launch badgers into space..

[Bonny]

So much S/S/Kno3 rocket fuel left over from months ago...

 

 

 

Hmmmm......... Maybe I could launch badgers into space..

I think I remember that poodles can't fly and "Badgers,Badgers...we don't need no stinking badgers" from UHF.

[asilentbob]

Very nice qwe! At the PGI convention i tried a rocket header that was going to be set up much like a peanut shell... except i added in a little tube between the shells and added burst and stars... a pity it didn't go off soon enough... it could have been a pretty decent tripple break... There was some lift powder between the delay and shells... so that it was supposed to pop the 2 shells connected with the tube away from the rocket while lighting some fast visco that passed fire to the center tube between the shells... which would burst and throw some stars... and light the time fuses of the 2 shells and throw them in opposite directions... then they would burst around the same time... It worked... but the 2 shells went of near and on the ground.

 

mormanman, PM sent.

 

DeadFX, I have been wanting to try to press some ammonium perchlorate based rockets... still no press though...

[DeAdFX]

^^ I am doing the rather dangerous hammer + drill method . It works but I too wish I had a press and rocket tooling.

 

So far the stuff hasn't gone off in my hand but hexamine and ascorbic acid sure can take a beatin from the hammer

 

Edit: update...

 

 

OK I think I am getting somewhere... I am geting a slightly longer burn rate before an explosion. After the explosion I noticed that their is some fuel still left over. I wonder what this means....

[andyboy]

Hello, some of you remember me and some of you don't. The ones I'm adressing now are the ones that might have the last copy of my website backed up on their hard-drive.

 

My computer chrashed and I didn't back-up the website and I would like to know if anyone has the last explosion-video with two shaped charges against a steelplate. if you remember my site, I had video-sections, the vid I'm talking about was on the last Explosions page, I would love if someone could send me the pics of the before and after aswell.

 

Send it to andyboynr1*at*gmail.com thanks in advance

[Dr. Hextromeister]

Hello, some of you remember me and some of you don't. The ones I'm adressing now are the ones that might have the last copy of my website backed up on their hard-drive.

 

My computer chrashed and I didn't back-up the website and I would like to know if anyone has the last explosion-video with two shaped charges against a steelplate. if you remember my site, I had video-sections, the vid I'm talking about was on the last Explosions page, I would love if someone could send me the pics of the before and after aswell.

 

Send it to andyboynr1*at*gmail.com thanks in advance

I remember seeing a few links to some old vids on Rogue Science earlier today. Not sure if they're still up there, but I'm sure a few of the members must have saved. Worth enquiring.