23 replies to this topic

[pritch]

Hi there. I can't seem to find any topics on fountains and specifically big fountains so here is one.

Tonight I have earned a new respect for fountains because previous to tonight I thought they were boring. So I was bored because all I have been doing lately is stockpiling compositions ready for bonfire night. So I decided to make a "small" fountain. I used 7 hour milled willow bp and I mixed in a rough amount of 60 micron aluminum and a rough amount of ferro titanium at various meshes. So I rammed the 1 inch id tube with 15-20 grams of this mix and gave it a 4 mm nozzle.

So I ignite it with my fuse/chinese fuse combo and here is the video

www.elitewebdesign.co.uk/pyro/fountain.MOV (edited and now the correct link)

The pot holder you see it in is one of those giant plant pots. About 1 and a half foot wide. I never expected it to go so high and never got the whole thing in shot. It went higher than the pine tree which is an easy 20 foot. It also only lasted about 2 seconds.
I dont think any other firework I have made has impressed me as much as this did and certainly i've never had a garden firework be as impressive as this massive column of fire and sparks with its roar. When I watch it frame by frame it kinda looks similar to a flash salute going off. The straight white lines. Would the 60 micron aluminum dramatically increase the rate of burn like this? I need to know if this was the aluminum or I just had an air pocket in the powder which caused it all to go up at once. Either way I am going to be making a bunch of these for fireworks night

Has anyone else got any cool fountains? I'm going to experiment more with the above fountain only make it a longer tube. This was only about 7 cm long.

Edited by pritch, 22 October 2004 - 11:25 PM.

[Richard H]

That link does not work. I am also a fan of large gerbs. Ferro-titanium works very well, as does iron, titanium, or mixed grades of aluminium for flitter gerbs.

[pritch]

ah sorry its
click here

Edited by pritch, 22 October 2004 - 11:24 PM.

[Pretty green flames]

Wow very impresive

Nice work

LP

[Chaoticentity]

I've built 1/2inch ID x 7inch fountains that have shot well over 50 feet, check out skylighters articles for one such fountain, play with your own mixes. You fountain would have lasted longer had you been able to press in into the tube under greater pressure.

[pritch]

Blue Steel Fountain Parts/Percent by Weight



Ammonium perchlorate 65

Hexamine 10

Stearic acid 7

Copper carbonate or

Copper oxychloride 6

Steel, fine powder 12

I think you mean this. Sounds brilliant but unfortunatly I dont have those chemicals

Edited by pritch, 26 October 2004 - 04:41 AM.

[alany]

It is said that particular fountain has a nasty habit of exploding violently. It has to be built very well or it will explode, but when it works, it is truely a sight to see. IIRC the article talks about crackling titanium effects, not sure if they ment the normal soft crackle you get with Titanium or something louder like dragon's eggs because of unique chemistry.

[Creepin_pyro]

I've built 1/2inch ID x 7inch fountains that have shot well over 50 feet, check out skylighters articles for one such fountain, play with your own mixes. You fountain would have lasted longer had you been able to press in into the tube under greater pressure.

Did you manage to capture it on film? I've heard alot about this fountain and how it reaches 70ft, but never actually seen one in action.

[pritch]

Imagine if it was scaled up a bit...

[mleech]

The pot holder you see it in is one of those giant plant pots. About 1 and a half foot wide. I never expected it to go so high and never got the whole thing in shot. It went higher than the pine tree which is an easy 20 foot. It also only lasted about 2 seconds.
I dont think any other firework I have made has impressed me as much as this did and certainly i've never had a garden firework be as impressive as this massive column of fire and sparks with its roar.  When I watch it frame by frame it kinda looks similar to a flash salute going off. The straight white lines. Would the 60 micron aluminum dramatically increase the rate of burn like this? I need to know if this was the aluminum or I just had an air pocket in the powder which caused it all to go up at once. Either way I am going to be making a bunch of these for fireworks night

Has anyone else got any cool fountains? I'm going to experiment more with the above fountain only make it a longer tube. This was only about 7 cm long.

My experience is that mill meal will burn at *about* 25mm/sec when used in fountains, so
a roughly-2-second burn is what you can expect.

I've been making fountains using a 15mm ID tube, and about 150mm long. I get about
6-7 seconds, and a plume that is about 3m high. I use 40 mesh steel, extra charcoal, and
spherical aluminum. They're quite lovely!

[lord_dranack]

Fountians are easily my favourite type of firework!
My best one is a 6 inch by 30mm with 7mm clay choke.
I fill with fast willow BP milled with 5% extra charcoal, and pressed into the tube with 3% FeTi.
If not pressed tightly enough it has a tendancy to explode (so I fire it electricaly in a remote area), but when it works it does so spectacularly, shooting golden white sparks to 20 feet and higher!
On one occasion it reached 30 feet, but shot the sparks up almost completly silently, giving a very surreal effect!

[pritch]

Has anyone got any idea if 60 micron aluminum would increase the burn rate like I suspect? Like most metals slow it down but I think this did the opposite.

[BurlHorse]

Has anyone got any idea if 60 micron aluminum would increase the burn rate like I suspect? Like most metals slow it down but I think this did the opposite.

Pritch, From the Video, What I see is Titanium Be it Ferro or Not, As a Previous Poster Said, The Size of the tube and your Burn Rate are About what one would expect. As To the 60 Micron AL, I dont think it Made it out of the Fountain, But that would cause a Heating of the Interior, possibly, But I don't Think it was responsible for increasing the Burn Rate. Give yourself some credit, You've just got some good hot Willow BP.

OH, as to Scaling it up, Clarks Giant Steel Fountain is The MOST Awesome Fountain I have ever Seen, About 3 Feet Long and A guesstimated 4 Inch Diameter, I'm just going by what I saw up close and personal, It could have been bigger or smaller, by a little. One of our Club Members made 4 of them Last Year and set off 2 each night of the shoot, They roar relentlessly as they attain their coveted Height of 100 FtWith a Burn Time of About 15 to 20 seconds, again, I am going by fond rememberence here, Do a Search on the Net For "Clarks Giant Steel Fountain".

They are amazing and finding the Proper Tubes, 1 in one or 1+1+1 perhaps, can be a Hassle, And you May Burn up your Ball Mill Making The Amount of Comp Needed For it,

It is Also in one of the Best Of AFN books, if you know someone who may have a copy.

Stay Green,

Regards,

Bear

[pritch]

You are very lucky to have seen one of those fountains cause ive heard a lot about it. Unfortunatly I won't have the ability to make one of them for a while but I am making a much larger version of the above fountain ps I tried to make that bp slow for rockets I only milled it for about 3 hours.

[pritch]

I've had the smart/stupid idea of using H3 in my next fountain since it's twice as fast as bp. Would it be safe to ram an h3 fountain with say 10% fe-ti in it?