1569 replies to this topic

[Anders Greenman]

I've tried spiked 2" shells. Mine didn't perform very good, but I think the lack of booster (only BP) in the burst is the main reason.
And the stars, useless.. Fired them a long time ago, some of my very first. Here's a link:

[Pretty green flames]

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

2 have better pearl stars in them, 1 has chrysanthemums in it and the last one is a BP salute (Don't like flash )
I've always used spolettes, they provide a small orange glow in the sky so i now where they're flying

@Paul, I certanly hope this doesn't ruin the symetry, we shall see
Hope they go in the air on Saturday if the weather holds up.

@Anders Greenman, actually that didn't seem all that bad to me although the stars were a bit poor.

[maxman]

I fired 13 3" shells last night and 4 3" mines. Just thought I'd share some but most need editing first that I haven't time for at the moment so I'll just post a few here. I really love my Firefly Stars The camera catches the twinkle after the star has burnt out but of course much better in reality. I must make sure any more will be fillmed much further away due to the size of the break now!

I have found that given the correct burst my shells dont need fiberglass taping.

I also made Win20 and D1 stars along with some blesser white strobes that did not light! 250 wasted

Just gonna post a couple of mine vids in the appropriate thread. Back later with more

[Pretty green flames]

Yesterday I fired those spiked shells I posted about a couple days ago. Here are the results

(D1 stars)

(mix of D1 and chrysanthemum 6)

These are the best, the 2 others are simply not worth looking at, one is a simple BP salute, the other a crappy chrysanthemum shell.

[Jerronimo]

Nice hard breaks on those shells.
That D1 glitter looks quite different than the one I tested a few weeks ago.
What type of aluminium did you use?

[Pretty green flames]

Nice hard breaks on those shells.
That D1 glitter looks quite different than the one I tested a few weeks ago.
What type of aluminium did you use?

Yeah my Aluminium is strange like that, it never produces the effect i'm after. Anyway, the particle size of the aluminium varies a bit, the label says 0-140micron so the particle size range is quite large. The shape is granular.

[sasman]

Maxman Very nice .. how did you solve your problem with your breaks..That 1 was spot on lets see your others

...PGF nice work i liked the D1 glitter very nice

....I have just come back from firing a few homemade shells...i fired them using wireless firing system...Fantastic!!!.. I will post videos later i cant figure out how to render them with this new adobe premire pro 3...I got a bit excited and fired all 6 shells in rapid fire ..The video once again does not do justice .. the greens were very very good and the slow gold was awesome its my fav shell..The klumac red is also my Fav red formula.. I forgot to press record on my camera in all the excitment.. but Andrea did a good job filming..

[sasman]

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Edited by sasman, 25 October 2010 - 09:26 PM.

[maxman]

Thanks sasman, It's taken some time to get them like that, just using whistle booster. Most had fibreglass tape on but I have since found they dont need it now anyway. here is my D1 glitter shell I've been quite busy recently but will try to get some more vids up soon

[BrightStar]

Really good work Sasman... thanks for posting.

The Slow Gold seems a real winner every time given the effect and lowish cost - must try it soon. I'd heard that the strontium nitrate reds were a nightmare to work with in terms of drying times etc. Is the Klumac Red any better in this respect?

I have been meaning to ask for a while - given the amazing results you're getting with the plastic shells, are they ordinary US type plastic hemis or Gamon double wall cases? Either way, if you're feeling generous, it would be great if you could publish your test results on optimum quantities of flash boost for the various sizes of shell...

So much to learn...

Edited by BrightStar, 06 November 2007 - 11:50 AM.

[sasman]

Brightstar The Klumac reds + Ruby reds i made took some drying...I have a drying box + dehumidifer.. and even after a week orso they still were not dry... I wasted a fair bit of comp...I got them to work by rolling them up very small 3mm orso left to dry for a day before putting them in the drying box( this avoided them cracking).. I then rolled them up to 5mm let dry then rolled them up again to 7mm dried they seemed rock hard.. So i then step primed them.. This was a big mistake.. they went totaly soft and even after a week of drying the still were very soft...

So i gave up on them and made another batch but this time i used Nitrocellulose laquer to use the step prime this worked perfect.. dried more or less same day..Those were the stars i used in the shells..I did not size them very accurate.. but will do better next time..

The plastic gammon shell are better for me than the USA skylighter ones..I noticed that all the shells i made if i packed the shell solid then the breaks are very round!..Lots of the shells were not packed as solid as they should have been.. and if you shook one i could hear them rattle...The ones that didnt rattle broke very good..The last red shell i fired was very poor..when i put the 2 halves together i spilled a few stars and burst charge and could not be bothered to redo the shell so it rattled quite a lot..

I used Skylighter plastic for the willow diadem..because the symmetry didnt matter in this type of shell..Then i used both Tappa gammon shells(the ones with a hole in the top) and the the Camisa double skinned type..I only had 20 4" shells i have now none left so i will try the 20 paper shells i have left.. and see if paper is worth the extra work of pasting in(or gummed tape?)

So the stars must be placed firm against the shell wall to get a good looking break!..

The flash booster i dropped it down to 3 g for the 4" ,Also the 6" i used 3g flash .. I used 25 g lift with 3 secs timing for the 4", 50g lift for the 6" 3.5 secs timing..

I would love to see an autopsy on a real commercial gammon shell..I dont know how to passfire from the Time fuse to the centre of the shell?.. i just use a little fine grained powder then push the time fuse on top?.. So i rely on the spit of the time fuse to blow into the shell for ignition?...Also would love to know how they glue the 2 halves togther properly?..

Rob

[maxman]

Sasman, that was a great show! It must have taken ages to put all that together. Worth every moment spent though!

How do you prime your emerald greens? I have tried various ways and I only get 1 or 2 to light from a shell of about 70!

So far I have tried:

1 Just meal
2 Meal and 10% mgal
3 Dragon egg prime, then meal
4 50/50 star mix meal, then meal

Non are any better than the previous and I have the videos to prove it.

I am having trouble with all but the most easy lightable stars. My Buell reds light in a mine OK but in a shell hardly any. As expected less now the break is more powerful than when I used just BP as the burst. Having said that more light than emerald greens do.

I also made a shell with 250 tiny blesser white strobes. I primed these with meal and 10% mgal and when I added a few to a Buell red shell burst with BP I think they all lit, but in the shell I made with 250 in not one lit!

All my stars work well on the ground. I have about 70 emerald greens left now (enough for one more shell) They are not primed as yet. I have no barium nitrate left at all but I have some emerald green star mix powder left. Can you point me in the right direction so I can get this last few to work in a shell?

[portfire]

maxman.It could be worth trying the 'veline style' prime.The silver streamer stars in my mine were a pain to light,i tried step priming and it was hit&miss but,with the veline prime and a dusting of meal they light every time.Don't know if it will work in shells,but could be worth a shot....Obviously a % of boric acid should be added to the prime...There's my 10 bob

dean

[sasman]

Maxman ..I primed the emerald greens using step prime..2/3 comp + 1/3 Bp then 1/2 comp + 1/2 Bp then 1/3 comp + 2/3 Bp then i finally added 100% Bp outer prime..Step priming seems like a lot of hard work but it is very easy...I need to find out just how much prime to use i think i used way to much..My stars were around 7mm or 8mm and with prime they were over 12mm

I need to improve my star roller ( or star rolling skills?)to get better size uniformity...What i noticed is that some of the stars that ended up small had hardly any prime..So even though they were welll primed some of them which are undersized hardly had any prime .. I think i will give Torro? a go were you use a slurry to coat the stars then add comp..So should get better size uniformity...

[Mumbles]

Sasman, when I'm building ball shells, I always use a piece of quickmatch to go from the time fuse to the center of the shell. I wasn't getting extremely good results until I started using multi-strand quickmatch. I think the extra burn speed of the multistrand is key. It shoots out a good bit of fire when done. I tie the top to choke it off and give an increased pressure. This may be a bit difficult if you're using the larger spanish time fuse (10-12mm I think) instead of the 1/4" stuff I'm using. Just a tube over the time fuse with some blackmatch in it, and nosed like a spolette would probably do just fine.