3" ball shell construction?

[MondoMage]

So my plan for this year is to try my hand at making some 3" ball shells (which is about as big as I feel comfortable with at my preferred shoot site). Never having made anything larger than a festival ball, I figured I'd ask those more knowledgeable than me how you go about it. I realize that there's no "one size fits all" description, and that there are a lot of variables involved in getting a "good" break. But I'm not looking for any one specific method (only using H3, for example), rather I'm interested in seeing how other people do it, to get a feel for the various ways that it *can* be done so I have an idea where to start experimenting, and what avenues are available. Looking around on the net, there's a lot of stuff relating to constructing 4" or bigger shells, but not a lot for 3" shells. Although there are a lot of absolutely beautiful 3" shell videos... now if only i figure out how to make one myself, I'd be happy.

[warthog]

http://www.skylighte...ball-shells.asp

 

there is a good tutorial on making plastic 3" ball shells.

 

That is where I started at least though I am not saying it is where you should.

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/4-inch-ball-shell.asp

 

that one is for 4" plastic ball shells.

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/2-inch-canister-shells.asp

 

and for kicks, here is one for 2" plastic cans...

Edited April 23, 2012 by warthog

[bob]

I'm make 3 inch shells to (aren't very good yet ) my biggest problem is I don't have any flash, h3, or whistle

so getting a strong brake is hard

any tipes on making one with out a booster

bob

[warthog]

I made mine without booster, just made them with 2Fg BP, just like in the tutorials.

 

Booster is something I didn't start using until later last year. I have only been at this since last May.

Edited April 24, 2012 by warthog

[Mumbles]

In reality, a 3" shell is usually constructed about the same way as a 4" shell. If you're looking to go plastic, I'd use the skylighter tutorial by Ned Gorski above. It will get the job done for a splash of color or effect. Plastic does have it's disadvantages. A lot of what you may read is really meant for paper shells, and people will try to make it work for plastic. I'm not going to sit here and hate on plastic shells, but they require a few different techniques to get equally performing shells IMO.

 

For paper shells, things aren't really much different until you get to closing the shell. 3" shells are big enough to me that I think you can get a decent round break (flower) out of them. I'm very impressed with some people here who can get big round breaks and even pistils in shells smaller than this. What I mean by this is that there is an advantage (in my opinion) to lining the hemispheres with stars as opposed to filling the entire thing with stars. See the 4" tutorial from skylighter to see what I mean. Hot gluing the stars around the equator isn't necessary, but it's not a bad idea either. Ned makes some darn fine shells, so he has to know what he's talking about. The idea behind it is to avoid there being a gap devoid of stars where the two hemis meet, which can show up in the break. After you've lined the hemispheres with stars, use tissue paper to separate the burst from the stars. This keeps everything locked in. Ned uses granular BP, where as many others use BP (or another burst) coated onto rice hulls, puffed rice, grass seed, etc. etc. Just about anything cheap, light, and relatively non-compressible will do. With paper shells I find it to be an advantage to slightly overfill the shell when using burst coated onto a carrier. It does compress a little. When you put the two hemis together, do not be alarmed if there is an 1/8" or a little more of room between the two halves. I take a wooden dowel and lightly tap the shell all around. This will settle everything into a nice compact bundle. Keep doing this all over the hemispheres until the two halves will finally go together. At this point I like to tape the shell closed with masking tape, and put a band of tape around the hemispheres to seal everything in. When you turn the shell, you shouldn't really hear anything move except maybe some crumbs dribbling through.

 

After you have the shell closed, you have to paste it in. This seals the contents from the fire from the lift, as well as reinforces the walls for a better burst. I typically use 7 layers of 3/4" 35lb tape. 7 layers is about right for pasted paper too in my experience. I've been using BP made with willow on puffed rice to break my 3" shells lately. I've had a little better luck when I sift the dry granules through a 4 mesh screen and use the finer pieces that fall through. They break round for me, I like them, so I leave them unboosted. If you want a bigger break, or your BP isn't quite as powerful as you'd like you can add powdered whistle mix or a variety of flash powders to juice it up a bit. If I was going to, I'd prefer to start at the base burst mix, and slowly increase any booster from there until you get it where you like it or stars start blowing blind.

[bob]

I did try one with polveron and ten layers of pasting some spiking and a 2.5 second time fuse but it broke in a half circle so I`m going to try a nother shell with grass seed and a 4 second fuse (mabe that was the problem)

yes I line the shell with stars and I don`t just dump them in and I make shere that I have to hite the shell to make the sides come to gether

the starting hemisphere I make my self from news paper (4 layers) just like david bleser says to in his book round stars and shells

would using cornd make a good break or should the polveron with some work do the job

Here is a picture of the shell I broke with polveron

I know theres a reflection it was on my bros phone so I had to take a picture of his screen

Thanks so much

bob

[Richtee]

I never made anything but 3"ers. Challenging, but you can get a decent pattern, good effect, and a helluva salute out of them. Often used whistle or a downgraded vitamin F for the break tho... found it hard to get a good BP break.

[Mumbles]

What do you mean when you call something polverone? To me it means unmilled granulated powder. To others it means other things.

[bob]

What I mean is milled black powder that you have added water to and pressed through a 4 to 20 mesh screen (you might know it as riced bp)

doesn't that shell look weird to you?

bob

[MondoMage]

What I mean is milled black powder that you have added water to and pressed through a 4 to 20 mesh screen (you might know it as riced bp)

doesn't that shell look weird to you?

bob

 

It does indeed look somewhat strange. The tail length of the stars are different, and the pattern itself isn't round. Of course, it's hard to tell what's going on from a single picture, but it almost looks like the shell didn't break evenly. A video might make diagnosing the problem a bit easier.Do you have one?

[bob]

Here is the video

thanks for the help

bob

[busspuppy]

Here is the video

thanks for the help

bob

 

 

Umm.... did you forget to put the link?

[bob]

Umm.... did you forget to put the link?

sorry looks like my computer can't post the video

it's really slow it likes to freeze and just as your ready to take it out side to show it how your new TNT works it does something to give you a fake hope

sorry

bob

[bob]

Ok so I shot off a shell last night

it had 14 layers of pasting some spiking and was broke with grass seed with a 1 to 3 ratio

I weird thin was that my time fuse was about 1.25 inches long from the outer tip to the inside of the hemi I used visco that burns 2.5 seconds a inch but in the video the shell went off in about 1.3 seconds

here are some pictures and as you can see it made a quarter circle

I have one circled because it looks like something fell off

[JFeve81]

Did you have your visco tape wrapped to give a bit of a delay? It's possible it burned through the tape causing a premature break. Could have also just been a bad/damaged fuse. Maybe from handling. Maybe from the lift. Maybe the time fuse got damaged and it flashed through instead of burning like it normally should. Not sure what could have fell off but for shells this size you might want to switch from visco to 1/4" time fuse. Just feels safer IMO and also can probably handle the added stresses of a bigger shell better then visco can.

 

The quarter circle shaped break could also be from not having the fire from the fuse start right in the middle of the shell. If it's too close to the top or bottom it will tend to not break in a circle.

Edited May 7, 2012 by JFeve81

[bob]

Ok so pyrocreations has a sale on 750 feet of 1/4 for inch chines time fuse for $80 burns 3 second a inch do you think I should get this?

I did not tap my fuse but I did have a lot of hot glue that covered some of it up

the fuse was good but like you said it could have been from the lift

I thought that with this small of a shell that having it light in the senter was not nesisare (the fuse did end right in the senter and was primed on both ends)

thanks

[Peret]

You didn't post a link so we can look at the fuse, but at that price, I'm assuming it's the useless white time fuse they're trying to dump. Some people have said that fuse works for them, but it didn't work for me or many others. The core is too thin and either it doesn't light, or it burns through and doesn't light the break. Don't buy it, you will be disappointed. Go for the brown striped fuse, like this one from Skylighter. Yes it's expensive compared to the white, but there are other places that sell it a lot cheaper, and the cost is trivial compared to the sunk cost of a dud shell. Ten feet will last you a good long time at less than 2 inches a shell.

[dagabu]

The all white stuff? It was purchased from ACE whom bought it from Pyro Art, it's several years old but is REALLY cheap. It cost $25.00 a roll at the time from ACE and has been used in thousands of shells. If you buy it, make sure to use two of them side by side to ensure ignition.

 

I have had great luck with it cross matched in small shells.

 

-dag

[JFeve81]

nm Edited May 7, 2012 by JFeve81

[Mumbles]

I've used that white time fuse before. If you crossmatch both ends, and use two pieces instead of one, it should work. Many people tend to gravitate toward using some of the better quality fuses. They're more reliable and accurate, which allow intricate effects. Pyrodirect has some of the better fuse available for $10/10ft or $40/~60ft. They also have small quantities of the white fuse available if you want to try it before committing to an entire 750' roll.

 

It sounds to me that some side spit leaked into your burst charge before you wanted it to. Tape will usually block the fire to give more reliable delays. Try to make it a point to light the shell from the center. Something as simple as a drinking straw slipped over the fuse and filled with blackmatch or granular BP will probably work fine. Thin paper tubes like for quickmatch is my material of preference. Even if it's not absolutely necessary, piping fire to the center of the shell is a good habit to get into. It certainly can't make a shell look worse. The early ignition is probably responsible for the break you experienced. Try another, and if the delay time is better, hopefully you'll get a nice full break. From what I'm seeing, the spread and density of the stars in the break looks great.

[bob]

it says it's value chines time fuse in the picture it is white

they say it's good fuse but it needs to be crossmatched to light

the place I would have got it from (they have brown stuff to) just had a fire so I can't buy from them for a while

I'll try to get some brown fuse

thanks

[bob]

I shot of a nother shell and it broke in a half circle again it was broke with polveron (milled and granulated) it looked just like the other on I broke with polveron

I taped the fuse and it should have been a 2.6 second delay but it was under a second so I think I'll make a spoulet and see how that goes

thanks

[bob]

I've used that white time fuse before. If you crossmatch both ends, and use two pieces instead of one, it should work. Many people tend to gravitate toward using some of the better quality fuses. They're more reliable and accurate, which allow intricate effects. Pyrodirect has some of the better fuse available for $10/10ft or $40/~60ft. They also have small quantities of the white fuse available if you want to try it before committing to an entire 750' roll.

 

It sounds to me that some side spit leaked into your burst charge before you wanted it to. Tape will usually block the fire to give more reliable delays. Try to make it a point to light the shell from the center. Something as simple as a drinking straw slipped over the fuse and filled with blackmatch or granular BP will probably work fine. Thin paper tubes like for quickmatch is my material of preference. Even if it's not absolutely necessary, piping fire to the center of the shell is a good habit to get into. It certainly can't make a shell look worse. The early ignition is probably responsible for the break you experienced. Try another, and if the delay time is better, hopefully you'll get a nice full break. From what I'm seeing, the spread and density of the stars in the break looks great.

 

I will make shere that the fire is in the senter on my next shell

right know I'm trying to get my ball grinder going I thought it would not have been harder then making a star roller but I seem to have been rong on that one

Edited May 9, 2012 by bob

[bob]

well I shot of a shell last night with grass seed in a 5 to 1 ratio spollette for timing I crossmatched it for a better chance of it lighting

and the spollette seems to not have done it's job it did light but it stoped about half way through

I do have the shell right know

I'll make a nother spollette and see if I can shoot it again tonight

bob

[dagabu]

well I shot of a shell last night with grass seed in a 5 to 1 ratio spollette for timing I crossmatched it for a better chance of it lighting

and the spollette seems to not have done it's job it did light but it stoped about half way through

I do have the shell right know

I'll make a nother spollette and see if I can shoot it again tonight

bob

 

EEEK! How did you make your spollette Bob?

 

-dag