1569 replies to this topic

[maxman]

Thought I'd just share this 3" shell I just fired. There were 70 Winokur39 stars size 3/8" The burst was 25g BP on crispies with 12g pink whistle mix. At long last I'm getting a decent break! This shell was very pleasing indeed. It was also filmed from much further away than usual.

I also fired a shell with emerald greens but yet again they did not light (well one did) This time I had primed them with dragon egg prime and a layer of meal. Useless! Anyone with any tips on how to light them before I use up the whole batch???

[starseeker]

Thought I'd just share this 3" shell I just fired. There were 70 Winokur39 stars size 3/8" The burst was 25g BP on crispies with 12g pink whistle mix. At long last I'm getting a decent break! This shell was very pleasing indeed. It was also filmed from much further away than usual.

I also fired a shell with emerald greens but yet again they did not light (well one did) This time I had primed them with dragon egg prime and a layer of meal. Useless! Anyone with any tips on how to light them before I use up the whole batch???

Hi Maxman,
it may be to late for your stars now,but i find a three step prime works well for my coloured stars,50-50 comp,bp,75,25,bp,comp,and then a pure b.p outer prime.
vince.

[MDH]

You don't happen to have copper oxide do you? Or Iron Oxide? You could use thermite to prime them.

[seymour]

I have never had much trouble lighting Emerald Green stars. I have had success priming only Potassium nitrate, Sulphur, Charcoal, and Gum Arabic in the ratio 75/15/10/5.

Perhaps the problem is that the BP is not lighting the dragon egg prime. Assuming you are referring to the one on passfire (KClO4/MgAl/Red gum) that looks harder to light than Emerald Green!

I would try a cooler prime, like greenmix with 10% MgAl. I am sure that will be more effective than my BP with the sulphur and charcoal swapped, and will save you using up your K perc.

Oh, and by the way, nice shell, looks like you have whistle boosters working nicely. I have never had any success with that, I have only ever had success with flash.

[maxman]

I thought that dragon egg prime was one of the better primes that lit most stars!?

I did read on rec.pyro that a member who makes stuff commercially uses " weak powder" green mix I assume and maybe 10% metal and it lights anything. I find it hard to believe but have no reason to disbelieve him. I haven't got any barium nitrate left to make some more comp to mix with meal so another alternative is needed for what I have left.

[seymour]

I am sure that dragons egg prime will light Emerald Green stars, just not that meal will light the dragons egg prime.

Try lighting a star on the ground, and see if the meal burns off without lighting the dragons egg prime.

If the star burns properly on the ground, see if you can notice any delay in one layer taking fire from the last, and if there is such a delay it may not light at all when flying through the air and there lies your problem.

I find Glitter comps make good primes too, but with coloured comps avoid D1! The Sodium hydrogencarbonate naturally ruins the colour!

[maxman]

No the stars light fine on the ground. I have uploaded the embarrassing video here for you all to see. You can see some white bits around the break, I think this is the dragons egg prime burning off but am not sure. See what you all think!

[Mumbles]

I do kinda wonder if perhaps the dragon egg prime is the problem itself. Not neccesarily in it's capability to light the star, but in its capability to stay lit itself. Fresh off the break it will be traveling pretty fast. I would imagine that the key to it's ignition is that it burns fairly slaggy, leaving molten metal on the dragon egg surface. It could be that the stars are traveling too fast and this is being blown off instead of lighting the star. Just a thought. Dragon eggs normally come toward the end of a star's preformance, and thus would be traveling much much slower.

[pihop]

For my veline blue stars I used a three step prime.
1. Dragon egg prime
2. Perc. based universal prime
3. Meal powder

For 150g of stars I used only 20g of dragon egg prime, it barely covered the surface of the stars. Second layer was also quite thin, I think I used about 40g of prime. Third layer was about 1mm thick with just plain meal powder and dextrin.

Edited by pihop, 19 October 2007 - 10:49 AM.

[Pretty green flames]

This might be a bit of an unconventional way of reinforcing round shells but i gave it a shot anyway


There is one layer of paper then a good spiking and after that there will be another layer of paper.

What do you guys think, is this a good way to achieve a good break?

[leosedf]

What did you used?

[Pretty green flames]

5mm wide, flat cotton string.

[W.P]

Looks interesting, post results up afterwards because it would make spiking for me much, much easier.

[Jerronimo]

Looks good, what's in them?
Nice to see some spolette timing.

[paul]

I´ve read sth about spiking round shells but I just think it might turn out in the oppisite... a ruined symmetry... Anyway, I´d love to see some videos or pictures very soooon