25 replies to this topic

[ener]

Have you heard that phenolic resin works, or have you experienced it? I'm just wondering as there are a lot of myths floating around in pyro. You can use dextrin too by the way. By lack of NC, I meant more a lack of confinement or consolidation, not that a certain amount is required for the effect. It seems that if the grains are too porus, the effect tends to suffer.

With resin it does work and they pop really loud. Mine are made with 0-63 micron mgal.

Maybe with rubbish crackling it can be too small, but normally a 1mm core pops quite loud already. The smouldering phase is really short, it just requires a little bit of hot prime.

[Mumbles]

I was kind of thinking the same thing about the small grains, but I also never kept them. I just reprocessed everything that I thought was too small, which was usually -16 mesh. I don't doubt that grains can be too small, but as you point out it's probably process and material dependent.

[CCH Concepts]

its a real shame i cant borrow some equipment from work. in my new job i repair high speed cameras. there cameras can record as fast as 1,000,000 fps and can be used to watch such processes happen.

there is talk of the next version being cable for view reactions at the molecular level.

[Jimmymcknife]

Thanks for all the comments. After melting the eggs down again and rolling and cutting them to about 1 - 3mm squares 2mm thick they are producing a lovely 'sparkle' but with no 'pop'. so i am using this batch in a matrix streamer composition and they look lovely. Obviously something i need to work on. Think i'll try a bismouth version next time.

[CCH Concepts]

I had no problem with the lead version, worked fine and very loud.

[ExplosiveCoek]

What compo, and what size MgAl did you use? How were they prepared?

[CCH Concepts]

What compo, and what size MgAl did you use? How were they prepared?

Now that's asking it was about a year ago lol

I think around 200-250 mesh MgAl

And I measured out all the chems, making sure everything was fine and screened them together.

I think used NC laquare rather than NC powder and acetone. I just added a little at a time till I had a dough like consistency making sure to leave some unused comp to add in if I became to wet.

I then pressed it through a seive while still wet and left to dry over night.

These cracked load enough to make my neighbours complain lol

[AdmiralDonSnider]

Here is a tutorial on dragons eggs I did a while ago:

http://www.pyroguide...ing_Micro-stars

May help. Criticism appreciated.

Edited by AdmiralDonSnider, 17 January 2011 - 10:05 PM.

[Bonny]

I've found that -100 +200 mesh is my preferred size. The 200 mesh, although the smoulder phase was quicker, were not as loud as the 100 mesh stuff. I also tried 60 mesh, but the smoulder phase (delay) was too long IMO.

I've never seen any reason to save dry comp. According to (Gene) on passfire, you need a heavy loading of NC solids in the comp (~10% IIRC). If the mix is too wet after adding, wait a few minutes to let some solvent evaporate. I often have to re-wet the batch with acetone while processing. Cut or pumped dragon eggs , in my experience, will be louder than the less dense screened eggs. The last batch I made was done using a garlic press (per Frozentech) and they worked great.

[CCH Concepts]

I like the sound of a garlic press, I'm assuming because it's wet there's no safety issue hear, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[crystal palace fireworks]

I like the sound of a garlic press, I'm assuming because it's wet there's no safety issue hear, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Perhaps a potato ricer would do it for larger batches?