ewest Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 I've never made any Hummers until recently and I'm going to start using them in some shells. I checked around a bit and while I can find tutorials and such on how to make them, almost every one uses a type of basic BP in some form or other. But I'd really like to know if anyone uses any colored formulas for theirs? Would a basic star formula work for a hummer and would it even have the thrust to spin the hummer like BP does? And I'd be a little leary about ramming a star comp in a tube anyway, I know hummers are small so even if it CATO'd while ramming it's not that bad, but still. The ones I'm making are 3/8"ID by 1 1/2"LG I know colored ones can be made because you can get colored jumping jack 1.4G fireworks during the holidays, I've just not seen any formulas for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 No, star comps won't work. Like you mentioned they wouldn't have enough thrust. There are some colored drivers and gerbs that may be possible to use. My only worry is that the flame would be too small for you to see any color. Here's something I was considering for a while. Recess the clay end plugs a bit on both sides, say 1/4" or so. And ram with your fuel and prepare as normal. Fill in the ends with a star comp and prime as needed. I would think a nice blue with a Ti tail coming from the hummer would look nice. You'd probably only need to recess the cavity on one side for a star, but I do like the effect of pill box stars. Might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's probably about as close as it is going to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 That's a really good idea Mumbles! Here are a couple of colored Hummer comps from my Purrington book. RED:Strontium Nitrate 54Potassium Perch 5Charcoal Airfloat 2Magnesium coated 250m 24PVC 15 GREEN:Barium Nitrate 54Potassium Perch 5Charcoal Airfloat 3Magnesium 250m 23PVC 15 Just to warn you, his normal hummer mixes didn't work that great for me, but my meal has always been kind of slow. I cut it 50/50 with whistle mix and problem solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewest Posted January 9, 2007 Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 hmm, recess a star in it you say. I just happen to have about 6000 Veline red stars in the shed as we speak. If I get chance tonight or tomorrow night I'll run back there and try it real quick. I'll post a video of it when I make it. Check back soon kids, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. *edit*Ok, so I made some real quick but they didn't really work. I cut some tubes about 1/4" longer than I normally do, and after ramming the endplug of kitty litter in the hummer I had a gap of 1/4"-3/8" left in the tube and I jammed a couple pumped Veline Red stars in the end. When I fused it I wrapped some Visquick over the top of the star to insure ignition and taped it down as you can see in the pictures.Prefire Pic 1Prefire Pic 2 From the videos you can see they didn't work well. Now I had to glue the stars in and I didn't wait for it to dry well so that could be a problem, also it made them a little top heavy so they didn't spin well either. One shot the star out as you can see and the other just fell over and didn't spin at all. I lit these in the street on concrete and they were standing up when I lit them so I'd be sure they spun and still nothing.Red Hummer 1Red Hummer 2 A better approach might be to wet the star comp like I was going to pump them then jam it in the end of the tube and let it dry properly then prime the end. If you did it that way I think they might actually work. Plus if they were in the air they might also spin better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Maybe try a colored rocket composition and press it? I've always loved hummers and I've been itching to try a colored one. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pa_pyro Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 If you have the materials why not try a go-getter mix, I'm sure those would be energetic enough to spin well and give good color. That reminds me, does anyone know of a good source of Al and Mg(for making magnalium) or what to look for at a junkyard. I know volkswagon crankcases are supposed to be mostly magnesium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 I'd say to look for sacraficial anodes from water heaters or boats or something. Usually by the time they hit the junkyard, they are already sacraficed though. Just take a magnet with you. Actually call up a scrap metal dealer. They will often have the stuff presorted for you. Mg might be a bit pricy, by Al is easy to come by. Chain link fences are aluminum. It's rather inconvenient, but pretty pure. They probably have miles and miles of mangled fencing. I don't have my formulas with me, but those colored hummer comps look pretty similar to colored rockets or drivers. I don't think go getters would provide enough thrust. Sure they might spin, but they sure won't hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 Those are the colored "hummer" comps from Purrington, the go getters are actually a seperate formula. Although I am sure they are both less than ideal as has been the case with most of the comps I have tried from Purringtons book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistos Minion Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 I dont know about America but in Australia chain link fences are galvanised steel wire not Al. Al seems weak to use as a fence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 They are galvanized steel MM. I was trying to remember what it was, you beat me to it. As for using rocket fuels for your hummers, I mixed 50/50 my BP meal and salicylate whistle for my hummers. They sound great, but are super short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Well I dunno about you guys, but we have aluminum fence wire in the basement of our house. I assumed that since that was Al, all the fencing was Al. I know the posts are a different material, but this is most definatly Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewest Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 I mixed 50/50 my BP meal and salicylate whistle for my hummers. Did you ram that in the hummer or press it in with a press? I've been ramming my BP hummers by hand but I don't know about ramming a 50/50 mix of BP and Salicylate even if it's just basically a small firecracker. What I really need to do is fix me up a small Arbor press with a tiny blast shield on it and a Torque wrench on the side like Kyle has on passfire. That way I can sit there and press some whistle inserts until my hearts content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 I used a two ton arbor press, those hummer casings are so thick they can pretty much take max pressure so I just crank the bajeezus out of 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamazares Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 I have used these rocket's compositions successfully in stingers and Z-Bombs. I found it in Skylighter bulletin's. RED Strontium nitrate 50Potassium perchlorate 8Parlon 18Magnalium 200 mesh 12Charcoal Airfloat 5Sulfur 5Red gum 2 GREEN Barium Nitrate 50Potassium perchlorate 8Parlon 18Magnalium 200 mesh 12Charcoal Airfloat 4Sulfur 4Red gum 2Barium carbonate 6 BLUE Potassium perchlorate 70Copper oxychloride 10Red gum 7.5Chlorowax (or parlon) 7hexamine 2.5 From them is easy to make yellow, purple and orange compositions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Could you visibly see the colors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamazares Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Yes, I could see truly the colors mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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