crazyboy25 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Thanks for the advice mumbles I looked at the videos again and I think it was just a whole bunch of dragon eggs that looked like a bunch of bright flashes. I guess they went at random times because they need to preheat causing it to look like a glitter/strobe effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Might sharing the video? It would definatly help in getting you the right effect. There is one more thing that it could be as well. There is an effect for flash core. It is similar to a strobe, but it only blinks once, and very brightly. Essentially, it is bound flash. Another common effect is a flitter core. It is similar to the flash core, but tends to burn a bit longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hst45 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 ...edited further to tell hst that all I know about NV would fit in a thimble.Damn! I was hoping to pick up some info from you! I've used an IR emitter/scope rig before, and what a PITA. It's bad enough lugging a rifle into the woods at night without adding another metric ton of weight and having more crap to hang up on branches. In an effort to reduce the coyote population here-abouts to zero I'd love to rig up a mini-14 with a NV scope to range about on those nights when I can't sleep, which is just about any day that ends in the letter "y". I choke on the cost $1500 + of anything past gen I, but I hate cheap optics and throwing good money after bad. Oh well, back to research. Sorry all for the tangent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyboy25 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Might sharing the video? It would definatly help in getting you the right effect. A-ha here is one posted by cplmac but I think the shell is commercial. It's kinda hard to tell because the video was shot from far away but you can see what im talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrohawk Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Its either a dragon egg or flash core. I didn't hear any crackle but it could just be the vid. Just rolling the regular star comp around a dragon egg or flash cores will give ya that effect. The difference in times is just the difference in the stars burning. Even identicle stars will have small differences ....barely noticeable in a normal star but the flash cores show the difference. Plus a star may burn quicker in one spot or whatnot and ignite the core faster then an identical one. There are plenty of comps for flash cores. Just rolling regular flash would probably do the trick...but usually they are brighter comps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 What happened to tweetybird? He hasn't emailed me back and he has my money b/c I never got my KCLO4. I'm getting a little upset b/c I spent $16 on 2 lbs. I hope he didn't get arrested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 you spent $16.00 on two pounds! if that's pre-shipping it's a huge ripoff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 you spent $16.00 on two pounds! if that's pre-shipping it's a huge ripoff. No, its shipping included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGM Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 This question seemed best suited for the random thread. Does anybody here know the general history of round fireworks shells? I am doing a speech on the history of pyrotechnics for a final exam and I'm having trouble getting info on just when they showed up, I know that they were invented in asia. I don't really need to know this for the presentation, but it would be nice for completeness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 This question seemed best suited for the random thread. Does anybody here know the general history of round fireworks shells? I am doing a speech on the history of pyrotechnics for a final exam and I'm having trouble getting info on just when they showed up, I know that they were invented in asia. I don't really need to know this for the presentation, but it would be nice for completeness.I've talked about this book before and yet again I say its a great book but the only thing I can tell you is read The Rockets' Red Glare Wernher von Branun and Frederick I. Ordway III. You should be able to find it at you local library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Whenever exploding cannonballs showed up is likely the same time frame that spherical aerial firework shells showed up as well. Pre-ground about 4lbs of cowboy brand lump charcoal with a meat grinder like Pudi and others, but not motorized. Took about 1.5 hours... It used to take me about 4 hours to get 2lbs with a mallet and newspaper... so I'm happy. Only thing is... I ran out of 5gal buckets so I'm limited on the amount that I can pre-grind at this time. The meat grinder is rather old and rusted somewhat... if I go on to use the charcoal in ball milled compositions I'll let the composition sit exposed to the moisture in the air for a few days as a precaution to allow any iron that may have came off to be oxidized by the KNO3 to iron oxide. However... I really only think that iron oxide is contaminating it... At a later date... when the whole bag has been pre-ground... I intend to screen out a few fractions then send it all to the ball mill and airfloat it. Also burn tested about 5g of screened/polverowned 6:3:1 BP for BP rockets and it burnt in under a second... should be plenty fast. I hope I don't have to cut it back. Also... I want a laptop, damnit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Huh...Here in France a "shell" is called... a "bomb"... So imagine the confusion it makes here; when you say:"Ok, so I'm going to make a 2" bomb"...unfortunatly, most people don't know the real French meaning of bomb and just suppose I am some type of terrorist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 http://student.dei.uc.pt/~peter/manual/index.htmlFound that... appears to be something that resided at that capecanaveral site that has so much info on chlorate and perchlorate among other things. I think its in portugese... Altavista Babbelfish does a decent job on it.http://babelfish.altavista.com/I'll have to come back and explore it a bit more throughly when I have time. Ordered one of those organic chemistry 3d model sets and one of the gun powder/black powder history books today finishing off my B&N card. Resurrected my dad's laptop... and of course re-fitted it with firefox, good plugins, and a bunch of good programs I wont go into. Man I can't wait till I get a laptop. My weekend starts about 8:30pm tonight. No idea what I'm going to do. I'd like to get some pre-chemistry project projects out of the way... Like equipment rigging. And find some hobby bearing houseing things... And ugh... sell crap I don't need. Edit:I'm considering selling/trading out my copy of Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics that I originally got from skylighter as an xmas present about 2.5 years back or so. Its a good book for beginners... but at this point I feel that I have outgrown it. More info including a table of contents can be found at: http://www.skylighter.com/mall/books.asp $52.65 there for a new copy (rip-off!). Take note this is NOT a "I'm getting rid of this book," its a "I'm THINKING of getting rid of it." May just keep it around. Never know when you will run into some one who is genuinely interested in fireworks and just needs something like this book to get him started on the right path... Edit#2: I just got jipped out of winning like 5 separate ebay auctions... Lost one resorted to bidding on the next best and so on and so on... five times... Some a-hole is going around ebay and buying up all the lab clamps from this one seller in particular. He must have spent about $800 total today. Bidding the first time in literally the last 10 seconds of every auction. I only saw him lose one auction out of about 20! Fucking ass-hole! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 So does no one know what happened to Tweetybird? He owes me money or KCLO4 and I need one or the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Nope. About the best I can do for you is get their e-mail address for you. ASB, I've been having some pretty good luck with Ebay lately. Very rarely do copies of Pyrotechnica show up, and I've found them out of luck the last two times. I picked up a good number of the issues including 2, 9 and 11, and principles of pyrotechnics by shidlovskii. #2 is actually an original, so it's exciting to actually be able to see the pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Beautiful score Mumbles!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 It's even more beautiful considering the price. 2, 4, 7-14, and principles all for less than $80 incl shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Ah very nice haul! Shidlovskii's book has been one that I have been thinking about. Along with Kentish, Shimizu, and Ian von Maltitz's charcoal books. I might be able to get NFPA-1123 and/or NFPA-1126 free from a display company friend that is very connected. So yeah those are the things I'm mostly looking at and trying to decide between. I'll probably go with Shimizu. I'm very curious about the Tessier and Ruggiari (sp) books as they seem to be pretty rare. One of my goals this weekend is to scour the local used book store to see if I can find anything useful with the chemistry books, homebrewing book, general clearance science books, and then carefully look through the rare books section on the chance that I might find something. I give myself about 1 in 5,000 to actually finding a pyrotechnic book that isn't child level but you never know. Maybe make friends with the people there and ask them to hold onto any pyro books they come accross for me. I have several books as .pdfs... but there is something about having a hard paper copy that is just so... desirable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 I've been looking to try to complete my pyro collection. There are of course a million books I'd like, but I am getting close to my goal. Going to try to get the rest of the pyrotechnica, a few technique in fire, and Fireworks from a Physical Standpoint are on the to do list. There are others of course, like Pyrocolor Harmony by Baechle, Pyrotechnics by McLain, etc. A copy of Rugerri though. That would be kept behind glass on the mantle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Is there a set acceptable safe level of Chlorate in Ammonium perchlorate? I ask because I had some stored in plastic garbage bags in tubs on the floor of my shop about 6-8 feet away from the spot on the floor where I used to run my Potassium chlorate cell (and filter solutions and such), and the other night I was trying (on the floor about 3 feet away from my Chlorate cell site) to smash some Magnalium out of a steel crucible (although it was mostly oxide and junk, and it was still fairly warm) and it was makeing some sparks, I thought this was normal so I kept going, but one time I hit it and it fizeled and poped like their was an oxidizer involved, but the only one even close to the MgAl was (maybe) Pot chlorate. I'm worried because if Chlorate made it that far away from the cell site (3 feet or so and I couldn't see any on the floor) it might have gotten into the tubs, I know it's very very VERY unlikely, but you know Murphys law and I thought I would see what everyone thinks. so am I just being paranoid? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Hey, guys just a question: When cooking charcoal, if there is fire coming out of the retort holes, dose that mean, that the wood/paper inside is on fire or would that just be oxygen burning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 Recall: When making charcoal the wood turns into water, methanol, other alcohols, CO2, flammable oils of all sorts, and various flammable gases... Yes thats normal. Many people use it as a way to gauge progress. IE when the flames coming out the top have stopped and the escaping gas can't be lit on fire it is pretty much done or very close to it. Yes I agree Mumbles, that one would be protected very well. I'd have to read it first cover to cover though. This weekend I swapped a solar panel with faulty mounting hardware for a better one that even has a polycarbonate shield. Its 12v about 1.3A about 6"x8". Also got a SS double wall container. It isn't vacuum insulated (it tries to float), but having air between the walls is somewhat insulated anyways. Considering trying to drill a hole into it and install a port so I can evacuate it of air. It was only about $5 and should hold about 1.5L. Also got a butane re-fill... but this one is freakishly big compared to what I'm used to seeing. Also welded together a double post glass apparatus support rack. Just need the freaking 3-finger clamps and bossheads! Finally got some DMSO, haven't messed with it yet. There was an interesting benzene production method using it to help decarboxylate benzoates that I need to go back and read up on. In addition its an awesome solvent and just generally cool properties. Plus other experiments I have since forgotten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Hey, guys; I want to make some Golden chrysanthemums but, in the composition section, I saw a composition with Realgar, just to know it is not needed is it? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 The formulas you speak of come from Shimizu. There are actually 3 similar formulas given under the title of "golden wave". One containing sulfur, one containing antimony trisulfide, and one containing realgar. They are all 1:1 replacements. The one containing realgar is considered to be superior to the other two in terms of appearance, and I believe hangtime. If you're asking if you can omit the realgar, then the answer is no. It is absolutly essential to the effect. However there are other formulas that will give a similar, yet supposedly somewhat inferior, effect. It may be possible to replace the realgar with additional amounts of sulfur, or preferably antimony trisulfide. I have seen the sulfur based, and the Sb2S3 formulas in action, and prefer the antimony based one. It seems to hang longer and look a bit better, has a slight twinkle if I remember right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Ah, Ok thaks for the info, I will look for the golden wave using just sulfur, becaus for the moment I don't have any antimony trisulphide, but I am seriously looking into buying some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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