crazyboy25 Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 @BLAST420 It wasn't that bad at least the fuse got off the ground. But I seriously suggest moving up, not to fast for comfort its just some people get start with firecrackers and flying fish mines and never leave...I hope to see some shells/mines soon. Mines are very easy to make. @jacob/marks265 I have FAST I found it interesting but not particularly useful. No doubt Shimizu is a genius, a pyro legend if you will but his book seemed outdated and obsolete. He talks about complex procedures of layering different types of papers and pastes to attach comets when all I do is secure them with masking tape which works fine. He also mentions methods like putting red hot iron plates in mortars to quickfire them; a practice that would now be considered suicidal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Was the BP granulated? Was there a perforated spacer between the lift and the fuses? So Saturday I learned to dance... some dance I don't even know what to call it... With a older but still attractive and shorter than me girl dressed up like a pirate who I think likes chemistry. Made my Saturday. Too bad she has a bf and is a bit older than I would date... Been too busy with other shit to start packing stuff onto the external drive. Till now... I hope. I need a good .mp3 ripping program... preferably really fast and great quality... Might get suggestions via IRC first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozentech Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 I have FAST I found it interesting but not particularly useful. No doubt Shimizu is a genius, a pyro legend if you will but his book seemed outdated and obsolete. He talks about complex procedures of layering different types of papers and pastes to attach comets when all I do is secure them with masking tape which works fine. He also mentions methods like putting red hot iron plates in mortars to quickfire them; a practice that would now be considered suicidal. BLASHPEMY !!! Actually it's an incredibly useful book, if you really care about what it says in the title.. the art, science, and technique of fireworks. He's not really *just* a pyro legend, he is the one that all the other authors, the *modern* ones, Lancaster, Hardt, even the Kosanke's (gag) reference. Weingart now, his stuff is outdated and "obsolete" in some respects. As for the the method of using red hot coils to fire shells, that is a purely Japanese technique to get fast reload/shoot times, something they only do for tradition since e-matches caught on. There are video's of the hot coil method shooting very large shells in Japan, and they make it look not suicidal at all, more like some form of a martial art, not that I would ever try it ! Seriously, if you really hope to have understanding of how fireworks effects are designed, and how various compositions work, Shimizu is the number 1 resource. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankie Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Wow this thread is almost about to overtake the aerial shells thread. speaking of which i just tried a mini shell (1") but it did not light, so somewhere in the paddock is a shell. i figured that because it was a tight fit in the mortar it went too fast to light. or is this completely wrong? my spollete was just a small paper tube with some bp pressed into it. any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLAST420 Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Was the BP granulated? Was there a perforated spacer between the lift and the fuses? So Saturday I learned to dance... some dance I don't even know what to call it... With a older but still attractive and shorter than me girl dressed up like a pirate who I think likes chemistry. Made my Saturday. Too bad she has a bf and is a bit older than I would date... Been too busy with other shit to start packing stuff onto the external drive. Till now... I hope. I need a good .mp3 ripping program... preferably really fast and great quality... Might get suggestions via IRC first.It was meal powder(BP milled long time) and the i just put a square of paper on top of everything and pushed don with dowle , but not in between the fuse and BP tho. I followed Skylighter simple step by step I am gunna make a me first star comp today!!! ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 You have to granulate the BP, this will give it more punch. Granulated BP is faster than meal, because of the airspaces between the grains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogy Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Meal powder can be used as lift, but it needs to be extremely fast, and even at that it's extremely inefficient. Glad to see that your making stars already... I'm also planning on throwing a few batches of TT\C6\D1 into the mill. I can assure you I'm not milling my aluminum (I know about 10 people thought "What an idiot" on reading (milling D1). Granulating BP with 5% Dextrin and water (doesn't really need to be distilled) through a rather thick hardware screen makes some nice 4-12 mesh lift powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredjr Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Shot my first 12" shells at the BPG shoot Saturday. Here's video of the second one. W13 glitter with veline green pistil.http://pyrotechnics.no-ip.org/files/fred'ssecond12.wmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Man, that was gorgeous! Great job!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogy Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Wow. That was an amazing shell Fred.I loved how long that glitter lasted... I know W1-8,20,24,+39, but not 13 Hmm.. I wouldn't mind joining the BPG... When I'm old enough.There's obviously many experts in that group... Some of the best shells I've seen are from someone in their group. It's also nice that they're very helpful people... Especially Ned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_au Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 (edited) (This is HE related but since I'm only talking about definitions and not synthesis etc I hope it will be OK) MOD EDIT: I'm sorry but, no, it isn't. Your answers can be found by putting in a little work with Google: "Velocity Of Detonation". Thank you. Edited June 17, 2008 by TheSidewinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredjr Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Ned took that video. That's him doing most of the talking. BPG is definitely a great club. The thing about W13 is it works great for me but others don't seem to get the long lasting glitter. Ned made an 8" shell fired saturday with it and although it was a great shell didn't have the long lasting flashes. We talked for a long time trying figure out what the difference is. We're still not sure why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogy Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Ned lives on the opposite side of the state than me, along with the BPG, but hell... 300 miles to IN is a lot shorter than the 1.4k to Wyoming I would say to compare you chemicals if your stars differ... Is this W13?Potassium Nitrate 50Antimony Trisulfide, Chinese Needle 10Charcoal Airfloat 9Sulfur 9Aluminium, atom, spher, 120-325 mesh, 20 micron 6Dextrin 4Magnalium Granular -200 mesh 3 Watch the Sb2S3 and MgAl... they're most likely the changing factor, though most Sb2S3 should be similar, since most is imported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredjr Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Well that is close but not quite - I have seen a few misprints of the forumla on websites and even in some books. This is what I use. Potassium Nitrate 50Antimony Trisulfide 10Charcoal Airfloat 9Sulfur 9Sodium Bicarbonate 9Aluminum spher 325 6Magnalium 200 3Dextrin 4 Ned asked for details on how I made it after seeing my 8" shells at previous BPG shoots. I have used both chinese needle and dark pyro Antimony with the exact same results. So we know that's not it. It is probably the AL and/or MgAl but as I said we are not sure yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Does anyone know of any video's, tutorials, dissections etc.. of specialty shells such as smiley faces, bow ties, and hearts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Thanks for that. Now I wonder if the break shouldn't be boosted by whistle or flash and another potential problem is shell orientation. I know that a method used is to attach a rope or ribbon to a point on the shell that needs to be pointed downward and as the shell is traveling upwards the rope or ribbon creates drag and aligns the shell properly. Does anyone have any experience with this and potentially any rough specs on what the drag piece needs to be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozentech Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Does anyone know of any video's, tutorials, dissections etc.. of specialty shells such as smiley faces, bow ties, and hearts? Well, Passfire has a nice "autopsy" section in the archives, which includes smiley faces, elephant pattern, bowties, and 15 other commercial devices. I won't copy them to here though. The cost of a subscription is well worth it, although.... it's been a long damn time since a new issue came out. At least the subscription is by # of issues, not time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Yeah, the Passfire dissection section is really nice. But I think that I've read all of the articles, and it was really worth it. But when I subscribed I got a mail saying: "Confirmation for your 1 year subscription", is this normal and I get the 25 issues, or is it really 1 year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarezWally Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Anyone ever done any aluminium anodizing or metal plating? I have a few things I want to plate with copper (electrical connections mainly) and a few things I want to anodize. I have some sulphuric acid, copper sulfate and some suitable dyes. Anything tips or anything ele I should know about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrKoNaLeaSh1010 Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Well naturally your gonna need a DC power supply. My final for AP chemistry was an anodizing project. If you got the acid and the dye and the power source your good to go. The copper sulfate should work fine for plating as I am pretty sure thats what i used back in school. Also I'm not sure if it makes a difference but I seem to remember someone telling me to keep the amps steady and not have it jumping around or constantly adjusting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarezWally Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 No problem in the power department, got a 25A 3-15v power supply I'll do some more patent reading before jumping in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 No problem in the power department, got a 25A 3-15v power supply I'll do some more patent reading before jumping in. Maybe try sending Tentacles a pm, he has played around with quite a bit of plating in his quest for anodes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I've done a bit of plating. Caswell's is a good online resource for plating and anodizing. Some applications require a constant current setup vs. constant voltage, and that can be a bit trickier. Good luck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Yeah, the Passfire dissection section is really nice. But I think that I've read all of the articles, and it was really worth it. But when I subscribed I got a mail saying: "Confirmation for your 1 year subscription", is this normal and I get the 25 issues, or is it really 1 year?The subscription is based on the number of published issues, and is not a set time period. I think your "25" number is too high, though. I thought it was 12 issues, but I'm not at all sure. And I'm actually glad there hasn't been an issue for a while. It means I get continued access to their Forum without having to renew. (And right now, money is extremely tight.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Euh, yeah sorry wrote that in a rush, it's 12 allright. Ok, thanks TS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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