Occasional depression thread

[oskarchem]

Mumbles> What about puttin some bentonite clay into those holes to seal them up? But maybe the pressure in the mortar will be too too great and just cause a flower pot.

 

Ok my turn: The weather is just big time shit! In the morning it's like all gloomy, so you dress up warm, then it gets hot, and then once your happy about being home and your just on the way to fire some stuff it starts raining... . Anyway, yesturday I missed my landing, I thaught that my gear was torn away because I hit the runway so hard, we were decending a -500ft/min when I hit it... Pshh... But tomorrow my school results are finished for the year so, more pyro and all... That is a highlight to my day.

[mormanman]

Anyway, yesturday I missed my landing, I thaught that my gear was torn away because I hit the runway so hard, we were decending a -500ft/min when I hit it... Pshh... But tomorrow my school results are finished for the year so, more pyro and all... That is a highlight to my day.

That would have sucked. I would think that new gear is some thing you don't want to have to pay for. BTW, I think if would be cool if you could get like a video or something of your flying.

[Bonny]

After some review, I've realized that my (drunk) cousin did a horrible job filming my show...he missed half the stuff and was out of focus or zoomed in too far on the rest.

Here are some clips:

 

There are a couple more uploading onto youtube...

[marks265]

After some review, I've realized that my (drunk) cousin did a horrible job filming my show...he missed half the stuff and was out of focus or zoomed in too far on the rest.

Here are some clips:

 

There are a couple more uploading onto youtube...

Well I think you did great. Like most other things it is always better when you're there!

[oskarchem]

mormanman> Yeah, would not have been to nice to pay for some pretty expensive gear. Maybe I could talk my instructor into filming my flights, but, anyway, I probably tape a camera to the dashboard on my first solo flight, wich will be very interesting

[mormanman]

mormanman> Yeah, would not have been to nice to pay for some pretty expensive gear. Maybe I could talk my instructor into filming my flights, but, anyway, I probably tape a camera to the dashboard on my first solo flight, wich will be very interesting

Looking forward to it. Hope everything works out with school and your gf that I read about in the venting room.

[WarezWally]

I think I just broke a few more laws, apparently boiling flasks (>500ml), condensers (size >19), still heads and heating mantles are restricted under some fucking retarded drug laws.

 

If I get caught with it its a $3300 fine and god knows what else (prison?) to hell with that.

 

Also on this wonderful piece of drug legislation are another list of restricted reagents I might want to own down the track. Some of which include:

 

Calcium

Chromic acid (including salts)

Iodine (including iodine salts)

Lithium

Magnesium

Nitromethane

Piperidine

Potassium

Sodium

 

I'm just going to horde everything I can get.

[Swede]

The "Fuse Law" supposedly restricting visco keeps rearing its ugly head. I am tempted to hoard visco, too.

 

GD those drug people. You buy lab glassware, you are on a list, I am convinced of it. The so-called precursor chemical list is a mile long. What next, H2O2 3% ? Iso alcohol?

[oskarchem]

This is going to come. In a while you won't be able to get NaCl (table salt) because you can get chlorine out of it. Anyway, this makes me think of the thing a pilot friend said today, after looking at my bike helmet he said: "Soon because of these politicians, we'll have to ware these whilst walking on the pavment".

[Swede]

I have taken to this hobby heart, soul, and pocketbook. I am a middle-aged guy, and it's something I wanted to do since I was a kid. I was a chemistry major, and ended up working in some outstanding Air Force labs c/w high-energy material. The I became a pilot and left chemistry behind. Now it's time to catch up.

 

The problem is this - I live in a 'burb near Ft. Worth, Texas. There are 6 acres to the South of me (wooded) which I do not own. Everything else is 3/4 acre lots and houses.

 

I started VERY small (bottle rockets) and even when those CATO'd it was damned loud. My first 4 ounce rocket, just a little thing, CATO'd spectacularly. A successful rocket (no payload) went up today, and the howl sounded like a Tie fighter from Star Wars. I can't imagine launching a 3" shell much less than a 6" job.

 

So what to do? What good is making all this stuff if you cannot test and launch? How do you guys do it? I looked for clubs in the area... there is a Texas club, with ONE annual shoot. I can't do this just once a year. I'm going nuts pondering this.

[BLAST420]

ahhh...the same block I have run into population!!! well right as of now my experiment bassiclly consistes of testing fireworks (small rockets,fountains ect... backyard at night if not loud...maybe a little loud!!! now as far as shells and larger things that fly into the air and go boom; these leads me about 8-10 miles down the road to some country kind of......it is risky but I mean I ll even take it to a big field or park at night or a cornfield!!!!! But as far as convient testing I currently live in a sub division!! IN the midwest lol makes it surprizing difficult and a crazy process of makin you stuff flyin off with it in the car to go find a place to launch.......I am looking intlo finding a remote spot and just burrying a mortar out the......should be some where.....hmmmmmm tuff any one have any ideas for us??

[oskarchem]

Swede> You could maybe try to find a place where nobody lives, like a feild far from your house. Then let's say make shells, and go and fire them. I mean I live out in the country, but once I'm going to upgrade to 6ers, I will only fire them like 3-4 times a year.

[BLAST420]

lol......hahahhaha.......hey on that note how the hell does a 12" shell fly into the air and how big is that!!! WOWW!!!!!!!!! talk about a banger!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9JtH0K8mo&NR=1 is that right 48" WOW>>>>>>I WANT TO MAKE 96"!!!!!

[frogy]

12" would be 12" in diameter...

 

Here's a much better quality version of the 48" shell you just posted...

 

 

Just want you to know, that shell is a thousand pounds plus if I recall correctly... And a x2 expansion of diameter = x8 expansion of volume in a sphere, so a 96" shell would weigh around 4 tons or more... Requiring probably 250 pounds of BP or so to lift... Not sure, even 1/32th weight may be a little much for a 96" shell...

[Swede]

Swede> You could maybe try to find a place where nobody lives, like a feild far from your house. Then let's say make shells, and go and fire them. I mean I live out in the country, but once I'm going to upgrade to 6ers, I will only fire them like 3-4 times a year.

I think I'm headed in that direction. I own a pickup. I'm thinking of welding a rack (innocent looking) that will ride in my P/U bed. It'll have tubes to hold sticks for rockets, and maybe a mortar tube or three. Off into the boonies. BOOM! Haul ass. If the cops got me, though, they'd claim it was an "armored vehicle with explosive offensive weapons INCLUDING A MORTAR" which is technically accurate but sounds bad.

 

HAHA, how about electronic firing from INSIDE the truck! Stick my head out the window, press a button, launch. Don't even need to turn the truck off.

 

Us older guys are fuddy duddys and don't like conflict with the law, but I don't see any other way to do this. The ideal way would be to find a sympathetic guy with 200+ acres in the stix and either rent or simply use it with his permission.

[BLAST420]

4 tons.....lmao could you inmagine.... LOL !!! I like the truck idea..lol think I might have to weld me up a nice rack back there....some 6's......just drivin down the road have mortars blasting out of the back of your truck.....lol This is wouldnt sit well with some of the loacals around here.....LOL I like the electric ignition I would just hope not for any duds; or that will be the end of that truck....including whats in it

[flying fish]

The "Fuse Law" supposedly restricting visco keeps rearing its ugly head.  I am tempted to hoard visco, too.

 

GD those drug people.  You buy lab glassware, you are on a list, I am convinced of it.  The so-called precursor chemical list is a mile long.  What next, H2O2 3% ?  Iso alcohol?

If it weren't for liability issues, the folks at the company I work for would probably let me buy chemicals from sigma through them. I do have the account number .

 

Edit

 

I don't think they will be able to ban table salt though...(I'm in Detroit area, which means I am likely standing over some salt). It could always be extracted it from potato chips! I can just picture some make-shift nerve gas setup that consists of a roll of pringles, some water, and a 9V battery!

[tentacles]

Swede: Another option is joining that pyro club and finding a member in your area with a place to shoot. Network a little, there's probably someone not too far who'd love to watch your shells/rockets/whatever and may have some good advice.

[Mumbles]

I thought it was around 800lbs, but I might be thinking of the biggest canister shell ever fired. Regardless, I do believe that the 2 48" shells built every year are the largest that have ever been successfully fired. There are two built every year for some festival in Japan. I bet there is at least 150 layers of pasting on it. I've seen video of a 36" shell being made and it is very impressive. Totally different from conventional methods.

[BLAST420]

O WOW!!! any idea if you have access to video at all still or where that was I was tryin to look into that!!! Couldnt inmagine construcing a shell that large.......WOW unbeleavable...it would have to be quite different I mean I dont think your standard visco fuse will work in that situation........am I wrong lol! i wonder how much charge to bust that sucker opeN!!!!!

[frogy]

They can probably only make a few a year with how long that paste must take to dry

 

Imagine a W.A.S.P. for a 36"/48" Shell... muhahahaha

Can you say 20 miles of gummed tape?

 

Here's a tutorial on 16" round shells.

[Mumbles]

Nope, no access to the video. I want to say there were 8 time fuses, if you were talking about timing. If talking about lighting it, no, it was electrically fired. You will come to find that most use quickmatch to transfer fire from the mouth of the gun to the lift. Visco gets expensive and slow when the mortar is 4 feet long. Probably well over 100lbs of burst. The burst was separated from the stars/shells with a bed sheet. In one of them, the insert shells were 8".

 

There are a few pictures though.

http://www.pyro.com/photos01.htm

 

For future reference, I have actually touched that very gun. It was glorious.

[Swede]

Swede: Another option is joining that pyro club and finding a member in your area with a place to shoot. Network a little, there's probably someone not too far who'd love to watch your shells/rockets/whatever and may have some good advice.

Thank you Tentacles. I am hoping that perhaps someone might read this, see I'm in Ft. Worth, and clue me in on the "Secret Pyrotechnic Society of Greater DFW" or something.

 

On these massive shells (and maybe smaller ones too); has anyone used or considered compressed air as a soft, gentle, yet potent lift? There are Pumpkin Cannoneers out there who have contests building compressed air pumpkin launchers, and they are like artillery. Although I suppose it's an answer in search of a question. Can you imagine the serious math behind the lift of a shell that monstrous? It's not like you can do multiple tests at 150 to 300 lb of BP per lift. I'll bet they did the math, did one verification launch with a dummy, then using lift BP from the same batch, launched those big boys.

[Bonny]

Swede: Another option is joining that pyro club and finding a member in your area with a place to shoot. Network a little, there's probably someone not too far who'd love to watch your shells/rockets/whatever and may have some good advice.

Thank you Tentacles. I am hoping that perhaps someone might read this, see I'm in Ft. Worth, and clue me in on the "Secret Pyrotechnic Society of Greater DFW" or something.

 

On these massive shells (and maybe smaller ones too); has anyone used or considered compressed air as a soft, gentle, yet potent lift? There are Pumpkin Cannoneers out there who have contests building compressed air pumpkin launchers, and they are like artillery. Although I suppose it's an answer in search of a question. Can you imagine the serious math behind the lift of a shell that monstrous? It's not like you can do multiple tests at 150 to 300 lb of BP per lift. I'll bet they did the math, did one verification launch with a dummy, then using lift BP from the same batch, launched those big boys.

Apparently Disney uses compressed air to launch shells at their theme parks, see here:

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/disneyland-fireworks.html

[Mumbles]

The 36" shells went up with 25 and 30lbs of lift. The guy who made them joked that Goex supplied pre-measured lift bags for the first. (BP comes in 25lb bags).