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Skylighter film cannister shell tutorial...


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Posted
Instead of simply making the film cannister shells, could one also use the same basic principles to launch cannister salutes? I imagine a different tube besides pvc would be best?
Posted
Don't launch salutes from PVC.
Posted
When I made my first dummy shells, I simply filled plastic medicine bottles with coarse salt and fired them from a 2.5" cardboard mortar. Then I simply inserted a time fuse with lots of glue around and filled them with flash, just to see if the time fuse worked, that it wasn't pushed into the "shell" from the launch gasses etc. It worked excellent.
Posted (edited)

If you continue to read the Skylighter article to the notes you will find A link to cardboard mortars they sell on Skylighter. In the note it says not to use PVC but rather to get yourself HDPE or FiberglAss or Cardboard mortars to launch even these small shells. PVC is not worth the trouble ever. I know of a couple of places that do sell 1.5" Fiberglass but it is for regular hardware types of uses. When I started out lAst year it was launching FCS of all types and it was using a 1.5" piece of fiberglass pipe I purchased from McMaster-Carr. I still use it to this day and it hAs worked well for me. If you want to be sAfe and not spend the money I did, buy cardboard mortars. I started with those and eventually made a reloadable cake out of FCS's with them that work=ed out really well for a while.

 

A film canister filled with Vit F that goes off inside a PVC pipe would really ruin your day and maybe blind, maim or kill you. Why even try it?

Edited by warthog
Posted (edited)
In answer to the question though, if using a proper mortar and using proper common sense methods to assemble the device, you can certainly launch small canister salutes in film canister shells. Edited by warthog
Posted
I'm just curious, where does one find film canisters these days?
Posted (edited)

I'm just curious, where does one find film canisters these days?

 

COSTCO and Walmart, the photo labs still do C-41 process in store. Be warned, there is usually a waiting list and if you tell them that are for you personally, they will not likely give them to you. Schools, churches, outreach programs get them first.

 

See what they go for on eBay!

 

-dag

Edited by dagabu
Posted
Upward of 50 cents each? I think I'll pass, there are other suitable plastic containers. I have more plastic eggs than I know what to do with, and I seem to recall the price was around 5 cents each at Walmart a few days after Easter. There are also these on Ebay available year round.
Posted (edited)

Ten to twelve cents each and up by my calculation...

 

I have a couple of five gallon buckets full, one Kodak type and one Fuji type.

I get a lot of them free from Walgreens and there are plenty to be had, for me and the rest of the places asking for them.

They haven't ever turned me away.

 

My diabetes blood test strips also come in little film canister like containers, many of which have been blown to smithereens. :)

 

Eggs can be had at any hobby store year round without shipping, though there may be sales tax depending on local laws.

Edited by warthog
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