60 replies to this topic

[adamw]

I recently fired The World's Smallest Shell ™ with about 1/2g of 7/3 flash powder and about 2g of Star Bits ™ (broken off bits of pumped star - Mg Orange w/ Ti tail). In the air (about 75m) it sounded like several grams of report. The star effect did not show. What are your thoughts? Did the spiking (see picture) contribute to the confinement, did the stars detonate??


Micro Can

[Stuart]

Right, me and a friend just fired off 12 bottle rockets. They were 5mm ID, 7mm OD and 40mm long. They had 1.5g BP for the lift and then about 1g for the report. The order of layers were, Nozzle (1mm hole), BP, Glue Gun with hole, KNO3/Sugar mix for a small delay, BP and then Glue Gun again. They all went between about 3 and 7 meters high I guess. The reports aren't very loud but a nice crack.

They were fired off in lots of 3 all fused with touch paper and then one big lot of 6. Quite nice especially the ones with a broken up star in the burst.

Stuart

I made a mistake in this post. I checked with my friend the height achieved was more like 10-20 meters. I am useless at judging heights

Stuart

[Matt]

Pfffff, Adam you call that small? i make 10mm shells. I have a few videos on here but havnt put em on my site because well, no one wants to see that im sure! will put one up this arvo after work.

-Matt

[StfuStuf]

It looked like a lot of fun you guys are having so... I decided to make little bottle rockets aswell. Mine are 8mm id with greenmix as the propellant. The endplugs are made out of clay and drilled with a 1-2mm hole and vary in length. These fly pretty high, even the short ones, and with a nice whoosh for the start with a nice orange trail. I haven't put anything asides from small firecrackers as payloads but I will when I start making larger ones.

Edited by StfuStuf, 16 March 2004 - 02:24 AM.

[adamw]

If you will read the legal info Matt, you will find that Worlds Smallest Shell is a trademark of AW Creations Corp. You will be hearing from my lawyers (who also have sticks)

[Phoenix]

Matt said,

Pfffff, Adam you call that small? i make 10mm shells. I have a few videos on here but havnt put em on my site because well, no one wants to see that im sure! will put one up this arvo after work.

But are they spiked and pasted miniature versions of a full size shell? I have made 6mm O.D. insert shells for roman candles and cakes, but these were basically firecrackers with stars in.

Adam, did you lift the shell with a rocket? If you got it 75m up with a mortar, I'd like to know how. (PS - mine was Quite a Small Insert?, it was not a Worlds Smallest Shell?)

Congratulations on the rockets, StfuStuf. When I put headings on my 1/4" ones I just put a pinch of BP on top of the propellant, followed it with a few 3-4mm stars, and then stuffed a ball of screwed up newspaper in the end. Not exactly spectacular, but a fitting effect for something that size.

[BigG]

Pfffff, Adam you call that small? i make 10mm shells. I have a few videos on here but havnt put em on my site because well, no one wants to see that im sure! will put one up this arvo after work.

-Matt

Pfff, You call that small?!?! I shoot a ? mm(!) rockets! If was lifted by a firefly with elephant ears and went up 20 meters before hitting an electricity line. Gave a good buzz as the firefly got roosted, generating wonderful ?falling leaves effect? as the burning ashes slowly floated toward the ground.

Come on guys. I got left hands. This conversation is depressing me. No way I can handle something under half an inch?

[StfuStuf]

I just made a batch of 8mm id blah blah same rockets but a bit shorter and have single stars that shoot out of them. Its really interesting seeing how far those little stars go. I also filled some with crackle mix and failed stars. Those also were pretty spectacular for their size. I lit off 5 of them and I'm going to save the rest for later at night when they'll look cooler.

[RegimentalPyro]

Whilst we're on the subject of small, I did hear of a couple of US enthusiasts who had had some success making 1mm OD rocket made from straw. [The growing stuff rather than the drinking straws]

As I recall [and I could be wrong here] They took a one inch length and split it down the middle except for about a quarter inch at the end. One half of the split was discarded.

They then packed the unsplit part of the straw with the comp [suspect meal].

No pictures. No verification - just working from memory. I have to admit my eyebrows were raised when I heard about it.

Who thinks it's possible.

[lord_dranack]

It could be- have you seen those matchstick rockets. they are very basic and only have a very small amount of propellant in , but can work quite well.

[adamw]

I've actually made micro rockets from a piece of 3mm perchlorate based Visco fuse with a toothpick as the stick.

[Creepin_pyro]

Did the spiking (see picture) contribute to the confinement, did the stars detonate??

I recently read a report detailing an incedent in Australia where some big-bore roman candles were arranged strapped together in steel tubes . Apparently, one of the stars managed to self-contain and detonate , causing a rather nasty chain reaction involving other steel tubes placed in close proximity, all packed with candles.

So, then what can we learn from this?.... Don't put any fireworks inside metal tubes! Not sure about stars detonating, though.

[alany]

Yeah, a *big* snowball candle bulk detonated IIRC, shrapnel took out someone in the audience.

[StfuStuf]

These NEW and IMPROVED bottle rockets I've recently made, about 24 of them, fly so great! They use a thin balsa stick for their balance and are just plain old dry rolled taped up casings. They are so powerful and immediatly after lighting just soar into the sky. I've modified my green mix formula and added more charcoal and aluminum for effects. And also they take no time to make if you have all the necessary ingredients.
But also I was thinking of making tooling for small bottle rockets with those needles that you use to pump soccerballs etc. They seem like the right size and the ram rod would just need to have a hole drilled into it and there you have it, instant bottle rocket tooling!

[alany]

I finally got my clay nozzled bottle rockets working to my liking:

http://www.vk2zay.ne...ment.php?id=563

Next I need to tame whistling bottle rockets, this is my best so far, and was pretty crappy:

http://www.vk2zay.ne...ment.php?id=573