35 replies to this topic

[Pretty green flames]

Anyone have any experience with any of these 2.

What's the procedure for making stars in a star plate

Any suppliers apart from Skylighter.

thnx

[Yugen-biki]

Wolter:

http://www.wolterpyr...ools/stars.html

I think everything else is better the cutting stars. Unless you cut quite large stars.

[paul]

Making cut stars is easy and quick to do. A short time ago i made me a small (for about 110 stars) 12mm star cutting board. Can post a picture of it. 12mm stars arre very handy to work with and to make. I use them for 4" canister shells.

In the new Year I?ll take some pictures of the stars and the cutting board.

And I disagree with Yugen-Biki. If you want to make spiderweb stars oder other charcoalstreamers, the cut method is the easiest and cheapest method. Special tools are very expensive and using a syringe or something like that is soooo much effort.

[Pretty green flames]

Will cutting the stars also work for tiger tails. They somehow are the most crumbly stars i seen so far

[Yugen-biki]

Will cutting the stars also work for tiger tails. They somehow are the most crumbly stars i seen so far

I don't think it is impossible. I have never cut tiger tail stars or similar.

And I disagree with Yugen-Biki. If you want to make spiderweb stars oder other charcoalstreamers, the cut method is the easiest and cheapest method. Special tools are very expensive and using a syringe or something like that is soooo much effort.

I was thinking about rolling them . But cutting sure is easy and fast.
Syringe! tell me about it!

[paul]

@ Yugen-Biki: Ah, you can use a syringe for making pumped stars....

Tiger tail stars can be made as cut stars as well as any other composition. When I make willows or tigertails, I use the CIA method to be aware of milling the whole batch of composition. I add everything incl. the SGRS in the pot and follow the CIA method.
When it comes to squeezing the alcohol out I don?t squeeze out as much as possible but leave a bit in there. This damp chunk of comp. you can then hammer into your star cutting board. It has the perfect consistency to be cutted then.

I hope you understand what I?ve wante to say. It?s hard to describe "complex" operations with this f*****g school english and school grammar :)

[alany]

Pumping is handy for making a small quantity of test stars. At around 10 or so it is more expedient than cutting, you don't need to ram the loaf. Pumping also scales well to small quantities of test composition much better than cutting, just try making a small loaf - it aint fun!

Pumping is also required for making crossettes and candle stars. You get excellent dimensional control with pumping. With a star plate or gang pump it isn't too bad even for 3/8" stars. For big comets pumping is the only practical method to get the density required for structural strength (except perhaps casting).

Same deal with rolling, it is only practical for larger quantities, and some effects require round stars. It is all an engineering trade off.

[Stuart]

But unless you have a loaf box like on passfire cutting stars can't produce a few thousand stars in a half hour or so. I have got so used to rolling stars that when I went to try a new comp with cut stars I forgot how to use the thing!

Not necessarily. If you make a very large 'slab' of your star composition and then use a very large sieve e.g. garden sieve and press it onto the composition, you can make thousands very quickly like that. I would probably be quicker than rolling, but more importantly, it?s simple and easy to do, and you dont need anything special.

[JamesH]

I built a ganged star pump recently. It pumps 23 8mm stars. The height of the stars can be adjusted for various uses by tightening or loosening the nuts eitherside. It's not quite finished yet though, I still need to attach handles on the bottom bar, and possibly a measuring scale on each end to keep the two bars parallel when adjusting the star height. I have tested it several times and am very pleased with the consistency of the stars made by it, it's also a lot more fun that pumping each one separately!
Has anyone else had any experience using or making such a tool?

Heres a few photos
http://i11.photobuck...gedstarpump.jpg
http://i11.photobuck...22/377f7a4f.jpg
http://i11.photobuck...22/62adc093.jpg

[alany]

That's the makings of a very nice gang pump, wanna make me one?

Commercial ones typically have the lower bar longer so it makes a handle each side, you can then use your two thumbs (or press the piston bar against your belly) to eject the stars. You might also like to file the edges of the handle carefully for comfort.

A way to quickly set the depth stop is to make up a spacer, timber or metal that you just put between the bars next to the springs and tighten up each side until it just holds it. That is quite a bit more expedient than carefully measuring each side or adding tight slide pins that prevent significant misalignment. Pumps seem to be fixed at around 1.5 IDs anyway, so adjustability is perhaps not required.

[JamesH]

I would have made the lower bar longer but i was limited by the length of aluminium bar i had on hand.
The spacer block seems a much more expedient way of setting the star height - thanks for the suggestion alany.

Heres a couple of stainless steel star pumps i made over the weekend. One is an 8mm pump and the other is a 15mm. A couple of knobs could be made to fit the top of the rams to make them more ergonomic.

http://i11.photobuck...22/821be01d.jpg
http://i11.photobuck...22/22771cf2.jpg

[BrightStar]

A quick survey... Which star pumps and plates do you guys find yourselves using most often?

I'm investing in tooling to replace my improvised stuff and so far, my best guess is that I'll need the following:

6mm star plate for perchlorate colours in 3" balls
12mm pump for glitter / charcoal stars in 3" balls
18mm pump for glitter / charcoal stars in 4" and 5" cans
25mm or 30mm crosette pump for 4" and upwards cans

Does this match your own experience? Anything I've missed? Are the Wolter Pyro 'pump type' worth the premium over Supreme Pyro 'cup type'?

Star plates will have to come from Supreme as I can't afford Wolter's versions Any tips would be gratefully received please...

Edited by BrightStar, 31 January 2008 - 03:42 PM.

[Zinginex]

What's a star plate....?

[Bonny]

What's a star plate....?

Try searching first. Look for Wolter pyro tools.