5 replies to this topic

[Strobe]

Hi folks,

I'm thinking of trying out the Shimizu Firefly #5 formula:

KNO3 50
Charcoal Airfloat 45
Barium Sulfate 7
Sulfur 5
Wheat Starch 5
Aluminum flake, firefly 10-12 messh 4.6

I have a couple of questions on this as I dont have all of the exact ingrediants called for.
1. Can dextrin be substitued for wheat paste and is there any difference in proportions?
2. Would hardwood airfloat be ok? I don't have anything else at the moment.
3. Could I get away with Aluminum flake, 40 mesh or is this going to give a completely different effect?

[maxman]

I have made this formula and can tell you that it is excellent! Shortly I will try to upload a video of a rocket header with these stars in. I ball mill everything inc the barium sulfate (wont work without that) Dextrin is fine. I use it. Pumped into 3/8" stars the effect starts somewhat like a tigertail or willow then as the charcoal dies out there are thousands of silver twinkles for quite some time.

At the time I was using a 15 fps camera and the quality is not too good, in fact there appears to be colour in the stars where there is none in reality.

Well worth making! I used AF willow. I could not get the other firefly formulas to work that use various coarse mesh charcoal and no sulfate.

Watch this space for a video later today hopefully.

[maxman]

You must use 10-12 mesh al only or the effect will not be the same Video Here

I think it was a 2 1/4" ball shell on the rocket only BP break

Hope this answers your questions.

[Strobe]

Thanks for posting the video and the advice. All I have is a 40 to 320 mesh firefly mix, but maybe I'll give it a try on a small batch and see how it works out. At least until I buy some of the 10-12 mesh.

I started out yesterday intending to do the firefly #5 but since I was unsure at the time I figured I'd wait on that one until I could post my questions. I weighed out the ingrediants for the Chrysanthemum #6 fomula instead and plan to try that out today. The Intro to Practical Pyro book provided an alternate method for mixing comps like the Chrys #6, sort of a modified CIA BP method except you leave the dextrin out and mix it in later once the comps dry.

Could something like that be used for the firefly #5 formula as well? I dont really have a remote enough site to ball mill comps with oxidizers and fuels together at the moment. I've been using the CIA method for my BP so far.

[Mumbles]

Yeah, I can tell you ballmilled it. The charcoal tail is supposed to be much longer. For firefly Al, the kind specified usually +30. Skylighter just has the 10-12, so it has become kind of a standard. According to Mike Swisher, of whom's opinion I would trust, the wheat paste is not substitutable. Might be different with pumped stars, but I believe he was specifically talking about cut. I tried to make some original firefly stars from Hardt, and they didn't work that well. The shell didn't go off so I don't know how they worked in the air. They didn't preform well on the ground.

[maxman]

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