44 replies to this topic

[BurlHorse]

I couldn't get it lit with two stages - I did four when rolling and three when pressing. You are right, it is a very nice red. You can get a similar red that is much easier to light and much easier to prime by making Bleser #1 and then adding +10 PVC. It slows the normally fast Bleser down and it deepens the red. The color is similar to the skylighter formula but a bit easier to manage (and a bit quicker).

I have not tried spraying with NC - I'll definitely give it a go the next time I'm testing things.

I'm Going to Go Make a Batch of this Comp and See for myself what I can Figure out, When it first came out in the Skylighter Newsletter I tried it and Had A Few Blow Blind, But I found the Problem Was The Parlon Not Being Fine Enough and Making the Comp, very....Um, Fluffy so to speak as I remember. So Gring everything so it would pass 100 mesh helped alot also, But I digress, Let me go Play with it and I'll let you Know What I come up with.

Best Regards,

Stay Green,

Bear

[RegimentalPyro]

I also have a big jar of rolled stars made out of this comp and as yet have nothing that will prime them reliably. My usually dependable hot willow meal doesn't cut it in the slightest!

The last thing I tried was the AP prime from passfire, followed by a layer of meal, and whilst this worked in the main I still had about 10%-20% blow blind out of a simple BP lifted stargun.

I'd be very interested to hear what you come up with Burl.

[burningbush]

Yes ! I add 400 mesh or finer zinc and iron oxide "red" to increase prime ,
it really helps light a good percentage of blown blind stars.

To salvage a batch of hard to light stars Ive reprocessed a batch into cut stars
which I dip prime in bp/metal prime and it works awsome!
for round stars I like to add a small amount of hemp/sawdust to hot prime for final layer to add texture and small air pockets/dips sometimes I'll roll these"when wet prime" in granulated bp about as coarse as sugar, it works great!
Also a softer burst will help some of the time too.
Making sure your stars are dry dry dry is also important.

If what Ive been told is true --almost all chinese shells use bp based outer primes even on kcl04 stars "due to its lower ignition temp"
On another note the stars Ive disected out of class c rockets seem smooth and mostly hard to light compared to most comps Ive worked w/ including kclo4's etc..
due to good agressive primes.

Good luck
hope this helps
P.c

Edited by burningbush, 11 July 2005 - 01:03 PM.

[Maineiac]

II'll include one formula to start things. D1 glitter is easy to make and it lights every time.



Source: Tom Rebenclau/Jack Drews

Composition:
58 Potassium Nitrate
18 Sulfur
11 Charcoal (airfloat)
7 Aluminium (-325 mesh, spherical)
7 Sodium Bicarbonate
4 Dextrin

As glitter and charcoal stars are my favorites I would add that Shimizu's Ascending Tiger Tail formula makes wonderful pressed stars. Very cheap and provides thick long lasting golden tails. Very nice! Not just for comets any more!
I am also a very big fan of D1 glitter as well as Winokur/Rebenklau's 39J. To that end, and to be nit-picky mind you, I checked my notes for the D1 formula given to me directly by Mr. Rebenklau. The nitrate should be 53% and not 58% as stated. I only mention it because Tom is a bit of a stickler for details and would like it to be correct.

[LadyKate]

As glitter and charcoal stars are my favorites I would add that Shimizu's Ascending Tiger Tail formula makes wonderful pressed stars. Very cheap and provides thick long lasting golden tails. Very nice! Not just for comets any more!
I am also a very big fan of D1 glitter as well as Winokur/Rebenklau's 39J. To that end, and to be nit-picky mind you, I checked my notes for the D1 formula given to me directly by Mr. Rebenklau. The nitrate should be 53% and not 58% as stated. I only mention it because Tom is a bit of a stickler for details and would like it to be correct.

I believe the formula is from multiple sources on the web and could easily have transmogrified to 58 instead of 53. I agree - it should be right. I've found it as both 53 and 58 from formulas on this site and as 58 on Alan Yate's website. Ideally, the sum of the ingredients should be 100 and 53 Potassium Nitrate makes it come out right. So I suspect you are right about it. I am happy to go with your correction.

Interestingly, I thought it was a little too quick burning and this might explain it (at least a tad).

[BurlHorse]

I also have a big jar of rolled stars made out of this comp and as yet have nothing that will prime them reliably. My usually dependable hot willow meal doesn't cut it in the slightest!

The last thing I tried was the AP prime from passfire, followed by a layer of meal, and whilst this worked in the main I still had about 10%-20% blow blind out of a simple BP lifted stargun.

I'd be very interested to hear what you come up with Burl.

If you Have it, Add + 4% Silicon Metal, Finest Mesh Possible to Velines Prime, The Comp Lit Everytime In Simple Mines for me, well 9 out of ten stars fairly consistently, Thats What I tried and it worked, give that shot and see.

Here's another red thats fast, Good Color Depth, Easy to Make (only 4 Chems) and Will light from a cigarette ash at 10 Paces.....

Pot Perc...........................70
Strontium Carbonate...........5
Red Gum..........................10
Air Float or Willow Charcoal..1
Dextrin...............................4


Use 70/30 H20/Denatured Alcohol to wet and Prime 1mm Meal with +4% Dextrin..........Happy Reds to ya!! Don't remember where this came from, but it's in my notebook, so excuse the tresspass if this is someone elses Base Formula, I added the 1 part Charcoal to the original and it tends to keep the star burning with the strongest breaks. If your Going to use Flash Bags For Burst, use some plain rice hulls or 2:1 coated hulls where you would normally put your Burst in the middle of the shell, it will keep things tight and cushion the blow from the flash.

Best Regards,

Stay Green,

Bear

[LadyKate]

Here's another red thats fast, etc.....

Got any Greens that are simple and easy to light? (I know -- unfair). Seriously, what is your favorite green (for which you are willing to share a formula)?

[ProfHawking]

Here's another red thats fast, Good Color Depth, Easy to Make (only 4 Chems) and Will light from a cigarette ash at 10 Paces.....

Pot Perc...........................70
Strontium Carbonate...........5
Red Gum..........................10
Air Float or Willow Charcoal..1
Dextrin...............................4
Use 70/30 H20/Denatured Alcohol to wet and Prime 1mm Meal with +4% Dextrin..........Happy Reds to ya!! Don't remember where this came from, but it's in my notebook, so excuse the tresspass if this is someone elses Base Formula, I added the 1 part Charcoal to the original and it tends to keep the star burning with the strongest breaks.

Are you sure its not 15 parts Strontium Carbonate?
I have that one written down too, with the 15. I dunno where it came from either im afraid.

green eh?
ive never managed it caus i havent been able to get any barium nitrate, which seems to be the base of all of them

Edited by ProfHawking, 20 July 2005 - 04:43 PM.

[paul]

has to be 15 SrCO3, otherwise it won?t sum up to 100...

greets,

paul

[RegimentalPyro]

Whilst we are on the subject of good easy to light stars, I have had very good results from "Williams no-Antimony" glitter.

My notes on this formula are as follows

Williams No Antimony white comet glitter

KNO3             55
Sulfur           7
Charcoal         17 [ordinary charcoal, not willow]
Red Iron Oxide   4
Al [sph,325mesh] 10 [Tiranti is fine]
Magnalium        3
Dextrin          4

Ball mill everything except Al, and Magnalium together for about 2-3 hours, then screen in the metals
Solvent = 33% meths, 67% Water
One cc solvent / heaped teaspoon [8%-10%] is sufficient, but mix solvent in well!

The results are quite impressive, as you can see.



These results were gained from making half inch pumped stars, with *NO* priming. Whilst this formula does specify Magnalium, which some beginners may not have, the amount needed is quite low.

[chemicalwazi]

These results were gained from making half inch pumped stars, with *NO* priming. Whilst this formula does specify Magnalium, which some beginners may not have, the amount needed is quite low.

I have used this formula (Thanks for that one Reggi ) using Al/Mg 50/50 powders instead of Maglalium with pretty damb good results.
Still with half inch pumped stars, no priming. I used a bottom fused cake, small amount of lift per tube then a star on top with a small amount of tissue paper wadding just to slow down the star enough to ignite on exit.

[Yugen-biki]

Now I have finished testing different kinds of primes on different kinds of stars. What I came to conclude was the same thing that has bead posted in this thread before. But you can take this as a confirmation that it is true.
(*I use German dark Al of about <45?m)

-For stars like chrysantemum and twinkle, a BP-prime is sufficient if any.

-For stars with a high metal content, independent of it beeing Al, Mg or MgAl, a BP-prime with about 10 additional % Al* of fine mesh will do the trick. If ignition is not 100% Shimizu's strobe prime, or the nearly identical Veline?s prime, can be used.

-Stars without metal fuel might (surprisingly!) be tricky to ignite. Use BP with about 10 additional % Al*.
An example is the "barrier-prime" often needed on ammonium perchlorate based stars. It needs the strobe prime to work properly. BP with Al does not work in this special case.

-Strobe stars need strobe prime of a thickness of about 3mm, or more. (NH3ClO4 based strobe were used with Mg only).


BP with Al is a surprisingly good prime and should not be underestimated.
NC-laquer, Red gum or dextrine does not make a big differense at all when used to apply the prime. Use what you find easy to use, I have tested most combination and found that the prime itself is much more important.
It is important to mill the prime to a very fine powder for it to work as good as possible. If nothing else is stated.

Hopefully this will help you peolpe out there to get your stars lit. I have good ignition an way .

[BurlHorse]

Are you sure its not 15 parts Strontium Carbonate?
I have that one written down too, with the 15. I dunno where it came from either im afraid.

green eh?
ive never managed it caus i havent been able to get any barium nitrate, which seems to be the base of all of them

Sorry bout the typo, it is in fact 15% , if youre so inclined, make it 12% strontium Carb and 3% Strontium Nitrate, Brightens it up a bit.

Best Regards,

Stay Green,

Bear

[ProfHawking]

Sorry bout the typo, it is in fact 15% , if youre so inclined, make it 12% strontium Carb and 3% Strontium Nitrate, Brightens it up a bit.

cheers for the tip. tbh tho i think as is, it works very nicely indeed.

does anyone know any nice greens that use barium carbonate rather than nitrate?
the closest ive got is a kinda white with a greenish tint.

[LadyKate]

cheers for the tip. tbh tho i think as is, it works very nicely indeed.

does anyone know any nice greens that use barium carbonate rather than nitrate?
the closest ive got is a kinda white with a greenish tint.

Here is a carbonate green - it is light but still a discernible green:

Bright Green (Best of AFN III, p. 115, seen first in Tom Perigrin's Book "Introductory Practical Pyrotecnics")

Potassium Perchlorate ... 30
Barium Carbonate .......... 19
Magnalium ...................... 30
PVC ................................. 12
Red Gum ......................... 4
Dextrin ............................ 4

Unfortunately, it is not easy to light. Triple prime it and you'll be ok. If someone has a Barium Nitrate green that is easy to light and emits a good dark(er) green, I would love to hear about it.

Back to the main topic of this thread - stars that light easily

One method to get a star to light easily is to press it in a square hole star board. The sharp edges make it much easier to light. Of course, you could cut it - but I am such a mess maker when cutting!

In best of AFN III (about page 124, I think), they suggested getting a recessed light cover that has square holes and using it for an el cheapo star board. I tried it and it works fine. Here's a picture: Wichita Buggy Whip

I made a lampblack star (formula from the same page as the reference above) and darn - to paraphrase Burl - those things can be ignited from 10 paces with a cigarette ash. Definitely no prime needed (which is probably intuitive - add a little aluminum and the formula could be a prime itself!).

Lampblack Star from AFN III page 124

Meal ............ 396
Lampblack .... 138
Sulfur .......... 48
Dextrin ........ 18

Edited by LadyKate, 22 July 2005 - 12:58 PM.