Norsepyro Posted June 8 Posted June 8 (edited) This is Troy Fish's gold glitter with a couple of modifications to give a longer lasting tail: KNO3: 55 Charcoal hardwood airfloat: 11 Sulfur: 17 Sodium bicarbonate: 7 Atomized aluminium 400 mesh: 5 Gum arabic: 5 Use a saturated water with boric acid solution to moisten the composition for pumped stars. +8% water with boric acid works well. The video shows a small fan cake with 12mm stars to demonstrate the effect: fancake fish glitter.mp4 Edited June 8 by Norsepyro 3 1
Zumber Posted June 8 Posted June 8 Sounds good. Video is bit unclear but that's fine I have clearly observed glittering effect.
Norsepyro Posted June 8 Author Posted June 8 The video quality is not the best, I agree. The effect looks much better in person 🙂 I would say that this is a quite good effect from a homogenous mixed glitter star formula without any Sb2S3. The stars are unprimed and seem to light mostly fine right out of the small tubes.
Wilqu Posted June 10 Posted June 10 Very nice, I like this glitter and by the way you made some nice StarMine's.
Norsepyro Posted June 11 Author Posted June 11 Thanks for the comments! The effect seen in the video is a reloadable fan cake, 7x7 13mm ID tubes where 7 stars in different angles are shot simultaneously. 2 of the series went off at once because of a fire leak between tubes. The detailed description of how these are made are found at passfire.com. I forgot to specify that the modification from the original Troy Fish gold glitter formula is that water with boric acid is used instead of plain water, and gum arabic instead of dextrin is used. My theory is that the slight acidity from both passivate the aluminium somewhat and a longer delay is achieved. Another good thing is that the slight acidity protects the aluminium during storage too. However sodium bicarbonate tends to attract some moisture from humid air in my experience. Try to compare the effects from both the original formula, and the modified formula here. I think you will be surprised by the difference 🙂 1
Carbon796 Posted June 11 Posted June 11 (edited) I would suspect the Dex, GA, or C, to be pulling in/holding on to moisture. Long before the bicarb. My go to was W16 with additional bicarb. Bound with SGRS, never had any drying/moisture issues with it. Edited June 11 by Carbon796
Norsepyro Posted June 11 Author Posted June 11 It is possible that the moisture is attracted by other ingredients than the bicarbonate. Gum arabic is said to be mildly hygroscopic. I left some stars outdoors exposed to the humid air from the rain and the stars had softened slightly after a couple of weeks. But it is possible that this would have happened to other kno3-based formulae without sodium bicarbonate too🙂
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