thirteen Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 im looking to order a 1lb kit and came across 2 one from firesmith and one from wolter has anyone used either of these setshttp://www.firesmithtools.com/#/whistle/http://www.wolterpyrotools.com/?page=cc_catg&cat=rocket
dagabu Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 im looking to order a 1lb kit and came across 2 one from firesmith and one from wolter has anyone used either of these setshttp://www.firesmith....com/#/whistle/http://www.wolterpyr...catg&cat=rocket If I may, I would like to point out a few things that may become important to you now or perhaps in the future. First, the Smith and Wolter kits are very different, Smith's spindle is about half the length of Wolters and both kits are made for the use of silicate whistle which has a lot more power to it then the more tame but cheaper benzoate based whistles. Performance of benzoate whistle with either set is rather pedestrian, IMHO. Second, these tooling sets are pretty much one trick ponies, meaning that they are only good for whistle. They are not made for BP, strobe, chuffers, etc. This limitation will leave you wanting another tooling set in the future, a set that has longer legs. Third, They are kind of pricey for a one trick pony, you would be better served with an all in one tooling set. BEHOLD! The Steve LaDuke Universal Hybrid tooling set. I would go with Ben Smith's set as he uses brass for the spindle. With the UH set you can make 11 different rockets to date and you can make long winded screamers that you can tweak by adding more or less whistle on the spindle where the dedicated whistle tooling you have linked cannot. You can also make strobe rockets with this set, BP rockets, chuffers, colored tail rockets, heavy lift rockets and on and on. -dag
thirteen Posted July 11, 2012 Author Posted July 11, 2012 i wasnt sure about the universal kit but it sounds like a winner thx for the help
nater Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 I have the Hybrid / Universal set in several sizes. 1# and 3# from Firesmith, 1/4" Super Bottle Rocket Kit from Steve M, and 1/2" set from a fine member here. My 1# BP Coreburner set from Wolter pretty much sits and collects dust right now. With the tooling I have, I have now had good flights using the same fuel in everything but the 3#. I have not yet pressed a rocket on the 3# set to know if my fuel will work well with it or not. I have made strobe and whistle on the SBR set with acceptable results considering a minor limitation of the tiny tooling. Now that I have a great collection of tooling, I plan to dial in the different fuels to my tools and not spend much more money on dedicated rocket spindles. The 1# hybrid from Firesmith is a great set of tools, and you will not be disappointed. I would recommend the spindle puller as well. Personally, I don't have a need for the tubing extender, but if you fill your motors all the way to the top of the tube, it will come in handy.
LehighValleyPyro Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I have Ben's 1 LB Strobe tooling which works great with benny whistle fuel all the way up the spindle. http://youtu.be/Nf70xgWnxLE
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