Random Thread #1

[Cookieman]

I you guys have half an hour to spare, check this out.

http://vimeo.com/13969040

 

Edit 1: 27:05, my life is complete. Display synched to Sandstorm

 

Edit 2: This my friends, is THE equivalent to pyro porn

 

 

That was a spectacular show. I don't live to far there and every year they have countries competing and putting on great shows. The US put on their show on July 17 and Canada July 24 this year. How can you put on a Swedish display and not include ABBA! AWESOME!!!

[portfire]

That was FANTASTIC!!!!!!

 

Right, bit of a daft question but does anyone have the youtube link to that guy Dr X IIRC. I'm sure some of you remember...Those stupid big can salutes ???

Edited August 25, 2010 by portfire

[portfire]

Not with it today Edited August 25, 2010 by portfire

[KruseMissile]

Is this what you mean? I don't think he is stupid, he's a legend, or at least in my opinion.

[dagabu]

...Those stupid big can salutes ???

 

Pretty sure he meant stupid=terrific!

 

There is all sorts of video of the good Dr. Wander over to Passfire, we have lots there and links to others as well.

[Cookieman]

Does anyone know how much FP he packs into those cylinder shells?

[Mumbles]

As much as he can.

 

I have actually heard the secret to them. It's not so hard once you know.

[portfire]

Pretty sure he meant stupid=terrific!

 

Yup!!!! It's those Ti ring cans he made though

[optimus]

As much as he can.

 

I have actually heard the secret to them. It's not so hard once you know.

 

There's a secret to making colossal can salutes?

[FrankRizzo]

That was FANTASTIC!!!!!!

 

Right, bit of a daft question but does anyone have the youtube link to that guy Dr X IIRC. I'm sure some of you remember...Those stupid big can salutes ???

 

Here's a few:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hurD5FiGVH8

 

 

 

..and from our friends in Malta, where they take salute shells to a whole new level:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hurD5FiGVH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaPcUODwGU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FsS4cj1oJs

[Mumbles]

Videos do not do these shells justice. The volume and the concussion is significant.

 

Anyone can make large salutes, but Dr. X salutes are one a whole different level. The first time they showed up, I heard they were accused of bringing HE salutes. Boy can that mexican midget really build.

[Mumbles]

For those of you not on Passfire there were sales of a parachute shell video by Louis Semenza going on a little while ago. Louis Semenza was one of the premier italo-american shell builders in the US. Judging by the clothes, it was taken some time in the 80's. Anyway, they've gone on open sale, and are an incredible bargain.

 

http://www.kcpyro.com/static/semenza.html

[optimus]

Videos do not do these shells justice. The volume and the concussion is significant.

 

Anyone can make large salutes, but Dr. X salutes are one a whole different level. The first time they showed up, I heard they were accused of bringing HE salutes. Boy can that mexican midget really build.

 

Cool

 

Got one of these babies in the post yesterday. I really need to test it on some salutes...

[portfire]

Thanks chaps. BUT the one video I cant find for the life of me, is the one where Ti is coated with spray adhesive around the inside of the tube, so you get a ring of sparks when the shell breaks.

[optimus]

Found it! In low-res though, I'm sure I've seen a better one... been looking for this for a while also. I think the search term 'galaxy' did it

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8331385636053873335#

 

Page 75 of the arial shells thread has some info. Thanks for the link FrankRizzo!

Edited August 26, 2010 by optimus

[FrankRizzo]

Thanks chaps. BUT the one video I cant find for the life of me, is the one where Ti is coated with spray adhesive around the inside of the tube, so you get a ring of sparks when the shell breaks.

 

Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsg0SJMJt1E There's a HD video of WWB somewhere on Bob Forward's site, but I couldn't track it down. It's just the galaxy salute portion.

[portfire]

Haha. Thats the exact video, thanks matey

[NightHawkInLight]

I just thought up and tried a new method for making BP earlier today. There are a few 6" dry fuel lampares waiting to be lifted that prompted the experiment.

 

I was considering how to safely mill BP in a blender since my mill is still out of commission - I believe I came up with a good solution. Wet milling is all I could think of to avoid any risk of ignition. Of course, wetting BP to the consistency suited to a blender has the problem of nitrate crystallizing out as it dries. I thought up a few vague ideas about how to prevent this and decided it was worth a shot.

 

I started with a 75/15/10 ratio of unmilled chemicals and added as much water as I assumed would be needed to allow it to blend properly, as well as be totally nonflammable. I also added some liquid laundry starch as binder. I planned on slowly adding more unmilled chems until it caked more than the blender could handle. What happened in reality was quite different.

 

The blender milled the first 500g of raw BP chems and became very fluid. As I continued to add comp 200g at a time, it would thicken temporarily then go back to a fluid once finely divided. The temperature of the slurry rose steadily as I continued to mill, which improved the solubility of the nitrate and I suspect plays a large part in the comp staying liquid. I started with lump charcoal which may have increased the temperature more than grinding already fine chemicals would. It never reached a temperature capable of causing a burn, so still well under the boiling point.

 

At 1000g I was satisfied that once I poured out the slurry and allowed it to cool it would reach a consistency suitable for granulation - though at the elevated temperature and under agitation from the blender it was still quite fluid. I emptied the blender into a large bowl and began to stir it to keep the nitrate from forming large crystals while cooling. It took about five minutes of stirring before the comp thickened to granulation consistency. It then pressed through my screen and came out as well as any ball milled BP.

 

After granulating, the composition was still warm and continued to quickly solidify with no visible nitrate crystals. At this point it still contains some moisture, but burning the damp granules leaves very little residue. At this stage it looks and burns quite similarly to my milled BP right after granulation. I'm looking forward to putting it through the real tests once fully dry tomorrow.

 

Overall it seems I have made a kilo of usable BP in a total of 45 minutes from weighing to granulation. I'm quite happy with that considering my old mill pumped out half a kilo in eight hours.

 

I'm hesitant to post in the member tutorials section just yet, but if anyone is interested I ended up using:

 

100 mL StaFlo liquid starch

150 mL water

to

1000g 75/15/10 - added 200g at a time after the first 500g, the last increment being 100g.

 

Testing videos are likely to come soon.

 

Thoughts?

[Mumbles]

It's not too much different from the Blender comets that were outlined in Best of AFN II on page 70. What was done there was to dissolve the KNO3 in boiling water, and use that to serve as a liquid for crushed charcoal briquettes and the sulfur. He used 300g of water for about 1400g of a simple charcoal comet comp. It looks a lot like a spider star I am a fan of actually. He mentioned that as the liquid cools, the mixture becomes sheer thinning. The stuff is kind of a paste, but thins up upon agitation. You may have a bit of that going on.

 

Mike Swisher recommends using boiling water for making polverone. The method makes beautiful grains that are superior to anything I've ever made before. He also says that the hot water helps to really integrate the components well. So well that the polverone can be used for lift. It's not as strong as normal 2FA, but it can work if you increase the amount accordingly. I was thinking that if you did the same processes as he describes with a reactive charcoal, you could essentially make lift in large amounts without any need for extensive ball milling. Since I have prilled KNO3, dissolving the nitrate first would be even better, but you lose some of the rapid cooling the nitrate provides.

[NightHawkInLight]

So Swisher's method is to still mill the BP as usual, but then use boiling water to granulate? Interesting. I don't think the thought would ever pass my mind that hot water would improve grain quality.

[Mumbles]

Nope, it's polverone. Rough powder, granulated green meal for use as a flammable filler. The only real processing you use besides mixing and granulating is to screen it a couple of times first. I don't know if granulating milled powder with hot water would have any advantage as it is already quite well integrated as compared to green meal. I suppose it can't come out any worse than an unmilled powder.

[NightHawkInLight]

Boring day on the forum huh?

 

Anyway, I finished a new video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMYH3abx8Rg

[Peret]

I hope you don't take this as criticism of your shells or your video, both of which were very well made (as always with your stuff). But that was the most pathetic aerial effect I've ever seen from three and six inch shells. I've seen better blind breaks! Perhaps it looked better to the eye than the camera.

 

Note to self: don't bother with lampare shells.

[NightHawkInLight]

I hope you don't take this as criticism of your shells or your video, both of which were very well made (as always with your stuff). But that was the most pathetic aerial effect I've ever seen from three and six inch shells. I've seen better blind breaks! Perhaps it looked better to the eye than the camera.

 

Note to self: don't bother with lampare shells.

I would agree, but those were 3 only inch shells fired in the video, with about 75g of fireball comp each. The sixes will be fired later this month and contain about 5 pounds each. Lampares are always a less than huge effect though. Take for example this 8":

 

We'll see. This is a new method, it may look much better in a larger shell, it may look sub par. If it looks even close to a gas lampare, it opens up all kinds of possibilities. You cannot for example easily place a bag of gasoline into a shell also containing stars, dry fuel you could however. Imagine a horsetail shell that broke with a fireball. Pretty cool thought.

Edited September 5, 2010 by NightHawkInLight

[Peret]

You're trying to make a fuel/air explosion, right? A cremora fireball in the sky? That implies it won't burn properly until it's dispersed into the air, so maybe it needs some form of delayed ignition, like a handful of charcoal stars.