Wiley Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 (edited) This was posted on FW, but I thought some folks here might like to have a look. Hey all, just thought I'd post a few pictures of the shells I finally got finished up today. I'll be sending some of these up as soon as we get some rain to test a few changes I made to the design of some of my shells. Most of the shells with two or fewer breaks are lifted with 3FA at 6.25% of the shell weight, and all of the longer, colored multis are using 2FA at 8% of the shell weight. I opted for the heavier lift chiefly due to the fact that my shells are a rather sloppy fit in the mortar for some reason. My case former is 2.6" in diameter, since that's what matched the OD of a spiked and pasted bottom shot based on a 2.5" OD core. I use 70# paper to roll cases and paste my shells in, and spike with doubled up 20# hemp, but there is still a gap about 5/16" wide between the shell and mortar wall. Additionally, my 2FA is the same size as the coarser particles of commercial 2FA. My 3 breaks are about 10" to 12" long depending on what's in them, and range from 1.5 pounds to just a hair over 2 pounds. They, along with anything bigger than a single break, will be shot from 20" deep HDPE guns, buried and seated on a 4x4. Here are a few more pieces from the arsenal. Most of what you see are salutes, including the peanut shells. Those, along with the ground salutes on the right, are part of a little "battery" I plan to fire in the fall sometime. The salute cannons will be playing a role in that too. The shells leaning against the flower pot are all consumer sized 2, 3, and 4 break multis, all with little bottom shots. I finished my first two 4" with the rinfasciature method today. #38 has a small canulle and 8g of booster, and #39 has a large canulle with no booster at all. I knew that a 4 was much bigger than a 3, but I didn't realize just how big until the things started scarfing down 3/8" color stars like popcorn. Should be real pretty. I tried a little different method of stowing the leader than I normally do. When I was first confronted with the task of stowing a leader, my hands automatically curved it and taped it to the side of the shell. I realized afterward that I'd been watching a lot of Maltese videos recently and had unconsciously copied the Maltese method; the method I used on the 4s is generally how it's done in Italy. Edited August 29, 2015 by Wiley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparx88 Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Your can skills are looking good my man. Christmas wrapped and ready for deep space exploration...don't forget the videos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 Oh, there will be video. I decide that 39 is a weird number, so I built another 4" today, a color-to-report. Made the whole shell, including the BS, in roughly 5 hours using the rinfasciature method. It's a heavy sucker, and should look (and sound) pretty nice. Matched BS Case rolled3/8" stars 3/8" and 1/4" stars FullClosed1st spikingDry wrap tongue-folded on bottom Pleated around fuse 2nd spiking Final wrap spiked on Lift Wrap 2FA lift powderFinished Comparison with a 3" color-to-report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I understand that the Maltese use short mortars for their salamis. Usually the salamis stick out of the mortars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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