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I am smashed off my fcaen right now, why bim aghewwwe i dont know but everything isn vertigo

 

Not god I sjuppose I should Pm mumbles and apppologise.

 

ccant beliveve how good this bourbon was, doesnt help that i knocked off most of the bottle :(((((

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Hello,

I just got a few questions on aerial shells/mines/comets

 

I have recently been firing 1" mines, 1" and 1 2/7" (or something like that) aerial shells and some 1" comets. I have been firing all from PVC pipes except for the 1 2/7" aerial shell which was fired from a HDPE pipe.

 

1. How do I clean the HDPE mortar afterwards or does it even need to be cleaned? At the moment my method of cleaning the Mortar is by putting a rag in their and jamming it down with a bamboo stick.

 

I plan on making a small cake using either 1" PVC pipe or 1" Aluminum pipe, I know both of them will fragment and I am aware of the dangers.

 

2. Which one is GENERALLY stronger and will last more time. I am thinking that Aluminum will be a better choice as I remeber reading somewhere here, that PVC becomes increasingly weaker after been fired a few times.

 

3. Also just out of curiosity what did warezwally say?

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1. Using a rag in fine, its just like cleaning your rifle just bigger :)

 

2. Personally I think PVC is fine for small things (no bigger than 1"). I would go with the PVC, just don't shoot salutes.

 

3. I was drunk, I don't exactly remember what I did.

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Nick, I would NOT use PVC if I were you. And as sure as the sky is blue, DO NOT use metal piping.

 

If I were FORCED to choose between PVC and Aluminum, I'd take the PVC. But that's just the lesser of two potentially deadly evils.

 

If everything goes well, then I agree PVC is not a major problem, especially in the small sizes you're using. Metal piping is NEVER a legitimate option.

 

But it DOES become a problem if something goes wrong with your shell, or one of the components of the cake.

 

If, for example, a device detonates inside the tube, that PVC can (and often does) splinter badly, and the shards can be just as deadly at short range as would be metal.

 

And metal piping that goes boom will be considered a "pipe bomb" by EVERY law enforcement agency (to say nothing of the inevitable Media Circus) that gets involved, no matter how well you phrase your defense, and that sort of attention is far beyond unpleasant.

 

Stay safe. If you HAVE to use one or the other, for your own sake use the PVC and not the Aluminum.

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For the love of god never use metal, a child at a show here a few years back was killed when a candle malfunctioned.

 

If you do use PVC always put something around the rack (sandbag or even some timber). A 1" shell wont cause a massive explosion like say a 4" shell would but the potential is there (I doubt it would be lethal but lets not find out the hard way)

 

A sheet of moderately thick plywood or something similar would be a suitable shield.

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Sidewinder, now come on, Metal piping has been used, is beeing used and will be used in the future for star testing (no x-ettes though) because it is convinient, it won't deteriorate after multiple firing and is easy to clean. But I should mention that star testing really is the only legitimate use of a metal pipe in regards to amateur pyro.

 

Now don't get me wrong, i'm no advocate of metal piping for firing stuff but this had to be mentioned.

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Steel tubes are used almost exclusively at many shooting grounds, though they are buried in the ground and not on a rack...

 

This is a question that I've been thinking of since I joined these forums... Why can't I open any of the images that are uploaded to the forums? For the longest time I was just thinking it was the older images that only contained a thumbnail and wouldn't open, but now I see it's images even posted today.

 

Whenever I click an image, it brings me to what I would get if I opened the image in notepad, not an image viewing program...

 

Does anyone else with Firefox have this problem?

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I think you just have to change your default way in which you want firefox to open images.

 

So with that magnalium I just made, if I want -325 mesh that means that it passes a 325 mesh screen right? So do I just pound it with a hammer and whatever passes a 325 mesh screen is considered -325 mesh magnalium?

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on grading magnalium that you have to get down to size yourself?

 

I know there is a ton of stuff you can do with magnalium, but for now I just want to make some strobe pots. Is there a certain size limit to these things? Or can I just make a huge ass one out of like an 8 oz cup?

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Unfortunatly I have to use a PVC pipe as my mortars, but they are allways eitther in the ground or behind a wall that is 2 as tal as the mortar. And if I ever get a flowerpot, then I see all of the very very sharp parts of PVC evrywhere
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PGF and Frogy:

 

I have a metal Star Gun. Our Guild has Steel mortars. I'm QUITE familiar with those and their respective uses.

 

Go re-read his post.

 

He was talking about using metal piping for a CAKE.

 

Not star testing, and not Steel mortars (which I know full well ARE used but always buried). A CAKE.

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I need some help from anyone who is computer savvy. I've been trying to upload some vids of some shells, I tried youtube and photobucket, neither is working, I get an error everytime. Any ideas?

edit: nevermind, photobucket is finally working, just takes foreverrr.

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I've been into glitter for a while, but I haven't had much sucess with certain formula (for instance, win # 39 I could not get to glitter, although there are some variables I suspect may be the cause which I have not investigated yet - like milling the BaCO3 to a finer particle size, and putting tighter control on moisture %).

 

Still from Winokur's formulas, I circled a few to try this weekend, including a modified* Win # 22* and Win #6*. I often sound impatient, unable to wait for stars to dry, but it is because the only place I have to test is my parents' house, and I am only there on weekends.

 

While those are drying, I decided to try Win 22* also with NC laquer instead of dextrin/water, because I can use those same day unlike stars bound with water. I just tried one of these NC stars, which resulted in a very bright, very dense grained effect. It might be appropriate to say that it glittered "fiercly." I intend to compare this to the water bound stars. If these glitter equivelently, I will try to verify with a different formula.

 

Basically, what I am after, is seeing whether glitter experiments can be performed usefully with NC laquer, when considering the final production stars will be bound with a water based binder, most likely dextrin. If I can confirm this, it will significantly speed up the experimentation process.

 

* I note that the glitters are "modified". What I mean is that I have modified them so that I don't have to mill anything...so basically they are based on pre-milled BP. For instance, in place of the "true" win 22, I used:

 

Fast willow meal: 67

Sulphur: 10

Antimony Sulfide: 5

Al 80-325 speroidal: 8

Baking Soda: 6

(and in the case of the water bound, Dextrin: 4)

 

 

The first one used about 3 times LESS NC laquer than the second (damp verses soaked). The second actually seemed to perform better, but obviously there is not anywhere's near enough evidence to suggest the NC had a positive effect. I will have to look into it further.

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Okay, I will use PVC.

I know of the dangers and my cake would be behind some timber (maybe some thick plywood like wally suggested, to block any thing that does go wrong.

 

My cake would only consist of some comets and star mines not flash salutes.

 

I know PVC fragments, but I doubt that some 1" star mines and comets willhave enough power to destroy the PVC. Never the less I will still take necessary precautions though.

 

I am thinking about ringing up some local plumbing supply stores and asking if they have HDPE piping. Failing that does anyone know an Australian or Asian online store where I again buy Firbreglass or HDPE mortars?

 

Oskarchem: Have you had a flower pot?

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Just use the PVC....its cheaper and easier to work with plus less likely to cause you a problem. You should be ok whatever you use depending on what is in your cake! If its salutes....don't even thinnk about using anything but cardboard....but if its just comets or something you'd probably be ok....

 

Though everyone should keep this unpleasant though it mind. If "worst case scenario" something should go wrong and you end up with some sharapnel in ya.... PVC won't show up on an X Ray... so they'll be diggging to find the pieces!

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PVC piping will show up, it wont be crystal clear like metal would be.
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PURE Polyvinyl Chloride would not show up on an X-Ray, though PVC piping would look a little cloudy, since it is quite a distance from pure :D
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Nick> Yes I have had a couple of flower pots just because my spoletts wern't rammed well enough, and it took me like 2 months of reading to find out my problem :D So you've never read enough as they say ;)
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An Oregon pyro who makes his living as a radiology tech did experiments with pvc pipe shards in meat, and told me it shows up quite clearly on X-ray. Not an endorsement of using it for any particular purpose, though.
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PVC not showing up on an x-ray is a common myth in the pyro hobby... More helpfully, HDPE should be available as natural gas piping. Ask for the rigid stuff, not the flexible. You'll never get the flexible stuff to be straight. If they ask questions just tell them you need it for bushing stock for a project.

 

edit: I clean my smaller guns (1.5-2") with a round toilet brush and some water. Works great! Really gets the crud out.

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