JFeve81 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Planning on making some 3/8" pumped stars tommorrow. (Well I guess later today as it's allready Sunday). I'm using Shimizu's Chrysanthumum 8 formula. I have some ferro titanium I thought about adding just for a slightly different effect and am wondering how much of a percentage I can add and still have a decent star. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of 10%. Also what's the best way to add the ferro-titanium to the star comp? I've had decent luck using it with fountains but anything else I try to mix it into turns out to be sporatic. (as in the ferro-ti settles and I get nice sparks, then no sparks, then little sparks, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan999ification Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 10% should be fine depending what mesh you have, to stop it settling in you could try to kneed it into the wet comp trouble is if you pump it wont be that wet. dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warthog Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) Even if you pump it or use a plate, wetting the comp will help. Another way to keep things mixed is to keep mixing it up. I do this when making fountains. I'll either shake the comp up between increments or give things a stir. This does work a bit better with finer mesh stuff. I believe if you do what you are saying you will change your effect to a Brocade type which I think is a pretty cool one. Edited March 4, 2012 by warthog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 You can add upwards of 25-30%, but 5-10% will look great. I quite like the mixture of charcoal and metal as opposed to over powering one with the other. One thing I've found that helps the metal to stay "suspended" is to granulate the damp composition before pumping. A 16 mesh screen gets it just about right for me. I actually do this with everything I'm pumping. I think it makes it pump better. It also ensures all the water is well distributed. It's not as easy for some to tell when the water is equal when the comp is still relatively dry. You may want to eventually regranulate just to make sure nothing is settling out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFeve81 Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 I am going to granulate the star comp but do the c8 first then add the metal after screening as I am under the impression that you shouldn't screen metals. Or am I wrong on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warthog Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 what mesh is the metal added? I think rather than being corrected later I will let others or Mumbles himself answer you on this one about screening metals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starseeker Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 You should not screen your comp with course metal particles, add your Ti after screening ,mixing it in your bowl,then i would moisten the comp and then pump etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I always add the coarse metals last. In this case I'd mill or screen the composition together thoroughly. I'd then add the coarse metal by hand and stir. It's not unheard of to run the mixture through a coarse screen maybe 4 to 8 mesh. This is really less screening, and more sifting and enhanced mixing. Milled comps like C8 and stuff can be quite voracious about sticking to corners of mixing buckets and clumping together and stuff. The sifting and transferring from container to container really does wonders toward getting it all evenly distributed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielC Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 (edited) Even as little as 5% will give your stars a decent looking tail. I prefer not to run any metal through my fine screens but using a 20 mesh kitchen screen stolen from the wife works fine. One thing though about the Ti. is that if you are using an aluminum or brass pump or plate the hard Ti particles will chew it up a little bit. Ive noticed some pretty bad scarring on my Al pumps. I made some poor boys PVC star and comet pumps. They work just as well and you can make all sizes and pitch them when they get worn. Edited March 8, 2012 by DanielC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 The Nituff coating that Rich Wolter puts on some of his tools and pumps actually resists regular Ti use fairly well. If you get any metal up between the plunger and sleeve you're in trouble no matter what you do, but it is resistant to Ti comps when used properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFeve81 Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Allright. Made up a very small (15 gram) batch of 3/8" stars last weekend. Made about 24 stars with it. Star comp was C8 with +10% ferro-titanium. Let them dry for the week and made a mine with them today to see if I liked the effect. Not 100% sure I like this particular one. At least in mine form anyway. Might add a little bit more ferro-ti to the next batch. I mixed the comp (all except the ferro-ti), added alittle water, and screened it through a 20 mesh screen. Then I added the +10% ferro-titanium. Worked a treat. These stars burned noticably longer then my C8 stars without the Ferro-Ti. Rained fire down on my shoot site. The only things I can think that are different is 1.) The addition of the Ferro-Ti and 2.) Possibly the courseness of my chems. I couldn't remember if the chems were fine enough to pass a 30 mesh or a 60 mesh screen. This batch was the 30 mesh so tomorrow I'm going to mill it down enough to pass the 60 mesh screen before mixing the comp and see if that helps speed up the burn. With that out of the way here's the pic of my stars sitting on a screen and a YouTube vid of the mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1x8os4GXog Edited March 17, 2012 by JFeve81 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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