braddsn Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Wiley Sparx said it... the breaks were awesome to me. They of course look different than chinese type breaks, but that's by design. They look like they are supposed to. And keep in mind, if you are getting nice bright colors with 100% ignition, you are doing something right! Keep doing what you are doing! I know I keep mentioning slow gold, but every time I fire a slow gold shell, it reinforces to me why it's my favorite shell ever. In my opinion, they can't be beat. For some reason, in my mind, the way those cans break, I keep imagining orange, turquoise, and yellow. I think those colors would go great with what you are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 I'll probably get into those sometime. Right now some problems have cropped up with my milling process, or maybe they aren't problems. I'll just have to wait to see. All my mill runs up to this point have the powder caked in the bottom of the jar at the end of 4 hours. Recently I had two batches that did not clump. I remilled each of these for an additional 2 hours, and the first batch clumped, yielding fast powder, but the second batch didn't clump (powder still seemed fast). I have another batch going for 4 hours; if it doesn't clump, I'll measure the burn speed and see what it's like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Wiley, for what it's worth, I have had a couple mill runs clump up on me as well. I am not sure what causes it, but my guess is moisture. It's the only thing that makes sense. BUT, the batches that clumped were just as fast as all of my other batches.. so go figure. One thing that I do to ensure consistency, I do a test burn with EVERY single batch of bp I make before it 'passes'. I never use bp without test burning some. I have done it enough times, that I know what it burns like.. and I just take a little plastic spoon, make a little 1 or 2 gram pile on the concrete, and light it. It seems crude I know, but it tells me what I need to know. I do the same with all of my star comps when I am done screen mixing em. I am betting you do the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 I usually weigh out 3g and lay it out along the diagonal of an 8.5X11" sheet of paper and light it with a fuse. My powder should burn in about .4 to .5 seconds for this test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Everything looked pretty good to me. You may want to consider adding a little more time to some of the bottom shots. In my personal preference, some were going off a bit early, but your personal preference may differ. On the organic red with charcoal streamers, do you mix the red and charcoal stars together first, or have layers of each? The break looked kind of segmented. I did really like the 'Murica shell. Fantastic timing and effect. My only criticism would be that the stars looked like they didn't spread nearly as far as the salutes. Normally a special spiking pattern is used with them. The horizontals are laid closer around the star portion, and more spread out around the salute portion. From looking at your build pics, it looks uniform throughout. http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/gallery/image/3244-building-the-murica-shell/ You can see what I'm talking about here. http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/gallery/image/432-drawout-first-break-spikingjpg/ These are the first breaks from some drawouts I made a few years ago. You may want to give it a shot and see how it works and if it appeals to you. I have videos from the shells I made, but the drawout salutes don't really spread too far usually, so it's not the best example. The idea is that the salutes/inserts being larger than stars provide more resistance to the break. If spiked at the same level, the insert half will experience more internal pressure and fly much farther. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Thanks Mumbles! I've used that spiking patterern mentioned in Fulcanelli on a draw-out before, but used uniform spiking on this one. I didn't notice a difference, but the reports are below the stars in a draw-out, which is the exact opposite of the way I built the 'Murica shell. I put the stars in first and arranged the reports in a ring above the layer of stars, thinking that I would get a little spray of color dropping from the center of the break, and a much wider spread on the reports. As you can see, it did just that, but it might have looked a bit better if the color had a wider spread. On the charcoal and red shell, I dumped the red stars on top of the streamers. The last time I did that, the shell broke like a cart wheel with the canulle as the "axle" so the red appeared to be mixed in evenly with the streamer stars. I'm not sure what happened on that one, but it looks oddly squashed anyway. That was a 2.5" built the same way as the 2.5 earlier in the video that had brocade and glitter stars, and which broke very nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvocatiXV Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Very impressive. I await the day where I can produce shells of that quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 I've only been hard at this for 4 months now. However, I have experimented with pyro or pyro-related activities for 8 or 9 years, off and on. Point being, it's not hard to do what I'm doing. Just takes a good bit of reading, patience, and attention to detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvocatiXV Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Up until now I've been focusing on getting a nice rocket, Reading this completely opened my eyes to shells, and the thrills of the design. Thanks advice taken, more reading it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maserface Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I'm late to the party! Nice stuff Wiley! You've really set the bar! I've been making 2.5"ers lately too, because I have the discs, not a bad size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maserface Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I'm late to the party! Nice stuff Wiley! You've really set the bar! I've been making 2.5"ers lately too, because I have the discs, not a bad size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Thanks Maser! Have you tried 1.75" multis? Mine break nearly as large as the 2.5ers, as you can see, but contain much less material. I also found the bottom shots to be actually TOO loud for my liking, believe it or not. We were standing oh, at least 200 feet away, maybe closer to 300, and they were pretty hard on the ears. You might be able to fix that with some "boomier" mix than 70:30, but for some reason my 7:3:1 burns like green mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 I made about 5 pounds of color stars today: buell red, jopetes green #2, phiko blue, and Yankie's purple. All had the dex thrown out, and some had a few tweaks here and there to make them screen-sliceable. I've used all of these except the green, so I made a mine with equal amounts of red and green stars to compare their relative brightness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewGY7Pk497A As you can see, the green completely stepped on the red. It was more visible in person, but the green is both brighter and longer-burning. Fantastic color saturation, and super, super bright. Thanks so much Jopetes for inventing this formula, and thanks to braddsn for turning me onto it. The red and the green were step-primed, but the blue and purple just got a single layer of my silicon laced BP prime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Wiley, that mine looked fantastic! So, the best part is that ALL of the Jopetes colors are like this. Super bright and great colors all around. Can't beat em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enanthate Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Wiley, how do you make your salute inserts? Tubes with FP, with timefuse glued in? What kind of glue?I tried making these a year back, with cheap superglue. It failed miserably, all the flash went off during break.I temporarily gave up on timed reports, but your videos have inspired me to try again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Lemme tell you, they're almost not worth the effort you put into them. I'm going to be cutting back on the report rings because they're just too bloody much work. A 5 timed report or a draw out is about as high as I'm willing to go for a while. To make the 1/4" inserts, which are what you are seeing in the report rings, you need a 1/4" ID tube. I hand roll mine from printer paper and watered down elmer's glue. Mine are 1.25" long. Punch out 1/4" disks from thin cardboard, and press them into one end of of the tube about 1/4". Fill the recess with hot glue. Since you're making a bunch of these at a time, bundle them together with a rubber band, fill with flash, and tap the bundle lightly on the work surface to settle it. Top the tubes off again and settle once more. The time fuses are cut with a time fuse cutter and primed on both ends with a hot BP+NC slurry. Press the fuses gently into the filled tubes until the flash won't compress anymore. I then seal the joint between the fuse and the tube with a bead of hot glue. I then tack two sticks of BP in place over the end of the fuse with hot glue, then tie the match on with a clove hitch. I also like to soak the string with super thin CA. So yeah, lots of work. If you really love the effect, it might be worth it to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enanthate Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 (edited) Thanks, I wasn't sure about using hot glue for FP, and I'm still not comfortable with it lol.I'll give it a shot though, will order some of those caplugs you got in the US, great for timed reports! BTW, I have never primed a timefuse, and have yet to see this fail. More than 100 shells shot so far.With inserts I prime with NC+granulated BP #50-100 to be "extra sure", works everytime Edit: Nice green indeed!! Edited May 25, 2015 by enanthate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coogan1997 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 You could just buy cap plugs or the little 1/4" tubes cannon fuse sells! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 There will be noise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 It's been a while, so here are a few videos. 2 break https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUduM4qigEQ Creamsicle Mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3TpBnxbgek My first 3" shell compared to a consumer 60g can https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZO-itb1f9w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 Oh, and here's a 3 break-and-report from today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK1kNKjOBoA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 (edited) More shells This one had 3g of 35:35:30 in the break, and the little report still functioned just fine. The break was actually still a little soft, but I liked it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXkjv35veJg&feature=youtu.be The next one had 3/8" red and purple stars in it, with no booster. I expected a little more spread on those big stars. The first break looks like crap, but now I know what a quarter pound of sulfur-spiked flash sounds like. Absolutely crushed my temples. Wow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFHQ_kpGSmo Edited July 2, 2015 by Wiley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Wiley, I am digging that boosted break! Made a nice big break and nice sound! Now up the booster by about 2g and see what happens. Love it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiley Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Thanks Brad! One thing I forgot to mention is a problem I'm having with smoldering fallout. Usually, a piece of the casing with a disk in it will come back smoldering. More specifically, it's usually the disk itself that is smoldering, and has caught the surrounding casing as well. I don't understand why this is happening, as I use builder's paper (about 70#) to roll my cases and to paste the spiked shell in. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynomike1 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 All you have to do is coated them with glue wiley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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