1569 replies to this topic

[karlfoxman]

Yeah thats the way to load cylinder shells with inserts and stars, they wall will be prime side facing burst too. One ring is not primed in the pictures but it will be facing the break when they are. Loved the hummers, they looked really good! There is a old type of shell called the 'humming bird' that was full of hummers http://www.wf.net/~l...hummingbird.jpg

I will have the focus on the shell this time, and not the dirt on the lens! I will start filling the beraq today then by the weekend it should be ready to fire.

Just finished loading all the Beraq, looking good so far. Will test over the weekend I hope, The timings should be nice and close. Fingers crossed!

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Edited by karlfoxman, 17 May 2007 - 04:16 PM.

[karlfoxman]

The 5" Beraq shell is ready to go tonight, I used 53g lift to loft it. The main delay is 3 seconds and there are a total of 47 beraq inside, all rolled by hand! It should lift then open at 3 seconds, followed by a quick ripping noise of the first 17 beraq then 16 beraq and finally 14 loud beraq. These should go off in rings of flashes. Will post the video later, lets hope the shell works 100%

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[Pyromaster2003]

Looking forward to seeing that beast in action hope all goes well.

[cplmac]

That's a nice looking shell! Can't wait to see the video.

[ProfHawking]

Your shells always look so neat!
Good luck! I hope it goes properly

[karlfoxman]

Here you go, wow even I loved it. Think I need more of delay between the rings but at least it shows my beraq are working. Here is the link

Karl

[Pyromaster2003]

Impressive.. deffo need a longer delay between them though only looked like 2 rings went off but was obv just 2 at the same time. Still a good shell though whens the nest one ?

[cplmac]

Very nice symmetry on those rings. Get that timing down and that is gonna be a killer shell.

[karlfoxman]

Cheers guys, yeah was a nice shell and the ring came out perfect. Next one I build will have longer delays, I might make slower delay formula so I dont have to make really thick beraq cases. Rolling ones nearly 1m long is pretty hard to do, but it looks like they all seal ok as none went off as the shell broke. Will keep you all updated when I start the build of the second one. The break by the way was a fast pulverone cannule and bp on crispies as the rouch filler.

[BrightStar]

Congrats to Karl on the Beraq shell - good work...

I decided to get my hands dirty with my first paper ball shell. Here it is:



Tech specs as follows:

Stars - Veline Red hand rolled to about 12mm and step primed, approx 100 stars of 260g total
Burst - 50g 3:1 BP on corn cob + 6.5g granulated pink whistle
Lift - 25g fine riced BP
Comet - 20g tigertail (approx 30mm diameter)
Total shell mass - 370g
Pasting - 192 strips of 70gsm virgin kraft (Passfire 3-strip method) for 12 layers with thin PVA / wallpaper paste mix

This took a fair while to do so I hope she flies... wish me luck

Edited by BrightStar, 21 May 2007 - 10:06 AM.

[karlfoxman]

Nice shell, should be interesting. How does the comet recieve fire? Is that just thin tissue on the top of it? I do like Veline colours, the red and green are really nice, if this works it would be nice to see the Passfire Ruby red formula as I think its the nicest and brightest red I have ever seen. Like the labels

[pyrotrev]

cplmac - I haven't looked at the video (file too big, no broadband here) but from what you say, I guess the mixtures a bit fast I would try a) cutting back on the % of whistle - maybe keep it at 50/50 for one increment around the vent hole to get the thing spinning and use a longer tube - the units in my fave hummer cake are close to 2" long.

[Bonny]

Hope someone can help me here... I fired about 4 1" cylinder shells this weekend using (approx 10mm cut) red,blue,and green chlorate stars. Both ends were glued and shells were spiked with 8 vertical strands of string.The stars were primed with 1 layer of chlorate prime. I used granulated H3 as burst and filled all the empty space in the shells.With the exception of 2 blue stars from 1 shell, all of them blew blind. This morning I added another layer of prime and tested an open ended shell on the ground using only a small pinch of H3 and all the stars lit even though they were still damp from priming. I have added another layer of primer and will be making shells next weekend. Should I use maybe 1g of H3 or maybe a compatible coloured fire formula instead to burst these shells??

[Mumbles]

Well you want the shells to be firm in construction. Perhaps cut down to 6 vertical strands if they are still blowing blind. It does sound almost as if the stars wern't primed enough. Try another batch with the additional prime, and tell us how they preform. Shells that small need a relatively energetic burst, of which H3 should be alright. It sounds like the extra prime is helping out. A layer of sulfurless BP green meal may help as well if you are still experiencing problems.

[BrightStar]

Thanks Karl - the labels are to make it go faster I'm also keen to try the ruby red formula but Veline seemed a good starting point... The red tape is removed before launch, exposing the leader and comet.

Here's the test shot (sorry no tripod), filmed from about 300ft away and fired by my little sister for good luck...

4" red peony (divx, 1419 Kb)

I was quite pleased with it - the lift was impressive with a long comet trail, the timing seemed reasonably good and the break was huge (I'd originally thought about using KP, but it doesn't seem necessary). The colours were better than shown in the movie. The main improvement might be be to use a star sizing plate, as there was some variation in the rolled stars and I can see this directly reflected in the burst pattern.

Some numbers from looking at the movie: Ignition delay: 0.15 s, Rise time to burst: 2.8 s, Star burn duration: 4.5 s, Estimated altitude: 550 ft, Estimated break radius: 230 ft

Thanks to everyone on the forum who helped with this. I would really welcome some feedback and criticism please

Edited by BrightStar, 22 May 2007 - 06:03 AM.