4 inch shells

[Tanner808]

Hi everyone I'm thinking about making some 4 inch ball shells but I need to know several things so if anyone is familiar with this size I would appreciate any help

1- How long should the delay be for a 4 inch shell

2- How many layers of pasting of gummed tape is recommended

3- What size of gummed paper tape should I use

4- What sized stars should I use, or how long should they burn for

[Seymour]

1: 3 seconds is what I normally use.

 

2: Depends on the effect you're after, and burst choice, but at a guess (I paste traditionally, with paste and Kraft), eight to ten?

 

3: I'll leave this to the gummed tape pyros.

 

4: again, it depends what you're after. For a colour Peony, 1cm stars would be rather nice. For a palm shell, you'd want them about 2.5cm (a full inch). A Dahlia shell will have stars in between, perhaps 1.5cm, and chrysanthemum effects may be as small as a peony, or as large as a dahlia star, depending on formula and artistic direction.

 

As for how long they should burn for, it's also dependent on Artistic effect. under standard conditions you would not want the stars burning more than five or six seconds to avoid raining flaming stars on the ground, but if you are interested in a longer effect, there's no reason why you cannot increase the timefuse to 3.5 to 4 seconds and lift it higher.

 

A basic colour peony, or a short lived and dense chrysanthemum, you'd expect a burn time of 1.5 to 2 seconds.

[pyrojig]

@ Tanner808....,

It sounds like you have limited experience in making shells. Not here to judge, but your asking questions about basic knowledge that you should already know. I am one to read , learn , then practice. It may be best to start with festive ball size shells to get your learning curve out of the way, then move to larger shells. Here is a site with some basic tables and info that may help you in your quest to learn.

 

http://www.creagan.n...ks/tables.shtml

Edited February 26, 2012 by pyrojig

[Tanner808]

Thankyou for the link it will be helpful

I am fairly new to this, about four months, I have made 1 inch 1.5 inch 2 inch and 3 inch shells and did most things as far as pasting, star size and timing by trial and error and with my friends help. But I'm kind of over doing that with 4 inch shells because they are bigger and thus way more expensive.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Tanner808