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Pyro-pal

Member Since 25 Aug 2005
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In Topic: Use Of Wheat Flour?

31 March 2008 - 05:38 PM

Here’s a nice gold cut star that uses wheat flour as a fuel and to cool the combustion. This takes a long time to dry if dampened with water only, so use 70/30 water and alcohol. Using wheat paste in place of plain flour will make the mix gummy.

Gold Streamer:
Meal D-----------------------56
Saltpeter---------------------11
Al German dark-------------17
Wheat flour -----------------11
Dex.---------------------------5

In Topic: Weird Problem With Chrysanthemum Stars

21 March 2008 - 04:28 PM

Note:
As cooperman said the stars were most likely still damp inside anyway. If you insist on making cut stars from Chrys. 6 or 8 try ball milling the comp for a few hours then dampen with 70-30 water alcohol (by volume) for faster and more complete drying. Charcoal stars have always needed an extra amount of time to dry.

In Topic: Weird Problem With Chrysanthemum Stars

21 March 2008 - 05:44 AM

Really?

Unless I am rolling a streamer composition over a core of a different effect, for example, a colour, I always cut Charcoal streamers. Correctly dampened cut stars cannot be much more damp than rolled stars!

As many people have said, the problem is most definitely that they have not been ball milled. I have always had this problem with un-milled charcoal streamers, even when they are prepared using the wet method.


Stars high in charcoal or aluminum content need up to 30% to 40% water to make cut stars. The same formula when formed into round stars by misting the dry mixture in a star roller I doubt would ever get any higher than 8%. Why buck tradition? I have a couple of round star formulas that are ruined by adding excess water to cut them. Chrysanthemum 6 or 8 from Shimizu are Japanese in origin and were intended to be made as round stars.

In Topic: Weird Problem With Chrysanthemum Stars

20 March 2008 - 09:37 PM

Chrysanthemum stars werent meant to be made as cut stars, the excess water needed to squish it into a loaf also displaces some of the oxidizer. If you want a better burn try ball milling the comp first then roll it into round stars or use a charcoal star formula that was intended to be made into cut stars.

In Topic: Firefly Star Comp

11 March 2008 - 04:05 AM

Pyro-pal: you know the formula of this effect; like a cascade ?


Here’s the firefly formula, but it only preformed like a cascade the first time I tested it.
Subsequent tests performed miserably due my veering from the original parameters.
i.e cutting the stars larger than 10mm and not using a thin enough wheat paste binder.
Still have some more tests before it’s dialed in, but that’s typical of this type of effect.

Firefly Stars:
Saltpeter-----------44
Barium Nitrate ----5
Airfloat C-----------29
80 mesh C --------11
Sulfur-----------------6
Al Flake -------------5

Paste Binder: use 1oz. dry wheat paste to 1-1/2 pints water heated in a double boiler then cooled. Me thinks an even thinner paste binder is needed here. Add 275 cc of paste to 500 grams of the star comp.
Cut to 10mm square. Save the crumbs and recover the aluminum.

Aluminum is Transmet K101& K102 flake, about 20-30 mesh (2.5 parts of each to equal 5 parts total.)

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