Star cores

[Mumbles]

I wonder if your cracking core problem could be solved by a quick non-aqueous coating to the seeds. Linseed oil, NC, or parlon in acetone could be a decent chance. Rape seeds are very small, so I'd imagine on a sunny afternoon, you could coat enough cores to last several decades.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

I wonder if your cracking core problem could be solved by a quick non-aqueous coating to the seeds. Linseed oil, NC, or parlon in acetone could be a decent chance. Rape seeds are very small, so I'd imagine on a sunny afternoon, you could coat enough cores to last several decades.

 

Yeah, I´ve considered that before. It may work. I tried it with red gum but probably was too careless to make it work, so same outcome.

 

Now as I´m fond of "Arthurs" coreless method, this may not be necessary. I just wonder if coreless stars tend to swim in absence of a something keeping their impulse in the end of their flight.

[ExplosiveCoek]

If the star is properly ignited, and burns equal from the side (rolled star) then no swimming should occur. Swimming stars start to happen when your stars are not properly ignited around the whole star, so not primed good enough or not rolled nicely. That's why I think you can't use primes who use the 'slag' method and you just have to use fast burning, hot, prime. Slag is for glitters. Edited July 13, 2010 by ExplosiveCoek

[pyrogeorge]

Hi,

I would like to make some emerald green cores but i don't know the proper size for a 3' shell..6mm is good size?

Maybe a table with the proper size cores will be usefull.If someone find table please post it here.

thanks

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Hi,

I would like to make some emerald green cores but i don't know the proper size for a 3' shell..6mm is good size?

Maybe a table with the proper size cores will be usefull.If someone find table please post it here.

thanks

 

It really depends on what you want the color core to do. If you aim at a streamer converting to a "click-on" color core or similar, then I´d use smaller cores.

 

Kepley´s Emerald green isn´t the slowest formula around, but 6mm sounds definately too large for a 3" star core. Stars for 3" shells are usually about 9mm in size. That would make only 3mm left for the streamer. Also, take the layers consumed by priming (preferably step-priming in this case) into account; that will consume at least 2mm (1mm layer=diameter increase of 2mm).

 

To sum it up, I´d make a 3-4mm emerald core and prime that properly. Then it´ll already be about 5mm when you start layering on the streamer. Test this setup, and modify. I personally would go towards 3mm cores, but I like the click-on effect.

 

2 things to think about:

- consider using coreless stars made by the mister method Arthur described, this saves you some burn time otherwise consumed by the rape or lead or whatever core

- consider using a changing or dark relay when switching from streamer to color to make the change appear simultaneous

[AdmiralDonSnider]

As I am considering buying a Wolter plate that produces 3mm stars for use as cores in star rolling, I wanted to know your experiences with such pumped cores.

 

How quickly will the actually become round? Can I make 5mm round stars (need a lot of these for cake items) from 3mm pumped cores or are they reserved for larger shell stars?

 

What are the drawbacks of these cores?

[Zmuro]

I would rather invest in star sizing screens and roll stars to desired size. It's quicker and cheaper, a lot cheaper. I have sizing screens from Pyrostuff and I'm very satisfied with them.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

I would rather invest in star sizing screens and roll stars to desired size. It's quicker and cheaper, a lot cheaper. I have sizing screens from Pyrostuff and I'm very satisfied with them.

 

I actually own a set of those and have been rolling stars starting from rape seeds for several years now. I just thought pumped cores could have potential to speed up the starting process, or where comps don´t roll well in the early stage. The japanese use cut cores quite frequently, and this would be just another approach to the same technique, at least I think it would be.

[pyrokid]

In my limited experience hand rolling pumped cores, I had some trouble with composition building up on the edges of the cylinder. I ended up with round stars, but I really had to wet the stars to get the comp to sit down. I think this might have negatively affected the color purity of the inner layer as well.

 

I had a similar experience with cubic cut cores. Those are a quick way to get raspberries!

 

Something for you to consider, the diagonal of the cylinder will be 4.25mm, so you don't have much space to eliminate inequalities in comp buildup between the edges and sides of the cylinder if your final star size is 5mm. This would also compromise color changes.