stckmndn Posted July 19, 2011 Author Posted July 19, 2011 Be careful with that string, you'll spoil yourself rotten with it. Nothing else will measure up. The real problem with hemp is that it varies wildly in quality and consistency. I've generally had better luck with Hungarian over the Romanian products, but still haven't found anything incredibly stellar. I'm probably just getting the Pyro supplies stuff. For that kind of money I may become strngmndn. I'm pretty excited about it. Will have a chance to see how bad my garage sale string sucked.
stckmndn Posted July 19, 2011 Author Posted July 19, 2011 One more thing while we're on the topic of spiking. I've seen a few tutorials on the offset spiking method but no one seems to want to show the spoulette side of their shell. Is there a way to make the spiking pattern identical on both sides? Is there a good video out there?
dagabu Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 One more thing while we're on the topic of spiking. I've seen a few tutorials on the offset spiking method but no one seems to want to show the spoulette side of their shell. Is there a way to make the spiking pattern identical on both sides? Is there a good video out there? THERE IS!! Give me a chance to get home and dig it up for you. Its genius how easy it is. -dag
stckmndn Posted July 19, 2011 Author Posted July 19, 2011 Very nice. I knew there must be a way. Thanks as always, Dag.
stckmndn Posted July 19, 2011 Author Posted July 19, 2011 Well, that video's a keeper. Tom's craftsmanship is amazing. Thanks Dag.
WonderBoy Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 Here are some off-set spiking pictures: Definitely not my best spike job, but eh it's just to test some stars Before spiking I usually mark it off on the top. I used to just eyeball the string placement, but the marks have helped with consistency, even though I still just eyeball the marks I think this is the hemp string from Walmart that Mumbles was talking about. I bought it a while ago when I was browsing and spotted it, but had never tried it before this. It varies a lot in thickness.
stckmndn Posted July 21, 2011 Author Posted July 21, 2011 Alright, the string just showed up and I'm a little taken aback. The roll is only 3.5" X 4". Was expecting something quite a bit larger. All I can say is this stuff better damn well have some magical pyro properties. Ha ha. Really looking forward to trying it out. It is pretty.
stckmndn Posted July 21, 2011 Author Posted July 21, 2011 Here are some off-set spiking pictures: Definitely not my best spike job, but eh it's just to test some stars Before spiking I usually mark it off on the top. I used to just eyeball the string placement, but the marks have helped with consistency, even though I still just eyeball the marks I think this is the hemp string from Walmart that Mumbles was talking about. I bought it a while ago when I was browsing and spotted it, but had never tried it before this. It varies a lot in thickness. Thanks for the pictures. I also found some pics in 50AE's gallery of the same technique. Still a little confused but will figure it out with some trial and error.
dagabu Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 Yup, thats why I am using hemp or cotton STRING for spiking. I love linen string but the price is way out of line. -dag
Algenco Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 Yup, thats why I am using hemp or cotton STRING for spiking. I love linen string but the price is way out of line. -dag $20 for the string $18 for shipping
Mumbles Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 Off set spiking is hard to show or describe, but really easy once you pick it up. Normal spiking is a game of halfing the shell. You'll notice that every spiking pattern is either a square of two, or a combination of halves and thirds. Mark off the number of verticals you need. On the first time around instead of going exactly across the shell, go one mark over. It doesn't matter which way as long as you are consistent. The moving one over starts the offset. Every other time around you need to skip one. I find it easiest to explain on a 3" shell as there are 12 verticals, and a clock analogy is easy. After you tie off to the spolette/timefuse you start at 12, and come up from the bottom on 5. From there you cross to 10, and come back up at 3, and so on. The pattern will be: 125103816114927 After 7 you should come back to 12. This is where I start the spiral down to begin horizontally spiking.
stckmndn Posted July 22, 2011 Author Posted July 22, 2011 Thanks Mumbles. I have a template for marking off the 12 verticals and it's quite handy. But I'd be interested in seeing other pyro's templates, especially a 24 point jobber. If anyone knows of a great printout please let me know.
Mumbles Posted July 22, 2011 Posted July 22, 2011 http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/3209-offset-spiking-templates-for-canister-shells/ I normally just do it by eye. Keep dividing in halves or thirds and they're all very easy to do.
stckmndn Posted July 25, 2011 Author Posted July 25, 2011 Well I've had a chance to spike a few shells with the new string. You can have my seven strand linen flax twine when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. This stuff is amazing and, even at that ridiculously stupid price, I will be buying more. Get this, you don't even get a break on shipping. It's $10 for each role you buy. And Mumbles, thanks for the spiking instructions. Got it right the first time. This string makes it nearly impossible to screw up. Will be posting some pics in the gallery in a week or two. 1
SjeefOne Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 Quick question, I've just pumped 2 batches of 3/4" comets for cannister shells. 500g TT and 500g Willow. Now I've planned to use them in cannister shells, do they need to be primed? I see a lot of construction pics showing stacked comets which still look nice and smooth (so my guess is they're not primed). Can anyone give me some advice? Is maybe one end being primed or something like that. Thnx!
fredhappy Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 (edited) Just make it common practice to pime everything, C based streamers/stars included. I ve shot very smooth, unprimed 2 inch kamuro comets, but found them to light a bit hesitantly . Priming solved this problem, and made them take fire more evenly. Especially with alll the work involved with building these cannister comet shells, I'd rather not take the chance of blowing anything blind. Edited August 25, 2011 by fredhappy
SjeefOne Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 Thnx Fred, My normal practice is to prime everything (even charcoal based stars) but from the pics I've seen of stacked comet cylinder shells they look way to smooth to be primed. It would indeed be a shame to blow my nice comets blind as I've lovingly pumped them all 1 at a time (next up is a 3/4 starplate napdhamnit )
Mumbles Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 One problem I've run into with priming comets is that it makes the diameters and heights slightly uneven. This can occasionally make fitting them properly into a shell a bit of a challenge. The work around is to fit them all into the shell, and prime them after they've been loaded. After you have the brickwork wall of comets, it's most common to paint them with a NC slurry of BP and then shake some granulated BP inside to further enhance the ignition. Any excess can be poured out. Water based primes work too if you have the time to wait. They both dry pretty quickly if you have a fan blowing on them. I got a bit rushed in finishing everything up for PGI last year so I got a bit lazy with the pictures, but these were spider comets and actually left unprimed and lit just fine. I wouldn't do that with everything though. However, after they're loaded, brushing and priming them is a pretty quick process. Trust me, I am very glad I had a gang plate for this shell. 95 comets in just one break. http://www.amateurpy...ed-comets-4jpg/
SjeefOne Posted August 25, 2011 Posted August 25, 2011 I got a bit rushed in finishing everything up for PGI last year so I got a bit lazy with the pictures, but these were spider comets and actually left unprimed and lit just fine. I wouldn't do that with everything though. However, after they're loaded, brushing and priming them is a pretty quick process. Trust me, I am very glad I had a gang plate for this shell. 95 comets in just one break. http://www.amateurpy...ed-comets-4jpg/Thnx Mumbles, I was actually referring to exactly those pics! And for the exact reason I was in doubt, because when i prime my pumped stars they get all odd shaped as well. So then they wouldn't stack as nicely either. So painting the comet-wall it is.Thanks again, I'll post some pics when I get to constructing. I'm going to pump another 500g batch of TT with real coarse Ti (10-18 Mesh) added
NightPainter Posted September 10, 2011 Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Any suggestions on how to add some diameter to 3" plastic ball shells? After spiking them with fiber tape they are about 3/8" to small for the guns. I don't want to paste them because they would probably take 10 or more layers to get them snug inside the guns. It would take far to much fiber tape... Any problem with taping the crap out of just the seam to get a better fit? I did one and it resembles Saturn with a ring around the center, but it fits much better. Also I don't want just go a little stronger on the lift....that FFg is expensive for those of us working without a ball mill. Thanks Edited September 10, 2011 by NightPainter
Peret Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 yes the "3 inch" plastic shells are way small for the standard 3.1 inch mortar. Some of my 3 inchers went much lower than I expected because I got lazy with the pasting on some of them. The plastic is worth a half dozen layers so they don't need much pasting . Why don't you try just wrapping them in newspaper on top of the fiber tape to increase the diameter, then tape over that, or maybe paste one layer of kraft over the newspaper? It only needs protection from blowing off at the launch.
NightPainter Posted September 13, 2011 Posted September 13, 2011 yes the "3 inch" plastic shells are way small for the standard 3.1 inch mortar. Some of my 3 inchers went much lower than I expected because I got lazy with the pasting on some of them. The plastic is worth a half dozen layers so they don't need much pasting . Why don't you try just wrapping them in newspaper on top of the fiber tape to increase the diameter, then tape over that, or maybe paste one layer of kraft over the newspaper? It only needs protection from blowing off at the launch. Thanks I did not think of the newspaper layer. I used folded tissue paper which worked pretty well.... but not real easy to work with. So I ended up spiking them with some cotton string which added some quick diameter and helped making pasting easier. 3 layers of #70 kraft paper did the trick.......much better fit in the guns.
stckmndn Posted September 21, 2011 Author Posted September 21, 2011 I have a few MJR tumblers that do a fine job of making fast powder in a short amount of time. At a certain point they begin to cake and the grinding is effectively done. So I empty them out, scrape the powder out of the barrel and refill them and run them for another 20-30 minutes. And they cake again. Which is good. I hear about contests about best powders. What more could I do to improve my results? Not that it's necessary but I'm just curious.
stckmndn Posted December 3, 2011 Author Posted December 3, 2011 (edited) Time to dust off this thread. Hey Dag, when you make round shells for rocket headers, do you just roll up a fuse canulle to pass fire to the center of the shell like you did with the timed report can? Those round shells are just too pretty to ignore, even if it does mean pasting. Blah. Thanks Edited December 3, 2011 by stckmndn
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