Time to get a starplate

[ACLIGHTADDICTED]

Hi

 

Since im tired of pumping single stars im looking for a starplate to pump 1/2" stars.

 

I got an eye on wolters nituf coated 49 pin plate ore bensmiths 49pin plate.

 

 

Im not familary with starplates so i have some questions.

 

If i take firesmiths plate as an example.

The female plate is 1" thick, if i fill the holes all the way up with lets say TT comp meal and then go directly on the press how high will the stars be.

 

My friend has a cheap chinese plate, and to get some good hight on the stars you need to charge and compact by hand then charge again and then press, my question is if i have a 1" high hole

and i would fill that with meal can i press it right away? Its a bit of a PITA to get uniform stars after loading some comp for 2 times, so im looking for a plate that is enough high to get a good hight on the stars with just one load of comp.

 

Thanx a lot for your help and sorry for my not perfect english

 

AC

[Mumbles]

The final height will depend on your composition. It also depends on how you granulate the composition prior to pressing. What little I have wrote down about this tends to indicate that it should be okay. I think I went about 2.5x to 3x the diameter for charcoal comets. 2x is closer to right for KP type color stars.

 

You can always e-mail Ben and see if that's how he designed it.

[nater]

I have two plates from Ben and a resin plate from Dan B. All 3 are about 2x the diameter deep and require it to be filled, pressed by hand, topped off and pressed to the final pressure. Then you use spacers to partially extract the stars and shave them to a uniform height. Like mumbles said the final height depends on the comp. Less dense comp takes more work to fill than a more dense comp. I actually talked to Ben about that over the weekend. He fills his the same way. It would be impossible to machine plates that end up with a perfectly sized star with one filling and when used with different comps. Edited September 18, 2013 by nater

[ACLIGHTADDICTED]

Thanx for the answers

 

What do you mean with topped off?

[VikingPyrotechnics]

i think he mean that you got to fill the hole completly right to the top ( maybe you have to push the comp 2-3 times by hand ) and then

press it. now the stars are to long. for this he use spacers to get the right lenght . ( great idea )

[ACLIGHTADDICTED]

Yeah i got the part with the spacers

 

If it is like nater says it seems that i must reload one time, and thats ok.

 

Thank ya all for the help

[VikingPyrotechnics]

Yep, or you push the comp into the holes by hand. So you don´t have the reload it

[nater]

Yes, I have to reload one time when using all of my plates. Fill with comp, put the pin plate in and press it down by hand, fill the rest of the space again and press to the desired pressure.

 

Yes, then they are too long and you use the spaces to shave some off. This extra step guarantees that every star, every time you you fill the plate is identical. One plate full does not make enough stars for a shell. Pumped stars stack much better when they are of uniform height. Really, you do the same then if you pump stars one at a time. You fill the pump, press the star, use the pin in the pump as a stop to partially eject the star and shave off the excess length. It just gets very tedious pumping a single star at a time.

 

I tried pushing the comp into each hole with my fingers. Reloading the plate the way I do was quicker.

Edited September 18, 2013 by nater