24 replies to this topic

[karlfoxman]

Well having started new fulltime job I have been very busy and not had time apart from weekends to build stuff, but over the last few weekends I have been filling and building some more beraq. The beraq are to be used inside 4 inch shells, each shell will hold one ring of 20 1/2" Beraq (first noise) then the outer ring will be made up from 2 rings of 8 3/4" beraq. (second noise)

I have some pictures of the beraq and the tool used to make the hole, these beraq are made the same way the Maltese do them. The 1/2" Beraq hold 5g 70/30 flash and the 3/4" ones hold about 10g of special red flash. This topic is for discussions on these lovely little Maltese crackers. Please post pictures if your making them, we can use this thread to help others with anyproblems they have making them work well.

Here are some photos.

The tool is a brass 1/4" rod turned down and a point made to 2mm, this is held in the press and a shield is placed between you and the beraq, the beraq is held in some wood while the hole is made. The beraq are all spiked with linen twine, and then dipped in PVA glue to seal them. Its taken 4 hours of filling rolling and spiking to get this many. These are all 1/2" (1H - NOISE NUMBER ONE) Beraq. Any questions then just post here.

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Edited by karlfoxman, 09 September 2007 - 12:17 PM.

[paul]

Hey there! First I´d like to mention something I recognised with
many many other threads and posts as well:

Many users are reading your posts (~100 now for this thread) but don´t feel like
adding comments, thoughts or something to it.
This is sometimes VERY frustrating, especially when you put alot
of efford into writing down an idea or something (like you did into the design and
composition of your sweet Beraq-Shells)



But let´s stop whining and proceed to what I wanted to say in the first place.

Really like the spiking and admire the work you put into them. I think spiking so small
"shells" is a real pain in the arse. Not a work I want to do all day long.



Sorry of this sounds a bit sarcastic, but: Man you´ve got an VAIO, why don´t you buy
a proper digicam!

[karlfoxman]

Hey there! First I´d like to mention something I recognised with
many many other threads and posts as well:

Many users are reading your posts (~100 now for this thread) but don´t feel like
adding comments, thoughts or something to it.
This is sometimes VERY frustrating, especially when you put alot
of efford into writing down an idea or something (like you did into the design and
composition of your sweet Beraq-Shells)
But let´s stop whining and proceed to what I wanted to say in the first place.

Really like the spiking and admire the work you put into them. I think spiking so small
"shells" is a real pain in the arse. Not a work I want to do all day long.
Sorry of this sounds a bit sarcastic, but: Man you´ve got an VAIO, why don´t you buy
a proper digicam!

Haha, yeah I do need a decent camera! Used to have a decent Sony camera but it sold it to my mate.

Yeah Im supprised only one person has replied, normally a few people reply to the info I write about them but not this time.

Yes the spiking is hard to do on these small beraq, I have a vid of me spiking them if anyone wants to see it. Its made the same way in Malta, the string is tied off using a special knot. I need to roll some more of the 3/4" ones for the second noise, these will have a good report to them. Im tempted to make a shell using dark report beraq, but the mixture will not like the punching procedure so im a little worried about making those.

[pudi.dk]

Please, any vids would be cool.
I dont' see the point of using dark flash, though. Unless it's because you only want the smoke and not the lightning, but to me, beraqs are cooler WITH flash.

[paul]

[...]Im tempted to make a shell using dark report beraq, but the mixture will not like the punching procedure so im a little worried about making those.

Guess it involves chemicals like antimonytrisulfide and/or sulfur then?!
Btw: I´d like to see you spiking these shells as well, cause I can´t really
imagine how this is done on these small casings...

[karlfoxman]

The Dark Flash beraq sound amazing, we see them in Malta when St Mary's fireworks put up some 3 break 6" ones. No light just the noise was heard. I will get the spiking video up on here soon, its good quality and I will also make a video of the punching and delay stages. Im going to be building some more 3/8" earing beraq to go into some 2" insert shells soon. These are then loaded into larger 6" beraq shells, they look amazing. We tested some beraq as single shots on Sunday and all is working fine so far. Nice and loud with very good delays.

[italteen3]

The Dark Flash beraq sound amazing, we see them in Malta when St Mary's fireworks put up some 3 break 6" ones. No light just the noise was heard. I will get the spiking video up on here soon, its good quality and I will also make a video of the punching and delay stages. Im going to be building some more 3/8" earing beraq to go into some 2" insert shells soon. These are then loaded into larger 6" beraq shells, they look amazing. We tested some beraq as single shots on Sunday and all is working fine so far. Nice and loud with very good delays.

I definitely always look forward to your videos as well as any other videos people are willing to post up! Have not been able to tinker at all the past year and a half or so. Have not been on the boards as much also, but I do appreciate everyone posting up and sharing what they have learned.

[karlfoxman]

As soon as I get the video I will post it up, promise! Should be here by the weekend, im very busy at the moment and not spending much time at home. Weekends are now reserved for construction. I will post the build of the 4" Beraq shells. And the beraq test vids we made over last weekend. We have vids of the case rolling, outer case rolling and spiking. Iwill get some of the delay making too. We have tuned these beraq well, so the shells should have two clear rings of flash. If I decide to make some 'dark flash' beraq I will post the video of them too. Watch this space!

Edit: Post 1,000!!!

Edited by karlfoxman, 19 September 2007 - 10:57 PM.

[SwissTony]

Nice work Karl.
You must have a lot of patience to make them.
I think I would do about 5 then give up and watch tv
Cant wait to see the videos, trying to build a collection of as many fireworks as I can.
Congrats on 1000 posts.

[Bonny]

Haha, yeah I do need a decent camera! Used to have a decent Sony camera but it sold it to my mate.

Yeah Im supprised only one person has replied, normally a few people reply to the info I write about them but not this time.

Yes the spiking is hard to do on these small beraq, I have a vid of me spiking them if anyone wants to see it. Its made the same way in Malta, the string is tied off using a special knot. I need to roll some more of the 3/4" ones for the second noise, these will have a good report to them. Im tempted to make a shell using dark report beraq, but the mixture will not like the punching procedure so im a little worried about making those.

Couldn't the holes be pre-punched or drilled, then simply covered with a pc of masking tape while filling? Just seems like a safer alternative to punching holes in the live shells.

[pudi.dk]

What type(s) of paper are you using for the beraqs?
I'd also like to know what the formulas for the red & dark reports are.
Are there any dark comps. WITHOUT chlorate, I havn't bought any and for a good reason.

[karlfoxman]

Swiss- Cheers yeash they are nice little items. They have a good poke to them! It does take a long time to make them, the shells will take 116 and will be gone in 3 seconds!! But they will work very well so its ok. I make the cases when watching TV, its quite relaxing.

Bonny- Thats the way I used to make them, but this makes the timing not as tight as it could be. The holes have to be filled quickly after being made or the hole closes up a bit and the timing is lost. Its worth the effort doing it the proper Maltese way. We have a tool foe the making the holes. The tool stops your body getting too close abd we wear full ppe massive gloves and face shields also getting flak jacket. Maybe OTT but better than having bits of stuff sticking in you!

[karlfoxman]

The paper used depends on the beraq, the small ones use 200gsm strips and the larger use 400gsm. I have got 100,200,250,300,400 and 500gsm card for the inner liners. The outer wraps are just light kraft paper. This is 70gsm kraft and I use 2 turns for them. This paper seals the ends and is used to hold the inner liner nice and tight. Every process of making them is wet, we use mixtures of PVA and water to roll the cases. The Dark report I use is

Potassium Chlorate- 50
Antimony tri-sulphide - 50

I've never seen a dark flash formula without Chlorates, its a big shame though. Maybe someone knows of any then I will make more dark flash ones.

This gives a nice crack and almost no light. Sometimes a smoke making chemical is added to 'hide' the orange light given off. I can't post the red flash formula as its a secret one given to me. You would need very fine magnesium to make it though, also some of the beraq 'Jet' using it because the mixture does not burn quite fast enough. They turn into ruby red hummers. Look and sound nice but not what I want. I will get the vids off friends phone soon and post them up. I hope people will start to learn more about these little gems. Just be careful and dont attempt these if your not confident with flash and rolling lots of cases.

Edited by karlfoxman, 20 September 2007 - 10:18 PM.

[Wyvern]

I havr had dark flashes work with Perc too although it isnt quite as powerful but still breaks my crossettes.

[karlfoxman]

Ok, thanks for that. I will try a perchlorate version out. I will let you know how they get on.