21 replies to this topic

[seymour]

I have heard many cases of this too, particularly in the old potassium picrate or chlorate/gallic acid whistles. Either you could use less lift if this is happening, or press an increment of another composition to prevent the whistle mix being exposed to the high pessures. Bonny, What type of whistle were you using?

I can imagine it being very loud surprise!

[Frozentech]

I'm just curious as to if the burst may CATO the whistle inserts? I once tried to fire a 1" whistle from a mortar and the lift charge blew it apart...VERY loud BTW.

I've not fired whistles from a stargun or mine, but I have never had any cato in 4" canister shells. PGF, you should have good results following the Ofca method.

[Pretty green flames]

I've not fired whistles from a stargun or mine, but I have never had any cato in 4" canister shells. PGF, you should have good results following the Ofca method.

Indeed, Ofca's whistles work pretty good, though I haven't tested any in the air yet.

[Bonny]

I have heard many cases of this too, particularly in the old potassium picrate or chlorate/gallic acid whistles. Either you could use less lift if this is happening, or press an increment of another composition to prevent the whistle mix being exposed to the high pessures. Bonny, What type of whistle were you using?

I can imagine it being very loud surprise!

I was using perc/sodium benz whistle pressed into a 1" tube. At the time I was having issues with using too much lift (on everything I made) but didn't really want to try again. Maybe someday I'll make another and try launching it.
If I use a very light lift charge to get it started moving, should it continue to fly off on its own?

[portfire]

Sorry for the delay PGF, but here's the specs



The measurements are rounded off.

Length-50.5mm

ID- 8.5mm

OD-11.5mm

End-plug-5mm

I'd say that the tubes were rolled on a 8mm former, and obviously expanded when pressing the comp. These were Whistling serpents fired from a cake. Hope It helps in some way

[Pretty green flames]

Ahh, awesome, the Ofca ones have a rather long casing which is no problem for shells but if I wanted to put them in a rocket header they would add quite some weight to it. These on the other hand should be perfect.

Thanks for sharing

[pyrotrev]

I had a whistle>report battery malfunction somewhat explosively at the weekend, amongst the debris I found an unfired insert. After giving it a good soaking I examined it's structure, quite interesting. The report bit is a little unit of it's own, which was either rolled in or pushed into the top of the main tube.

Report unit:

length: 26mm
OD: 9mm
ID: 6mm
clay plugs ~7mm long in each end, lower one with 18mm twisted paper/BP fuse

Main case

length: 70mm
OD: 12mm
ID: 9mm
air space: 29mm
composition: 15mm