Wiley Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 (edited) Made a couple shells today with what I've been able to make, and some ERC 2FA I had on hand. I didn't have enough real BP to waste it bursting shells, so I decided to experiment with some new ideas, for me. The first shell was a single break with a 2g flash bag (2:1:1 nitrate slow flash), and the interstices between the stars filled with -8+15 mesh polverone. I spiked it with 3 strands of #3 crochet thread, dry. Protected the spiking with 2 layers of gummed tape, just as I was doing when I started out. Shot that one in the cloudy afternoon, but couldn't see much. I thought my stars had shattered. Didn't see any flaming fallout though. Made a 2 break for night use. The bottom break was the same as the single break from earlier, but the flash bag had grown to 3.5g. The 1st break was broken with a 1/2" canulle filled with -8+15 mesh polverone. 3 strands of dry crochet thread and gummed tape on this one too. 130g shell lifted with 13g of -4+8 mesh hot ERC black powder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo58QtDJl90 Turned out pretty nice. I was pleasantly surprised by the first break, and even more so when the second one displayed. I want to eventually break all of my multis with flash bags to get a nice spread and pop like that, similar to what Joel is doing with his big shells. I had a couple pieces of gummed tape with spiking attached to them come down with some glowing ends. I hope that pasting the string will cause that to go away. Other than that, I was happy with it. It's good to be back at it. Edited February 9, 2016 by Wiley 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrokid Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Great looking shells, before and during operation! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Good to see you back at it! Did you find a new place to shoot? Comp almost looks like N-1... is it? They looked perfect to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparx88 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Good seeing your work again. Love them long hanging effects. Was that firefly flake or spherical? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspirina Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 perfect shell! Do you put shock absorber between the shells? forgive if you did and I have not read but, that size is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Nice Shell Wiley...!!I appreciate your work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 Thanks for the comments everyone. The comp is a "brocade" that I came up with basically by taking Tiger willow, replacing 20% of the airfloat with 80 mesh charcoal, and adding 10% 60-240 mesh FeTi. I don't think I actually put the size in the description. It's a 1.75" nominal shell, so it fits a 1.91" ID consumer HDPE mortar. That's the only size I'm building now. No shock absorption anything is needed with these. The closest thing to a "shock absorber" that I use in these is a bottom shot on the longer shells. It provides a solid base to take the punch of the lift. The largest I've made was about 14" long, so with its lift charge attached, it stuck out of its 15" long mortar. My inexperience caused me to use too much and too fine a powder to lift it, so it blew the plug out of the mortar and tossed all the guns buried around it. The shell survived though, and the bottom shot functioned perfectly about 10 feet of the ground, a full 8.8 seconds after lift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memo Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 wily when I saw this I thought of you and how much you like salami Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeee Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 Wiley, Nice shell, the multi-break shells are a lot of fun with endless possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) Haha, I've heard about that sticker but never seen it until now. They are certainly fun, and I like coming up with different ways to display complex effects with these. I have another in the drying box now; have to wait until tomorrow to see how that one turns out. One interesting thing I've noticed about LBS salutes, but never really processed until now, is that they don't appear to have any spiking. I seem to recall something about hot glue end plugs, but those are pretty big shells for that kind of construction. Edited February 14, 2016 by Wiley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minstarmin Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Nice and pretty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 (edited) Here are a couple new ones from last weekend. The first is a single break. This turned up being a great example of the odd issue involving flaming fallout that I posted about a while ago. Apparently, the issue stems from a weak burst. This one was bulk filled with stars and polverone. Most of the stars stayed in the mostly-intact casing, which plummeted o the ground still burning. I've seen this happen before, but not this badly. At least I definitively know what the source of the problem is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXmHhV9-gDY The next was 2 breaks of brocade to a really watered-down report. Each color break was broken with a 2g flash bag. 2:1:1 KNO3 flash with IBA was used in those, along with a little in the bottom shot, which was mostly polverone. The fuse on the 2nd break was top-hatted, since it would have been too long to insert the 1st break's flash bag if I'd left it long enough for splitting with a standard razor blade. It was in the air for 7.8ish seconds, which is plenty of time to throw in other effects. I'll be getting some longer and better-plugged guns that will only improve that flight time. I got zero glowing crap coming down from this one, so I'll go out on a limb and say that this particular design was a nice success. I'll keep using these same basic design techniques in the future, but I think I'll drop the pasted paper and go back to gummed tape. Applying very thin pasted paper to something as small as this is not fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcDStkvN-7w Here are some build photos of the second shell. Flash bags. 1/2" of fuse on 1st break, and 3/4" on the second. 2.9 s/in fuse Pasted bottom shot. Shimmed and matched. Case rolled around shot, and flash bag packed in stars and polverone. Inner disk installed over fuse, paper pleated down, and a pool of hot glue applied around the fuse. Another disk (not shown) is quickly installed to make a nice seal at that joint. All closed up and spiked with 3 strands of pasted #3 crochet thread. 12 longitudinals Top-hatted 1st break case rolled around former. Pleats glued to disk White glue applied to both surfaces. 1st break case stacked. Filled Spiked All done. Pasted with 6 turns of masking paper. Didn't like that process much, so I think I'll stick to gummed tape. Pun unintended. Edited February 16, 2016 by Wiley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldMarine Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I'm about to try my hand at making stars and mines so hopefully it won't be too long before I'm ready to give those boogers a go. Keep the pics a'coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 That looks great Wiley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynomike1 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 What size are those shells? They look good for canisters, In my 3 and 4" BS i use 2-3 teaspoons of 70/30/10s with MCRH and they won't be playing. I wished i had a video of one. I was using Cotton hulls, but that didn't sound to good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memo Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 i know how you like salamis, but i think these are telephone poles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Those are some real monsters! Looks like there's a foot or better of sabot under them too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memo Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 wiley i didnt notice that , but i think your right. a real different texture on the bottom 12 to 18 inches memo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynomike1 Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 i know how you like salamis, but i think these are telephone poles I sure would like to see one of those in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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