Ryanjax Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 I made myself the loaf box from passfire (4.5 x 7 inside) and was wondering what was the normal amout of comp to make to cut stars. I have hand pumped a bunch of TT stars and want to make some color stars....thinking Buell red. So how much comp makes up a good loaf? I did a small 380g batch and it only filled about a 1/2 inch....I could do some simple math, but I was looking for the easy way out. I did a search for "batch, loaf, comp" and didn't really find what I was looking for. Also, do you have star making days? Days that you make a bunch of stars so you have them on hand when you need them? It seems like a pain in the ass to make stars everytime you want to make a shell or starmine. Pic is of the TT stars that I cut on my first cut star batch.
TheSidewinder Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 When I was cutting stars, I made up 1-kilogram batches. My loafbox wasn't as tall as yours, but was longer. Try 1 kilo and see if that produces "slices" of a good height for you. If not, try 1-1/2 kilos. Personally, I only made as much as I'd need that day or the next. But I had no readily-available storage.
andyboy Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 When I'm bored and can't find anything else that needs to be done I break out the old star-roller and make a few batches of stars. Or roll tubes, or make hemis or ..... I really like rolling stars though, never really liked cutting them because I think it takes to much effort and they don't look as nice. It's hard to tell you how much a batch-size should be since I don't know what size the stars should be.
Swede Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 Your loaf box is very nicely made. It looks like you have some woodworking background. When I made my wood-framed screens, I placed a lot of effort into sealing and finishing the wood so that the fibers don't collect oxidizers or chems that might contaminate other batches. It looks like you lacquered that box well. To answer your question, the mass of the comp is going to vary, depending upon what it is. Calculate the volume of your box. Then, make a tiny batch of the comp in question, and measure the volume. Do the math to scale it up, and keep good notes, so you don't have to do it each time. It's more convenient to make larger quantities of stars, but storage needs to be done properly, and you don't want to reach a point where you have 100+ pounds of stars stashed away in ziplocs in cardboard boxes. That tends to make fire chiefs and people with badges very nervous.
Mumbles Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 How hard would it be to cut out a third keystone shaped piece? The piece that forms the shorter side. If you were making a smaller batch, you could slide said third piece in where ever you wanted, and put an apropriate number of scrap wood slices behind it. That way you could modulate the volume of the box to get a good thick loaf.
Ryanjax Posted July 27, 2009 Author Posted July 27, 2009 How hard would it be to cut out a third keystone shaped piece? The piece that forms the shorter side. If you were making a smaller batch, you could slide said third piece in where ever you wanted, and put an apropriate number of scrap wood slices behind it. That way you could modulate the volume of the box to get a good thick loaf. Mumbles that is exactly what I did. I made a 2 1/2" wedge to fit in one end to make my box smaller. I made two batches the other night. The shimizu KP green and a silver star (charcoal) formula. The Green batch I made a 1000g batch and it worked out to about a 1.75" thick loaf and the Silver batch i made a 750g and it was 2.25 thick. That surprised me that the smaller weight was a much higher volume comp. I put it in my notes for a later date. I'm going to have to make more BP now. That took almost all of my meal powder. Swede....i've got a whole garage full of woodworking machinery. Bandsaw, table saw, jointer, planer, router table, drill press...you name it. I needed a hobby that I could get some instant gratification from. I may make a table that isn't finished for a month. Kinda depressing. It is a great hobby though. I've got beautiful furniture all thru out my house.
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