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My first wheel


Col

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Quite pleased with the way this one turned out although it could use some color to make it more interesting.

wheel

 

Col,

That was a very nice wheel! Especially for being your first one, had very nice transitions between the drivers too. Keep up the good work!

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Great first wheel Col !! I think it would be nice if there were more wheels and fountains posted on here. They can be just as much and sometimes more work than aerial shells, which always take the spotlight. Don't get me wrong, I love shells too, but it's nice to see some different stuff here and there.
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Thanks guys,

I have another one planned, using 6 drivers for a longer duration (2 minutes maybe) along with some coloured comps+metals for more variety. The wheel frames are reloadable,so its just a case of cable tying on a new set of drivers.

It would be great to see a few wheels on the forum to provide some inspiration :)

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Thanks guys,

I have another one planned, using 6 drivers for a longer duration (2 minutes maybe) along with some coloured comps+metals for more variety. The wheel frames are reloadable,so its just a case of cable tying on a new set of drivers.

It would be great to see a few wheels on the forum to provide some inspiration :)

 

 

Keep in mind 2 minutes is a long time for a wheel to run and keep people focused, so as you mentioned be sure to have a lot of variety. If you are going to use colours as well as charcoal type drivers, I'd start with the charcoal as it is dimmer and the build in brightness as the effect changes. If you start with really bright silver or something, the audience will hardly see a charcoal effect after as their eyes need to adjust again. Good luck, and look forward to seeing it.

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  • 10 months later...

I forgot to update the thread but better late than never.

2nd wheel

The colour was a failure although the blue looked pretty good for the 2 seconds it was on the wheel :) The drivers ran for the predicted duration of 2 minutes but it was bland without the colours.

The next one should be better.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I forgot to update the thread but better late than never.

2nd wheel

The colour was a failure although the blue looked pretty good for the 2 seconds it was on the wheel :) The drivers ran for the predicted duration of 2 minutes but it was bland without the colours.

The next one should be better.

 

well done mate long lasting and different effects

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Nice to see some pyro video from the UK :)

 

If you really want to surprise the audience, consider loosely ramming a final increment of granulated meal into the last driver. Gives a nice 'bounce' at the end. Timing colour pots to match the drivers can be tricky - good luck with the next one.

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Cheers for the comments guys, much appreciated.

The new wheel design is finalised on paper and if all goes to plan it will have 6 drivers, 5 different colours and a much faster rotation than the last one.

A bounce at the end sounds like the perfect way to finish it off :)

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Cheers for the comments guys, much appreciated.

The new wheel design is finalised on paper and if all goes to plan it will have 6 drivers, 5 different colours and a much faster rotation than the last one.

A bounce at the end sounds like the perfect way to finish it off :)

 

Nicely done! I love wheels and set pieces. For colour drivers I'd like to suggest a strontium nitrate based one which I made and was very nice and brilliant red. It also had a nice amount of thrust, so rotating should not be a problem.

 

formulae was:

 

strontium nitrate 44

parlon 17

Mg/Al 200 mesh 17

Titanium 13

red gum 9

 

Just press in a tube without nozzle. I made a nozzled driver with my end burner tooling, and this resulted in a blow out of the nozzle. This compo slaggs a lot, so no nozzle....

 

Thanks for sharing, nice contribution.

Keep up the good work......

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Nicely done! I love wheels and set pieces. For colour drivers I'd like to suggest a strontium nitrate based one which I made and was very nice and brilliant red. It also had a nice amount of thrust, so rotating should not be a problem.

 

formulae was:

 

strontium nitrate 44

parlon 17

Mg/Al 200 mesh 17

Titanium 13

red gum 9

 

Just press in a tube without nozzle. I made a nozzled driver with my end burner tooling, and this resulted in a blow out of the nozzle. This compo slaggs a lot, so no nozzle....

 

Thanks for sharing, nice contribution.

Keep up the good work......

 

wow looks great I will try it in the competion if its ok mate I have a purple driver , it would look great with a red one

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Nicely done! I love wheels and set pieces. For colour drivers I'd like to suggest a strontium nitrate based one which I made and was very nice and brilliant red. It also had a nice amount of thrust, so rotating should not be a problem.

 

formulae was:

 

strontium nitrate 44

parlon 17

Mg/Al 200 mesh 17

Titanium 13

red gum 9

 

Just press in a tube without nozzle. I made a nozzled driver with my end burner tooling, and this resulted in a blow out of the nozzle. This compo slaggs a lot, so no nozzle....

 

Thanks for sharing, nice contribution.

Keep up the good work......

 

 

i have used this many times its great off passfire by john glasswick i think works as a driver and saon but becareful how you fuse it ,it can cato

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I did a test using John`s purple comp in a 3/4" id tube with an 8mm nozzle. It delivered a nice 10" long purple/violet flame and threw sparks a good 4-5ft high but not much in the way of thrust. purple driver test

4mm and 6mm nozzles both ended with a cato so i`m not relying on the colour comps to turn the wheel :)

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ive used the glasswick, 3/4 id 3" long on my bicycle wheel, wheel :) . it was spinning pretty fast before the glasswicks kicked in , you can see the wheel at 1.10 and in action at 3.45 on the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ttIagCb6Y&feature=fvsr

 

great vid watched the whole thing mate some nice shells also love the wheels,I have made alot and Im going to get back into it some got real complicated but once I figured out the fusing its was a breeze just time consuming,yeah the purple driver has power I used 1" by 8" usually and when it CATO"S it blows lots of fire have to be real careful where you burn them,enter the contest mate you might when a "CTFC"

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice wheel dr thrust, the shells were good too :) Wheels are time consuming to make but they`re worth the effort, a reloadable frame saves a good bit of work.

I`ll be using six 6" x 3/4" id drivers on it this time.

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx341/colinspyro/2011/2011wheel.jpg

Edited by Col
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  • 2 weeks later...

Here`s the finished wheel, fused and ready for action

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx341/colinspyro/2011/6driverwheelprefire.jpg

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Cheers dag

I`m trying something different with this one so anything could happen ;)

The colour comps are located after the passfires in the ends of the tubes so the colour should coincide with the ignition of the following driver. Its a tad heavier than the saxon at 750g.

I wanted it to spin a a fair rate of knots so i pressed the drivers using whistle rocket tooling to create a 3/8" nozzle and a short core. I used cool fuel for the core (maybe 3/4"-1" long) and hot fuel for the solid grain. Most of the drivers have something added to the fuel above the spindle..red and/or green parlon microstars, ferrotitanium or 50-mesh ti sponge for a bit of extra variety :)

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cheers dag,

it wasnt perfect with the iffy transitions and the red was the only thing powering the wheel right at the end but its a definite improvement on the last one :D

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  • 11 months later...
Looked good to me. Lasted a decent amount time as well.
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