All10Fingers Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 So far, Ive been side fusing my mortars and just pouring the lift in musket style. It's worked well, but loading shells takes more effort especially if you wanted to shoot off more than one shell. I tried strapping some homemade quickmatch to the side of some of my 1.25 inch baby shells. But doing so made my shells uneven and they wouldn't fit the launch tube very well. So, what's the secret to piping a path for fire around your shell without compromising it's ... "Roundness"? FYI I'm talking cans not balls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Your shells should have around .125” clearance (all the way around) in the tube. This gives ample clearance for standard quickmatch “tube”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All10Fingers Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 I guess I could use a few less wraps of paper. Funny, your shells look almost identical to mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 I've used a Macdonald's "salad bowl" card dish as a lift cup, I've also used a plastic bag with some brown paper tape to cover and protect it. Lots depend on how much lift you have designed into the final effect. The more lift you need the more structural it will need to be -a shell with a flat bottom may be stood on that flat and must not fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 2 hours ago, All10Fingers said: Funny, your shells look almost identical to mine Funny? Naw. Bare bones, hobbyist, smell the smoke pyro. I see the fancy shells, and have built some. But back to the roots for me. I’m old and I have done what I desired. Now- once again, I just wanna have fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All10Fingers Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 My favorite shells are ones made out of a pre-fabricated tube from.... Something that comes in a roll. Plastic wrap, butcher paper, other plastic wrap. I just got a huge cardboard tube from a roll of pond liner. Anyways find a strong tube that's close enough to the size of mortars I have, then just and paper and or string untill it fits the way I want. I ran out of the 1.25id tube I had. But I have lots of these 3inch id heavy walled tubes and a 4inch id mortar. Plus I made a perfect end plug former. So that's my current project. I'm a little worried about the spolet blowing thru, but I cheated so I think it should hold. If it works out, I'll be in position to crank these babys out as fast as I can make stars to fill em. (Damn I miss pyrodata... So much) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I just cut cylindrical cardbord mortor tube I use ploy bag and keep lift in it and then insert quickmatch and tie it using cotton string of 3 to 4 turn at top head of poly bag then place lift at bottom of shell and cover lift bag with cardbord mortor tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All10Fingers Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 15 minutes ago, Zumber said: I just cut cylindrical cardbord mortor tube I use ploy bag and keep lift in it and then insert quickmatch and tie it using cotton string of 3 to 4 turn at top head of poly bag then place lift at bottom of shell and cover lift bag with cardbord mortor tube. So, is the bag attached to the shell? Or do you load the lift bag into the mortar and then place the shell on top? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Bag is attatched to shell. You can just use cup insted of bag but poly bag keeps lift from atmostpheric moisture during long storage of shell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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