1569 replies to this topic

[Dj Killerboss]

Damn i don't got big plastic christmas ball's....
So i decided to build a small 40mm cylindrical shell.
The shell is filled with 10 Silver Vibrants, 8 Al/Ti, 8 red and 6 Dragon eggs.....
Hope the effect would be fine and big.
I'll upload some pics in the evening and next week a video if it functions.

greez Chris

[Dj Killerboss]

EDIT: Photo down.


Edit: Shell didn't left the morter
i used not enough lift charge

Edited by Dj Killerboss, 23 October 2006 - 08:57 AM.

[pyromaniac303]

Looks like a great shell Paul, I have never heard of using carrots coated with BP before though! Did you just use the peel to give a large surface area? I am using vermiculite in my 5" one, which I'm saving for Nov 5th.

[paul]

Damn, Killerboss! Was it just the lift charge or was there too much space between shell and mortar ?!

Sad, it didn´t work. NExt time! Everyone has had these failures I guess

[karlfoxman]

Unlucky it didnt work, just a note that the Maltese use cork bits as a burst carrier!

[Dj Killerboss]

Yes, it was the lift charge. The shell had 3mm space in the mortar and thats ok. I already shooted much shells.....
I think i used not enough lift charge or it was too slow

greez Chris

[karlfoxman]

Here is a Maltese shell I built, let me know what you think. Its 6" lifted with 150g of 2 hour milled slow pulverone. Got a nice kick to it!

Karl

[Frozentech]

Here is a Maltese shell I built, let me know what you think. Its 6" lifted with 150g of 2 hour milled slow pulverone. Got a nice kick to it!

Karl

Sweet ! Nice one. How was that fused ? Time fuse or spollete ? It seemed a bit shorter than what I fuse for, but it certainly worked out well ! Will you tell us what stars comps you used ?

Once I get back home from this work trip, I have a couple 3" and a 4" can shells ready to shoot, hope they come out as well as that. A 3" can of 3/4" willow crossettes, a 3" can experiment with silver glitter tail/green headed cavity stars, and a 4" can of winokur39J glitter crossettes (I am really hopeful about that one ! )

[karlfoxman]

It was a 1/4" spoolette, the timing was short because it was going to be a 3 break with bottom shot but I only had time to make one of the breaks. The shell burried the mortar tube 2 feet into clay when it lifted. Took half an hour to dig it out of the ground! The comets were veline red 1" and the glitter was Winokur 20 1/2". Im going to repeat the shell but with two breaks with bottom shot. I want to use gum arabic to bind the comets as some seemed to frgmanet on the break. The break was 1.75" center canule filled with around 160g 4hr milled willow pulverone. The rest of the space was filled with rough powder and glitter stars. The lift charge was housed inside a 3" shell, spiked with linen twine and filled with 2hr rubbish pulverone. The lifting disk was made from 18mm MDF and had 5 slots cut into it for the twine and quickmatch. The shell was spiked fully with 3ply jute twine, I think the break was good buit just need to stop the comets breaking on burst.

[karlfoxman]

I added a vid to youtube today, its all my test shells

Any questions just ask

YOUTUBE

[paul]

Metallica disturbed my watching experience a bit but the shells are GREAT!!!! Especially the last one. I like that colour.

What I think was strange is the short time between lift and break of two or three shells!

[karlfoxman]

The sun and planets had to break early to give the inserts and the second break time to rise above the first break. This didnt work, one insert failed. And the timing was pretty poor. So my third attempt will hopefully work better. The first shell the 6" red with glitter and bottom shot was going to be a 2 break shell but I did'nt have time to make the second break. The fuse was early to allow the second break to be above the first and not risk it exploding on the ground. Its a safety factor.

[paul]

Thx for the information, I was not aware of these factors!

[karlfoxman]

No worries, im planning on building a 2 break version details like this.

6" Maltese

Break 1 - Red Comets w/ glitter pistil and red beraq
Break 2 - Red Comets w/ glitter pistil and green beraq
Break 3 - Heavy bottom shot

Estimations say it will weigh 6-7 kg. Only worry is that it will blow my pro fibergalss mortar to bits on lift. The lift would need to be around 250g inside a 4" Lifting spiked shell. My Maltese shells take a push to get them down the tube so huge pressure is created on lifting.

Im also going to be using gum arabic to bind the comets as the redgum seems to not be strong enough, almost half the comets in my single break test shatterd either on lift or break. Im going to make a technical drawring of the shell as a cutaway if anyone wants to see it.

[BrightStar]

Amazing shells Karl - nice to have an appreciative audience too

Estimations say it will weigh 6-7 kg. Only worry is that it will blow my pro fibergalss mortar to bits on lift. The lift would need to be around 250g inside a 4" Lifting spiked shell.

I had wondered about this. Were you using only 2-hour milled lift to intentionally slow it down a bit, or just because it's 'good enough'? I guess that a 6kg shell in a 6" mortar could conventionally use fairly large corned grains to control the lift pressure, but then you're using the lifting shell to kick it hard anyway... Do the Maltese use steel?