Rogue Chemist Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 Oh its just 'halucinogenic plants' not 'A childrens guide to halucinogenic plants' Dang...
Mumbles Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 I know the feeling there Rogue, I kind of had my hopes up for a childrens guide myself.
EP. Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 Hey all, just dropping in to say hello. Nice to see things are still moving along here, and the random thread has gotten fucking huge! I had a good laugh at the totse idiot posted in the safety section and see some nice stuff in the competition thread. I'm mostly dealing with consumer fireworks these days and am going to a group shoot next week that should be a lot of fun. Also making a little effort to work with a professional display company, but haven't had much luck yet. Hopefully I'll get back to making my own stuff again one of these days, but it isn't too practical while in college away from home... Anyway, keep up the good work mods/admins, make some cool stuff, and be safe!
maximusg Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 I know the feeling there Rogue, I kind of had my hopes up for a childrens guide myself.Yeah i was dissapointed also. I originaly heard it when watching a conference on medicinal psychoactives. This guy was showing slides of book sthat had been released on the subject. And pointed out the golden series... And said "In case you don't know, The Golden series was marketed to children and is hence quite contreversial." pitty though... it does seems to dumb things down abit compared to regular books on the subject though
pa_pyro Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Well not much to say except I got bored and found these neat little things. If you dont recognize them they are King Rupert's tears. It's amazing how something can be structurally weak and strong at the same time. I made them myself with glass tubing and a butane torch.Heres the pic
Mephistos Minion Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Dub tee eff? Quick question. Why is KNO3 unsuitable for use in colour comps and such? Does it not burn hot enough or what? I always knew it was no good for colours, but never why...
asilentbob Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 I'm experimenting with sodium nitrate based BP and star compositions. Not alot of great success so far, but there is still hope. I really REALLY want to try some glitter compositions, but with -325mesh flake Al the effect wouldn't be as great as with spherical. I thought out a couple of compositions by extrapolating/guessing on existing compositions and modifying them. I have made stars with one and primed them with sodium nitrate BP, but i primed them crapily, and i think they are still drying. I'll test another tonight when i get back from school. I think ill make some sodium nitrate BP stars by using 1-3hour milled NaBP with oak charcoal and see how they perform in a starmine. FYI some prilled sodium nitrate is damn hard to powder in a ball mill. Next composition i try will be a modifyed A1 (perchlorate based i think) glitter. I finally got some willow from a dying willow tree that is a good distance from my house, but the trail to get there is great for mountain biking, so its a win-win situation. If only the ride back wasn't all uphill ... I made 4"OD and 6"OD paper hemis over these foam balls this past week, i know that the shell normally less so that there is room in the mortor, like a 6" shell is really 5 and some 8ths inches. So im going to have to look for some non-standard HDPE sizes or drop the idea all together and just buy the hemis. Has anyone ever bought their hemis from pyroplastics.com? Its either that, cannonfuse.com, or firefox-fx for me. I have also been using this nifty gummed kraft tape to paste over my plastic 2 and something 8ths" and 3" shells. I love it, im going to run out soon though, so i might have to get some from firefox or from an art store again, though i think firefox is cheaper. I also tryed hand rolling bigger tubes for rockets with some success, but i only have NaBP now and i havn't tested the one rocket i have made yet.
Rooster Posted October 2, 2006 Author Posted October 2, 2006 pa pyro, I am absolutely fascinated about the prince ruperts tears. I had never even herd of it before! Were they hard to make, and did they work as expected? What would you estimate your success rates were? Please tell me more about your procedure.
Mumbles Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Pyroplastics.com is out of business. I usually get all mine from cannonfuse.com. They seem to be the cheapest overall. Other than them, I usually get mine from discount pyro. Lately I have been using paper hemis though. I picked up some VERY VERY nice 4" and 5" shells from Flashing Thunder at the PGI. I've been using 1" wide gummed paper tape for pasting all my shells lately. It's much faster and much cleaner. One can paste a shell at noon, and have it be ready to shoot by night time. I haven't gotten it to work very well for 3", but by 1" wide tape works great for 4" to 8". After that bigger tape is recomended.
pa_pyro Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 pa pyro, I am absolutely fascinated about the prince ruperts tears. I had never even herd of it before! Were they hard to make, and did they work as expected? What would you estimate your success rates were? Please tell me more about your procedure. My source of glass was from some old glass stirring sticks I have.(Ihave about 30 so I picked 1 i didn't like ) To melt them I used my pencil torch and heated it over a container of room temp water until a droplet of molten glass formed on the tip of the rod. Once the drop forms I wiggle the rod, with the heat still applied until the drop falls into the water. After it is cooled off I remove it from the water. I've only had 1 out of 6 shatter after it hit the water. If you hit the bulbous part of the drop it is surprisingly strong. But if you break off the tail the whole drop turns into dust.(you have to break off the tail fairly close to the drop) Here some information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert%27s_Drop Update: now im to 4 out of 12 broken, (it is rather fun though watching them explode under water, first they hit the water then they fizz and sit there for a few seconds with the center still red , at this point I go to remove it and get a surprise as the drop explodes underwater.
asilentbob Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 Thanks Mumbles! Thats a shame that they are out of business , they have some great prices listed on their site. I have been ripping small bits of the gummed kraft tape off and using it almost like paper mache, but yeah i would wrap it in big strips like you if i had bigger shells. I love how professional it looks.
Mumbles Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 This is what they look like when it's done. Sorry for the slight blurriness. The best picture gives a bit too much away about me. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/Mumbles/71b0e6e1.jpg
justanotherpyro Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 Mumbles the mysterious We had a decent thunderstorm in Chicago. http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/jus...melightning.jpg
Swany Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 You in Chicago for school? Someone should make a thread about The Czar/Prince Rupert Tears/Drops, because they sound wicked cool yet it seems there is something of an art to be discovered to make them successful. I myself will look into preparing some tomorrow. Attempting, at least...
Rooster Posted October 3, 2006 Author Posted October 3, 2006 Does the teardrop turn into dust, or extremely small glass shards? That would make a lot of difference if you were to shatter them in your hand, holding the tail... Glass fibres inside your skin itches and sucks. Gonna try this next time Im home, probably around christmas. Until then, if anyone cold get a video or so, it would be awesome!
_Po_ Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 According to Wiki the desintegration shock wave thingy travels at almost 2000m/s. I'd assume the glass would shatter going that fast. Oh yeah, and I think someone might have accidentally blown up a dead kangaroo with a little bit of PNNM the other weekend. No...Actually I think it might be something else, for sure. Although RED blooded kangaroos do eat GREEN grass... School holidays are fun.
asilentbob Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 Speaking of photos, i used my dads 35mm camera and used the manuel shutter release at night leaving the shutter open for 5-30min. Really cool. Also had it open in a dark room and them shined a flashlight at my face, then turned it off and moved to a different spot and did it again, and again, it looks cool. I'm in the same pic 3 times. I really want to do it with some lightning, it would look so cool.
optimus Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 The practise of using a flashlight and a long exposure is known as 'painting with light' I like this expression, as it's pretty much what we do with fireworks!
h0lx Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 pissed now, tried to make the drops aswell, but I didn't get glass to drip, ruined a pipette and a glass tube and wasted a bottle of gas and precious time.
pa_pyro Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 I wish I knew what my stirring rods were made of, oh well. anyway, heres a video of 1 breaking, the shards didn't go anywhere because I had it in my fingers. http://www.zshare.net/video/000_0003-mov.html And rooster, when they break the tend to shatter into small glass shards/cubes/chips. Depending on the direction you point it and how close to the tail you break them, the shards start to fly...
BigBang Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 These are fun. I just made two of them. There is a bubble in both of these guys, one at the tip of the bulb, and the other right by the tail of the bulb. I Broke the filiment off the first, and it shattered, but the second one, when the tail was broken, remained intact. I believe that the bubbles have relieved the stress in the grass, leading to to microfissures. pa_pyro, have you gotten any bubbles in yours? Should there be any? These are small, but not little pinpricks. They might be 2mm long, though I couldn't tell. Any ideas?
pa_pyro Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 I'm not sure if the bubbles are necessary but all of mine( around 9)except for 1 have had bubbles. Have you had any explode underwater while you were cooling them yet? Although it is dissapointing, it is kinda neat hearing the small bang it makes underwater. If you make enough you'll have atleast a few do this.
BigBang Posted October 3, 2006 Posted October 3, 2006 I'm up to about 6 underwater exploders. It is amusing, but I wish it wouldn't happen so often This latest one that I made a minute ago has a bubble at the point where the highest stress would be. Is it possible that a vacuum has been pulled in these tiny pockets?
aquaman Posted October 4, 2006 Posted October 4, 2006 Check Thisand This out on those Prince rupert things! And HERE is another picture of a few.
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