1569 replies to this topic

[karlfoxman]

MK2's they are, but this is about cylindrical shells and not my decks I have just finished spiking one of the breaks. Ill post some pictures later on.

[karlfoxman]

Here are some more pictures, a few of the spoolettes. These are timed to give 2.2 seconds each, they are rammed very hard to stop blow through from break charges.

Edited by karlfoxman, 12 March 2007 - 08:04 PM.

[karlfoxman]

Fired it, as you can see breaks 1 and 2 went at same time! Such a shame, I believe due to spoolette blow through.

Video

[Wyvern]

Wow, shame they both went off at once but still absolutely incredible

[Frozentech]

Here are some more pictures, a few of the spoolettes. These are timed to give 2.2 seconds each, they are rammed very hard to stop blow through from break charges.

Came out quite beautiful. Did your spolette have the flush end toward the first break, or the recessed end ?
Also, do you ram well over the time increment and then drill back to set the timing ?

[karlfoxman]

Yes the spoolettes were all placed with the flush end towards the break to take fire. I was thinking lastnight that it must have been something else like a small gap somewhere on the join of the breaks. I doubt the spoolettes could have been blown through as they were rammed very very hard. Next time I think I will either use my very fast blackpowder to make them or drill them back as you say.

[maxman]

Great video karlfoxman, you must have some bottle to go out and fire something that big. Or did you send Mutley from the wacky races (the laugh) to do it for you?

Edited by maxman, 14 March 2007 - 11:35 AM.

[karlfoxman]

He he!!!! My GF said that too, I would have like someone like Mutley to light it as I was a bit nervous. I have a lovely big area to fire these from. Im planning the next shell already. At least I now know fibre mortars can hold this pressure.

Some pictures of the mortar before and after firing, also the hole I had to make to get it back out!

[maxman]

Is it not worth leaving the mortar onsite? Could you not bury it so it's flush with the ground? and put some sort of lid on it to stop rainwater ingress. Maybe a marker so you can find it again??

So far I have only shot 2.5" shells from a fibreglass mortar but I always feel suss walking around with it. Especially after shooting when the mortar stinks like rotten eggs and I have to put it back in the car. My GF was with me on Saturday night and she was not impressed with the smell. Although if I had of been stopped in the car anyone sticking their head through the window would of had a nasty surprise I guess I could say my GF wasn't feeling too good and we would be sent quickly on our way I'm sure

Anyway it's a pain I'm sure carting a 6 incher around.

[karlfoxman]

I would never leave my mortar tubes down there, but it seems to be fine taking it back home. I go in the middle of no where to fire stuff like this. My friend at the pub saw the bursts but heard a very quite thump. The tubes do stink after firing from them, but what a lovely smell it is. A smell we all love!!

[paul]

What a lovely piece of work!

Things that came to my mind:

° A very strong lift! (now I know why you used the method you described earlier!)

° The break. OMG! What a pitty that the spoolettes didn´t work as intended to. So it gets only a 9.9/10

° Colours! Damn, these were nice! Seemed like chlorate colours to me. Nice deep and saturated!

° The bottom shot: For my flavour, it was not loud enough. I did not read each and every post about that shell. Was it flash powder?! Sounded like black powder!

conclusion:

wow!

[karlfoxman]

Ha ha, cheers Paul!

Ok, I have spoken to one of my Maltese friends, he makes the artwork on the shells. He told me the lift was too strong and is know to cause comets to break and SPOOLETTES to fail! Hmm intresting, so for this I will reduce the lift as it did seem to be very powerful. At least I know 230g of bp can lift 6kg with ease. The colours do look lovely, these are Perchlorate magnallium based and binded with gum arabic, seem to work ok.

In my defence on the bottom shot is I used no flash, it made me tooo nervous so yes it was blackpowder. It was there just so I could hear it. Maybe next time ill add flash to get a nice deep report!

Thanks for your kind words

[pyrotrev]

Karl - shame it didn't go quite as planned, but magnificent all the same! I've noticed from the debris that in some Chinese "Italian style" cylinder shells they use double end discs, sometimes withh some turns of glued string around the spolette/fuse, presumably to stop blowthrough.
On the bottom shot question I wonder whether there might be some safety advantage from using a granulated mix e.g. silver fire rather than the usual microfine metal/oxidiser mix. For the kind of things you're making you won't need a formulation that will detonate at a couple of grams in a twist of paper. Remember that video of the container full of waterfalls! (not that I'm recommending you launch anything that big )

Anyway it's a pain I'm sure carting a 6 incher around.

You should try a 12 or a 16" - sticks out the back of the car
!

Edited by pyrotrev, 14 March 2007 - 07:36 PM.

[paul]

I just think that there is no real problem using flash in the bottom shot. The maltese use kilograms of flash for just a few shells, so why shoud 50 propperly handled grams be a problem

I know I will get beaten up for saying this but hey. It´s like that and karlfoxman is a skilled worker!

[pyrotrev]

BTW Karl - GREAT glitter .... who needs strobes???? Winokur 20 I presume?

Edited by pyrotrev, 14 March 2007 - 08:46 PM.