259 replies to this topic

[t1tan]

Latest rocket, Turned out very well i thought.

2-1/2" Length
1/2" ID
4mm Nozzle
quarter length core
unaltered willow meal propellant.

The header was a 1" plastic ball shell, only pulverone break as it was just a test.

Pre flight pic: http://homepage.ntlw...cket header.JPG

Vid: http://homepage.ntlw...cket header.MOV

[cplmac]

3" ID Ti Whistle to Report rocket

This was a first flight, new fuel and new tooling.



21" girandola pre-fire vid

21" Girandola shoot

Headers failed but overall good flight.

[KarlosH]

cplmac: Girandola is perfect, great, amazing:-) The sound like of dragon from an unknown world. How much of titanium contained whistle composition? Confection work, but great effect.

[mike_smith919]

Hi all,

I ain't got nothing on the girandola but here's my first attemps at a few things and a messed up rocket!

(BB Cannon)

(TT Starmine(First attempt at stars))

(Rocket CATO)

Let me know ways i can improve please.

Cheers,

Mike.

[portfire]

Hi all,

I ain't got nothing on the girandola but here's my first attemps at a few things and a messed up rocket!

(BB Cannon)

(TT Starmine(First attempt at stars))

(Rocket CATO)

Let me know ways i can improve please.

Cheers,

Mike.

Not sure about the first video, It's basically a gun I'd leave those alone. Air cannons are fun though, but still think SAFETY!

How many stars were in the mine? Only looked like they were 2, but none the less not bad. I find with small mines breaking up larger stars works best. Did you mill the TT comp?

Rockets well!! They are quite a few variables, and take time to get right, but yours did seem to fly, though it looks like you had a mechanical equilibrium problem.( look at me with the fancy words) Do you balance your rockets. Basically the motor and stick wants to be balanced about 1" past the nozzle. Also the length of your launch tube will dictate the direction of flight. Make sure the motor will, or almost sit on the top of your launch tube.

[mike_smith919]

Hi portfire,

The starmine had 4 stars in it, 2 didn't ignite or broke up. Ball milled TT for 30 mins.

For the rocket the launch tube was to short I think on the rocket either that or it was breaking up at take-off!

As for the cannon it was more a test to see if i could make one, and now i know i can i wont bother anymore.

Air cannons do sound fun though

Edited by mike_smith919, 18 May 2008 - 03:21 PM.

[paul]

Let me know ways i can improve please.

Cheers,

Mike.

Hey mike!

First thing to improve is fuse length Star mines, rockets and so on are all prone to leave their
track and shoot into YOUR direction, nice to be a little bit more away in such a situation

What I think is 1) you managed to get some good BP there (thats something not everyone masters)
2) your TT stars have a nice tail! So you could scale up a bit and use loooonger pieces of safety fuse to test your stuff!


STAY GREEN

Edited by paul, 18 May 2008 - 03:58 PM.

[dr thrust]

this is interesting ground shells never seen that before nice!

[Mumbles]

I believe those type of shells are normally used floating on top of water. I've seen numerous accounts of these, but never just sitting alone on the ground. That seems like a huge fire hazard if they are indeed being fired from dry land. I've seen aquatic ones both where they were set out floating like buoys and fired at a near horizontal angle onto the river/lake/etc.

[cplmac]

3" crossette with twinkler mine, broke just a bit low

4" cylinder salute with Ti whistle spolette

[dr thrust]

pity about the first shell, may i ask what the event is your firing at,? it looks well organized

Edited by chris m, 20 May 2008 - 04:30 PM.

[dr thrust]

heres a urbanski 59,31,10 3lb motor i was testing last night same as usual 10" motor , 8" core, with a small shell, i hope these will lift a 4" shell, but lots more testing, you may want to crack up your volume to get the best of hear the mighty roar

ho yes cato chris strikes again! but i was happy with the cut willow stars hmmmm

Edited by chris m, 20 May 2008 - 06:14 PM.

[cplmac]

pity about the first shell, may i ask what the event is your firing at,? it looks well organized

I was firing at the MPAG (Michigan Pyrotechnic Arts Guild), the first shell looked really cool up close when it hit the ground. It was actually a 3" crossette, but the crossette hit the ground before it hit the break charge and when it hit the ground the break charge went. A three pound rocket should be able to carry just about any four inch shell you want, I've lifted 6" shells with strobe tooled 3lb rockets with whistle fuel.

[Burtgummer]

First post here. I've been browsing these forums quite a bit though!

No actual devices on you tube yet. But I did just put up a video of my last batch of BP. I'm rather new to pyrotechnics, although I've been doing it off and on for the past 4 years. Last year I made 4 shells, and 3 out of the four worked.

Anyways, here is my last batch of BP, ball milled for 48 hours with ceramic media. I ordered lead media last night, because even though I've read that it is ok to use ceramic, I'm still paranoid. Due to using ceramic, it probably isnt as good as it could be either. I then mixed in about 2-3% dextrin and pushed it through a sieve. The powder in this video is the coarsest stuff I got. My apologies for the poor quality! It looks fine when not on you tube, but you tube seems to hate mp4s.



Will this work alright as a lift charge for a 1.75 inch shell? For my shells last year I stuffed the lift cups with as much powder as I could, and made the cups as sturdy as possible. So last year my lift was more of an explosion than a "push" because of the compressed lift cup. If this is useable lift powder, will I need to use strong lift cups again? Or can I use normal lift cups? There is about 1.5-2 grams in the video.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[ridley]

ssssssssssssssssssssssss

Edited by ridley, 14 February 2015 - 09:59 PM.