Is rollling dead?

[ExplosiveCoek]

You haven't got a reply from me?

 

Now I have !

 

From cores to 5mm about 30-45 minutes, from 5 to 10mm about 30 minutes, I think it can be done even faster. I size my stars while I'm rolling. When I need everything 10+ then close after the first stars become 10mm I start screening them, everything that falls trough the sizing plate goes back into the roller. This whole process takes quite some time.

 

SAY WHAT?? Can you give me some rolling class next time when I'm coming over ? Including screening my stars while I'm rolling it takes me much longer then that..I do the same on screening like you said so there's something wrong with my 'rolling abilities' I guess..

 

 

Strobecores 4mm :

[dagabu]

This whole process takes quite some time.

 

In fact, from the time you start gathering chems until you have the stars in the drying rack and the clean up is done, I wouldn't be surprised if a good 8 hours had elapsed

 

SAY WHAT?? Can you give me some rolling class next time when I'm coming over ? Including screening my stars while I'm rolling it takes me much longer then that..I do the same on screening like you said so there's something wrong with my 'rolling abilities' I guess..

 

You are doing fine, go slow and take your time. There is no reason to rush the process. The cores look wonderful! Good job EC!

 

-dag

Edited May 29, 2011 by dagabu

[Mumbles]

I've bound Buell Red with 70% alcohol before. There is a decent red gum content, but these stars seemed harder than when I've previously bound solely with it. I don't understand and can't explain it, but it works. They were however significantly more fragile than when bound with water. Perhaps as the alcohol evaporates, the water in turn activates the dextrin.

 

I don't roll many stars. Cut and pumped stars are more suited to the canisters I primarily make. When I do, I find patience to be a virtue. Less bumps, and more accurately sized stars, and easier to start cores. I'm not great at it by any means, but giving it some time certainly works for me. I'd guess bringing tiger tail up to around 6-8mm took maybe 1 1/2 hours.

[cplmac]

Star rolling is definitely not dead, we have rolled probably close to 300 pounds of stars in the past couple of months. I think it's just tedious and boring and not good discussion material? Who knows.

[Peret]

Ooops, I seem to have found myself on Passfire by mistake! Excuse me, I was looking for APC.

[Falcon2]

It would seem fairly typical of any operation that everyone has there own way of doing things.

 

Anyway in my limited experience of star rolling - I find that one just has to observe the free material other than stars in the roller and keep it to a minimum. This to me is done by both patience and knowing when to add a little water.

One of the biggest things I find is to spray the stars with as fine a spray as possible and then give it a bit (30sec, depending on comp) before adding any comp to the stars, so the moisture is spread over the stars. Only add a very small amount of comp to, I make sure to keep free comp to a minimum.

 

It is interesting what people are saying about larger particles; I found that my Hardt #2 red organic star rolled very nicely even though I had some rather coarse KClO3 in it (screened to 40mesh) - I love the great red colour of this star too

 

I find I can roll a batch of C6 or D1 up to 3/8 in about 2-3hours (it takes a while), but I find that it is actually quite interesting watching stars grow (some people may liken it to paint drying though but I like it)

I have never bothered making cut stars and I tried a home made pump, which got stuck all the time and made a big mess.

Anyway for the moment I only roll stars, and make big batches at a time - that way I never have to roll more stars for ages.

 

Can someone tell me please which method of star making should be used for barium containing stars. I have barium nitrate but the toxicity scares me a bit. I was thinking I should learn cutting stars just for barium based comps.

[dagabu]

 

Can someone tell me please which method of star making should be used for barium containing stars. I have barium nitrate but the toxicity scares me a bit. I was thinking I should learn cutting stars just for barium based comps.

 

Go ahead and roll them, just be sure to use a respirator, long sleeves and pants plus gloves. Roll them up like regular stars. Once they are dry, prime them and then the Barium is no longer going to be airborne as it is locked into the star.

 

I like to roll on dead-calm days far away from anything with a stand of trees to my back so I can see the dust and avoid being in its path.

 

-dag

[Pyrophury]

I tried the toro method for the first time recently with some tiger tail stars, it only took about 1 hour to roll 1000 - 5mm cores upto 10mm. The results speak for themselves, no spiking and very uniform in size...

 

Click for fullsize

Edited September 14, 2011 by Pyrophury

[dagabu]

Beautiful!

 

-dag

[bonkers]

Nice!

What was the core of the 5mm ones? Were the cores screened?

Edited September 14, 2011 by bonkers

[Pyrophury]

Nice!

What was the core of the 5mm ones? Were the cores screened?

 

Brilliant core rolled on lead shot and primed in the usual fashion with a fine mist sprayer, they were regularly screened until they were all up to 5mm.

[Mumbles]

Very nice looking indeed. Did you use a conventional star roller, or the pans that you occasionally see in videos to do the actual rolling? I'm going to have to give this a shot. I love slurry priming stars, and I bet it'd be easy to go further and get them round.

[Pyrophury]

Very nice looking indeed. Did you use a conventional star roller, or the pans that you occasionally see in videos to do the actual rolling? I'm going to have to give this a shot. I love slurry priming stars, and I bet it'd be easy to go further and get them round.

 

 

Thanks, my star roller is just a 3 gallon bucket attached directly to a wiper motor.

 

[TheArchitect23]

Thanks, my star roller is just a 3 gallon bucket attached directly to a wiper motor.

 

 

nice!

i recently made a new one myself, was using a bolted bucket to a drill but ended up getting to heavy for good size batch.

same style, but mine has a wooden frame to support the bucket.

A+ man

[Bilbobaker]

I just gotta build one of those rollers, I've only made them in a large SS bowl and it takes forever...

Never thought about screening them for consistency, excellent idea and so very easy.

[VintageRacer]

Ooops, I seem to have found myself on Passfire by mistake! Excuse me, I was looking for APC.

 

I got a chuckle from this Peret

 

Just saw this thread on rolling. Rolled some myself this past weekend. Is anyone using the Gary Smith method of "wetting the comp" similar to what you would do if you were going to press them? He mentioned to me that they should be about 1/8" or so ( why's everyone in mm ?? ) and they roll up much faster. I've seen the video where Gary rolls a batch up in about 15 minutes to full size. I tend to roll for about an hour normally, it's therapeutic for me. Personally not tried the wet method yet, maybe on the next batch.

 

Couple of observations on my particular roller. I was about to rebuild it or build a new unit using a nice large plastic sphere that would give me a good radius rolling surface similar to what the actual candy or pill coaters use, then I cut a hole in my tupperware lid for my bowl and rolled the next batch. With the lid in place I can tip my roller cabinet towards me and not spill any yet I get good action and mixing with the stars at this steeper angle. These particular stars were spiked from the first rolling, and so they continued on. Spikes or berries are no problem for me, they should take fire that much easier. While rolling with the new setup I find I vary the speed and also the tilt on the roller. IF and WHEN there seems to be some powder on the bowl itself, I mist it good and lean the roller back which sends the stars all over the bowl surface and it cleans right up. I used to be paranoid about getting the bowl wet and sticking comp to it but not any more.

 

When I add the powder, I spoon it into my little tea-ball strainer screen and do a sifting action to sprinkle it on the stars as they pass by, rather than dumping spoonfuls into the roller each time.

 

Maybe one of these days I'll get a video while rolling stars. For now you can find the roller on my YT page if you care to see it. Others have used dual bowls put together for the "proper" rolling surface, I decided to skip that search and modification, and just added a lid mainly because my bowl is not very deep.

 

http://www.youtube.com/DandTpyro

 

Till next time,

 

DanB

 

(yo Dave how you do'n? )

Edited October 17, 2011 by VintageRacer

[fred815]

Does anyone roll stars anymore? You don't see much on it anywhere...

I built a star-roller the other day that can hold a five gallon bucket, but I use a shallow three gallon bucket with the same width as a five gallon bucket. It's angled about 20 degrees upward and powered by a old foot pedal controlled drill press drill. I still have not gotten down the technique... So I only use it for priming stars.

 

Attempts at star rolling usually end up with raspberries or most of the comp stuck to the bottom of the bucket... Grrrr...

 

For an experiment the other day I tried to roll one really big star... Got it up to an inch and a half. When I went to pick it up the thing was squishy... Strange... The surface was dry but with one finger barely touching you could make an indent into it... I was just using BP prime with 6% SGRS... Once it dried it ended up like a Hersheys kiss, minus the decorative top.

 

I'm not sure I care for rolling stars... It sure raises a lot of hazardous dust!!! Rolling strontium and barium comps... Eeek!

 

 

I've been searching the net on star rolling. Does seem to be a dying art or something. I've seen the windshield wiper motor, gearbox, 12 volt power supply// Come on now is'nt this the hard way to go. Or the power drill and 5 gal bucket?? Designing something isn't my strong suit. But surely there has got to be a way of adapting my blower motors, pillow block bearings, pulleys, and belts to a star roller contraption. I think skylighter and the rest are missing the boat on this one? Any help out here?

[psyco_1322]

*deleted Edited October 18, 2011 by psyco_1322

[dagabu]

I got a chuckle from this Peret

 

Just saw this thread on rolling. Rolled some myself this past weekend. Is anyone using the Gary Smith method of "wetting the comp" similar to what you would do if you were going to press them? He mentioned to me that they should be about 1/8" or so ( why's everyone in mm ?? ) and they roll up much faster. I've seen the video where Gary rolls a batch up in about 15 minutes to full size. I tend to roll for about an hour normally, it's therapeutic for me. Personally not tried the wet method yet, maybe on the next batch.

 

Couple of observations on my particular roller. I was about to rebuild it or build a new unit using a nice large plastic sphere that would give me a good radius rolling surface similar to what the actual candy or pill coaters use, then I cut a hole in my tupperware lid for my bowl and rolled the next batch. With the lid in place I can tip my roller cabinet towards me and not spill any yet I get good action and mixing with the stars at this steeper angle. These particular stars were spiked from the first rolling, and so they continued on. Spikes or berries are no problem for me, they should take fire that much easier. While rolling with the new setup I find I vary the speed and also the tilt on the roller. IF and WHEN there seems to be some powder on the bowl itself, I mist it good and lean the roller back which sends the stars all over the bowl surface and it cleans right up. I used to be paranoid about getting the bowl wet and sticking comp to it but not any more.

 

When I add the powder, I spoon it into my little tea-ball strainer screen and do a sifting action to sprinkle it on the stars as they pass by, rather than dumping spoonfuls into the roller each time.

 

Maybe one of these days I'll get a video while rolling stars. For now you can find the roller on my YT page if you care to see it. Others have used dual bowls put together for the "proper" rolling surface, I decided to skip that search and modification, and just added a lid mainly because my bowl is not very deep.

 

http://www.youtube.com/DandTpyro

 

Till next time,

 

DanB

 

(yo Dave how you do'n? )

 

Doin good Dan! How about you and the little lady?

 

I have not tried the wet comp style yet but it looks promising. I only roll in the winter time, the air is very dry and cold, the stars dry in the dehydrator in hours.

 

I cut most of my stars though since I like the easy to make parlon series by Nski.

 

-dag