Break Booster

[garyrapp55]

I'm making 3" shells with coated rice hulls for break. I've read I should use a booster and I have chems to do whistle mix as booster, but I can't find anything saying how much to use. I'm going to guess a gram each unless you guys can help me out.

Gary

[Xtreme Pyro]

I'm making 3" shells with coated rice hulls for break. I've read I should use a booster and I have chems to do whistle mix as booster, but I can't find anything saying how much to use. I'm going to guess a gram each unless you guys can help me out.

Gary

 

I don't normally use whistle but ive heard of people using upwards of ~5 grams of whistle as a booster in 3" shells. I normally use flash (70/30) in my shells, for a 3" I use somewhere around 1.5g - 2g depending on what kind of shell it is.

[garyrapp55]

I'll start with 1.5g then and go from there. How do you know when your break is too hard?

[Seymour]

Your stars fly wider than you want, and the burst become sparse. That's a matter of taste. It might be too hard for someone else, but you want that, or vice versa.

 

Either that, or your stars blow blind, but in my opinion that's not often over burst, that's usually just stars of insufficient quality.

[PersonGuyDude]

I have a similar question.

Some people prepare whistle in rather complicated ways, if I remember correctly. To use as burst booster can you simply screen and/or shake in a tub 70/30 Pot Perch and Sodium Benzoate + a few % of iron oxide?

[garyrapp55]

Is the iron oxide needed?

[pyr0ph1L]

I have always been using 66/34 dark FP for the booster in my 3" shells. 2g of that FP seems to do the job just perfectly.

[burningRNX]

I use granulated because I make rockets also .

granulated is less prone to migrate through the burst I think.

No hassle with screening also.

I don't think its really nessesairy to use iron oxide in booster whistle.

[Mumbles]

I typically use a catalyst of some sort. I generally use copper oxychloride, but iron oxide works too. It's one of those situations where you don't need a catalyst, but you may find you need a touch more to get the breaks where you want, which isn't really an issue. I typically do granulate with 2-3% red gum. The granules aren't all that hard, but you don't necessarily need them to be hard. Some of the other things I do with whistle require it to be granulated, so I just use the same stuff to boost shell breaks.

[dagabu]

I have a similar question.

Some people prepare whistle in rather complicated ways, if I remember correctly. To use as burst booster can you simply screen and/or shake in a tub 70/30 Pot Perch and Sodium Benzoate + a few % of iron oxide?

 

I would not screen of shake a dry mixture of whistle, it's a lot like flash and makes static when shaken in a tub (so I am told). Use white gas to keep the mix insensitive while mixing and then let dry. I use 20-40 mesh when the whistle is for burst and 8 mesh when granulating for rockets. I use mineral oil in both so that I don't have two different recipes to worry about.

 

-dag

[Seymour]

Besides the more critical safety issues, which Dagabu covered, many people in damper climates, especially those using Sodium salt fuels like the water protection features that oily lubricants give.

 

There's nothing like developing your burst in summer and getting great consistent bursts, to make an identically manufactured shell in spring and having it burst a lot less assertively.