schroedinger Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Hi Which type of Al is better for color stars?Flake or atomized and what is the best mesh for each one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livingston Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Al is used in glitter and flitter formulas not color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrB Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) I'm not sure i agree. It should be noted that i haven't tried these compositions: Brilliant white star44.4 Potassium perchlorate44.4 Aluminium (dust)11.2 DextrinBaechle amber #258 Potassium perchlorate25 Barium nitrate25 Strontium nitrate15 Aluminium4 Lampblack4 Sodium benzoate18 Parlon4 Red gumGolden chrysanthemum40 Potassium nitrate30 Aluminium (coarse flake)10 Sulfur10 Realgar2 Charcoal (Hemp or Pauownia)1 Boric acid7 SGRSGreen star #565 Barium nitrate10 Aluminium (very fine)20 Parlon4 Sulfur2 Boric acid Lancaster Red #270 Potassium perchlorate12 Strontium carbonate6 Red gum6 Aluminium (bright)6 Aluminium (flitter 80/30)Actually, the list is quite long, i just nabbed a few here and there. And copy / pasted them from here. Anyway, nobody can answer on what kind is better, since it depends on the use. Some compositions call for fine flake, others the atomized stuff. Trial and error i'm afraid, unless it's specifyed in the composition details.B! Edited December 6, 2014 by MrB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carbon796 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I've made the emerald green that is listed on skylighter's website. Which may be the same as green star #5 listed above. The formula looks familiar. I used dark aluminum for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogeryermaw Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 i know the green rubber stars from the skylighter chart didn't work with aluminum. i tried that and got yellow. switching to mgal 50/50 worked quite well. before: http://youtu.be/Ct4Voou4Vvoafter:http://youtu.be/UUeUh6JTH90 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 For colored stars you basically will want to always use flake. The finer the better generally. I've always used -325 mesh flake, and had good results. I personally like MgAl better, but both will work in the right formulas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 For colored stars you basically will want to always use flake. The finer the better generally. I've always used -325 mesh flake, and had good results. I personally like MgAl better, but both will work in the right formulas. Thank you thats good to know. Since i just recently got acces to good flake al. Always used atomized one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 It doesn't really need to be all that good. I normally just used whatever bright flake Al I had around. Sometimes if things are a little slaggy or not going quite right, you can use a small portion of dark flake (flash grade) aluminum to get it to work better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiwanluthiers Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I used dark al and it does work for color, even green. However Dark al is quite reactive, and when I wetted it the star had a rotten egg smell. MgAl doesn't usually cause this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 Well the good al meant more the right mesh size then the real quality. Got -500 mesh now. Before that i only got 30 to 50 mesh firefly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparx88 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I have been using nothing but different sized flake alum and it works great so far. I use the dark/super stuff for a brightener and sensitizer and the larger 50-100 for sparks and short tail. Firefly for longer tails and twinkles. I use these in some fashion in every color. Soon I will have magnal and will see what happens but flake alum is good. I use the eckart 5413 3 micron super turbo ultra and have no issues with heating up or bad smells when wetting comps. Only comps with nitrates get the boric acid calm down wo' nelly treatment when mixed with 5413. More as a precaution . Better safe than sorry sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdmiralDonSnider Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Dark aluminum seems to be superior to MgAl in some colors. Joel Baechle did a great deal of investigation about that in his pyrocolor harmony script. A friend of mine did some tests based on it, side by side comparisions of color formulas made with MgAl or Al respectively, and you definitely did notice the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 Ok i really imagine the dark al beeing superior only used GD once for some green stars they where really nice. But it is too expensive for continuos use.I would imagine that this happens because of the big surface and high energie thats set during combustion of al. These two factors together will propably raise the flame temperature quite high compared to the most time rather "coarse" al (compared too GD). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nt8 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 The dark aluminium is good for green: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuf3j4iYLkw I bound it with parlon/aceton, so no problem with wet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmuro Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 That's really nice green. Can you share the composition, since I don't have passfire account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nt8 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 (edited) That's really nice green. Can you share the composition, since I don't have passfire account.Barium Nitrate 63Parlon 16Aluminum, flake, dark, American dark. -325 mesh 12Sulfur 7Dextrin 5Red Gum 2 I made with black Al from p.garage and without dextrin. I see, MrB shared a similar comp. Edited December 8, 2014 by nt8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nt8 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 (edited) I see, MrB shared a similar comp. Edited December 8, 2014 by nt8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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