79 replies to this topic

[completebeginner]

Try Willow for charcoal, or airfloat.

Karl I have heard that willow makes good charcoal but airfloat is a mesh of c not a type but I also recomend using alder charcoal which I have had the most success with in 70 20 10 proportions

[Themolehole_9876]

Okay, to answer all your questions... 1. Yes my star burns all the way down
2. I am using balsa wood for my charcoal
3. when its on the ground and lights it goes 'whump!'
... i think the bp is just being annoying on purpose... any ideas

[seymour]

What form is your lift in, is it meal or pulverone?
How much lift are you using?
How big are your stars?
How loose are the stars in the star gun?
I assume these are still the Potassium nitrate/Sulphur/meal white stars? They are slow drying and without being properly dried they will burn slowly.
What shape are your stars? Cut stars need more lift than other types in star gun. One way of increcing the height of a star in a star gun is to shove a ball of paper above it in the tube.

[koobee]

Yeah, I am thinking that the paper plug/ball could help give your stars a little kick out of the gun and perhaps help them catch fire better. Also using a star gun with a longer barrel should help the stars out a bit. If none of that helps, the problem may lie in the stars. Still wet, not lighting completely, or simply that the stars are cut too big for their composition, if they are naturally a slow burning star then we will have to adjust and cut them smaller. Hope some of that babble was helpful.

[Themolehole_9876]

but the fact that its not lifting at all.. wouldnt that have to do with the actual lifting powder..? even if the star wasnt burning properly it should still lift it to a decent height...

[koobee]

Oh yeah, I meant that if it was burning and shot into the sky and then came down like a meteor maybe it was burning too long. It would seem like the issue comes to pressure. If there isn't enough pressure in the gun then the stars may not loft out of the gun fast enough. So try to make a tight fit in the tube and use a paper ball to give it a nice pop out of the tube. Those are my only thoughts. Unless we could see the way your bp is behaiving it is difficult to figure out what to do. At least that is my experience.

[Themolehole_9876]

Hey guys... i did this little video of what my BP is doing... it isnt really that great of a video but let us know what u think my problems might be... Thanks! Scott
Check out the video of the BP

Just click on that link then on the 'windows box' ... the star landed about 15cm away from that tube.. btw

Edited by Themolehole_9876, 11 January 2006 - 01:39 AM.

[ProfHawking]

its tricky to see in such a small video, but it sounds like it is fizzing rather than whumping

to get it to fire with a thud, you may need a bit of compresson. Try putting a reasonably tight, toilet tissue plug above the star, above the BP and fuse it from the bottom.
Make sure your tube is paper. And get right back, because if the plug or star jam then you might get a bit of a bang!

How long is your stargun? i can only see what looks like a black dot in the screen. The longer the tube the better it will fire to a certain extent i think. I have a favorite tube i use as a star gun, its made of thick wall bakalite, about 7/8" ID and its about 50cm long.

[Themolehole_9876]

so how do i get the BP to become more of a whump than fizzing? does it need more milling? more pure ingredients? better lift powder? Ill try get a new n better video sometime soon with a larger pic and maybe closer

Edited by Themolehole_9876, 11 January 2006 - 03:07 AM.

[completebeginner]

kno3 should be fine as long as it is above 98% pure sulfur I don't really know but maybe try a finer granulation or more powder

[koobee]

The granulation might help. But it sounds like you are doin it all right

[Themolehole_9876]

Im thinking.. More milling maybe? or just the pressure

[koobee]

try just upping the pressure in the star gun with a paper wad or something along those lines. If no luck, try milling more, or perhaps adding a tad more sulfur or kno3 to the mix and milling it again.

[Frozentech]

try just upping the pressure in the star gun with a paper wad or something along those lines. If no luck, try milling more, or perhaps adding a tad more sulfur or kno3 to the mix and milling it again.

Yes, Koobee has a good suggestion. I had that problem at first. If your star is not a good fit to the test gun, a small plug of tissue paper will give you a nice *whoomp* of a luanch and much more height.

[Pretty green flames]

If you have the commercial airfloat (mixed hardwood) charcoal you might want to try a different formula.
I have only started to use a 8th century formula, works great. It's 66.66 , 22.22 , 11.11. Burns quite fast and very sparkly. Works very good for igniting fuses.