Some homemade 3''shells on Diwali night!

[BengalFlair]

I usually make newspaper hemis for my ball shells but when I am in a hurry I use plastic kids’ balls for my shell casing. I always put the lift charge directly to the mortar like this for my 3” and lower diameter shells as I do have lot of such mortars.

All these shells were made with such kids’ balls and pasted with cotton fabrics. Ferrotitanium was used to make tail effects of stars.

 

http://youtu.be/w9_8efIg6Nw

[Short5]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[JFeve81]

Nice. The shells looked great.

 

Instead of dumping the powder directly into the mortar you could just fold it up into a packet using tissue paper. The fuse should burn through the paper and ignite the lift. Just another way of doing things I guess.

[pyroshell]

Nice shells I really liked them.

[fredhappy]

looks nice!

 

It's interesting to see how you prepare the shell..

 

thanks for sharing.

[dynomike1]

Ok i give up whats the two disk for?

[BengalFlair]

The disks help to hold the lift charge and the shell in right place during movement of the loaded mortar.

[Zumber]

nice work...!!

by the way have you ever heard the term 'Sora' which is one Indian chemical comes from panjab and sold as a saltpeter 3P,4Pand 5P grade.

I want its chemical name,I believe its not KNO3 because BP made of sora is almost free from shock and friction hazards.

[bubba153]

Are you sure? Saltpeter is the term normally applied to potassium nitrate, although it is sometimes applied to other nitrates.

 

BP made with potassium nitrate is pretty insensitive in terms of shock and friction. Most BP is made with some sort of milling of all the components together. While there have been some mill explosions, I think most of them have been due to operator error or contamination (wrong media, sparking contaminants, leaking jar, etc). I mill all of my BP (dry method), and have never had any problems.

 

 

 

nice work...!!

by the way have you ever heard the term 'Sora' which is one Indian chemical comes from panjab and sold as a saltpeter 3P,4Pand 5P grade.

I want its chemical name,I believe its not KNO3 because BP made of sora is almost free from shock and friction hazards.

[bubba153]

Google is your friend!

 

"Black Powder

To make fireworks for the first time it is recomended to prepare Black Powder first. The main ingrediant for the Black Powder is Sora( Potacium Nitrate or Chili Saltpiter), Gandhak (or Sulpher) and Kathkoila(Charcole).It is better to Add suger for better performance. But The sugar may be dropped for Tubrhi (Gurbs) as it gives extra force which may burst the shell."

The website this is quoted from is:

http://www.freewebs.com/kalyan_prodhan/fireworks.htm

[BengalFlair]

@swapnilsutar1988 “Sora” is a common term among the pyros in our locality which is actually potassium nitrate (KNO3). Sora comes from Punjab is nothing but the same and famous for its good quality. It is available as various crystalline forms (very large to small).

Sora, saltpeter both are potassium nitrate (KNO3) and BP made with them is relatively insensitive in terms of shock and friction as bubba153 stated.

[Zumber]

thanks a lot bubba153 and bengalflair....

if sora is KNO3 Then

1) why my screened mix of c6,c8,willow stars isnt igniting at all??

if mixed with proportions 3,1,1 then itignites slowly further with increasing charcoal content mixture fails to perform.

2) c6, willow made with oxidizer to which I have been calling KNO3

burns fasts.

3)just hand mixed BP made up of oxidizer to which I used to call KNO3 burns too fast (10gm burns within 1 sec) and leaves no residue but the place where it was ignited becomes white so is there any chance its likely to be KCLO4??

sorry for my poor knoledge.

[bubba153]

There really isn't enough information for me to feel comfortable trying to answer your questions. A number of factors can affect the burning of a composition, such as particle size, incorporation, purity of chemicals, and use of proper chemicals.

 

One thing that DOES come across though, is the impression that you are uncertain of just what you are using as an oxidizer. If there is ANY question as to whether you have potassium nitrate versus either a perchlorate or chlorate, you need to answer that question before making any compositions, or you could be taking some serious risks, especially as your comps contain sulfur. There are a few tests that can be performed to determine what you are using if there is any doubt. You can probably get your hands on at least some of these chemicals.

 

For determining the presence of nitrates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrate_test

 

For chlorate/perchlorate determination:

http://www.oocities.org/capecanaveral/campus/5361/chlorate/tests.html

 

The burning speed of your greenmix BP, and the lack of residue (while not impossible) makes me think you may be using something other than potassium nitrate.

 

 

thanks a lot bubba153 and bengalflair....

if sora is KNO3 Then

1) why my screened mix of c6,c8,willow stars isnt igniting at all??

if mixed with proportions 3,1,1 then itignites slowly further with increasing charcoal content mixture fails to perform.

2) c6, willow made with oxidizer to which I have been calling KNO3

burns fasts.

3)just hand mixed BP made up of oxidizer to which I used to call KNO3 burns too fast (10gm burns within 1 sec) and leaves no residue but the place where it was ignited becomes white so is there any chance its likely to be KCLO4??

sorry for my poor knoledge.

[Zumber]

thanks a lot bubba153 for those tests...

now i will test my charcoal based stars made by sora with wet mixing method and see the results.

the chlorate here in india is strictly banned so we have almost no access for it.

[BengalFlair]

so is there any chance its likely to be KCLO4??

 

 

If you have confusion whether your oxidizer is KNO3 or KClO4 then this simple test might help you.

Take about 50ml of water in a stainless steel bowl, put 10-15grams of powdered oxidizer in it and stir well. If it is KNO3 then the powder would dissolve fully and the temperature of the solution would decrease appreciably (which is endothermic dissolving) which can be felt with hand while touching the bowl or the solution. It is not possible to dissolve 10-15 grams of KClO4 in 50ml of water at 20-25⁰C

[Zumber]

I have tested that test with Sora and temperature was decreased considerably the other oxidizer isnt in stock so I will try out later on.

further I am going to make willow comp. with Sora by your wet mixing method and will see whether it will ignite or not.

Thanks a lot both you and bubba153.