Using tissue paper between stars and burst "ball"/ can shell questions

[Sparx88]

I see this sometimes, even here on some pics, is that needed or usually only for pistils centers and such?

 

I rolled some cans for the the 2" tubes and have some reservations. Do the cans need to be fairly stout and hard like a ball shell? I notice that some are pretty thin walled and the use of string makes up for it? Do I need to string wrap a 2" can with comets or stars? And what is used to close the ends, looks like thick cardboard/paperboard disc?

 

 

[pyrokid]

Something to keep in mind is that canister shells derive much of their structural integrity from their internal components. An empty casing will be flimsy but once it is packed tight with burst and stars, then spiked, then pasted in, it will be strong enough to survive the lift. Competence in each of these areas is important if you want to build good shells.

 

For 2 inch cans I would use 2 or 3 turns of paper. Note that you can put a strip of slightly sturdier paper inside the can once you roll it, like manila paper. This helps give a bit of confinement without influencing break geometry to too great a degree.

 

People use different things for disks. I can tell you that up to and including three inch shells, corrugated cardboard is perfectly serviceable. If I tune the burst properly, I can get very punchy breaks. To close a shell, I put in a disk over the shell contents, fold the pasted pleats of paper onto the disk, then place another disk over the pleats.

 

After spiking, the shells should be very resistant to deformation. They should be pretty hard. I think that's a misconception a lot of people have, that spiking consists simply of wrapping the shell with string. You want some tension on the string when you spike the shell.