23 replies to this topic

[digger]

I've seen a few 24" shells. They generally weighed in around 220-240lbs.

It does not surprise me at all that weight.

Are they really worth the extra over a 16"?

[PyroSkitz]

oh i thought i added the weight on my last post haha yeh a 16inch shell i think weights 180 pounds and 24 is as mubles said 220-260 region, when considering if a 24inch shell is better id had to say yes, where as a 16inch shell you may only be able to put your stars in + a few 2/3 inch shells or maybe like 4 4" shells inside, a 24 inch can take quite a few more shells + stars to give a very good effect. on a compleatly unrelated note i saw a video the other day of 4" canister shells sitting ontop of a rocket, and omg it was the best thing ive seen in a long time, it went of with barley any effect then 2 seconds later around 20 salutes went off in a perfect ring with around 0.2-0.5 of a second delay in between each salute, then after the first ring went off a second ring went off of salutes, it was times perfectly and looked fantastic

[digger]

oh i thought i added the weight on my last post haha yeh a 16inch shell i think weights 180 pounds and 24 is as mubles said 220-260 region, when considering if a 24inch shell is better id had to say yes, where as a 16inch shell you may only be able to put your stars in + a few 2/3 inch shells or maybe like 4 4" shells inside, a 24 inch can take quite a few more shells + stars to give a very good effect.

What planet are you on? a sixteen inch shell weighs about 20kg to 25kg fact (44 - 55 pounds). I know this because I have picked one up. a 24" shell is about 3.75 times the volume (think about it, volume of a sphere 4/3PI*R^3 so work out the volume ratio's). Hence my guess, but maybe there are a few more dense items which takes it up the extra 20kg.

No disrespect meant Mr skitz, but what is the largest shell you have seen fired? and how do you know what you can fit in each of the shells? Do you really think SOS shells are any good?

I would respect a sensible answer from someone who has actually seen one for real rather than a youtube video that fills the frame. So over to you guys from the US that have seen them for real.

on a compleatly unrelated note i saw a video the other day of 4" canister shells sitting ontop of a rocket, and omg it was the best thing ive seen in a long time, it went of with barley any effect then 2 seconds later around 20 salutes went off in a perfect ring with around 0.2-0.5 of a second delay in between each salute, then after the first ring went off a second ring went off of salutes, it was times perfectly and looked fantastic

There is a thread on these great rockets allready. Look in the rockets section and you will find.

[PyroSkitz]

Ok, my guess was out of range, I'm just making an approximation on the weight of shell from watching some YouTube videos yes....and a SoS can look nice, but you can also fill each hemisphere with the stars, then place the shells inside, giving a shell effect with the SOS effect aswell, I have not personally picked up a 16 or 24" shells or even seen them fired, I am also making n assumption of the amount of shells you can put inside, never actually seeing one for my self I wouldn't really know, but when watching videos and counting the amount of shells going off gives a rough idea, but i know for certain that to be honest no matter what effect in that size it would look marvellous, even yankie flashers or D1 would look surpurb.....and I know there is a post, I just thought I'd let you know of this rocket header, it wasn't the rocket it's self just the header which was marvellous,

[Mumbles]

The few 16" shells I've seen are loadable by hand. I think they were more in the 60-70lb range, but with shells this large it depends a lot on what they're loaded with. They were all multi-petal shells.

There are calculators around to approximate the number of spherical inserts that can line the surface of a larger sphere. I really am just guessing with the following values as far as ID goes. I included data for a few 36" shells I know some about. The magic number for SOS shells seems to be around 30-40 IMO. I don't know why, but that number seems to get the right spread with the right burst radius to the point where much of the sky is filled in. There isn't a lot of overlapping, and there isn't a lot of dark sky.

16" (guessed at 14.5" ID)
60 3" ball shells
28 4" ball shells

24" (guessed at 21" ID)
144 3" ball shells
74 4" ball shells
42 5" ball shells
25 6" ball shells

36" (known to be made around 31" ID)
32 8" ball shells


As far as why bother with such large shells? Honestly, most don't. There are only a few factories and people in the world capable of creating such large shells. I was once told that the Japanese make 16" shells for visually pleasing effects, and 24" and larger shells because they're huge and impressive. I believe it was paraphrased to me from a gentleman who met with a Japanese factory owner as "We make 16" shell for pretty. We make 24" shells for big". The 24" and larger shells really only make appearances at festivals and other big events (Olympics for one). Even then, they usually aren't as nice as smaller shells. There are a few gentleman in the US that have been experimenting with 24" ball shells over the past few years. There are still some kinks to be worked out. Even the 16" shells are spotty at times. Those that build 12" shells though are true masters.

Edited by Mumbles, 19 July 2010 - 02:24 AM.

[digger]

Thanks Mumbles.

That was pretty much as I expected it to be.

D

[PyroSkitz]

im sorry, but seriously, my guess was well off, you can fit 144 3" shells inside a 24inch sphere ?, that must be a mighty impressive sight to be seen in progress....

[Arthur Brown]

There are lots of vids on youtube about huge shells. Some are peony or Chrysanthemum form, some are with added shell of shells. There are few places that these are fired simply because of the mortar needed which more resembles the boiler off a steam loco fully buried. It's usual to lower the shell by crane or hoist. Add also that these shells go above the usual height probably approaching 2000feet so there is serious airspace checking required.

[PyroSkitz]

im defiantly going to go do a search now , and yeh ive seen the boiler tube type looking thingy haha strange looking piece of fiberglass ive ever seen (joking btw.....)