11 replies to this topic

[pyrochris]

Just so everyone knows, I changed this topic around so it would seem more interesting and bring more people to post! I still have the original text on MS word...

Anyway, I have been using KP to break small shells (2 inch and 1-3/4 inch shells). I don't really want to use H3 in my shells, since I hear it's pretty dangerous and besides, I don't have any potassium chlorate to make it with. Adding flash powder seems to straiten the trajectory of the stars, but at the same time shatters many of them, making the shell look "off"

I was thinking possibly spiking my shells with excessive amounts of twine, but last time I tried that the shell didn't turn out very well either.

I was also thinking that perhaps I need to shorten the time fuse and reduce lift amount to lower the breaking altitude.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Edited by pyrochris, 01 July 2005 - 03:34 PM.

[Yugen-biki]

Stars durable to flash is harder to make.
Small shell is how big.

This is how I have made 3" spherical willow shells:
-Fill the halves with willow stars of a diameter of about 9-13mm. Prime with some fine BP about 1mm thick. (use dextrine)
-Make a bag of a thin paper and fill with H3 to put in both halves. I use "60:40/perc:dark german"-flash. About 0,5-3g works good in 3" shells. I use 1,5g.
-Paste the shell with about 12 layers of craft paper, over a period of time of about 10 days, allowing every layer to dry.
-I use a delay of about 1,5-2 seconds and 25-35g of lif tpowder depending on shell wheight (150g=35g).
-

[pyrochris]

Oops, Sorry Yugen-biki. I didn't expect anyone to post while I was editing the topic. For reference, the original topic title was ""need" to make willow shells"

And my original post went something like this:

"""""I have a fair bit of experience with homemade fireworks, with shells being my primary focus. The size of shells I have chosen to work with is the same as consumer shells. All of my shell have gone off correctly without a hitch (except that one that I forgot to spike...)
Anyway, moving on, I usually set off consumer shells. Even though my homemade shells have proven to be reliable, the just aren't as spectacular as the consumer shells that I am able to obtain. I already have a bunch of consumer shells BUT NO WILLOW SHELLS! This is in fact MY FAVORITE EFFECT!
So here is what I have access to:
-shell building materials
-KP and GOEX BP
-Star Making making materials and equipment: Airfloat Charcoal but not Lamblack
-Medium flash, but I'd prefer not to use it since all my shells go to **** when I do
-"Whistle Mix"
So what do I want out of this?
A large spreading, long lasting, very spectacular Willow shell, or two or three or more! I want something that will put the consumer shells to shame NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
And so far I have been unsuccessful at doing so! Anyone have any tips to increase performance in SMALL shells without using H3 or flashpowder? Or otherwize, how to make my stars more durable to flashpowder?
Thanks in advance for any responses!""""""



I changed the topic because my post was too long and I didn't think that it applied to a very large audience.

But here is my thinking: The consumer shells that I have access to have much better performance than my homemade shells, and they do it without using H3 or flash. My question is HOW?!

Edited by pyrochris, 01 July 2005 - 03:56 PM.

[BigG]

What about whistel? They could be using this - as it usually not placed in a bag but just added to the shell...

[pyrochris]

Because the shells I bought were US import shells, I think the limitation on whistle mix might be the same as the limitation on flashpower.

Additionally, I have "disected" one of these shells and found that the burst charge consisted of rice hulls coated with a black material: Probably not whistle mix.

I could be wrong though.

As for whistle mix, how much can I put in a 2 inch shell before it will start to have an adverse effect on performance?

I was also thinking.... what shape should stars be to travel the maximum distance after the shell breaks? I don't care about how fast they spread, but rather how long they will float outwards for before starting to fall. I was thinking that perhaps a golf ball shaped star would travel further than a normal round star?

Thanks again guys!

[karlfoxman]

for my 1-3 inch shells i now use whistle. i get a good break and use 15 layers of gummed kraft paper. this way i get a nice boom and a good break whilst having no bright flash. whistle is the thing to use, just dump it in with the burst.

[Douchermann]

I don't know why you guys are so concerned about the flash from the break of the shell. If you have good stars in there a 1 millisecond flash isn't gonna take away from a 2 second star, or thats how it is when i do my shells. For smaller shells i use granulated BP (sometimes called pulverone) and i add about 20% of the BP's weight in 70:30 flash (70 KClO4: 30 german dark aluminum) So that means if the BP going into the shell (i usually just grab a 100 gram cup full, it makes it easier) weighs about 100grams, then mix in 20grams of that flashpowder. Nice report and good even star distribution. And with that i've never had problems with stars being blow blind or even an area with a few stars that havn't lit. I also rig up a good 3 sec fuse on my 2 inch shells, but i find this too long as you can see the shells start their decent before it bursts.

[The_Djinn]

20grams of that flashpowder ? in a 2" shell ?

[pyrochris]

I don't know why you guys are so concerned about the flash from the break of the shell.  If you have good stars in there a 1 millisecond flash isn't gonna take away from a 2 second star, or thats how it is when i do my shells.  For smaller shells i use granulated BP (sometimes called pulverone) and i add about 20% of the BP's weight in 70:30 flash (70 KClO4: 30 german dark aluminum)  So that means if the BP going into the shell (i usually just grab a 100 gram cup full, it makes it easier) weighs about 100grams, then mix in 20grams of that flashpowder.  Nice report and good even star distribution.  And with that i've never had problems with stars being blow blind or even an area with a few stars that havn't lit.  I also rig up a good 3 sec fuse on my 2 inch shells, but i find this too long as you can see the shells start their decent before it bursts.

Wow, my stars must really suck! Is dextrin good enough for binding BP based stars? They don't appear to be fragile, but in my experience they don't work particularily well when alot of flashpowder is used. And your ratio exceeds my "alot of flashpowder"!

So apart from flashpowder & whistle mix, what else leads to big spread in small shells? I'll definetely do some more experimenting with those two compositions, but I also want to know the other factor to take into account.

[Douchermann]

No, 20% of the blackpowder weight, in my 2inch shells, i can only fit say 20 grams, so thats 4 grams of flash. You can even put less, i've tried just enough to barely coat the granules of pulverone, just so they have an off grey look and that works just as well.

[miniskinny]

I've been making 3' almost exclusively, and my breaks are very nice. I'll post up some video after the 4th, but I always use about 10 grams of KP. It makes a small pop, and works especially well when the colors are supposed to be noticed, not the sound. 20 grams of flash is excessive, seeing how legal air limit is 35 grams?

[pyrochris]

I think one thing I forgot to take into account was the stars that I was using!

I have found that C6 cut stars burn WAY too fast, and generally burn out before they spread very far. I think I can attribute the poor performance of some of my shells to those darn C6 stars!

I'll use tiger tail instead and see what happens...

I also solved the problem with the fragile stars... I just made a new batch of dextrin and that seemed to solve the problem. Don't know why...