633 replies to this topic

[phildunford]

Been playing with Gold Twinkler formula and had pretty good success with this:

Meal powder 68
Aluminium 8
Antimony Trisulphide 8
Sodium Oxalate 11
Red gum 5

Bind with alcohol (meths)

This is a minor mod of one publised by skylighter.

I've simply replaced the Dextrin with Red Gum and used alcohol instead of water.

I find the gum is a stronger binder, but it also avoids using using water in a nitrate aluminium mixture and the attendant dangers of heating up.

I used aluminium filler powder (from Tiranty) which is usually not very active, but works fine here.

[knackers]

Help needed please,,
i've made up a green composition and only burnt @ 5 grams on my test plate and it burns a quite nice green albeit perhaps a little pale gut a green, green, it is the following :-
Barium nitrate.....28 g
K perchloate.......47 g
red gum.............14 g
pvc....................9.5 g, ( it calls for 4.7g parlon ) but only have pvc and found i need double pvc--->parlon to get good colour, my question is..... what type of star can i make, cut or rolled ? and do i use alcohol and use the redgum as the binder, or do i add dextrin and use an alcohol water solution
thanks in advance...

[seymour]

Hi Phill, I'm not all too surprised that that composition is a washed out colour.

While PVC is not the best chlorine donor, unless it is contaminated, there is no reason for it not to work absolutely fine.

What would improve the green, would be to add a suitable metal fuel. Magnesium would work, but due to its reactive nature it is not the first choice. Magnalium, preferably fine would be ideal, though fine flake Aluminium will also work. less reactive aluminium powders are likely to cause sparks which will lessen, or even wash out completely the green in the flame. Unfortunately, without Barium chlorate it is not to my knowledge possible to make a rich organic green.

Also, as a matter of personal preference I would lower the Potassium perchlorate, and raise the Barium nitrate and PVC.

Perhaps It would end up being

Barium nitrate 40 %
Potassium perchlorate 25
Polyvinyl chloride 15
Magnalium 15
Red Gum 5

If you dont want to make up a whole new batch, adding some Magnalium to your composition should make it better.

It is unlikely you have any appropriate solvents for using PVC as a binder, so yes Red gum is the logical binder, with alcohol being the solvent. However if you are having problems with it, it could be replaced with many other binders, such as Dextrin, Gum Arabic ect.

As for cutting or rolling? It should work fine as cut stars, and it should roll up nicely too. Its your pick! Just make sure you prime them well.

Stay green

Edited by seymour, 21 October 2008 - 07:47 AM.

[Creepin_pyro]

If you're looking for a nice Emerald green try Kyle's:

Name: Emerald Green MgAl
Source: Kyle Kepley
Barium Nitrate 50
Parlon 18
Magnalium, granular, -325 mesh 12
Potassium Perchlorate 8
Sulfur 5
Charcoal Airfloat 5
Dextrin 5
Red Gum 2

Very good colour, will work as cut, rolled, pumped...

[knackers]

thanks alot seymour,,

i'll give it a go , oh yea, will stay green when i get there,

thanks too, to you creepin pyro, :-)

Edited by phill 63, 21 October 2008 - 08:04 AM.

[cooperman435]

OK guys here's the task...........

I would dearly love to create a formulas database for all to use but having seen those out there already I have come up with my "all new and improved" databse :-)

Basically I would like help from anyone out there who had even the slightest know how on how I can achieve the following.

Firstly the database: needs to be able to be added to both new formulas and editing of existing ones already stored. This is the easy bit I think. I would like an entry form that enables you to "drop down list" the creator, colour, type, components (with details too like # size or charcoal - TYPE), etc and have a notes section where people can enter their experiences with that formula and give help to those who intend to use it. Entries would only be able to be posted once cleared by a moderator to ensure suitability.

The search engine is the difficult bit. I have already set up a website with members accounts. I would like to enable someone to create a list of the things they have available to them (which will save to their specific login account) and search the database by those as well as have other methods too such as formula type, colour, ect etc. This is with the intention of enabling you to search for formulas you HAVE everything for already. The funcion to list those formulas you are lacking one component would be great too.

Once this is in place Im sure it will be a fantastic information base for us all

All help and assistance with the programming and data entry will be very much appreciated.

[phildunford]

Hi Phill,

Have you seen the formula database on Passfire? This has some of what you want...

[phildunford]

A couple of people asked for the start formula I used in my 'garden display'.

Posted them in another thread, but will put them here for completeness too:

The blue was B10

Potassium Perchlorate 38
Ammonium Perchlorate 29
Copper Carbonate 14
Red Gum 14
Dextrin 5

The Red/Pink stars were from Lancaster

Potassium Chlorate 70
Strontium Carbonate 15
Red Gum 10
Dextrin 4
Charcoal 150 mesh 1

Both good reliable formula

[pyrotechnist]

Thank you phill, would anyone know what formula or type of star these Japanese shells may be using. They seem to be a silver medium tip with a long gold tail though the silver tip twinkles. I tried making my own formula using a small amount of aluminum -325 mesh powder with coarse pine charcoal but only seem to get a lovely gold tail with sprinkles of silver. The stars are shown below:



second image:


My first idea was that they maybe used cavity stars with the outer layer containing a silver glitter while the inner layer was chrysanthemum or some sort of fire fly but aint sure if they would go through all that trouble of making such stars.

[cooperman435]

Yep Phil I have seen it but to be honest wasnt that impressed. There isnt enough actual write up on the formulas on there so very little information really and so many of them have "old school" chems that a lot are out of reach of many. If we could search the database for those formulas that contain A,D,F,B,Z,X and e then it would weed out those that are no use to us

[seymour]

Phildunford, What Prime did those Blue stars use?

Have you tried firing them harder? I am interested to know if AP/KP oxidised stars have the ability to stay lit at high speed like KP, or not, like AP.

[pyrotrev]

second image:


My first idea was that they maybe used cavity stars with the outer layer containing a silver glitter while the inner layer was chrysanthemum or some sort of fire fly but aint sure if they would go through all that trouble of making such stars.

Don't be too sure. In my experience, there's very little that's too much trouble for the Japs if they really want to get a certain effect - that's one of the reasons their stuff is so cool.

[phildunford]

Phildunford, What Prime did those Blue stars use?

Have you tried firing them harder? I am interested to know if AP/KP oxidised stars have the ability to stay lit at high speed like KP, or not, like AP.

Hi Semour,

They were were primed just on the bottom with BP and red gum slurry then dipped in grain BP.

I've not tried them other than in this rather lazy candle! I know AP formula have a bad reputation for taking fire, but this is reputed to be one of the best blues containing AP - certainly a good colour.

If I try them in something a bit more lively, I'll let you know!

[pyrotechnist]

Maybe they are cavity pumped then, if not would love to know the formula as they are very beautiful stars.

[Mortartube]

I reckon they are probably an Fe/Ti streamer mix with about half the Fe/Ti replaced with aluminum in there. The Al is also pretty fine so it burns up quickly.

Here's a Ferrotitanium comet. Imagine fine Al in there to give a silver tip and it is near to the effect you want.

http://www.creagan.n...denStreamer.jpg

It is Blesers Blonde streamer in the above picture, so tinker with that I suggest,

Potassium nitrate .............45
Sulfur ................................ 6
Charcoal (150 mesh) ....... 29
Dextrin ............................ 5
Ferrotitanium .................. 15

Add +1% Boric acid to the mix as a buffer and pump is my recommendation.

You might want to try something like this.

Potassium nitrate .............45
Sulfur ................................ 6
Charcoal (150 mesh) ....... 29
Dextrin ............................ 5
Coarse Ferrotitanium .......... 8
Fine Al................................ 7

+1% Boric acid

I won't specify any mesh sizes as I don't know what you have but I reckon the Al should be about 400 mesh and the Fe/Ti about 150 - 200 mesh as a start point.

Have an experiment. That's where the fun is for me instead of copying formulae exactly all of the time. Adapt a bit.