19 replies to this topic

[Voryon]

Name of composition: EC Silver Glitter

Composition Type: Silver Glitter

Creator: Me inspired by Winokur

Color/Effect: Silver Glitter Tail with Orange "Head"

The Composition: (by weight)
81% Meal
7% Al Flake -100mesh
7% Fe2O3 (red iron oxide)
5% Dextrin

Any Precautions/Incompatabilities:
As it contains sulfur it should not come in contact with chlorates.

Precedure/Preparation:
Mix the chemicals in a zip loc bag until uniform. Ad water until the comp sticks together (be careful to use as little as possible). The Stars can be pumped or rolled by hand.

My camera didn't capture the Orange "Head" of the Stars. For the Meal I use commercial BP. The composition is really easy to make with OTC Chemicals and produces a really nice Silver Glitter with quite large an uniform flashes, unfortunately it burns quite fast. Since I wasnt able to get the D1-Glitter or the Fish Glitter to work properly i was constrained to do some research on my own, this is the result (inspired by Win#26). The stars in the video were about 1,3cm in diameter, hand-rolled, with no prime.

Video: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LQLI42XI

Attached Files

•  EC_Silver_Glitter_Stars.JPG   26.14KB   68 downloads

[pudidotdk]

Am I asking stupid if I ask if 400 mesh spherical Al or 150-200 mesh Bright Flake Al can be substituted for Flake aluminium?

[tentacles]

Wouldn't you also want 1% boric acid, as the comp contains Al and a nitrate? I wonder how magnalium would do in this comp? I'll have to try it some time.

Beautiful stars! Where do you find your 100 mesh Al flake?

[Voryon]

@pudidotdk: I would give the 150-200mesh Bright Flake Al a try.

@tentacles: One day I will try to add boric acid to that comp, but as I use my stars within a month I am not overly concerned that it will affect the effect.

For clarification: I had a friend that worked for a company that produced Al powder as waste, so he gave some of it to me. The particle size varied from 3mm to 0,000xxmm so I ran it through a 100mesh sieve, everything that passed it is what I use as Al Flake -100mesh. I`ll attach a foto of the powder, perhaps it`ll help you.

I tried to substitute the Al with lab grade 50-150mesh magnesium powder (untreated) and bound it with NC laquer, didn`t glitter at all. If you try the magnalium please let me know your results.

Attached Files

•  Al__100mesh.JPG   78.74KB   54 downloads

[Mumbles]

Magnesium metal reacts too fast to make a glitter.

Are you sure you have flake? Most of the Al biproducts I know of come off as granules or curls.

[crazyboy25]

very nice they if you are concerned it burns too fast why not use homemade black powder instead of commercial?

[al93535]

100 mesh is coarse enough to not really need boric acid as a buffer. But I would still add it anyways! After the stars are dry it wouldn't matter one way or the other if you used the acid. Its use is when the comp is wet only!

[Voryon]

@mumbles: The Al powder was generated in a grinding/sanding process, so I thought this would make Al flake . I must admit that I don`t know the exact meaning of "flake" in my language, I already did some research on it but couldn`t find useful information. What is it that makes Al Flake? Is it a special process like the production of spherical/atomized Al where a jet of molten Aluminium is sprayed into inert gas?

[Mumbles]

It is just the particle shape that makes it flake or not. What you have is more than likely granular. It's hard to explain really, but flake material is flat pieces, like a piece of foil. I'd say it would be considerably wider than the piece is thick.

Some flake Al's have a special process, like blackhead Aluminum. Overall the aluminum is flattened into a thin sheet, and then broken up by some method. Some ball or stamp mill it, some tear it up in a blender-like machine, and some processes actually cut it into specific sizes with knives.

[asilentbob]

Spherical Al is generally called for in glitters... because of the surface area... granular should work nearly as well as it doesn't get used up as fast as flake.

[tentacles]

I made some regular (al) using the "sparkler" Al firefox sells - turned out awesome! I also made a tiny batch (~30g) with MgAl and powdered it burns somewhat faster (hard to tell, really) with a hellacious crackle! I'll cut and dry some, maybe try shooting a shell off tonight.. With MgAl this might make a great fountain...

[tentacles]

I made a quick video of a small star using the MgAl -

EC Silver Glitter with MgAl 2.3MB

I used my "fines" MgAl - which is everything that passes through about a 30 mesh screen. (It's a fine kitchen strainer). I made another batch yesterday using some coarse MgAl and some fines - there's a bit more branching but otherwise about the same. I used more metal and iron oxide in the latest batch that is called for, it gives a higher density of sparks.

The only argument for using MgAl over Al, in my opinion, would be using this for a fountain, or if you can't get fine Al. MgAl is easier to make than producing fine Al particles, as I see it.

[pudidotdk]

tentacles > try shooting the star from a stargun or in a mine. It would be a lot easier to see how the effect in the air is.

[Voryon]

Thanks for the explanation mumbles, I agree with you that my Al seems to be granular.

Nice crackling sound in that video, it would be really interesting how it performs when shot from a star gun. Is it me or the camera that makes me feel it looks more like a gold glitter with MgAl?

[Mumbles]

Granular or atomised is better for glitters anyway, it gives a better delay.

Just some advice on the comp. You may want to add some sort of a delay agent, such as NaHCO3, BaCO3, or SrCO3 to improve the glitter effect. Addition of more sulfur may help to provide more of a delay as well.

[tentacles]

voryon: the camera didn't capture the color of the sparks well in that shot - the sparks are bright white with the MgAl.

I tried doing some shells but they all ended up flower potting and the videos weren't great.

[tentacles]

I *finally* got an aerial movie of the EC... this is the regular aluminum variety (for what little difference it makes).
I think the stars were just a tad undersized, and likely some didn't light. This was an easter egg shell, the stars were about 3/8" square but only 1/4" thick. The comet was a hand rolled cylinder of the EC about 3/4-7/8" diameter and about 7/8" tall.

http://www.apcforum.net/files/ec.avi

[Voryon]

Just made a 120g batch of EC Stars. I found out that they burn longer when they are rolled, so I rolled them. Since I didn`t have anything else that could have been used as cores I used some multicolour Microstars out of a rocket (there has been BP present so I don`t think they are incompatible with the comp).

The comp is quite easy to roll despite the fact that ~15g of the comp were lost sticking to the bowl. That has never happend to me before with any other comp (at least not to that extent), so I think its due to the comp.

The stars are about 1cm in diameter, they are drying now, hope i`ll get a vid of them in action

Attached Files

•  Bild_EC.jpg   100.06KB   37 downloads

[Voryon]

Better late than never here is the video. Its a 4" canister shell, the multicolour stars turned out to be red and green.

The shell consisted of:
120g EC Silver to red an green
Burst Charge: 50g BP + 10g whistle mix
Lift: 18g BP
Total Shell weight: 398g

I think the unsymmetric break is due to the fact that the end plugs blew out, got to work on that! The camera has captured the orange flash from the sodium benzoate whistle mix quite well.

Prefire pic and video attached

Attached Files

•  100mm_Canister_EC_Silver.jpg   157.46KB   41 downloads

[Voryon]

After downloading the file, you have to rename it and delete the ".avi" file extension. Dunno why but as ".wmv" it says that I can`t upload that type of file.

*edit: hmm doesn`t work either, can someone please help me getting the video attached?*

Attached Files

•  EC_Silver_to_red_green.wmv.avi   1.06MB   158 downloads