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Ralph's Glitter


Ralph

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malle charcoal is horrible for lift only thing I have used that was worse that comes to mind is olive. [snip] malle makes quite good sparks their colour isnt my personal favourite but there is lots of them and cheap so I use it anyway

 

 

 

Ahhhh.....now we're getting somewhere! :) That is a great bit of info and will help me much. Now off to experiment!

 

Thx Ralph!

 

Goofy

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  • 2 months later...
can you cut these stars, or do they need pumped? If so I am gonna have to come up with some crude type of star pump for my 3" shells.
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can you cut these stars, or do they need pumped? If so I am gonna have to come up with some crude type of star pump for my 3" shells.

 

Cutting works perfectly fine infact its rather easy on these

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Made a kilo of RG1, I pre-screened everything so it passed 60mesh, charcoal was mostly beech, put through the meat grinder and only screened to remove the larger pieces (what's left, pretty much all sizes from AF to 60 mesh). I have high hopes for this, fingers crossed it behaves like TBP's mix.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Thanks alot ralph for these formulas, very helpful, I will definately use your formula,and give you a heads up! yes I love glitter stars maybe for the gold I will add some ,brilliant blue and for the silver some brilliant red those are some nice combinations!
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I have a 5" canister full of 3/4" RG1 that I am pressing a 3# Hybrid rocket tonight for. If the rain stops, I will fly it on Saturday night.

 

Video to follow...B)

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I have a 5" canister full of 3/4" RG1 that I am pressing a 3# Hybrid rocket tonight for. If the rain stops, I will fly it on Saturday night.

 

Video to follow...B)

 

cant wait to see that :D

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Oh, so you wanna see it? OK buster, here it is!

 

http://www.pyrobin.com/files/100_1316.jpg

 

I sooooo lied, its a 4", I thought I wrapped up a 5" but the empty shell is still sitting on the shelf. 4" is OK though, right? ;)

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Oh, so you wanna see it? OK buster, here it is!

 

http://www.pyrobin.com/files/100_1316.jpg

 

I sooooo lied, its a 4", I thought I wrapped up a 5" but the empty shell is still sitting on the shelf. 4" is OK though, right? ;)

 

wow thats a nice looking rocket

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Your spiking job is pretty good also :), much better than mine. Looking forward to seeing it.

 

Back onto the topic, how long did you mill the glitter for? I've always milled Ralph's glitter for a few hours because I dislike embers in the air, so I get more a silvery effect. Perhaps I should start milling it less since it looks better that way.

Edited by Gunzway
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Actually, the spiking is very loose because I only pasted 5 arm lengths instead of six but since this is a dump style shell anyway, it is OK. These are the rest of the shells my son and spiked this last week. All cotton string, 12 ply. My paste didn't dissolve very well so I had some lumps, I usually use a blender but was too lazy this time.

 

http://www.pyrobin.com/files/100_1315.jpg

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Hmm, why did you paste under the spiking? Isn't the pasting there to protect the spiking?

 

Mabye I'm a little off 2sad.gif

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Hmmmmmmmm, sounds like someone needs to revisit fulcanelli. It's very traditional to spike shells with pasted string, or to rub the dry spiking with paste. Both will tighten up the spiking and make the shells break better.
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Hmmmmmmmm, sounds like someone needs to revisit fulcanelli. It's very traditional to spike shells with pasted string, or to rub the dry spiking with paste. Both will tighten up the spiking and make the shells break better.

 

So, if you rub your paste around your spiked shell, you don't need to appliy paper to the outside? and if not, why woudn't you save two birds with one pill, and rub your paste on and appliy the paper in one step?

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Hang on there everyone. These are *built to Fulcanelli's treatise on Italian style shell building where the cotton string is prepasted, the shell is not pasted at all, that would be called "pasting in"according to Fulcanelli.

 

Since these are for rockets, there is no need to add an out layer of pasted kraft, the spiking will allow for the pressure to build enough to break like Mum says. The paper is just three or four turns of dry 70# virgin kraft that is spiked.

 

I do add extra paste to my shells to help shrink the paper and make it harder. Also, a note on the *, these are not filled with pulverone, just coated rice hulls, they are not packed hard and the walls are not rock hard. There is no need to resist the lift charge since they will all be on top of rockets.

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Hang on there everyone. These are *built to Fulcanelli's treatise on Italian style shell building where the cotton string is prepasted, the shell is not pasted at all, that would be called "pasting in"according to Fulcanelli.

 

Since these are for rockets, there is no need to add an out layer of pasted kraft, the spiking will allow for the pressure to build enough to break like Mum says. The paper is just three or four turns of dry 70# virgin kraft that is spiked.

 

I do add extra paste to my shells to help shrink the paper and make it harder. Also, a note on the *, these are not filled with pulverone, just coated rice hulls, they are not packed hard and the walls are not rock hard. There is no need to resist the lift charge since they will all be on top of rockets.

 

Ahh, of coruse! Rockets! I was getting mixed up there... Thanks2happy.gif

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It sounds like you want a soft break, but pasting-in is still a required step for traditional shell manufacture. It does more than just fireproof the shell. That being said, I'm sure you know what works and how to build a rocket header and that this will work just fine.
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  • 6 months later...

As my first ever glitter, and first star of 2011, I made 500g of RG2. Commercial airfloat, coffee grinder KNO3, 5% dextrin, and 400# spherical Al from skylighter. I had to cut them, since I don't have a star pump, so consequently the comp was over-wetted as far as glitter recommendations go. I tried to use as little water/alcohol as possible, but it ended up being just as wet as every other star I've cut.

 

They're mostly dry now, and wow, it's a neat effect! Roughly comparable to the video posted earlier in this thread. I can't wait to see 'em in a shell! Thanks Ralph!

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As my first ever glitter, and first star of 2011, I made 500g of RG2. Commercial airfloat, coffee grinder KNO3, 5% dextrin, and 400# spherical Al from skylighter. I had to cut them, since I don't have a star pump, so consequently the comp was over-wetted as far as glitter recommendations go. I tried to use as little water/alcohol as possible, but it ended up being just as wet as every other star I've cut.

 

They're mostly dry now, and wow, it's a neat effect! Roughly comparable to the video posted earlier in this thread. I can't wait to see 'em in a shell! Thanks Ralph!

 

Your welcome glad to see another person enjoying it :D

 

In chat people were asking what it should look like on the ground here is a .mov"]video of a burn test of a 1" (to be shot from a 1" tube) RG#1 comet from last season (what cant really be seen well in the video is the delay before each of the sparks appears(something my sister who made the video pointed out))

 

also the fire at the end is due to the bone dry wood its on catching fire and is not from the glitter residues

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a few shells filled with them, they will launch either this weekend or the next. ;)

Good to see you around TBP!

 

-dag

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  • 4 weeks later...
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