10 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

Hi all

 

There are some fairly impressive but expensive rockets available for public use... e.g. CAT 3. Most do not seem to be ball shells as such. I wondered if anyone had musch and insight into their construction.

Every shell I make is lovingly crafted so that each star is placed against the ball shell outer etc etc.

These low cost, mass produced items. Am I right in thinking most are just a load of stars thrown in with a hefty break charge? Or do they do a bit more work than that?

 

I ask because some of the breaks are not actually that bad. 

 

Thanks

[Arthur Brown]

Having seen some big rockets fired against small shells recently there are some VERY good breaks to be had, probably better than cat4 shells. SO IMO (only) big rockets must contain something as well made as a ball shell, if no simply they ARE ball shells. 

[Mortartube]

In my experience, most large rockets with good breaks are simply ball shells with raw match instead of a time fuse. If you have a factory that produces thousands of different sized ball shells annually, why complicate things by using another different manufacturing process, when you can use existing machinery and tools and simply pop a ball shell in a pretty cardboard tube as a header.

[Sparky]

I know what you are saying but then again all the rockets I've fired in this "category" seem way too light to be a well packed ball shell and they also make distinct rattling noise when you shake them. I know I shouldn't but I'm very tempted to do a dissection.

[Vic]

They are just chucked in, nothing like we can make

[Mortartube]

The shells are often not an entirely snug fit in the cardoard header tube, they rattle a little. Remember they have no lift. lift cup or match to add to their weight.

[Sparky]

Here's an example of what I mean.

 

You can see these are not well constructed but if this is what you can get from a nice hard break and little construction time then they make for a reasonable effect.

 

Edited by Sparky, 12 April 2014 - 10:57 PM.

[helix]

I think you would find if you opened one up there would be a small flash bag and some stars - certainly in the smaller rockets - in the larger sizes as someone mentioned earlier its just a ball shell with a fast burning fuse in place of the time fuse you would have in a shell.

[pyrothrust]

..............

Edited by pyrothrust, 13 May 2014 - 01:27 PM.

[Deano 1]

I know what you are saying but then again all the rockets I've fired in this "category" seem way too light to be a well packed ball shell and they also make distinct rattling noise when you shake them. I know I shouldn't but I'm very tempted to do a dissection.

Do it, and you'll find there is no passion in the making of any commercial firework, from China anyway.

[Peret]

Use enough flash powder and you get impressive breaks from any old crap header. We've run a seminar two years running at Winter Blast on five minute cylinder shells - take a cheap 40mm spiral wound tube, close and time fuse one end, attach a 1 gram flash bag to the fuse, fill the rest with stars, close the other end, seal up with sticky tape well enough to survive the lift.