Aerial shell with smoke tail

[Shizznt]

Hey guys, do ya'll know how to make an aerial shell with a colored smoke tail for daytime.

Here is a video so ya'll can see what I am talking about.

Do you use colored smoke powder for the spollete?

Thanks, I think it would be a cool thing to try out.

 

-Ryan

[schroedinger]

The ones i saw, all had quite large but thin, raising commets on top of the shell

[Mumbles]

The inserts in that cake likely used a thin smoke pellet in a bombette. For real shells, I'd use what Schroedinger described, a thin smoke comet.

[shouldnoteatindat]

What i would do is you know where you put a delay fuel at the top? then you get 40% sugar 60% kno3. Cook it up tell its that brown stuff. after put some of this in the top of you rocket should work pretty good

[Shizznt]

Okay, thank you guys for your help, but how would I make smoke powder into comets?

Would it be safe to wet the smoke composition and to use a star pump to make the stars?

 

Thanks

[FlaMtnBkr]

It should be able to be wetted though alcohol or another solvent might be better? It should be chlorate, a sugar, and dye. Though if you press it you might not need anything depending on the pressure. Or maybe a small amount of oil or wax added. Would have to experiment as the extra fuel might require more oxidizer and moving through the air will behave different than sitting on the ground. Smoke is actually not the easiest thing because it can't burn with a flame or the smoke gets consumed. It is a fine line between not burning, burning just right, and burning with a flame. In an insert it needs to also burn fast without the flame so it dumps out smoke fast and doesn't come back down with just a thin wisp of smoke. For a fast burn you probably want to not compress it and use as a powder. I believe commercial smoke inserts use granulated smoke comp. If making colored smoke expect to have a colorful mess.

 

If the shell is moving fast you need a good amount of comp burning quick or you will just have a thin trail of smoke which won't show up all that well. I think if you just loaded a spolette you would be disappointed. It might work with a white HC smoke in a big tube. HC smoke makes the most smoke per amount of comp and is what is used in combat in the military. I have heard 8 oz makes 100,000 cubic feet of white to gray smoke depending on the amount of aluminum which also controls the burn rate, as does the particle size.

 

I have made quite a few smoke bombs trying different formulas and they can be tricky. The only smoke stars I have tried are the black smoke stars that Shimizu describes. They worked pretty as the was designed for stars. It might be easier than I think it will be as moving through the air might blow out any flame and make things easier.

[pyrojig]

I second the HC smoke being a big producer. I had a teaspoon amount in tinfoil about make my house disappear in our old neighborhood . I was sure some one was going to call the cops for a "house fire" . The thick plume of smoke rolled over the top of the roof into the neighborhood street , and from that angle it looked like the house was on fire. I would not suggest breathing large amounts of that smoke.