1569 replies to this topic

[Jerronimo]

The key to good size consistency in round stars is to screen them quite often with a good set of screens.
Formica works really well as star sizing screen material, it's very thin, cheap and quite strong(look in the passfire archives).
It can be a real pain in the behind to drill.
At first I had allot of of problems drilling the stuff, but I found it's much easier when you let the drill run at high RPM and in reverse!(counterclockwise)
I use mustard seeds as core material and have a set of 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12mm sizing screens, they work really well.
Very nice shells by the way sasman, as always, that slow gold looks very good.
I have a batch of red core to slow gold drying as we speak.
What formula did you use for that silver streamer shell (around 17sec in the video) looks realy nice.

Never make perchlorate colours myself, because of the obvious disadvantages.
When you're comfortable working with chlorates these are two very nice green or red formulas:

50 barium or strontium nitrate
15 Mg/Al
15 Pergut
10 Dextrin
10 potassium chlorate
+2 charcoal airfloat

Edited by Jerronimo, 07 November 2007 - 07:59 PM.

[Jerronimo]

Some clips from previous newyears eve.

http://www.pyrobin.c...les/ clip 3.wmv
http://www.pyrobin.c...les/ clip 6.wmv
http://www.pyrobin.c...es/ clip 11.wmv
http://www.pyrobin.c...um streamer.wmv
http://www.pyrobin.c...ld to green.wmv

Edited by Jerronimo, 07 November 2007 - 08:17 PM.

[dr thrust]

fantastic shells! what size were they, and plastic or paper hemis

[sasman]

er

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

[maxman]

I really must get into rolling stars. I have a tyre roller but when I had an attempt I found all the lead shot was bouncing out of the tyre all over the place! Since I dont make much pyro and only need small batches say 100-200g of any one comp at a time is it possible to get good results from rolling in a wok?

Thanks for the tip on the emerald green prime sasman i'll try that soon.

What do you use to prime Buell reds? they dont seem quite as hard to light as the emerald greens but still having trouble. I primed with meal and 10% mgal. They worked ok in this mine but since there were about 70 stars in this shell the results were very poor as most blew blind

[Jerronimo]

lol I use the exact same Formica for star-sizing screens.
I thought I was precise in my sizing but 0,5 mm are you going to make Japanese type colourchangers or what?
Nice star-roller BTW, doesn't the comp. get stuck against the screw in the middle of the bucket?

Mine is much simpler in it's construction.
It's a (to)small AC motor direct-drive mounted to a large metal can/bucket, I roll the stars in a plastic 10liter bucket fitted inside the metal can, so I can easily remove it for cleaning or emptying.
Need a more powerfull motor, 1 kg is the absolute maximum amount of stars I can roll.
Small stars tend to slip and not roll against the smooth plastic, I just rough it up with some fine sandpaper and they roll fine.
it's dark, cold and raining outside, so I don't fancy a walk to the workshop right now, I will take some pictures tomorrow.
Yes there is some size difference between the stars, but I screen them quite often and try to only wet the smaller stars in the back of the pile so they get more comp on them.

Rolling is only suitable for larger batches of stars, the bigger the pile the easier it is to roll them.
200 gram batches will be to small I think, cutting, pumping or pressing is a more viable method for small batches.

Thanks Chris for the nice comment,
Those were 4'' plastic shells, with a perchlorate whistle booster.
Could have broken them a little harder for a bigger break I think.

[maxman]

Hey Jerronimo, how much whistle booster do you use in your 4" shells? Do you use any strapping tape or pasting?

[sasman]

er

Edited by sasman, 25 October 2010 - 09:24 PM.

[sasman]

er

Edited by sasman, 25 October 2010 - 09:24 PM.

[pudi.dk]

Just fired my first Paper 4" shell BP coated rice hulls + 2 g Flash booster 4" paper shell pasted with 15 layers 2" wide gummed tape i think its about 30 to 40 lb Kraft Emerald green stars.. 20 Grams Lift 3 second time fuse..

They dont look very green on the video but they are a very good green they have a slight orange tail.....Here is the Video 4" Paper 1..I will ty again without any booster just BP see how it performs...

Intense break as always...
Did you add any effect to your lift, it looks silvery?

[maxman]

Just fired my first Paper 4" shell BP coated rice hulls + 2 g Flash booster 4" paper shell pasted with 15 layers 2" wide gummed tape i think its about 30 to 40 lb Kraft Emerald green stars.. 20 Grams Lift 3 second time fuse..

They dont look very green on the video but they are a very good green they have a slight orange tail.....Here is the Video 4" Paper 1..I will ty again without any booster just BP see how it performs...

Sasman, I did notice that the emerald greens had some orange sparking when I lit them on the ground, I guess thats the charcoal content. I see you got them to work now unlike me. You did it the step prime way did you? I couldnt get them to light by 50/50 star mix meal then straight meal.

Now you have fired paper are you pleased with the results? is it worth the extra effort or is plastic still the easy way?

[karlfoxman]

Glad to see the Gamon Paper shells being made into some nice shells, did you use the 10mm Fuse? How you getting on with them, bet your not low on much yet!:-)

I fired some nice Beraq shells for November, have a look on my youtube to see them.

[Jerronimo]

Hey Jerronimo, how much whistle booster do you use in your 4" shells? Do you use any strapping tape or pasting?

I used about 5 grams of whistle in these, they were reinforced with strips of filament tape one complete layer around the shell.
Nice hard break on that 4'' paper sasman.

Did you get the PM I sent you Karl?

Edited by Jerronimo, 12 November 2007 - 09:50 AM.

[pihop]

Here's a video of my ast shoot. For more info on teh shells se the video description.



I'm quite pleased with all the shells considering my lack of experience.

[maxman]

Great shells pihop, Can you give us any details? What were the twinkling stars with the big break? size? burst?