toni

This isn't excactly a Catherine Wheel but it was my first attempt at a wheel.

Worked out pretty well, I used this formula by Kyle Kepley :

Meal Powder - 8
Charcoal Airfloat - 1
Aliminium Flake - 1
FeTi - 1
Charcoal Spruce - 0.5

For the header I used Crackling Micro Stars, formula by Larry Stevens :
Lead Tetraoxide - 10
Copper(II) Oxide, black - 7
Magnalium, granular, -200 mesh - 4
Potassium Nitrate - 1.5
Sulfur - 1

The mix I use for my drivers is 16 potassium nitrate -4 charcoal -3 sulfur and I use 10% of the wieght water , to granulate the powder. Note that I mix by hand, do not use ball milling machines. These work great. The size of the nozzle is 3.7 mm. Inner diameter of tube 13 mm.
Toni Busuttil
Malta

Perhaps you could post an introduction here for members who are unaware of exactly what Irdieden is.

Irdieden are huge metal framework, consisting of universal joints, gears, sprockets, bicycle chains etc, These are driven with the force of pyrothechnics.We use what we call drivers, These consists of compressed black powder in a carton tube of inner diameter of 13 mm and wall thickness of 3 mm, These drivers have an end clay nozzle of a diameter 3.5 mm. Irdieden also consists moving parts, on which lances are fixed, so to form kalediscopic effect. You can visit my website www.maltafireworks.com There you will see lots of pictures of the Irdieden. These are very popular in Malta. Irdieden were introduced ouside Makta, for the first time in the year 2000, in America at the CrackerJacks shoot. It was Harry Gilliam of the Skykighter who came with this idea. I thank Harry for everything.
Toni

Toni, are the 'universal joint' coupling that you use to allow pivoting/rotation a factory made item, or do you manufacture them yourself? Could you post a close-up photo of how these are constructed ?

My universal joint, I made these. You can find to buy ready made I found a supplier from China, these are good and can be bought for 15 Euros each. To make a Raddiena of six segments, you need 12 of these...quite expensive. I make mine, save money and more satisfaction but more work. On my website there is a photo of the universal joint that I make.

Toni