Brkdnc Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Hi all, I'm new here and looking for a little help on a project I am trying to do. I am trying to make a smoke cartridge that I can use out of my 26.5mm Flare pistol. I have a re-loadable 26.5mm shell that uses BP and a shotgun primer that will launch a 3/4" OD, 1/2" ID fused cardboard tube. I don't know if I can find a little bigger ID tube that would withstand the force of being shot but I am still looking into that. I have been trying to come up with a good smoke mix that will burn quick, I need about a 10 second burn that produces a LOT of smoke. I know I am limited by the tube size and I will never get the full effect of a factory military smoke cartridge. I have tried the nitrate and sugar mixes not a lot of luck with those yet, even got a white smoke mix and some red dye from hobbychemicalsupply.com. They work good as a regular smoke bomb but they burn to long and no quick large cloud of smoke that I am looking for. I did try increasing the hole size a little hoping that might help but then they just flamed out with little or no smoke. So the question, is there some mix that has a fast burn time or a real small amount of a mix that gives off a large smoke cloud that might work for what I am trying to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algenco Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 plain ole BP should do just that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 There are a few tricks to get around the burn time. Shimizu talks about these in F.A.S.T. They largely rely on not using a solid plug of smoke mix. Typically the cartridge is filled with granulated smoke mix, or rolled up in a coil of paper. Both of these will increase the surface area of the composition to make it burn faster and generate the volume of smoke more rapidly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val77 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) 50% potassium nitrate25 %of sugar10% of glucose syrup50ml of water Edited November 13, 2012 by val77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brkdnc Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Thanks for the advice to get me going in the right direction I am sure these tips will help. Later on I hope to try my hand a making a flare to use also. I'm sure i will be here often because this looks like a place I could get hooked on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val77 Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 (edited) drill a core inside the smoke mix it increases the burn rate Edited November 14, 2012 by val77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 (edited) I asked a friend of mine if he knew any WWll reinactors that made smoke for the shows they do and I got a hold of Commander David Jameson whom got in touch with their "tank hit" guy Bob Shoemaker. Bob told me to use an empty paper towel tube section about 3" long and seal up one end with aluminum tape. Take a piece of pink or blue rigid foam, mark off the ID of the can you made on it and draw a grid across the face. Where the grid lines intersect (Bob said that you have to experiment with how small the grid is so that all the smoke burns off as quickly as possible but not make the smoke grain too brittle) drill a hole 1/2 way through the foam the same size as your dowels (1/8" in this case) and epoxy them into the foam extending all 3" so they can reach the bottom of the can. Vaseline the dowels well. Make your Legendary smoke and fill the can 3/4 the way up, press the foam block with the dowels into the smoke mix slowly so you don't break anything. After the smoke has cooled and solidified, remove the dowels. this is why you use the foam block, you can break the dowels out of it and twist them out of the smoke mix with a pliers one by one if they stick, if you use a wood block, the dowels will snap off flush with the surface of the smoke mix if they get stuck. Fill the 1/8" holes with fine BP grains, insert am e-match, cover the open end with aluminum tape, place it and hit the e-match. Bob says that this method will burn all of the smoke off in less than 5 seconds but will make a huge volume of it. I have never tried this so i don't know what would happen, I think i would make less holes and not fill them with BP but that is your option. I know this has NOTHING to do with the size canister you are using but I bet you could scale it down or make a bunch of holes in your grain to accomplish the same thing. Have fun! Video please. -dag Edited November 14, 2012 by dagabu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brkdnc Posted November 16, 2012 Author Share Posted November 16, 2012 I bet you could scale it down or make a bunch of holes in your grain to accomplish the same thing. Have fun! Video please. -dag Good idea I can try that one also, Did try the BP added a little to the mix helped some till I added a tad to much and it went POP blowing out an end cap. Did get the Shimizu F.A.S.T. book have to go through that closer. next is try the core or cores, just hope it doesn't flame out. When I get this figured out I will post a video . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts