Ideas for silent fireworks

[Pretty green flame]

Good day

 

Well since my paernts insist that i keep things quiet on our test site i am forced to stop firing shells and everything that goes bang.

 

So does anyone have any fun projects which are silent "psssss, neighbors are listening ".

 

I was thinking fountains but i won't be exactly satisfied with a shower of sparks.

 

I need ideas.

Thanks for your help.

 

Stay green

Pretty green flames

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/AVP2/696847-small.jpg

 

New sig, i just feel like it today

[Mumbles]

I would suggest comets and wheels. (non whistle) rockets may be another possibility. Having silent fireworks is nearly impossible, so I assume you mean relatively quiet. Girandolas may be good too. Waterfalls are about as quiet as you're going to be able to get. Maybe some sparklers or snakes

[ltf]

Defintly wheels they are silent, can be very cool , and are not so easy to make (I take that as an advantage) and also there is almost a infenite number of variations.

[Pretty green flame]

Ohh, waterfalls sound very nice, i have seen the tutorial on UN's site and they seem easy enough and relatively fun. Could i use Silver shower star #3 instead of the formula posted on UN's site.

 

Maybe i'll try a rocket or two with some spinners inside too.

 

Anyone know how to "make lift relatively quiet", will using larger grains do the trick. Up until now i have been using -10mesh-20mesh corned lift and this will shoot anything with a loud explosion.

[optimus]

Depending on how much 'lift thump' noise you can get away with, you can make nice cakes with small mines, comets, and even bombettes, as long as they're broken very softly. Good types of effects for these would be all types of flying fish/falling leaves, waterfalls, or just 'star dumps'. I don't think you need hard breaks to get nice effects. Small rockets with soft breaks look great too.

 

If you're making wheels (anything requiring quickmatch really) try to tone down the bang it makes. I know my plastic coated stuff makes one helluva loud crack when it goes. I would suggest using as few wraps as possible, and using vent holes. This should quieten it down considerably.

 

EDIT:

I'm pretty sure using larger grains will reduce the noise. Chinese ball shells are notoriously loud leaving the gun, and they use relatively fine-grained BP. I also vaguely remember someone saying that their stargun would lift stars with almost no noise. Not sure if this is to do with the stars being loose in the gun, or the lack of wadding, but it might be something to consider...

[Von Bass`]

My parents don't like loud bangs, and neither do my neighbours. So I concentrate on:

 

Wheels

Fountains

Stingers

Starmines

Waterfalls

Lances

 

Everything else I have a few freinds who own farms

[shadopyro]

I seem to have the problem, the only problem being that a fountain is rarely satifying as an effect on its own. What about aerial fireballs? i havent tried it myself but maybe if a napthalene salute or something similar was sent up with a rocket? -its supposed to be pretty impressive! (in fact that going on my list of projects...)

[optimus]

How on earth are you going to make a quiet lampare? I've seen many videos of these and they've all been incredibly loud. Especially the maltese ones.

[delta_echo]

Ohh, waterfalls sound very nice, i have seen the tutorial on UN's site and they seem easy enough and relatively fun. Could i use Silver shower star #3 instead of the formula posted on UN's site.

 

Maybe i'll try a rocket or two with some spinners inside too.

 

Anyone know how to "make lift relatively quiet", will using larger grains do the trick. Up until now i have been using -10mesh-20mesh corned lift and this will shoot anything with a loud explosion.

Just so you know. A waterfall (especially if only a few tubes long) to the average, unexpecting person looks a heck of alot like a power transformer on fire. Lots of smoke and radiant electric white light. So, yes, it is quiet, but it can still attract alot of attention.

[Pretty green flame]

Optimus, you mentioned making quickmatch with as few turn of paper as possible, would this not slow it down dramatically, does pipe wall thickness really matter?

 

 

Delta echo, not to worry, light is the least of my problems and there arent any el. transformers for miles.

[shadopyro]

Thats what they're called?! Ahh ok ignore that idea then.

[optimus]

Optimus, you mentioned making quickmatch with as few turn of paper as possible, would this not slow it down dramatically, does pipe wall thickness really matter?

I mentioned this because my plastic coated Q-match is MUCH louder than my homemade, or commercial kraft Q-match. My own stuff is the quietest, and has the least amount of wraps. I don't think there's a problem with relatively slow Q-match, unless you're using it to light a large, spaced-out front. The number of blackmatch strands and how thick they are might also come into play here, but I'm not really sure to what extent.

[TheSidewinder]

I can attest to that plastic-coated QM being a damn loud BANG when lit!

 

I bought five rolls (165? feet each) of it at the PGI.

 

I took a 2 foot long piece, set it inside a cinder block turned upright, bared 3 inches of match at one end, lit it, and walked about 10 feet away. I should have walked ten YARDS away.

 

Damnation, the thing exploded with a bang as loud as a firecracker, AND scattered remains of the plastic wrap into the next yard. My ears were ringing.

 

Mumbles, have you done the same with yours? Try it, but be forewarned. And LMK if it's what you expected.

 

I'm now actually wondering if this is TOO much bang, like it may rip the QM header off the shell as it burns. The ordinary brown-paper QM burns fast, but doesn't make near as loud a noise nor scatter pieces of itself everywhere. Maybe it would be okay to use from the time-fuse to the lift end. I'll have to experiment and see.

 

M

[Pretty green flame]

Damnation, the thing exploded with a bang as loud as a firecracker, AND scattered remains of the plastic wrap into the next yard. My ears were ringing.

Yes, i know what you mean, i used to use 4 stranded QM and the thing went off with a loud high pitched crack, really disturbing sound (especially if you let it off during a sunday when the church bells are ringing...whoops)

 

Since then i have been using 2 stranded and it's plenty quick and relatively quiet.

[Mumbles]

Same result. My mom thought I was lighting off fire crackers. I only used about a foot too. I got 2 types of quicmatch from the PGI. The plastic coated stuff, and basically the brown kraft stuff with some packing tape over it. I thought I was getting the flat stuff, which is what I wanted. It's still water proof. The plastic coated stuff doesn't seem to burn all that fast at all. I tested it against my single strand stuff. My stuff kicks the commercial stuff's ass. I think my stuff is a happy medium. It burns nice and fast, but no crack. It makes a little whoosh, and is done. No one will be able to tell if my leader burnt in .1 second or .06 seconds. My stuff has about 2 wraps of 50lb paper(it's newsprint you get for packing material for moving), with a layer of clear packing tape over it to water proof it, hold it together, and make it be able to be used instantly. It's still flexible enough to be bent too. I can detail the process if anyone is interested.

[Pretty green flame]

Yes Mumbles, i am interested in the process.

[TheSidewinder]

Thanks, Mumbles. I figured that's what would happen.

 

I thought that kraft-wrapped QM you got was the flat stuff, too??

 

Oh yeah, the *bare* blackmatch inside the blue-coated QM, DOES burn very slowly compared to the "regular" QM (that Steve sells, for e.g.) I did the same test, too. Took a foot long piece of bare match out of the plastic, then a foot long piece out of a bundle I got from Steve earlier this year, then lit them both at once. The blue stuff burned evenly, but slowly. The regular stuff burned much faster, and a little less evenly, than the blue.

 

It sure doesn't seem to matter once it's inside the wrapper though, then it's as fast a burn as I've seen for QM.

 

I'm still wondering if this is actually TOO violent a burn, though. Time will tell.

 

I think I'll make a couple of dummy shells and lift-test them using combinations of the plastic-coat and regular QM.

 

I still wonder if the header will blow itself off the shell, or the piece from the time fuse to lift cup will blow itself out of the way, before passing fire.

 

But then, maybe I'm way off base and it will work fine.

 

M

[Mumbles]

Nope, it was kind of round. Well it can be flat if I run if over with my car. Sorry things got confusing earlier. I will refer to it by color. The flat good stuff that goes bang is blue. The plastic wrapped kraft stuff is yellow. The blue stuff cracked with like a foot. My homemade quickmatch burnt faster than the yellow stuff I picked up from precocious pyrotechnics booth. I didn't burn any bare match. Well, I burnt a bit of the 5 strand flat stuff, and it went very evenly, but much less spray than mine.

 

I really don't think you'll have a problem with the leaders blowing off. With the way you make shells I think everything will be just fine.

 

Anyway, I'll work on getting the quick match thing up after this weekend. It's really simple.

[Pretty green flame]

Well i tried some silent fireworks (some fountains, 2 rockets with glittering tail and some random colored flash pots, these actullay produce no sound just a flash of colored light) yesterday all went well except for the two rockets. You know how it goes, i'm all excited about them so i place the first one in the ramp, light the fuse and retire, at this point i was all nervous about how will it go so anyway, the fuse reached the nozzle....silence....BOOOOM, very high pitched crack that echoed for a long time (scary shit), this was the first rocket. And then my father is like let's let off the other one and i say hell no, they got the same propellant rammed inside so it will most likely CATO, guess what happened, again a high pitched crack that echoed for a long time. Very exciting. Hehe.

 

The post mortem revealed nothing but paper shreads and half the guidance stick was missing.

 

I wish i had filmed this .

[itwasntme]

You could try a fuse rocket. I saw it on one of skylighters newsletters. I tried it with black match pieces and it worked pretty good. About 25 feet.

http://www.skylighter.com/skylighter_info_...co_Fuse_Rockets

No chance of loud catos there. If it doesn't work, it'll just burn.

[Blaf]

Ola PGF!

 

There are three possible reasons for your CATO-ed rockets:

 

1. Unsuitable propellant used

2. Insufficient or uneven ramming

3. Nozzle too small for rocket diameter or rocket walls too thin

 

Of course, there are endless variations & combinations of these three but basically, the reason lays somewhere in between. Usually, the most common cause is adding too large increments of propellant so it can't be rammed evenly. Try smaller increments, yes it takes longer to produce a rocket but reliability inceases accordingly. So what, you've had CATO. No big deal, I even found it exciting in a way...which indeed opposes your quest for silent (fire)works. Besides, this is a relatively old thread and you must have specialized by now...

 

Blaf

[the174th]

try strobes, but there really light and attract attention. but i find if i put them in a empty upside down tissue box, with a hole cut in it facing you, it directs the light so no one else can see it

[JrayJ]

If you want silent and impressive make some mothball fueled lampares. They are easy and awesome

[dagabu]

I can attest to that plastic-coated QM being a damn loud BANG when lit!

 

I bought five rolls (165? feet each) of it at the PGI.

 

I took a 2 foot long piece, set it inside a cinder block turned upright, bared 3 inches of match at one end, lit it, and walked about 10 feet away. I should have walked ten YARDS away.

 

Damnation, the thing exploded with a bang as loud as a firecracker, AND scattered remains of the plastic wrap into the next yard. My ears were ringing.

 

Mumbles, have you done the same with yours? Try it, but be forewarned. And LMK if it's what you expected.

 

I'm now actually wondering if this is TOO much bang, like it may rip the QM header off the shell as it burns. The ordinary brown-paper QM burns fast, but doesn't make near as loud a noise nor scatter pieces of itself everywhere. Maybe it would be okay to use from the time-fuse to the lift end. I'll have to experiment and see.

 

M

 

Quick match is all the same (relatively) on the inside and even a single turn of news print will bang if confined. The plasticized QM will bang if there is not enough room for all of the BP to burn. The BP will burn and violently too if the tube is choked, compressed (watch the video of a roll of it burning, you would swear it was a ground salute!) or too thick.

 

40-50# kraft with a 3/4" inside diameter unchoked will not bang. 4 strand in a 1/4" ID (tight fit) will bang every time. Choke makes for a faster burn, open space makes for a slower burn. Some call it fast match when in a big tube.

[Mumbles]

I think it comes from a multiple strand vs. the large single strand inside the brown quickmatch from Precocious Pyro. The stuff sidewinder was talking about is blue 5 strand from Pyro Formex in San Diego. You can tell the difference when it goes off. The brown stuff burns with a woosh, and there is at least an observable delay between visco and lift of a shell. The 5 strand practically blows up, and I can't observe any delay. It probably comes down to the multiple strands, higher surface, and inability to choke the fire completely. I use it exclusively on the end of my time fuse and spolettes now to pass fire to the burst of my shells. I don't know if this is it, but my shells have been breaking much better lately.