My first 2" shells

[killforfood]

I shot my first ever shells tonight and I was so stoked at how well they performed.

 

 

• The Quick Match went off like a cracker
  
  
• My stud wood, red gum lift powder, kicked those shells in the butt hard!
  
  
• The Buttered Popcorn Glitter and Gold Twinkler rising comets had rich golden sparks and twinkled beautifully.
  
  
• My visco and masking tape time fuses all lit and broke the shells at good altitude and before the comets went out.
  
  
• The Veline colors weren’t spectacular but I ran out of time to make better stars. I mixed a few of the Veline shells with Popcorn and Twinkler stars and it really helped fill out their breaks.
  
  
• Timing was good, altitude was good and the comets were spectacular. Breaks were mixed. The all Popcorn and Twinkler shells were full and fairly symmetrical. The Veline only shells looked like a typical “blew out the end of the can break”.
  
  
• One comet did detach and out climbed the shell by a few feet but it looked rather cool when the shell broke in the comets trail.
  

. I took an entire year to just study everything you all have contributed and it really paid off. THANKS.

 

I have a few construction photos but the night shots are on my friend’s camera. This was his first try at fireworks and he struggled a bit but I think he got some good stuff.

 

These shells were constructed with re-enforced Kraft packing tape. I got the idea from “walletlighter.com” It’s from his tutorial on 1.75” rocket headers. I just adapted his idea to 2” can shells. Say what you want about his high prices but I’ve learned a boat load from Ned’s tutorials.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/2inchshells005.jpg

 

These Veline stars were leftovers from my Daughters 2 year old science fair project.

It was a lot of fun making them with here but I plan on making better colors soon. PhotoBucket is really beginning to irritate me lately. If it decides to display a photo sideways, no matter how many times you edit and rotate it back, it just ignores you. Grrr.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/2inchshells007.jpg

 

For Break, I poured BP covered rice hulls down the middle of a ¾” copper canulle.

Then I dumped a couple teaspoons of powder over the stars and settled it down with “Mr Tappy”. Sorry Mumbles, it stuck in my head.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/2inchshells017.jpg

 

Here I’m gluing end disks on so that I have a nice surface to hot glue the comets onto.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/2inchshells012.jpg

 

Next go-around I’ll be using traditional spiked shell construction.

 

I’ll get the pictures from my friend and post those as soon as possible. I have five shows to shoot this week so no promises.

 

KFF

 

PS Still praying for you DAG.

Edited July 1, 2013 by killforfood

[killforfood]

Here's a short clip of a Buttered Popcorn Glitter shell. I recovered one of the spent Gold Twinkler shells and it was intact except for the Fuse end cap. I'll need to work on better breaks But for my first try, I was well pleased.

 

KFF

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/th_ButteredPopcornGlitter.jpg

[BJV]

Great first shell killforfood.

BJV

[killforfood]

Hi Barry Thanks for the compliment.

 

These simple little 2 inch shell have brought to light just how much hard work goes into the large complex shells that you and others build. I remember a big shell you built that had a stack of comet tubes stacked Lincoln log style on top of the shell. They spit comets out the sides as the shell ascended. How cool is that.

For now I’ll stick with 2” shells. I can learn all of the basics with them and it keeps the cost down.

 

KFF

Edited July 3, 2013 by killforfood

[Peret]

LOL, you must have meant "Skylighter". I just spent 5 minutes on a fruitless search for "walletlighter.com" - d'oh.

 

Ned Gorski is THE source for practical guidance these days. You might consider taking a subscription to fireworking.com, which has a growing library of Ned's projects covered in greater detail than Skylighter. Besides, at any time Harry might decide to withdraw all the project files and make them available as a PDF for $999.95. I think fireworking.com is $40 a year.

[killforfood]

Hi Peret,

 

Sorry about that fruitless search. Yah, I meant Skylighter. Harry's Tutorials are the best. He's a clever marketer that gives you many good reasons to visit his web site. Eventually you will see something for a decent price and buy it and he knows it. His videos are always well done and not so painful as most of the stuff on "vaintube". (Don't do a search on that )

Play safe.

KFF

 

PS Still praying for yah DAG.

 

I can't edit my first post, so I'll do it here.

After reviewing some pictures and finding spent shell casings, l have to back off of the "fully symetrical" claim. It appears that they all just blew out of the fuse end of the cans. Oh well, something to work on.

Edited July 6, 2013 by killforfood

[psyco_1322]

That's half the reason for spiking shells, it holds the ends together. I would think your casings were probably pretty strong, and that makes it even easier to blow out the ends. Overall, I think you probably did pretty good. That comet tail came out really nice. Try some dry rolled casings and a bit of spiking, I think you will like the results.

[ollie1016]

Kill, I just tried my first 2" shells today! Worked like a dream! It only had granulated bp, but it was amazing! I wasn't sure how good my lift was so I did 1/3 the weight if the shell, so.., 18/3=6grams. I fired it and the shell went at least 400ft high! I literally sh*t myself when it came out of the mortar!

[killforfood]

That's half the reason for spiking shells, it holds the ends together. I would think your casings were probably pretty strong, and that makes it even easier to blow out the ends. Overall, I think you probably did pretty good. That comet tail came out really nice. Try some dry rolled casings and a bit of spiking, I think you will like the results.

Hi Psyco,

 

I found a good write-up by Mumbles and I've been reading Fulcanelli in Pyrothenica 11. Walmart still carries the hemp string that Mumbles suggested, so I picked some up. I've been keeping my eye out for a good local source of Virgin Kraft but so far no luck.

 

Kill, I just tried my first 2" shells today! Worked like a dream! It only had granulated bp, but it was amazing! I wasn't sure how good my lift was so I did 1/3 the weight if the shell, so.., 18/3=6grams. I fired it and the shell went at least 400ft high! I literally sh*t myself when it came out of the mortar!

Ha ha well I guess you can consider your morter tube to be proofed now. I used 10% of shell weight for the lift charge and it worked out good. My shells were much heavier than yours so I lifted with 12grams. Congrats on a succesful shot.

[psyco_1322]

Just get some recycled craft from Walmart or something, it will work just fine. That's mainly all I use for everything up to 6" multi breaks.

[fredhappy]

#killforfood: well done on your first shell! Everything looks well organized, I can tell you studied all the aspects before making anything, this is a very good way to go about things when doing pyro.

 

May I suggest that you veer away from using visco+masking tape as a delay, and try buying some good quality timefuse. This makes everything more reliable and easier to work with.

 

thanks for sharing, keep up the good work.

 

fred

[killforfood]

Fredhappy,

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I already have the time fuse. I bought it from Dagabu a while back. I just need to learn how to use it properly

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/killforfood/Pyro/timefuse003.jpg

[fredhappy]

It looks like the good stuff, I use the same fuse myself.

 

That's the roll to roll with....