KAP Posted November 29, 2006 Posted November 29, 2006 Hi, I am new here and I have been enjoying the art of pyrotechnics for 5 years now , there is some great info here and I am glad to be here. I still havent mastered shell burst charges and some stars still blow out. I have been using paper tubes for a while , I was just wondering how many shells can be fired from the htbe tubes before they need to go in the trash. Thanks, Kirk
Mumbles Posted November 29, 2006 Posted November 29, 2006 Well, it's hard to tell. Generally you use them until they fail, or noticeable damage is seen. Cracked plug, crack in the tube, stretching of the tube near the botttom, it being in 7 pieces on the lawn. All common things to look out for. With paper there are a few other things to watch out for. Unraveling on the inside or outside are things to look for. They're not neccesarily signs to toss them, but if you see them you should fix them. Coating the inside with minwax wood hardener is supposed to extend the life of the tubes. Once they unravel, or the inside is burnt away to a point where it has a noticeable increase in diameter, you should toss them or find other uses for them. Glad to see you decided to join the forum. I hope you have many years of learning and sharing with us.
Frozentech Posted November 29, 2006 Posted November 29, 2006 Hi, I am new here and I have been enjoying the art of pyrotechnics for 5 years now , there is some great info here and I am glad to be here. I still havent mastered shell burst charges and some stars still blow out. I have been using paper tubes for a while , I was just wondering how many shells can be fired from the htbe tubes before they need to go in the trash. Thanks, Kirk Do you mean HDPE tube ? If so, I agree with Mumbles, no set number. Most of the tubes used by the company I shoot for are about 7 years old, there was evidently a mass replacement of tubes just before the millenium celebrations. Some tubes have blown or split plugs since then tho, at random, no idea exactly how many. Tubes are inspected during set up before each show, any that are bad are pulled and replaced.
Frozentech Posted January 5, 2007 Posted January 5, 2007 do you have to clean the HDPE tubes from time to time?or they stay clean, as papertubes?i used pvc pipes, but they are not so good.they overheat kind of quick, and the leftover from the lift keeps stucking at the walls. almost makes the pipe unable to load after a couple of shots!now i ordered real HDPE motars from a local supplier(3" = 4euros).thats why i`m asking. All I have ever done with HDPE is to make sure the old lift cup desbris, paper, etc doesn't accumulate in the bottom of the tube.
Mumbles Posted January 5, 2007 Posted January 5, 2007 I suppose a hosing out from time to time couldn't hurt anything. I know some potassium carbonate and what not does accumulate. Be sure to do it outside, I am sure there will be some wonderful H2S generated.
KAP Posted January 6, 2007 Author Posted January 6, 2007 I would think pvc tubes would be dangerous, pvc is very brittle and can fragment. Good choice to go with HDPE .
ewest Posted January 6, 2007 Posted January 6, 2007 I just hose them out to get the debris out of them like Mumbles said. If nothing else I want the ends clean so when I pick them up to move around my hands don't get all dirty. On a side note, I just ordered 40 more 2" mortars. I found a tutorial from Skylighter where you stick them all in a milk crate and link festival ball fuses together to make one big finale. It works really well and if I can get the video from my family member I'll post a tutorial on it.
cplmac Posted January 6, 2007 Posted January 6, 2007 I've never cleaned the gun grease out of our mortars. But we do have cleaning sticks which are basically a stick with a nail or screw run through the end to hook out the stubborn lift cups. You could also probably just blow them out with compressed air. I'm not a fan of hosing mortars out because of the risk of bloating the wood plugs. Between 3" and 6" we have over 2000 mortars and the only time we ever have to replace one is when there is a catastrophic failure usually due to improper loading. The first time this happened was when a chain of 4" shells was mistakenly loaded into a 5" rack. That was a mess. You should never use PVC as a mortar tube. If for whatever reason you have a shell go off in the tube and god forbid it be a salute, you have a giant grenade. HDPE will basically be destroyed but will more or less stay in one piece rather than sending hundreds of pieces of shrapnel all over the place.
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