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What did you do today in pyro?


dagabu

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Yeah... I'm getting used to 'drudge work' myself. We had storm damage to our barn/shop, and all the important damage was on the pyro-shop/machine-shop side. So, I've spent (now) 12 days on the roof, replacing old, rusty lead-head nailed roofing with new screw-attached metal.

 

It's a slow go, and HOT (93F today), but coming along well. Eight more feet to go, and all of the West side's 50-year-old nailed-on metal will have been replaced. It was only 5000 sq.ft.of goods for the West side. The east side is the same size, but will be easier, because there's nothing there that can't stand a leak or two, so I can take it at my leisure.

 

Lloyd

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Progressed on a 6 shot firing rack for rockets, 10 seconds timed with a 60 cm main visco. The system is designed that it'll not be necessary to attach each rocket visco fuse to the long visco , which is so time consuming before the show... Edited by Sulphurstan
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Visco and also Mantitor Igniter cord can be used to advantage on timed displays.

 

We make multi-shot plates that use both, and also use (sometimes) just loose BP in the fuse groove (for more-or-less 'instantaneous' ignition of all the tubes).

 

Lloyd

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  • 2 weeks later...

Doing some charcoal with TLUD, with some problems, but i hope to get them solved tomorrow in the next try.

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I like do like those rockets taking off - especially the 3 at once!!!

 

What size and compositions in the shells?

Edited by stix
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2" reinforced bag shells (An hybrid between a bag shell and a proper cylinder shell). Half with Winokur#20, half with tiger tail, 6mm stars. Broke with an sleeve of one teaspoon BP and one teaspoon KNO3 flash.

 

Next year I need to recruit a cameraman. I only published the rockets that did not went totally out of frame.

 

The rack for multiple launches is very easy. Four short tube supports attached to an angle profile. The fuses lay in the profile, and one rocket exhaust ignite next rocket fuse. A system inspired but not the same by "Cangas descarga" machines.

 

BTW, your program helped a lot in the development of the rockets and the delay calculation. It only needs height and coast time calculation to be perfect, but can be done with an online calculator.

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Cut some wood at my local hackerspace and laid on some sealant to use as frames for drying screens from old screen doors I will cut to fit.

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Doing today: Cleaning, organising and shelving the shed. Active pyro season finished for me this year. Some unused comps to burn since I don't want to store them for half a year or more, I will only keep some BP. I will try to think and make some tools to use for next year season.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished my first drying screen. Designed to have space to hold items that may roll around, as well as height to stack and still have airflow. Eventually will have a drying box to put multiple of these in, and they are designed to be removed vertically with room for hands to grab the vertical bits.

 

Cut the wood at my local hacker space, sealed with spar urethane to hopefully last a while, screen is cut out from an old screen door that had been sliced and was no longer useful as a door.

 

post-19915-0-23844900-1531199760_thumb.jpg

Edited by starxplor
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I never had much luck with nylon screen. It's too stretchy. I prefer aluminum for screens personally. Also as a tip, for heavy items using a 1x1 welded screen underneath can help to reinforce the screen strength. It also helps with large, finer mesh screens to keep them from warping.

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I'm averse to using aluminum for anything that might touch damp pyro. I agree that nylon window screen is not strong-enough by itself, so we underlay that with either 1/2" galvanized wire cloth (cheap, easily-replaceable), or with 1" plastic lattice. One can find the wire cloth at any decent hardware store. I honestly do not remember where we found the plastic lattice. It lasts so long, we've not yet had to replace any of it in nearly 20 years.

 

We have a couple of drying screens in our star production area that are under-laid with stainless steel wire cloth. That's pretty darned expensive, but is essentially a "one-time expense", since it never goes bad.

 

Lloyd

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This is the first woodworking I have done in 24 years so I didn't want to buy any sort of screen given the chances of screwing this up.

Something like this? https://www.mcmaster.com/#9220t72/=1dnsg7z

 

The pictured screen above has an interior screen area of roughly 1ft x 1.75ft (the short wood pieces are 1ft long and the the long wood pieces are 2ft, the wood is 0.75in x 1.5in)

 

Is there a way to attach the steel screen to the nylon, or better to fold the ends and attach them to the wood on the sides?

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I built mine according to the Skylighter and FW tutorials which were both by Ned.

post-20116-0-13414800-1531281922_thumb.jpg

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OM: that looks like the screen is built in to the frame. This is what I have with the nylon screen and was asking about the idea of reinforcing that screen that is already completed with a galvanised screen.

 

Additionally, can a galvanised screen be used on its own and not react badly to the wet chems? (thinking about future screens)

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OM: that looks like the screen is built in to the frame. This is what I have with the nylon screen and was asking about the idea of reinforcing that screen that is already completed with a galvanised screen.

 

Additionally, can a galvanised screen be used on its own and not react badly to the wet chems? (thinking about future screens)

I'm not quite sure. I think I remember reading about using stainless steel or aluminum. Galvanised metals may corrode and/or react with wet materials.

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Playing with e-matches.

 

Prototiped half this in perfboard, and testing with 1cm of 0.1mm nicrome.

 

post-21208-0-12671500-1531411241_thumb.png

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I'm not quite sure. I think I remember reading about using stainless steel or aluminum. Galvanised metals may corrode and/or react with wet materials.

 

Lloyd had mentioned using galvanised steel, which is why I mentioned it. Just wondering if this screen is reinforceable, or if I need to scrap it and make entirely new ones

 

 

 

Playing with e-matches.

 

Prototiped half this in perfboard, and testing with 1cm of 0.1mm nicrome.

 

attachicon.giftable schematics.PNG

 

One thing I found in trying to build my own was if you have the same power source for continuity testing as you do for firing, make sure you have enough energy to first a cue while all of the cues in your system are testing continuity, unless you disable continuity in fire mode.

Edited by starxplor
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Starxplor,

 

Please note I only suggested galvanized wire cloth as an underpinning for plastic-coated fiberglass screening, and only for use as 'drying screens'. We would never use that material for mixing screens. All of our mixing screens were constructed of 316SS woven wire.

 

Lloyd

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OM: that looks like the screen is built in to the frame. This is what I have with the nylon screen and was asking about the idea of reinforcing that screen that is already completed with a galvanised screen.

 

Additionally, can a galvanised screen be used on its own and not react badly to the wet chems? (thinking about future screens)

Galvanized and aluminum react badly with oxidizes. I'd use only stainless for screens. I tried brass and it didn't last long at all.

Edited by OldMarine
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I think something is being missed, here.

 

We use plastic screening over galvanized mesh reinforcement, and the screens last for a decade or more of daily production use.

 

There is a 'trick' in that. WET comps or stars go onto PAPER in the screens. We use cheap 30lb or 50lb recycled kraft for 'drying papers', and large enough sheets so that we can tuck the corners, forming a full 'tub' of paper in the screen frame. No wet comp ever comes directly into contact with either the screening or the wooden frame.

 

We don't put any material directly on the screens until it's approximately dry to the touch. After that, the open screening accelerates the final drying process.

 

Finally, we either wash and dry or thoroughly brush the screens clean before storing or re-using them.

 

Lloyd

Edited by lloyd
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  • 7 months later...

Today i have milled some vine charcoal i made in the TLUD, and it seems was of good quality, but some was quite undercooked - brawn and not easy to break. I have choosen what seemed the best parts and milled it. 353g of charcoal.

Also been chipping some pine wood for making charcoal for stars.


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First pyro-related stuff I've done in a long time (other than a little rocket candy here and there), since I've been dealing with moving and stuff. I rolled a dozen 12.7mm motor tubes, but I won't be able to use them for quite some time. Feels nice to do something, though. In the mean time I can enjoy the projects that the rest of this community posts here. :)

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