Ned's Burst Charge For 4" Tiger Tail

[eddiegnz1]

Ned has an article for zinc cut stars in a 4" plastic shell in which he uses a BP burst charge as follows;

Have you ever made a 4" round shell where you used the burst charge recommend by Ned in his 4" plastic shell article? Here it is

** 15 oz Potasium Nitrate coffee ground to 100 mesh

** 3 oz Charcoal airfloat

** 2 oz Sulfur

 

pass the combined comp twice through 100 mesh to mix.

the wet the above comp with 3/4 cup denatured alchohol from home depot which contains 0.2 oz red gum disolved in it. Make putty then granulate through 1/4" screen. After drying that, screen again through 4 mesh then finally through 12 mesh. that's the main BP burst charge.

 

Then after you nearly fill both hemispheres with the above BP charge you top off each shell with 0.6 oz of the following slow flash.

** 3 oz potasium nitrate

** 0.15 oz sulfur

** 0.15 oz Aluminum (american dark or any 325 mesh)

 

1) have you ever used that exact burst charge method?

2) did it perform great (ignite all stars, symetrical hard break, etc)

3) is it relatively safer for beginners than other popular burst comps?

4) what burst do you recommend for beginners that can perform well in a 4" tiger tail?

 

p.s. after reading Shimizu FAST, Bill Ofca, & Dave Blessers books, I'm thoroughly affraid of flash made with perchorates or chlorates. I must start with something considerably less risky than perchlorates and chlorates. But I'm concerned about performance on my 4" tiger tail ( I want 100% of stars to ignite properly and symetrical hard break)

Edited January 10, 2010 by eddiegnz1

[NightHawkInLight]

That's a good method. I use the same method with a slightly different nitrate/sulfur/aluminum flash. Though the composition I commonly use is slightly different, it has the same properties as far as safety is concerned. It may be less powerful and more resilient than perchlorate flash, but it is still flash and should be treated as such. No banging the stuff around. It is an excellent break enhancer. Black powder alone could function as the break, and I recommend you build a few shells using it alone before adding an enhancer. You will have no problem igniting tigertail stars with black powder, enhanced or not by flash - in fact, the slower the break the better the chance of the stars igniting. Either way it is very difficult to blow tigertail stars blind.

[Mumbles]

I've used the general method and was kind of surprised at how well it worked. I did use ball milled BP that was water granulated however. It was a bit larger granulation too, but was in a 6" paper shell. I still prefer other methods, but this one certainly is a good place to start. If you use it, I bet you will have good success. I don't think this method is any safer or more dangerous than most other bursts. If you want to be extra sure everything lights, make a little extra BP, and dust your tiger tail stars with it.

 

I'm with nighthawk on this one. Treat all flash the same. Nitrate flash is marginally safer and less powerful, but that doesn't actually mean much as it is all relative. I think flash's danger is overstated. With proper precautions and respect, it can be used very safely and effectively.

 

I know you are on passfire too. Lloyd S. wrote a good article on 4" plastic shells there where a different method was used. I've used this exact method with success too.