psymon Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 I have made plenty of stars in my time. Some light without a prime others need a BP prime to get them to light. Occasionally I make stars that dont seem to burn completely or leave a large amount of unburnt material behind. What I would like to know is if anyone has some simple compositions that make great stars and don't need a prime. Stars that burn without too much left behind would be good too.
styropyro Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 I really like the Aquapo green because I've never had to use a prime. It burns nice and clean and dosent leave too much leftover stuff behind. His compisition is in the compisition section. It also works really well for its simplicity and it's really cheap and easy to make.
Mumbles Posted October 24, 2006 Posted October 24, 2006 I'm a fan of Win39, its in the Winokour's 40 glitter comps in the composition section. I also really like the spider star I have in there. It is probably my favorite star.
maximusg Posted October 24, 2006 Posted October 24, 2006 I attempted to make some white strobe recently. I didnt have any Ba Nitrate, so i just used KNO3. It didnt strobe but it made the brightest white star i have ever seen. I used pretty fine mgal + some course stuff to get a subtle crackle out of them. I love em and have been puttin them in everything lately. mgal makes awersome stars. no prime needed (depending on how fine the mgal is) And they burn pretty hot and leave little residue behind.
psymon Posted October 24, 2006 Author Posted October 24, 2006 Thanks guys. I will give some of these a go. Is ball milling ingredients for stars an essential step too? I remember making a glitter formula (w#24) and milling the mix up minus the al and iron and screening it in after. I made the star and then tested. It almost exploded with a pop when it lit burning really quickly. In fact a little too fast. Yet when I used a slightly different formula without the milling step it left loads of residue and burned really slowly... So ball milling would be an important step, but would it kill the effect in some stars ?
Frozentech Posted October 24, 2006 Posted October 24, 2006 Thanks guys. I will give some of these a go. Is ball milling ingredients for stars an essential step too? I remember making a glitter formula (w#24) and milling the mix up minus the al and iron and screening it in after. I made the star and then tested. It almost exploded with a pop when it lit burning really quickly. In fact a little too fast. Yet when I used a slightly different formula without the milling step it left loads of residue and burned really slowly... So ball milling would be an important step, but would it kill the effect in some stars ? Most star comps are not milled. In particular color comps, with KClO4 or KClO3. Also not a good idea to mill comps with FeTi, Ti, Fe in them. The only star comps I mill are charcoal comps like tigertail and Chrysanthemum #6. Over-milling *can* kill the effect you are after. Just make sure the individual chems are fine mesh and screen them well together 4 or 5 times and they should mix well enough for almost any star comp.
Recommended Posts