keepkool78 Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Hello, I know we all hear that mortars made of HDPE do not fragment. I always use HDPE and over the weekend I had a 4 inch lampari with over 350 grams of flash blow in the mortar. I did find a couple of small pieces that broke off but all in all, it did a good job staying together. Here is the pic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 I'm going to move this to the safety section. I think it would fit a lot better there. THank you very much for sharing though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ActionTekJackson Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Wow, bummer for your tube, but I'm still impressed... Glad nobody got hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 3/4 of a pound of flash and safety section don't seem to mix well . A good example of why metal mortars are still frowned upon versus HDPE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I attended a class a few years ago where they did a demonstration of the HDPE mortars ability to stay together after a catastrophic failure. They loaded a 3" salute upside down into a rack and lit it from a safe distance. The rack was destroyed, a couple of mortars in either direction were badly damaged and the detonated mortar was destroyed, but they all basically stayed in one piece. It was an impressive display of both the power of flash powder and the resiliancy of HDPE. On a similar note, a friend of mine was popping up shells for the crowd before our annual show when disaster struck. He had a rack with a 4,5, and 6" mortar in it. He loaded a 5 pound 6" salute in the rack, lit the fuse and walked away. He did not get very far and the rack went up. It is nothing short of a miracle that he was not hurt and four months later when I walk around out there I still find pieces of that fiberglass mortar here and there.HDPE is the ONLY way to go. And if you have a trailer you can most likely find a place to pick some up HDPE stock. This summer we picked up enough HDPE to make 750 3" guns and 185 4" guns. It cost us less than half what it would have if we purchased the guns premade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joker5 Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 i have one in my garage that looks exactly like that. hdpe or paper is the ONLY way to go. on the fourth of july we blew the bottoms out of two steel eight inch mortars, not on purpose, scary as hell though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noel Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 At the PGI convention this year an 8" 4 foot tall canister shell went of inside of a steel mortar: http://www.pyrogear.net/video/pgi/Thursday/IMG_1342.JPG http://www.pyrogear.net/video/pgi/Thursday/IMG_1344.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomer Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Looks like the remains of the oxygen bottle we filled with the (in)famous weedkiller/sugar mix around 1980. This was the only 'experiment' of that size btw. we ever dared to do. (Sometimes I wonder how some of us survived their teens.) What break was used in that 8" shell? I would expect BP or BP on rice etc to NOT fragment the steel since it's open on one end. Whistle and flash are a different story though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I suspect it wasn't the break that did the mortar in, but the bottom shot. A 10" shell went off in a mortar and destroyed it too. Split down the side. Looks like a banana. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyvern Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Just built the first of the racks to accomodate my mortars http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/wyvernp/rack.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/wyvernp/rack2.jpg Note the holes so that a pole can be inserted into each side to keep it upright and steady can anyone suggest any other safty featurs to add to it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewest Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Pyrogear.net did some destructive tests and posted their results, it might give you some pointers: Pyrogear HDPE Rack Design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyvern Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Yeah i used that site extensivly when designing it and used most if not all of the recommendations they gave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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