45 replies to this topic

[Pyromaster2003]

i made some red stars the other day with the 20:20:60/Sugar:Strontium Carbonate:KCLO3 formula. Took them 2 days you dry slightly. could have been to do with the almost non stop rain and cold weather though. so today being as impatient as i am, i through them on some tin foil and put in my gas oven on top shelf. the gas was on the lowest possible flame and the door was left 1 inch open. half an hour later, rock hard:). time for testing...held a flame to one of them and it took about 3-4 seconds and then it burst in the most beautiful red iv ever seen and burns for aaages. test fired in my 1 shot roman candle and after i got the lift charge right they would shoot up 20 feet burning bright red, unfortunatly they would fall back to earth still on fire for a good few seconds. and i tryed adding more BP lift (i know its risky with chlorate and sulphur from BP but its not scaring me away since iv hod no problem when shaking the chlorate stars in a small plastic cup of BP...) but the stars got blown to bits. so anyway, iv made a kind of shell which i will fire a bit later. the shell is 1 inch in diam, 5 cm long. got a lift charge on the bottom end with a fuse going into it then 7 stars on top of this then a card disk slipped down ontop of the stars. hopefully the shell will be lifted quite high then with eject the 7 stars with a 'fffft' and these will then fall about 10 feet an go out. im afraid my mortar is going to explode though, because the shell is fitted in very tightly because the nearer the bottom of the mortar there is loads of BP soot. added an extra long fuse and will have to take cover. wish me look ey

Edited by Pyromaster2003, 01 November 2003 - 07:33 PM.

[Pyromaster2003]

sorry forgot to add link to a video of my red stars. these look totally amazing in flight. http://henryhallam.c...ost/redstar.WMV

[Matt]

Your red stars make me angry.......
But its only a matter of time before I have my 25 kilos of perchlorate! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

-Matt

[Stuart]

If the mortar tube is getting BP soot at the bottom, why not get a wire brush and clean it out. Or, better yet, for a faster job, put the wire brush on the end of a drill.

Stuart

[Pyromaster2003]

hehe Matt:) should see wat they look like ina roman candle. infact saying that, il make a video tonight maybe with a star being fired from a tube.

i usualy do clean it out after use with tissue taped to a dowel slightly smaller than the ID of the mortar. it was a while before i used it and must have forgotten to clean after last use. anyway, it didnt explode which amazed me. i used 2.5 teaspoons of pulverone to fire the test shell and it fired up put came to pieces. what i had tryed first was to ram 2cm of clay into the tube and then drill a hole in for the fuse. i didnt have the right size rammer... so then i used a plastic bottle cap with a hole in and fused up. i then used duct tape to secure this onto the bottom of the same OD tube. then put 1 teaspoon of pulverone in the bottom, added the 7 red stars and poured half a teaspoon of meal on top of them to help ignition (stars already coated in primer). but from what i could see, the bottle cap came off and the stars and pulverone spread all over. was a great shame. will have to find a good size dowel and try that one again. anyone got any adeas for securing the bottle cap to the shell tube? there is a space of 1-2mm all the way round the shell and bottle cap when there is no cellotape around it.

[lord_dranack]

I tried the red formula you mentioned with lactose (there was no normal sugar in the house!)
It gave an incredable red, far better than my previous shellac based attempts

[Rhodri]

Hey Pyromaster - those red stars are EXCELLENT.

Will have to try some!

Well done!

Rhod

[Matt]

Damn you all and your fancy schmancy colours! I dont need you! I dont even need your colours! *runs off crying*

-Matt

[Jerronimo]

Hey Pyromaster - those red stars are EXCELLENT.

Will have to try some!

Well done!

Rhod

Hey Rhodi if you are looking for a blue star formula:

KCIO3 50 %
coppersulfate 25 %
sugar 25 %

[Jerronimo]

Hey Pyromaster - those red stars are EXCELLENT.

Will have to try some!

Well done!

Rhod

Hey Rhodi if you are looking for a blue star formula:

KCIO3 50 %
coppersulfate 25 %
sugar 25 %

[Pyromaster2003]

yea thanks Rhodri, i think so too will have to experiment a bit though because they are weird to light

[Matt]

The sugar wont keep very long i dont think. Probably need to be re-dried every week

-Matt

[leniol]

Sculpy (fimo) will work as a chlorine donor, just grate the undried stuff on a lemon zester or similar. Then again, the colours aren't as good as those sugar based stars. I wonder if you could bind with NC lacquer to waterproof them? I shall have to leave someone else to try as I'm stuck many miles away from home & have an essay on doctor's liabilites to disabled children to write...

[BigG]

Well, I would just drop out the sugar Honestly ? sugar makes very poor choice in compositions ? and very few formulations use them. Use other binders to much greater effect and they are also much more time resistant.

[Pazza]

Hey Rhodi if you are looking for a blue star formula:

KCIO3  50 %
coppersulfate 25 %
sugar 25 %

Will this cause a reaction between the KClO3 and CuSO4?
or is it just sulfides that cause spontaneous combustion with chlorates?