Swede Posted June 30, 2009 Posted June 30, 2009 Miech, TY for offering, but I don't have a CNC lathe. I have a little CNC mill that does very little for the pyrotechnic hobby. If I DID have a CNC lathe, rocket tooling could be produced at a high rate, really cheaply. I always get the feeling we are being gouged when spending $75 on up for basic tooling. CNC lathes shine when it comes to tapers. Tapering on a manual machine is a PITA, requiring a special mechanism or a long top slide.
TheSidewinder Posted June 30, 2009 Posted June 30, 2009 Hey, Swede, where the picture of your lathe go?? I saw it yesterday. EDIT: How odd. Now it's back. Must be my Firefox. Time to restart it. And TBP, thank you for your cooperation.
optimus Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Completely random, but would someone who lives in Britain please explain to me why saying "cock end" or "bell end" or "oh, cock" is now being used an exclamation of dissatisfaction or an insult there? Did someone famous start using it or something? I've heard it much more lately watching British television shows. It's such a weird parochialism. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bellend Not sure of its origins, but it's been around for many years - 'bell end' being the most widely used - to describe a complete idiot. : )
flying fish Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 Is it just me, or are the forums a little slow for it being THE SECOND OF JULY?!
jacob Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 ^I know!! I guess everyone's out working on last minute stuff.
flying fish Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 Yeah... It's slow for me at the moment. I'm not exactly in a good place to be assembling fireworks right now. I'll try to get some stuff done tomorrow night after work. Chances are I'm going to be throwing together most of my shells on friday and maybe even saturday...
homebrewed77 Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 Oh yeah it's comming down to the wire..I've been up till 4 a.m everyday pumping star's..cutting star's..primming star's..pasting shell's...rolling tube's...loading cake's. So i get on APC to take a break..Just watch, the morning of the fourth I'm going to pass out and miss the whole thing! Naw, no way thats going to happen! I bet there's going to be some really nice vid's on the 5th. or 6th.! Have a hulluva time folk's..Stay safe..Stay frosty.
qwezxc12 Posted July 2, 2009 Posted July 2, 2009 ^I know!! I guess everyone's out working on last minute stuff. I hear ya...just assembled my fifth 6in ball shell today...got a few more, plus 4in balls, 4in cans, a couple of 5in cans, some comets, and a metric shitload of 2 & 3in salutes... and a 4in heavy core salute that looks like it'll take over a lb. of filler KABOOM! slightly busy.
flying fish Posted July 3, 2009 Posted July 3, 2009 So... I saw that someone here had made some daylight shells with chalk dust. I thought it was an interesting idea, so I assembled a small chalk dust shell to test out myself. I used bright orange chalk dust. I haven't set it off yet...someone that I talked to suggested that it may be a bad idea due to the fact that the orange may be mistaken for a distress signal. Is this concern justified? Should I set the shell off? This is on a small, populated inland lake...don't think there would be any logical reason for someone to send up a distress signal.
Richtee Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 So... I saw that someone here had made some daylight shells with chalk dust. I thought it was an interesting idea, so I assembled a small chalk dust shell to test out myself. I used bright orange chalk dust. I haven't set it off yet...someone that I talked to suggested that it may be a bad idea due to the fact that the orange may be mistaken for a distress signal. Is this concern justified? Should I set the shell off? This is on a small, populated inland lake...don't think there would be any logical reason for someone to send up a distress signal.No it's just a bad idea because it's illegal. LAUNCH captian! I just left a party on the local lake...whimpy shells and crap.. Sigh..I'm ruined.
Ventsi Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 Rich have ou read the DIY indoor magizine from Ned SUPER IMPORTANT MUST SEEYou should give it a look , you should look into making one whenever you get a chance.
flying fish Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 Rich, if you ever decide to get back into it, I'll help you out! Not sure if you ever figured out whether or not you were going to be in any kind of trouble. Well, were the town's fireworks any good (if they had em yet)? I'm always up at my grandma's in West Branch, so I only see the Lake Ogema fireworks up here. Which are surprisingly decent, actually. Happy 4th!
Ventsi Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 Well I'm all done. 2 1 7/8" mines[1 TT, ! Mixed silver}2 2" cans[1 TT, 1 Win.23]1 2" sphere[TT.SS globe effect}1 2'' mine[Glitter}1 2 1/2" sphere[TT.Green, Glitter pistil}1 3/4'' 7 shot cake[TT,SS,Green, Win.23}1 3/8" fan shaped cake[green]1 3" mine [silver, 14 reports, 3 shells]100g smoker10g flash and some gasoline! I know its a bit small, but due to shooting grounds restrictions this should do.Anyone been getting calls all day from friends asking what they are doing? Anyway have a safe and fun 4th , dont get caught and dont kill anyone!
flying fish Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 It's bigger than my lineup... I feel like I'm cramming for an exam. I've only got 4 1-3/4" ball shells, and 4 1" cake shots made so far. I also want to make at least 4 more of those 1-3/4" ball shells. Also want to make a 1-3/4" aerial salute or two. Possibly a 3" shell as well. You know I'm doing it the cheap way and glueing plastic shell halves together, right? But it is still a lot to do in...6 hours...
asilentbob Posted July 4, 2009 Posted July 4, 2009 Nice ventsi! Personally there is a burn ban here... so I don't have any plans yet. Perhaps go watch a big display. Perhaps something else. Dunno.
ULTRABUF Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 Hey everyone, I haven't been on here forever, just want to wish you all a happy, safe 4th. Unfortunately I haven't made anything since the last 4th, trying to save money, and you know how fireworks kinda turns into a money pit. But I was wondering if anyone knew where to find videos of those really big like 10ft tourbillions or helicopters or whatever they were, I can't for the life of me find them. Thanks and stay safe all!
flying fish Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 Well my 4th display was a bit of a flop. I didn't get everything finished in time. I had 7 little shells and one 3", and some "class C" stuff and that was it. I didn't even get my cake loaded & fused up. It also didn't help that have virtually no setup time, especially since we went out to see the lake fireworks (which were OK, but not anywhere's near as good as last year...must be cutting back). Also, I had an annoying failure. My chalk dust shell didn't blow up. I recovered it...and just like the last time I had a shell that never went off...it is clear that the time fuse took fire and burned all the way through, but for some reason didn't pass fire to the inside of the shell. In both cases the shell was over-lifted, but I don't see why this would have anything to do with it, considering the time fuse did burn all the way to the top. The last time I had this problem, I also recovered the shell, and found that I had accidentally crimped the end of the fuse. I found through testing that crimping would sometimes prevent sparks from shooting out of the end, explaining my problem. But ever since then, I've payed close attention to ensure that the end was not crimped, so I don't understand why this problem has returned. Maybe I need to use a different kind of fuse. By the way, I'm using american visco for time fuse, the coated stuff that doesn't spray sparks out the side. I suppose I could switch to chinese visco, which had a larger core diameter and sprays sparks every which way. Anyone have any ideas?
asilentbob Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 When I use visco as a time fuse... I wrap the middle of the section tightly with masking tape to build up a barrier for the fire... then I leave about 1/4" of fuse sticking out each end and slit these ends down the middle and pry apart into a "V" then I put less than a drop of dilute NC laquer on, then dip it in fine BP so there are a lot of jaged edges... but I do this with normal jap time fuse too. I ended up hanging out with some friends near a lake. I brought a bunch of those hand signal flares from PGI that had the pull string ignition... DAMN those were bright. Really cool looking underwater. Burn for about 60s. I'm going to have to keep a few in my car.
flying fish Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 (edited) I'll have to try that. I usually cut the outside end at an angle, but do not do anything special to the inside end other than being carfull not to crimp it (I cut it flat). I have never had a shell fail to take fire, but two that failed to pass fire (as I said). It sounds like I simply need a good way to ensure there is good "spray" into the shell. It just seems kinda strange...you'd think this stuff, intended for cannons would be close to 100% reliable even without doing anything special to the end of the fuse. perhaps if I want to continue to be cheap and not prime anything, perhaps I could just angle-cut both ends? A guy next door was lighting 3" canister salutes that he somehow aquired. You guys might cringe when I say this: He was using PVC! Granted, the PVC was buried at least 2/3rds of the way. I explained to him about the dangers of PVC, and he said "we since it's buried, if a shell went off in the tube, all the force would go upwards and nobody gets hurt." I said I was kinda skeptical as a shell could go rupture in the above-ground portion, but he thought it was safe. Smart guy...a chemist, but not a DIY fireworker, seemed to know a lot about fireworks, but I think he was wrong on this issue. Have I gone insane, or is PVC STILL not acceptable regaurdless of how much you bury it? Also, the guy was watching when I had the chalk shell failure, so he probably thinks I have no idea what I'm talking about :\ Edited July 5, 2009 by flying fish
Richtee Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 Rich, if you ever decide to get back into it, I'll help you out! Not sure if you ever figured out whether or not you were going to be in any kind of trouble. Well, were the town's fireworks any good (if they had em yet)? I'm always up at my grandma's in West Branch, so I only see the Lake Ogema fireworks up here. Which are surprisingly decent, actually. Happy 4th! No word from anyone on the incident yet.... I did watch the local- it was kind of lame... slow paced and smaller shells. The finale kind of made up for it as it was well populated with bigger shells. And no opening barrage of salutes... I love those!
flying fish Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 I think everyone is cutting back this year. Up here we had about 1/2 the show we are used to, but it was still fun to watch.
justanotherpyro Posted July 5, 2009 Posted July 5, 2009 I hope everyone had a great 4th. Our local firework show was drastically cut back this year too, they didn't even do a grand finale unfortunately. I had 10 3" shells and 3 6" shells all of which worked very well. I even got a few comments that it was better than the local show . Now I have to wait and see the video and hope that my friend did a good job filming.
LGM Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 I didn't have a display of my own, I was at the "Tournament of Destruction", if anyone in the southern wisconsin area has heard of it, but there was a fireworks show at the end of it. I was pretty impressed with it, it was reasonably long, and had a lot of larger shells throughout the whole show, and some nice mines towards the end. A lot of crossettes and a few horsetails too. Big salute barrage at the beginning and end, all in all a very enjoyable show.
Mumbles Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 I actually got an offer to shoot that show LGM. I ended up doing another show, as I wasn't comfortable doing it on my own yet. You might want to check out the show in Columbus, WI sometime. I really enjoy that one. It's a lot of fun. It's rare you see so much proximity effects, and thought put into a show. They're a dying breed to a hailstorm of shitty chinese shells. They had some really nice high quality shells in there.
flying fish Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 I'm in the process of trying a little experiment: Double-decker cut stars for a hybrid effect. More than likely I'm NOT the first one to think of it; I've heard mention before of people glueing stars together to achieve a hybrid effect. It seems to me like it would be easier just to make multi-layered cut stars together by stacking the slabs and cutting all at once. I made two "wet slabs" (like you do for cutting) from two different star formulas (win 39 and ruby red), using the same binder/solvent system (in this case an ethyl acetate based NC laquer). I then threw one slab on top of the other. I over-wet the bottom slab accidentally which probably helped fuse it to the top slab. However, this could just as easily be accomplished by smearing a layer of NC laquer between the slabs (amoung other possible techniques). I squared up the edges and rolled it out very slightly to help fuse the slabs together, and then cut stars out of the combined slabs. Then I sprinkled some prime over them while they are still wet. If all works out, I should have some brilliant red stars with a glittering tail! I will not get to test them until at least thursday night, but it should be interesting. Has anyone done something like this before?
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