Poka type shells

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Poka type shells sound like a viable way to display special effects such as parachutes, horsetails etc, but also simple star effects that would not look good in a warimono e.g. all-strobe stars.

 

The concept of strobe shells is what made me open this thread. I guess using "all-strobe" stars (stars being all strobe, not made with a small strobe core only) in a warimono would result in an unsightly effect (correct me if I´m wrong) whereas a poka shell, which "drops" them into the sky could make a nice falling strobe ensemble.

 

Apart from this special application I´m interested in the general principle. Shimizu (FAST, p.253ff) has the basic information. In contrast to Warimono shells, the poka type uses a weak burst charge and little pasting. There seems to be a bag of grain gunpowder tied to the fuse, which lights the stars (or other garnitures) randomly filled into (not arranged as usually done in a warimono) the firing chamber and pops the shell open, distributing the contents but not giving them a lot of momentum.

 

Can someone more experienced point us towards the things to watch out for? Thanks!

Edited September 15, 2011 by AdmiralDonSnider

[dagabu]

Poka type shells sound like a viable way to display special effects such as parachutes, horsetails etc, but also simple star effects that would not look good in a warimono e.g. all-strobe stars.

 

The concept of strobe shells is what made me open this thread. I guess using "all-strobe" stars (stars being all strobe, not made with a small strobe core only) in a warimono would result in an unsightly effect (correct me if I´m wrong) whereas a poka shell, which "drops" them into the sky could make a nice falling strobe ensemble.

 

Apart from this special application I´m interested in the general principle. Shimizu (FAST, p.253ff) has the basic information. In contrast to Warimono shells, the poka type uses a weak burst charge and little pasting. There seems to be a bag of grain gunpowder tied to the fuse, which lights the stars (or other garnitures) randomly filled into (not arranged as usually done in a warimono) the firing chamber and pops the shell open, distributing the contents but not giving them a lot of momentum.

 

Can someone more experienced point us towards the things to watch out for? Thanks!

 

I have a bunch of 7" (8" really) shell halves I picked up at a show last week. The outer ball shell halves are over sized and are held together with 1 turn of clear tape around the equator and 2 layers of pasted paper that tear off easily. They had parachutes inside of them and the halves broke cleanly apart.

 

I don't know how they were made other then that, sorry.

 

I have, however made several all strobe shells that dumped just like horsetails from traditional shells on top of rockets. There was a simple plastic bag of strobe stars with 1g of flash and a small handful of pulverone placed in the heading and it dumped the strobes out.

 

I will post a video later.

 

-dag

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Thanks dag.

 

Poka shells do still produce sufficient kinetic energy to distribute the stars a bit, so they don´t just fall down in a very narrow pattern, right?

[dagabu]

Thanks dag.

 

Poka shells do still produce sufficient kinetic energy to distribute the stars a bit, so they don´t just fall down in a very narrow pattern, right?

 

Correct. The poka shell is broken lightly like THIS picture shows. Used for bees and such so that the tender inserts or stars don't get crushed. When used with stars, they are not thrown far and often do not make perfectly round breaks.

 

They are easy to make though. the Chinese use this style in shall shells but use a booster such as flash or K-3.

 

-dag