TheSidewinder Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Yup. Growing old is mandatory.Growing up is optional. Ah, youth. It's wasted on the young. And yes, I was born at the tail end of the Eisenhower administration, in '55. (Dad still claims he found me in a Prairie Chicken nest on the Plains of South Dakota, lol.) I vaguely remember seeing Ike on our first Black and White TV set in 1960. The TV was a present from Mom's parents at Christmas of '59. We actually couldn't use it where we lived at that time (Watertown, SD), since there was no station within its range, even with a roof antenna. But Grandpa knew we were moving to Minneapolis, MN, in a few months so they bought it for us. I remember being uttery fascinated by the concept. Where, oh where, has the time gone? TS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I vaguely remember seeing Ike on our first Black and White TV set in 1960. Haha! Yep, Black & White, and most, if not all, of the TV shows transmitted were B & W anyhow. Today, we take a flawless, crisp, digital image for granted. Remember "Horizontal" and "Vertical" adjustments? The TV picture would scroll vertically, with this thick, black bar between frames. And if you lived near a city, you'd get "ghosting", which is having the TV image displayed twice, slightly out of phase. 6 channels (if you were lucky) and no remote; rabbit ears antennas. As a kid, getting the "Pong" video game for your TV was a real status symbol. All the young pyros are now rolling their eyes as the geezers reminisce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I'm not as old as you guys, but I'm still in a low percentage category (30-40) in the APC age demographic. Seems to be mostly young'uns here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Got a temporarily ghetto star roller set up... turned it on... the motor jerked out of alignment somehow and the 5gal bucket doesn't have a flat bottom... its like wavey... so yeah everything is off balance... I couldn't find a flange that would mount straight... so i improvised and used a pulley gear that had a set screw and drilled some holes through it for bolts and wingnuts. Its straight enough... But the container isn't. So yeah, I need to find a very cheap solution and fast so I can have stars for PGI... If I have no stars I can't really make many shells... and if I can't make many shells than im jipping myself out of alot of time and money. I also didn't sleep last night so im somewhat more assholish than normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flying fish Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 I am attempting to make some NaNO3 lampblack stars from hardware store NaNO3 (as an experiment), but I'm not sure how well it is going to work yet... I have been milling for 15 minutes and there are still lots of prills I can see that haven't broken up yet...And I don't know whether they are actually breaking up or not. Plus the lampblack is sticking to everything as always...I guess this is where it would help to have real ball mill rather than a small rock tumbler full of nickels and quarters... Edit - 2 hours later and the prills still weren't breaking up! I ended up screening them out and grinding them manually before putting them back into the mill. I will have to get myself one of those cofee grinders or something...since my coin mill is apparently useless at breaking harder things like prills. Edit - Ok, tried some test stars. I can never seem to get a finely divided fire dust with lampblack!!! I've tried the standard Tigertail formula, I've tried different ratios of BP with Lampblack, and now I just started playing with the ratios a bit, and this is the latest one, this time with Sodium Nitrate: - NaN03 - 54- Lampblack - 20- Airfloat Charcoal - 10- Sulfur - 8- Red Gum - 8 In the initial test, it was bound with NC laquer. The composition was milled for about 4 hours. The stars actually did ignite and burn, however the fire dust achieved is not very good - it consists of coarse sparks which are very seperated. They have an excellent hang time, and the individual sparks seem to actually oscillate between glowing and burning (possibly related to moisture?). I would prefer finer sparks that are closer together. Could the problems with this formula be related to my use of the Hygroscopic sodium nitrate in wet michigan whether? Is the hardware store type NaNO3 just not pure enough? Is there a problem with my process and/or formulas? As you can see, there are a million questions I have here. But to sum it up...what can be done to achieve a denser fire dust....with lampblack or otherwise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Did you ever think to look at the supplier review section? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Did you ever think to look at the supplier review section? Good idea let me try that. I'll delete the last post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Ok... So I have a nice big set of scientific sieves... and I'm starting to actually use them for grading materials. Right now im grading charcoal into +40, -40+60, -60+80, and -80 mesh using a couple of the sieves. Its quite dirty and it made me wonder, about the possibility of grading useing water to cut down on the dust. It should somewhat carry the very fine charcoal to the very bottom while leaving the bigger stuff on the screens. It would also wash some of the carbonates out along with alot of the very fine dust... BUT charcoal doesn't really like to be wetted with water... So a water/alcohol mix might be needed to lower the surface tension... Should be re-coverable/re-useable though... just let it drain into a bottom container... let the majority of the charcoal dust settle, decant the water/alcohol, and re-use it... BUT I think between the small charcoal particles and the water with its surface tension... The sieves would get clogged and need to be cleaned frequently... IE you could NOT just stack sieves from 20-200 mesh and grade out everything in one run... You might have to do one sieve at a time... I might try this later on the 21st (tomorrow)... but hopefully I'll be messing around with my radio which should arrive then. Any thoughts? The more I think about it the more I think that just bolting a stack of sieves to a washing machine and sealing it up really good would work better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozentech Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Any thoughts? The more I think about it the more I think that just bolting a stack of sieves to a washing machine and sealing it up really good would work better. You could buy or make a shaker stand for the stacked sieves, they are a stock item at mining supply stores and I have seen them on eBay as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Any thoughts? The more I think about it the more I think that just bolting a stack of sieves to a washing machine and sealing it up really good would work better.You could buy or make a shaker stand for the stacked sieves, they are a stock item at mining supply stores and I have seen them on eBay as well. I have a small shaker/sifting machine I found awhile back (on Ebay as Frozentech suggested). It works great, just turn it on and go do something else for awhile. For screens I use tape cores (3" id) with different mesh sizes glued in. I just tape them together with a container on the bottem and attach to the shaker with elastic bands. Depending on how much material you are doing, you may have to empty them out and refill here and there.Also, to reduce clumping and speed the process up I add a few bearing balls (~1/2") or even 1/2" nuts to roll around on the screens.See here: http://www.pyrosociety.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=3183 Also, for your star roller, try mounting a tire on you ball mill, that's all I did and it works well.http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?a...e=post&id=35656 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I've been lusting after those sieve shakers on eBay for a while, but they seem to go pretty high, dollar-wise. I also have accumulated a nice set of sieves, 8" all stainless, but I've got a critical gap between #8 and #30 that I can't seem to fill. It's like collecting coins! The sieves 10 to 30, inclusive, are in high-demand, probably from other pyro types. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I've been lusting after those sieve shakers on eBay for a while, but they seem to go pretty high, dollar-wise. I also have accumulated a nice set of sieves, 8" all stainless, but I've got a critical gap between #8 and #30 that I can't seem to fill. It's like collecting coins! The sieves 10 to 30, inclusive, are in high-demand, probably from other pyro types. 20 mesh should not be too hard to find. With large mesh sizes like 8-20, unless you are doing huge amounts it is easy enough to do by hand and there is no messy airfloat to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Thanks, reading that topic gave me some ideas... notably mounting a sub woofer to a pile of sieves and just listening to loud drum and bass for a while... lol I really like the idea of putting a few bearing balls in per seive. I really only have 1 motor right now thats free to use, but its reserved for the new ball mill / roller when I get a bit more steel and a straight bucket or stock pot. I unfortunately don't have any loose tires either. Anyone tried this composition? I'm thinking about making some comets with it for attaching to shells today. Though using 40-60 mesh Ti flake and perhaps subbing a small bit of the airfloat charcoal with 60 mesh charcoal. Perhaps breaking out the CMC. Blankey (via PFP)KNO3 66C, af 13Ti 60mesh 8S 8Dex 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 It might not be too tough to make a sieve shaker. Mount a small motor (1/8 hp?) on a box-like base, and on the shank, install an eccentric weight. You could easily make one by taking a 5" diameter sheave designed for that motor shank, and using a bandsaw or grinder to remove a portion of it, taking it out of round. Set 4 long sections of 5/16" or larger all-thread rod, a lid, and clamp the sieves onto the box. Turn on, kick back, and watch the sieve stack shimmy like a bad 1970's disco dance. A DC motor would be best, then you could vary the speed; otherwise, I'm afraid the shaker would take itself apart with too vigorous an action. Plus, I would expect the bearing life on the motor to not be too good, so a cheap motor would be in order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 You guys are makeing this too hard, just attach this (or one like it) to your stack of sieves, turn it on and away you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 You guys are makeing this too hard, just attach this (or one like it) to your stack of sieves, turn it on and away you go. I used an orbital sander a few times, and it did work, however I've found the shaker works WAAAAY better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskarchem Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Well today it was the Belgian indipendance day, thus fireworks, but unfrtunatly I couldn't go, and of course I hear the big booms out of my appartement windows, and I'm guessing that they are big big salutes, It's getting on my nerves I would of liked to go and watch... But ehh, I get the Polish one in not too long , in total I get 3 indipendance days a year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tentacles Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 One of the surplus stores in the area here has shaker table motors for sale. Not really sure what they want for them, though. They have an eccentric on the end of the shaft and a needle bearing mounted on the eccentric, to drive the table or weight, depending on how you make the table/device. I'd own one but I'm not clear on if the motor is AC or DC, or what voltage. They're about the size of a car blower motor, so I'd expect about 1/6-1/4HP if DC. 1/10-1/6 if AC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dystrophy Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 You can make your own shaking motor as well. All you'd have to do is get a motor and attach a slightly off balance weight to it. As the motor spins, the off balance weight will spin around and start to shake. I think most of these motors are designed this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBang Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Whoa back from the dead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacob Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Wow, I guess it's true, once you get bit by the pyro bug it never goes away Are you still selling chems Dystrophy? I see your website is still up, and with the same good prices. Bonny, Yeah I've never used one, glad to hear it works somewhat ok,one thing I'd worry about though is flammable dust geting into the motor and igniting, seems like the sub woofer idea would be the best to avoid sparks but I don't know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Bonny, Yeah I've never used one, glad to hear it works somewhat ok,one thing I'd worry about though is flammable dust geting into the motor and igniting, seems like the sub woofer idea would be the best to avoid sparks but I don't know for sure. I only used the sander once or twice. It was too much od a PITA to mount containers onto it, and I think the movement was too fast anyway.With the sifter/shaker machine, I put a lid on top to keep (most) of the dust inside... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormanman Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Got a question about loading comets.I'll the comets I load take way do long and is highly inefficient; it takes too long and is extremely boring. I'm not saying I don't do it carefully b/c the last thing I want is someone hurt, including myself.The way I do it is take the comet, role a cone from paper, insert my lift charge, then comet, the hot glue the comet in place then stab a small hole in the side of the cone, then hot glue a length of fuse, then insert the comet at the base of my mortar, then duct tape a plug. I use duct tape b/c its cheap and strong. I use duct tape for all my mortars actually, never had a plug break (knock on wood.)Any suggestions for making this process quicker in anyway? BTW, nice looking forum now; still liked the dark blue background with white letters. I thought it was easier to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ULTRABUF Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Nice to see the new version of the forum up and running. Thanks mods! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
optimus Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Whoah, it's all gone a bit bright and airy over here : ) Seriously though, it's looking great, if a bit blue. Been a while, thought I'd check in, too much to read... Did I miss anything particularly amazing in the past few months? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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