1.75" Spiderweb

[Wiley]

I know Mumbles has made these, so maybe he could chime in here. I'm curious how much flash I should use in a 1.75" nominal spiderweb. Fulcanelli says either hot flash or nitrate based can be used, and I have both to pick from. I'm spiking with 20# hemp, doubled up. I'd like to use these as single breaks, or as sfera breaks in place of bottom shots. As you may have guessed, I will be cutting my stars

[Maserface]

Id start with 1gram of 7:3 and tweak from there. And definitely use a flash bag. Good luck !!

[WonderBoy]

What type of flash booster are you leaning toward? From what I've been told, some Italian factories use a variation of 70:30 in their inserts.

 

I usually use about 2g of a perc/nitrate medium-ish flash booster, but I think in the future I will break them harder. Here's a shell where I used them as inserts:

 

 

 

WB

[Wiley]

That was a truly awesome shell! I'm currently working the kinks out of my own timed report shells.

 

I think I will start with a gram of hot flash like maser suggested, and make another one maybe two or three grams of not-so-slow nirate flash to compare.

[coogan1997]

what size stars were in those insert shells?

[schroedinger]

If you are fine with the use of chlorates, you could also leave out the flash and use H3 as break.

[coogan1997]

i don't think that chlorates and sulfur make a good combo

Edited March 26, 2015 by coogan1997

[nater]

Sulfur and chlorates are not a good combination if they are an intimate mix. BP in the prime or burst with chlorates is not a huge hazard over the nature of chlorate stars or burst. Edited March 26, 2015 by nater

[Mumbles]

For this particular use, I think H3 is a poor idea. I would still avoid combinations where chlorates can freely rub up against sulfur containing stars. I'm fine with BP primes on chlorate stars, but wouldn't feel comfortable using H3 as a burst in this instance.

 

[edit] Just saw WB's response. Using comets, which are locked in would change things. I was thinking of H3 jumble filled with cut stars. This is the other way to make them.

[WonderBoy]

schroe, have you used H3 in inserts/shells of this size? Could you provide more information on that?

 

coogan, I used three rows of 1/2" pumped stars, aligned vertically, not "brick laid".

 

 

WB

[schroedinger]

Yes, actually i've switched over to H3 on nearly everything up to 3".

 

For everything up to 2.5" i prefer grass seed coated in a 4:1 maner. If i want to reduce the strengt a little bit i use puffed rice coated in the same ratio, also on 3".

 

Build your canisters using a canule. Set the stars by tapping the shell against the table before filling with burst. (Obviously not needed if you build hem in a sfera style.)

 

If you use round stars (what i would recommend on those small inserts, much easier to handle, but thats a personal opinion), roll on a sulfurless prime and a layer of H3, for pumped or cut spider stars you can do the same, after they are dry, but this isn't needed.

 

Igniting a chlorate star primed with bp, by friction/drop hammer test, is much easier compared to two seperate layers (couldn't get them to light by the use of a drop hammer of 1 kg and 0.5 m height, friction test was the grass seed charge mixed with burst charge in an sorted out hf tumbler, remote started).

 

If the burst is to weak, either increase the burst coating to 5 or 6 :1 or add some of the -10 mesh granules produced during the coating process.

[coogan1997]

wonderboy, what size were those inserts? were they made with a 1.5" case former?

[WonderBoy]

They were made using a 1.75" former

[Wiley]

Do you use the nitrate/perc mix that's in the Jopetes doc, or something different? I hope to make a bunch of these with varying amounts of different compositions to see how they compare.

[WonderBoy]

As we talked about briefly in Chat, I use a similar nitrate/perc booster. I need to do some experimenting too, I'd like to get more pop out of those inserts.

 

 

WB

[Mumbles]

I haven't had the best of luck using slow flash in these things. I use a slow flash I developed that similar to the one in JOPETE's pdf. I don't know if it's the same one WB is using, but I know I've given it to him before. I've enjoyed more success using 70/30. I think you just need a sharper punch to get spider shells to break right. That includes both inserts and full sized breaks.

 

Hot flash does the heavy lifting on it's own. Slow flash really just augments what's already there.

[Wiley]

My chief concerns with using hot flash would be either not lighting the stars, or just shattering them. But if you've had success with 70:30, I'll try that in varying amounts, and maybe make a couple with the mediumish formula to compare.

[braddsn]

Wiley, don't worry about shattering your stars with 70/30. For charcoal stars, bump your dextrin up to 6% and make sure they are 100% dry and you will have no problems. As for lighting them, that won't be a problem either. I know you said in chat that you were doing this with charcoal stars.. and they are the easiest to light. If you are gonna break em hard, make sure you have 5% silicon in your bp (fencepost) to produce slag.. or use monocapa (which also produces slag). I can assume you are probably gonna use C6 or C8 for your comp. You should try Bleser Blonde at some point with the spiderwebs too! Might look cool.

[Wiley]

Silicon in the stars themselves? These things are generally made with unprimed stars.

[Mumbles]

As long as the flash is within reason, I've never had a problem with spider stars not lighting. They are quite literally the easiest star to light.

 

For inserts I use about 1-2g, with hot granular BP filling the spaces between stars.

 

For full sized breaks I tend to use a sfera type of break. I typically build these as timed spiders, and I like having a stout bottom shell. The walls are lined with locked it comets and I use a flash bag. For a 5" I use 12g of 70/30 I believe. The space between the flashbag and comets is filled with polverone.