cplmac Posted October 30, 2006 Posted October 30, 2006 I haven't seen a thread on these yet, so here goes. I make mine in 5 gallon buckets. Bury the bucket in a snug hole, tape your squib to the inside of the bottom of the bucket, spread 2 cups of 2FA evenly across the bottom, put a paper plate over it, pour in the powdered calf milk up to the top of the bucket, run your lead wire at least 50 yards away, and let 'er rip. You should get a nice rolling fireball about 40 feet high and 25 feet or so around. Not appropriate for a neighborhood ir that really needs to be said. If you want a little bit of concussion you can tamp down the creamer a bit, but make sure not to lean over the bucket while you tamp, and do it gently. This works with all different size buckets, but the 5 gallon variety give a really nice large rolling fireball, whereas containers in the 1 gallon range normally give you a narrow shortish pillar of fire with no concussion.
styropyro Posted October 30, 2006 Posted October 30, 2006 I've attempted a creamora fireball, but it didn't work. Ny setup was some black powder at the bottom(which wasn't near as good as it is now for me, I wonder if that was the problem) and about the same amount of creamora on top. This was all down an 18" long 1.75" mortar with a toilet paper wadding packed on top. It was bottom fused, so when I lit it, it just went "whoosh" and the only flame was from the black powder. I'll try it again in a few days once I cook some more willow charcoal and turn it into black powder to see if it was the black powder that was the problem.
pa_pyro Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Here is one of my mini creamer fireballs. I used a small layer of bp in the bottom and filled the rest of the tube with creamer. I like these little ones because they're hard to get wrong.
cplmac Posted October 31, 2006 Author Posted October 31, 2006 Styro, I probably have at least 50 times as much creamer as BP by weight. Like I said, in a 5 gallon bucket filled to the brim only 1.5 cups of 2FA BP. I think using a disc is key, it helps the powder get "shot" out of the bucket instead of having the BP mostly blow through the creamer.
styropyro Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Wow, so I'm guessing the 1/15 an ounce to a pound dosen't apply here . So when you mean disc, do you mean a disk of something like cardboard packed on top of the powders?
itwasntme Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Wow, do I have to make these in such large quanities? I want to shoot them out of some spiral tubes I found and are super strong, about 5/8 inch ID. I would be using some 3FG bp as lift and some non dairy creamer I'm going to buy tomorow or something. Does it matter what brand? If I cant get it for some strange reason, I've heard of using flour or powdered sugar. Never tried it and hope that I could. A little bit OT, but has anyone had success with flour in a tube or spoon and blow into a windproof lighter? I tried it but with no results.
pa_pyro Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 For the disk maybe use cardboard and make it like a star mine disk, with holes in it so the creamer catches fire. Flour doesn't seem to work as well a creamer does. I use off brand creamer and it works fine. The tube I used in the video was 3/4 " I.D. and 2" tall
ewest Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 I've never made cremora fireballs but these are similar: So I'm messing around with my dad and brother one day making some mortar shells and they both want to be helpful. So instead of them helping me with shells, I grab a couple boxes of moth balls and assign to them the task of coffee grinding them all down for the Naphtalene. We made a couple in some 3/4" mortars I had and a couple more in some used festival ball mortars. We side fused them and poured some BP in the bottom then loaded them to the top with the Naphtalene. The last video is my favorite because some guys down the street were shooting some commercial cakes and it makes a nice back drop 3/4" Mothball Fireball Daytime3/4" Mothball Fireball NightimeFestival Ball Mothball Mortar 1Festival Ball Mothball Mortar 2
styropyro Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 I will try using something like a star mine disk once I make enough black powder. Would it be helpful to add a little meal to the creamora so it lights easier or should I leave it as is so it dosent burn so fast? But the thing that holds me back from doing this is the cost off all of this creamora! A pound of this stuff costs a dollar over here. But this has to be amazing to see this fireball in person. I also wonder what a bunch of creamora in a 4 inch shell with a good sized black powder bursting charge to distribute the burning powder everywhere would look like. It would be an easy quick arial shell when you get bored.
saluterocket Posted November 1, 2006 Posted November 1, 2006 just an idea to throw out there, but has anyone tried to use this effect in an aerial shell, an aerial creamora or mothball fireball would look quite neat in my opinion. plus it would be and inexpensive and relatively easy project.
Pretty green flame Posted November 1, 2006 Posted November 1, 2006 just an idea to throw out there, but has anyone tried to use this effect in an aerial shell, an aerial creamora or mothball fireball would look quite neat in my opinion. plus it would be and inexpensive and relatively easy project. I belive a lampara shell fits your description quite well. Now i'm no expert on this type of shell so don't take my word for it. A lampara is basicly a canister shell filled with flash powder and a bag of gasoline, this gives a loud report and a fireball in the sky. Maybe the other members can give a more detailed description.
saluterocket Posted November 1, 2006 Posted November 1, 2006 yes i know what a lampara shell is PGF but from looking at passfire, it looks quite dificult and tedious to construct one of these devices, thats why i believe that these may be an easier alternative. i personally dont like the idea of a liquid fueled fireball.
Mumbles Posted November 1, 2006 Posted November 1, 2006 When properly contructed, liquid fireballs IMO look better and are safer. You have no idea how many cremora pots I've seen light grass fires. It's almost like clumps of cremora stick together and fall burning to the ground. I've never seen a liquid one do this. However, if a liquid fireball is constructed INCORRECTLY, they are indeed quite dangerous, and wouldn't recomend them to someone inexperienced. For an aerial cremora, I'm not sure how they would work. Probably not as well as they do on the ground. I think the burst charge would have to be too hard to properly light it. If I were to make it, I would use a ball shell with a bag of granulated BP in the center surrounded by cremora.
cplmac Posted November 1, 2006 Author Posted November 1, 2006 Okay, first the disc I was talking about in my creamora was a paper plate which makes a perfectly snug fit in a 5 gallon bucket, no holes in it. I'm sure you could put holes in it and it would still work, but you don't have to. I have never tried to use flour but I don't think it would work, it's the fat in the creamer that burns nicely. I don't use coffee creamer I use powdered calves milk that farmers mix to nurse baby cows. Stuff smell great, kind of sweet. You can do creamoras in mortars, but you have to be careful how much you put in a mortar because you can blow the plug out of the bottom, I did this with a 3" mortar this summer. If you use creamer you don't have to mix anything with it, regular old BP will ignite it. Other creamers and I believe sugar will burn, but they won't look as good as the fatty calves milk. I highly recommend against using sugar, even if it does burn it will rain tiny droplets of caramel all over everything in the vicinity. Had this problem with an improperly loaded creamora once too, it stuck to everything. Ewest a buddy of mine made a 5" mortar creamora filled with napthalene, he made it the same way powdering up mothballs. It stunk real bad, and 4 months later the mortar has finally stopped smelling. I haven't had a single grassfire start with one of my creamora's yet, and I've fired at least a fifty of them, but gasoline firepots almost always start the grass on fire. I haven't tried making a creamora shell, but I have all the stuff so I'm going to make one this weekend. I will post the video. I'm thinking the first one I will make a 5 incher. P.S. I don't recommend making one of these out of gasoline unless you have plenty of experience. The gas ones don't work well with BP, and they rain liquid fire, exceptionally dangerous.
saluterocket Posted November 1, 2006 Posted November 1, 2006 this may be obvious but if the break for an aerial creamora would be too hard to properly ignite the creamer, wouldnt a lets say 20% meal 80% creamer mix aid in ignition though it may slightly lessen the effect.
cplmac Posted November 2, 2006 Author Posted November 2, 2006 I'm gonna try it without the BP first. If that doesn't work I will try it with the BP. Either way I will post the results.
Mumbles Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 Theres a thread about this on PML right now. They say use slow flash as the central burst.
saluterocket Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 cplmac, did you get to testing the aerial creamoras, and if yes, how did it turn out, also, mumbles, what is pml, i am not fimilliar with it.
Mumbles Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 PML is Pyrotechnic Mailing List. Details can be found here: http://www.pgi.org/pgi-d.aspx
zombie Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 Hi everyone. I just thought I'd add that one of the old skylighter newsletter articles has an article on making lampares out of naphthalene and film cannisters. The method uses a mix of naphthalene and meal in a ratio of 2:1. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm dying to. The article is a really long one, but well written and fun to read. http://www.skylighter.com/skylighter_info_...cle.asp?Item=39
Mumbles Posted November 10, 2006 Posted November 10, 2006 I am trying out a few cremora shells for thanks giving. I am going to use 2 4" plastic shells. 5g of slow flash as the burst in a bag in the center. Surrounded by cremora. I am trying 2 different slow flashes though. Standard 7-3 ratio. In one case I am using all -325 mesh bright Al. The other I am using a 50-50 mix of -325mesh bright and Indian Blackhead.
ewest Posted November 10, 2006 Posted November 10, 2006 That sounds pretty interesting, I hope it works. If you can, take a video, that'd be worth seeing.
erid Posted August 24, 2010 Posted August 24, 2010 Sorry for bring up a very old topic, but I have some questions about making some creamoras for a small trainwreck display. I've seen some videos (Like this: ) where it has sort of a tall, vertical fireball to it. Is this out of a certain type tubes, or a certain type of fuel?
dagabu Posted August 25, 2010 Posted August 25, 2010 (edited) Mum, how did your shells work out? Edited August 25, 2010 by dagabu
Mumbles Posted August 25, 2010 Posted August 25, 2010 They were crappy. The fireballs were too small. If you burst them too hard you risk not igniting everything. Under lifted bigger shells might be a solution, but 4" ball shells lifted as normal didn't cut it. I'll stick with lampares. The best mix I found was a mixture of 4FA and slow flash.
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