Grandmas 50th Wedding Anniversary

[Von Bass`]

Hi

 

My grandma is having a wedding anniversary, it will be her 50th, and is therefore a 'golden' wedding anniversary.

 

She wants me to make her a golden type firework, anything will do - from a golden fountain to something with golden stars in it.

 

I had already thought a waterfall type firework would look good, for this i presume i would need 10 or so seperate tubes, each fused, and with a long length of quickmatch fusing each one. Is this correct? does any body know of a composition that would suit the above criteria?

 

Finally, does anybody have any ideas for 1 firework, that is in some way golden? The actaul date is ages away, so i can order chemicals and other materials, and test things out, so any help appreciated!

 

thanks:)

Joel

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

I dont know about waterfall comps but I would deffinitely suggest say a cake type device of small Fish glitter mines. It is a nice golden glitter and looks good in mines in my opinion and a nice cake of golden mines would be a fairly suiting and crown pleasing device and they dont have to be large mines either. I've made a ten shot 1" cake in this fashion before.

[aquaman]

Von bass- only 1 firework? I would either go with a 4 in shell with some kind of golden shower stars or like what has been mentioned a fountain. Actually make that a big fountain if you're only doing one. I would like to advise for you to do fireworks that are within your skill level because if you screw up and something goes wrong you'll feel like an ass, trust me on that one.

[Chris]

If it is only one firework, then I'd definitely go with a golden brocade crown type shell, aka golden Kamuro. The effect isvery long lasting golden rain from the sky. You can make them small 3"-4", but they look best from 5" and up. If you can manage to make a shell like that then I suggest you do it.

[BigBang]

If you did want to make a waterfall and wanted it to be golden, use a composition containing iron powder or ferrotitanium. A large shell probably would be more spectacular but a waterfall would last for much longer, some as long as 3 minutes, but that is a bit much.

 

I think a cake would end up being the best thing though. You can make it with mines, shells, fountains, whatever you like.

[aquaman]

I agree with bigbang. With a cake you could mix a bunch of things together and have the best of both worlds. You could have like a waterfall then some small canister shells then another waterfall and then a shell as the finale. It would be funny to watch they'd be expecting some more canister shells just to have a huge shell shoot up 400 ft in the air. They'll be like ooh, ahh, ohh, *thoomp* what was that? *pop* WOW!

[justanotherpyro]

Haha we are all drooling. What is really practical though Von bass? Waterfall or a 4inch shell?

[Von Bass`]

Hi

 

Thanks a lot for all the replys, im very sorry i havent been able to get to the internet for ages after BT kicked me off. hmph

 

Anyway, i think the cake could be above my skill level, but i have a lot of time to experiment with things, so I will try anything.

 

A 4 inch shell sounds like my best bet, as they live half way up a mountain with no disturbable neighbours to feel left out.

 

Would charcoal or lampblack be good as golden stars?

 

What is a 'golden brocade crown' type shell? please forgive my newbieness

 

If I was going to be letting off a four inch shell, how far away would i want the crowd from the luanch tube? 20 foot? a field away? I have a wireless detonation system, so i could detonate something from up to a mile away, but that sounds far too far.

 

Thanks once again for all of your replies.

[BigBang]

I would say 75 yards, +_ 20 yards. This is more for veiwing pleasure, because if done right, there should be a very large break.

[FrankRizzo]

NFPA regs say minimum distance of 280ft.

[Swany]

Well, then Bigbang was about 80% of the way, at 75yd (I think, I did it in my head). 90 yards sounds good.

 

That estimate will be conservative, and it is assumed that anytihng that can go wrong, will.

 

Both lampblack and charcoal will make nice stars, personally, I would cook up some pine charcoal, as this seems to be the easiest thing to do.

 

Have fun, and good luck.

[aquaman]

Make sure, for the mortar, that you use is either HDPE or a paper type of tube.

[Chris]

What is a 'golden brocade crown' type shell?

A golden brocade crown shell, aka Kamuro is a chysanthemum shell with stars that leave very long glittering tails as they fall. If you are a member of Passfire, you can read an article on Kamuros. If not, the construction is nothing special. Just an ordinary ball shell with suitable stars. You can find a suitable star comp by making a guest account at Passfire and lookign up these comps; Blonde Streamer, Lancaster Yellow Glitter, Slow Gold or Fe/Ti Gold. Good luck.

 

A pic I found

http://www.fireworksqingcao.com/china/effect/new-shell/gr02.jpg

[Von Bass`]

Thanks for that, I shall look into all of this. Will I be able to find UK suppliers of mortar tubes and 4 inch mortars online?

 

The one problem i have at the moment unfortunatley is that I have nowhere to test a mortar without sneaking into a field in the middle of the night... and I really dont feel like trusting myself to build a perfect working shell first time. Where does everyone else fire theirs?

 

I may be able to turn '1 firework' into a small display, so I'll see what i can do

 

Thanks for all your replys once again,

[aquaman]

First I would do dummy shells to figure how much of your BP is going to be needed to launch it to about ?? feet. It should be pretty high though but I don't know for sure (>200ft?) Once you get that down i would then start constructing the shell, which ever one you have decided on. Then test the shell, where ever you feel more safe.

 

If you launch it in a field make sure you bring water and a shovel for if a fire starts you'll be able to put it out. Water for the fire and if that didn't work use the shovel and put dirt on it.

 

Oh and another thing, a display would be better than just one firework .

[optimus]

Will I be able to find UK suppliers of mortar tubes and 4 inch mortars online?

A mortar IS a tube!

 

You will be lucky to find shell hemispheres within the UK, but they can be shipped internationally with ease.

 

You're right not to trust yourself to construct such a large shell first time! You really should build up your experience before attempting a 4" shell.

 

http://www.essextubes.co.uk/ will sell you lovely pre-plugged paper mortars - no minimum order and very friendly service; just try to sound professional in your correspondance with them!

[aquaman]

I agree with optimus. Maybe you should try a smaller size shell first and get used to that and then upscale to the 4in. or which ever you like.

 

You might be able to find HDPE pipes in plumbing stores but I haven't found any where I live. So online will probably be your best bet, but it wouldn't hurt to go look.

[Von Bass`]

Okay thanks for all your help. Unfortunatley my dad came back from Scotland and laughed at my plans! He is all for four or five star mines linked together, each with a different 'gold' star.

 

He also suggested a large '50' built as almost a giant sparkler, but so that it would light almost instantaenoulsy. (sp?) I suggested that it was a sparkler, but with a good layer of gunpowder stuck around it, so that it would light fairly instantaenously.

 

thoughts?

 

Sorry about the confusion with the four incher

Joel

[Mumbles]

I don't know how well sparking materials make out letters and numbers. You could do a gold flame, but no sparks probably. What you want is more like a set piece. It is a frame with lances on it to spell out whatever you want.

 

Lances: http://www.wfvisser.dds.nl/EN/lances_EN.html

 

For the frame, I would say a 24" x 36" wooden rectangle with another piece of wood across the middle to make a shape similar to an 8.

[Von Bass`]

Thanks for the link Mumbles, thats absoloutley great, thats sort of what me and my dad thought of, but we were going to use an iron trellis, as it could just be set up in their garden.

 

With the relayed star mines, could I relay them with some fuse so that they would sort of: 'poof!' 'poof!' 'poof!' with about 1 second in between?

 

On an almost off topic note, I just made a marvelous pink star mine which i was very pleased with

[Mumbles]

You can time stuff however you want really. I wouldn't be hard at all. When the time comes, we'd be more than happy to help with the timing,

[Von Bass`]

okay thanks, ill drop the constant questioning know

[Von Bass`]

Alright, now that it's a little closer to the time, I thought i'd quickfire you all a few more ideas and questions .

 

I have a basic plan set up, basically its a big fountain running throughout, with 4 fireworks firing one after another, with the fountain still burning in the background.

 

Three starmines.

 

One rocket.

 

Here is a link to a wonderfully artistic drawing on paint. excuse the right hand side, thats mainly for me and to explain out to my mother

 

http://i7.tinypic.com/24pxy5z.gif

 

okay, I have a few ideas in mind for the compositions, namely tiger tail, the modified tiger tail in the compositions database and the D1 Glitter.

 

I also probably will be using a strontium carbonate and Potassium Perch comp for a pinkish red star, becuase gold may get a little boring.

 

Could anyone reccomend any truly beautiful golden compositions?

 

Thanks for any help

[Douchermann]

Willow tree is fairly golden. I think it would be cool if for the shell you used:

Sodium nitrate based lift charge

spolette(sp) with Iron filings

sodium nitrate based break charge

 

That way there is nothing but gold (yellow, but it all looks the same). However no one would notice it except the iron containing spolette(sp)

 

It would also be cool to have yellow go-getters with dragon eggs at the end, to take their attention away from the other stars until they are completely lit, IMO.

[Von Bass`]

Willow tree is fairly golden. I think it would be cool if for the shell you used:

Sodium nitrate based lift charge

spolette(sp) with Iron filings

sodium nitrate based break charge

 

That way there is nothing but gold (yellow, but it all looks the same). However no one would notice it except the iron containing spolette(sp)

 

It would also be cool to have yellow go-getters with dragon eggs at the end, to take their attention away from the other stars until they are completely lit, IMO.

Alright that sounds good, none of that is too hard to do. I'm not doing a shell, but i could easily put a small percentage of iron filings inthe rocket composition.

 

I can't do a shjell because I have nowhere to practise with them, wheras my Grandma lives literally the middle of no where.