Rice hulls or black powder?

[Thezoranator]

My friend is making a ball shell and I am wondering which would be better

[pyrojig]

LOL, sounds like you are the friend.... or have alternate personalities .

Rice hulls is the standard. usually 5-1( 5 bp and 1 hulls ) up to 7-1 for smaller shells. granulated powder will often over break a shell and make assembly difficult .

[Jakenbake]

3" and above I would use coated hulls. Under that size straight granulated or corned BP. The smaller shells benefit from the harder break. Then again that's my two cents worth.

[Mumbles]

Well, the answer really depends on what he's asking, which I have no idea. Which is better depends on what the purpose is. Burst, I'd say rice hulls coating with BP. Lift, I'd say granulated. Packing, I'd say raw rice hulls.

[psyco_1322]

Let's make this very clear, you don't break a shell with just plain, raw, uncoated rice hulls. It's like filling a shell with sawdust, nothing's going to happen. The rice hulls are meant to be coated with black powder, this is then used to break your (ball) shells.

 

While we enjoy your enthusiasm for the hobby, most of the questions you have been asking are very basic knowledge, things you should have picked up while researching how things are done. If you go visit www.skylighter.com, there are many extensive write ups on the fundamentals of pyro, mostly written by Ned Gorski.

[oldspark]

LOL well giving him the benefit of the doubt I believe he ment BP coated rice hulls.

[Wolverine]

SWIM likes PCRH and whistle to boost for smaller shells. For very small shells he uses WMCRH (Whistle Mix Coated Rice Hulls)

[Respirator]

I agree that you should use straight BP for lift and small shell break, but make sure you mean rice hulls when you say rice hulls, because substitutes such as grass seeds or rice krispies will have different burn rates coated with BP. I've known people who burst 2" shells with hulls but I would really recommend it only 3'' and above.