Blaf

And here we go again...another tourbillion was made a week ago. This time the tube was even longer than the first one and packed by composition well. Propeller wings were made of the same thin carboard, fixed with hot-melt glue and even a drop of it was glued to the opposite side as a pivoting point. This should have eased the spinning. Everything was set on open portion of concrete dock, away from ships and cars. In fact, I was about to impress my cusines younger son with unpatiently waited in anticipation of magic. I lit the fuse and retreated, so we stood and waited to see what happens. The thing started furiously spinning and just jumped a few times remaining on more or less same spot...flat with a concrete!!! No take off!!! Besides that, it was beautiful to watch the circle of sprinkling white sparks...but nothing flew this time. Unfortunately I would add. Later, I realized what was wrong with my latest device - the propeller wings were too small for lenghtened tube! I kept the same sized propeller on much heavier device. Next time I'll fix that too... I know, I know... Blaf p.s. Image will be soon available!

Hi Lord of Dark Thanks for flattering humble me. Experience is something I'm still searching for I'm afraid my friend. And that thing about chemicals...well, if we look closer into very essence of the State and Government issue...the main reason for their existence is control over almost everything and anything and extracting a profit from it. Its first instinct is preservation of itself by applying rules and regulations all over citizens life...which perfectly works for centuries by now. Someone could say this is political problem, and being such it shouldn't be discussed here but it obviously has deep impact on our hobby. Not only this one of course, but all aspects of our lives are affected more or less. And so, political Purists would take out their strongest card here - we could chose between A:well regulated life in decent State and B:anarchy. If you ask me, I would opt for something in between... Blaf

Yeah, you're (sadly enough) right about that. You kow, we could laugh about Americans, they're this or that, they're naive or agressive...but honesty, I envy them for variety of chemical suppliers, Pyro-clubs and organizations. It's amazing in a way that in nowadays common fascination with terorism they can still freely buy flammable chemicals. Hats down for Amers! Meanwhile, we can die asking why we can't have the same treatment or rely to few basic chemicals still available... Blaf

Someone asked me to introduce myself...and so, here I am opening my heart... I'm 49 y old, work in three shifts at VISA dept. in one of the banks. Nothing except I could hardly wait to get home every day. One of my hobbies (among others...such as Sport Shooting and Reloading ammo, Radioamateurism etc.) that I'm pretty passionate about is Pyrotechnics. Well, it's quite obvious, isn't it? Long time ago, much before Internet came in town, I mostly worked with crackers and smoke devices but ever since then my imagination has been occupied by other things too. I mean burning things...but taking everything into account I still have limited experience in this field as most of nice Pyro chemicals have been out of my reach. Hope this changes one day. That's it guys. Blaf

Hello Exhile! Anxious to see your firing pannel...meanwhile, I started a new topic "Stars" where you can find those formulations you wished from me. Blaf

Well, those formulae are not my invention....I just picked them up from somewhere so that credit goes to authors but the most important is – they work. All measurements are by weight, of course. GOLD & SILVER RAIN Potassium Nitrate 60 Sulphur 6 Charcoal 39 Dextrin 5 Needless to say – everything is ball milled for an hour including Dextrin with two dozens of glass marbles. I pumped them with plastic syringe of 10mm inner diameter and they worked just fine. No prime needed...except – there was no trace of SILVER...while GOLD was pretty rich. FISH GOLDEN GLITTER (Fish relates to author) Potassium Nitrate 55 Sulphur 17 Charcoal Airfloat 11 Aluminium bronze 5 Sodium Bicarbonate 7 Dextrin 5 Those were ball milled too then pumped with the same syringe. The effect was quite nice and really glittering! Here I should point out that Charcoal used in both stars was of Oak origin. I know, purists will scream now...but it was the only one available then. Also, Mr. Fish recommends usage of spherical Aluminium 400 mesh...I used what I could get hold of – Al bronze available in a few Art-Shops here and it worked perfectly. Blaf

As I've already announced, here's a new topic that you could play with... Last Saturday I attended my cousines wedding party. It's a bit complicated flow of events respecting tradition full of funny rituals. To make long story short, I took them by surprise and performed a nice firework display. It was short lasting one but everybody loved it. My cousine has a house with (still) flat concrete roof – ideal to place a setup. Here I have to confess that half of my pyro setup consisted of commercial stuff....but still, the other half was pure me! Single shot Roman Candles, that is. There were 20 of them made of convolute wound craft paper, mounted on a piece of cardboard 20x10 cm. Tubes were glued to it with hot-melt glue and linked by short pieces of my domestic fuse. Each Candle consisted of a small charge of granulated BP (don't know exact weight...) topped by cylindrically shaped stars of slightly smaller diameter than inner tube one. Stars used were Gold & Silver Rain and Fish Golden Glitter, no prime at all. Yeah, you can see a small Strobe Pot at the right corner....well, I had to add an effect of lightning while stars were shot in night sky. And it was pretty impressive, I might say. The whole show started by depressing a Fire button on my Flash Unit box, bride and groom did it together from safe distance by crossing their index fingers and pushing the button at the end of a short countdown sequence. The whole thing lasted about one minute only but part I love the most came after the noise (and beauty...) ended – how have you done this, how have you made that...and so on. Everyone wanted to know instantly a secret of the trade. But be calm – I'll never reveal it just like that...it's part of its charm, isn't it? ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> target=_blank>' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> width=360 border=0>href> And here is the conclusion: This was pure success. Stars from shorter tubes (12cm) reached 15 meters while longer ones (18cm) shot them over 20 meters in height. The last long tube fired a short fat cracker with KMnO4+Al+S flash which exploded above petrified crowd...thus marking the end. Any comments? Blaf

Ah, I meant to fire mortar through a side hole - like Black Powder cannon. But don't pay too much atention on what I say as I have no experience in this. Well, as for your idea, I'm not sure if the Mighty Gamekeeper would allow anyone to make Personal Introduction Topic..sunds like a commercal... Blaf

Good morning Nick What - you're talking meters? 250 m sounds too much for me....more than proffessional I might add. No, I'm not attempting to get such heights with my toys. As for fuel, I'm still on Black Powder in several granulations. Right now, I'm preparing a small set of Roman Candles with various charges for my cousines wedding party...when everything is over I'll start a new topic and post a few photos. Hay, tell me - do you fire your mortars traditional way through the mouth of the tube or through side hole? Blaf

Hello Nick In fact, I don't have much experience in mortars...I have never fired any shells from it yet. So far I used to make my own Roman Candles made of cardboard tubing and they work perfectly. I'm sure that the same ballistic principles apply on mortars too. On top of that, those carboard ones wear out by the time. So, next logical step is to assemble a small metal cluster of tubing, just for a fun of it....besides they look more proffesional. As for real mortar, well, first I have to find suitable test site! Those you have are Giants compared to my modest setup. As for desired height, I never go over 15 meters with those small diameter comets. What about your mortars? According to their size, you surely fire shells from them...what heights do you acchieve? Blaf

Nick, let me know what's the inner diameter of your inox tubing. What I have in mind is set of rather small diameter tubes forming a square shaped cluster, fixed on a piece of stabile metal shet. Those will be used as single shot Roman Candles....that's why I was playing with an idea of detachable construction...Besides, it would add a slice of importancy to entire process, wouldn't it? You know - cleaning and maintaining the gear, heh... Blaf

Hello to all! OK, I have to admit, I already thought about HDPE tubing and visited several shops asking for prices. They were so high that I gave up instantly! Besides, there's no less than 4 meters pieces for sale...and I know - somewhere at some building site hundreds of beautiful tubing chunks probably rotten and wait to be collected. Meanwhile, Nick your comment on inox tubing sound luxurious, heh? No doubt they work perfectly. I just have an idea...those tubes should be detachable from the base so that they could be cleaned...like gun barrels. How about that Nick? Blaf

It just stroke me – this is a good moment to start a new Mortars topic! Let's do it.... Blaf

Hello Exhile, glad to hear from you again! You might be right - moistening the whole thing could be part of the solution. Another is to add more charcoal to the mixture. I'll surely try both and let you know. As for mortars, I still look for adequate plastic tubing with beefy sides to bring my mortars to life. We'll see.... Blaf

Hi guys My test site witnessed two firings of KNO3+Sulphur+Sugar propelled rockets with a small payloads. The engine bodies have been made of plastic tubing with 12mm inner diameter taken from counting machine ribbons. Plugs were made by bentonite with 3mm nozzle drilled after the propellant had been rammed. Payloads consisted of small pumped stars of 5mm dia were packed in cylindrical shells sitting on top ot each plastic tube. Breake charge was small grained domestic BP with slice of Meal. Stabilizers were usual barbecue wooden sticks. I'm very proud of this part: Both rockets worked reliably and reached respectable heights. The trajectory of the first one was more spiral than straight but it ended with mild POP and nice spread of stars at some 25m height. The straight flying one reached about 50m height and popped well too spraying stars in shape of a fan. All in all, I was very happy with both tests and concluded this was successful launch and reliable rocket design which should be furtherly developped. I'm ready for your questions... Blaf

Hello there I know you waited some time for a new topic...so here you are. I made a BP rocket engine from a cardboard tube of 18mm diameter, with bentonite clay nozzle. I made everything right...except I rammed granulated BP in pretty large increments...I should have done that in much smaller ones. The engine was then topped by cylindrical shell of little larger diameter filled by two types of stars - aluminum and charcoal based. A piece of pointed cork was acting like a rocket tip and a piece of barbecue stick played a stabilizer role. So, we have a nice business-like rocket. The evening was little wet, perfect for an experiment of unknown outcome. Which indeed happened so. The fuse was slower type of my own make, I lit it and retreated at safe distance. After it burned out a loud hissssss was heard and a low pich bang right after. You guess - we had a CATO situation here! The contents of a shell was blown out and the final effect resembled a decent star-mine. Here I should go back to ramming the propellant - it should definitely be done in small increments...larger ones leave too much space (air) between BP granules so that flame propagation is way quicker and engine explodes rather than thrusts. Small increments of BP followed by good, firm ramming - that's the recipe. I had a CATO....so what? Next one will be done much wiser and perhaps with little higher percentage of charcoal in BP. Comments and suggestions are welcome as always! Blaf

Yes, you're right Gamekeeper - they're graphite based ones. I should have placed a coin or something along them for size comparison and then take a photo... Graphite comes from dry battery cells and it's been powdered by scratching graphite electrode with a knife edge. Simple but effective way to get a small quantity. Thanks for providing that "image resizing" code line! It really works! Blaf

Hello guys I decided to enrichen a bit all this jazz about bridgeless matches by posting a few images so that nobody could say I didn't try to do it myself. And here we go... First, a small batch of bridgeless matches...they're set on a piece of white paper for detailed viewing. Left ones bear dark black heads - these are ordinary ones which pop more or less silently. On your right there are a few with silverish heads...they're treated with final layer made of Al-powder + NC lacquer mixture and they give more spark and louder POP. Reliability? 100% so far... ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> target=_blank>' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> width=360 border=0>href> And second, my little Capacitive Discharge Unit nicely packed into small plastic box. Box itself is hand-made from grey ABS plastic, glued with Acetone. OK, I did not make any CD electronic....I just took it from disposable camera and fitted it into my box. Main switch i on your right and flush with side pannel. On the left is front panel with + and - sockets and one chinch socket...that's where I connect my feeding-wires. On top side is a little "charge-on/off" switch, monitor lamp and main "FIRE" press switch. It's white...so what? It was the only one available in my junk then...OK, I admit, the red one would fit much better. Back side is not visible and has only battery compartment door. For now, this little gadget worked perfectly... ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> target=_blank>' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="750px"> width=360 border=0>href> Hope I did everything OK....if not Gamekeeper, do everything needed, please. Suggestions as well as questions are welcome as always... Blaf

Yeah, I suspected that it has something to do with pressing molecules (or whatever...) into each other. I made some more sieving and granulating and made a batch of GP whos particles are twice smaller than the previous batch. Now I'm waiting to see how the granule size affects its burning rate in devices...as a burst charge for instance. We'll see. Meanwhile, I'm looking for suitable heavy walled plastic tube and appropriate piston to try pressing my first cake. But, it smells like commercial BP would be much faster whatever I (or anyone) do... Blaf

Hello guys I don't know why it took me this long, but a week ago I came accross a site (or link on certain forum) and found an idea to make Visco fuse Machine!!! Yes, it's true - the guy making it swore it worked fine for him. According to the image of an assembled machine you would never say it works but as I said, guy says it worked perfectly when he needed it. The idea is not original, it's based on existing commercial machines used by Chinese manufacturers which are larger and heavier. And so, guess what I decided to do? If my project ever comes to a daylight, I'll certainly make a few photos and post it (Gamekeeper, you'll be of a great help by arranging my images the same way you did with my ball-mill...) here for your viewing pleasure...and reference. Enough for this time! Blaf

Thank you Gamekeeper for flattering! And here are answers to your questions: As a matter of fact I'm operaitng my ball-mill for one year now and it works quite fine. The motor heats very little and only if the jar is 2/3 full of media and chems. Currently I use glass marbles for charcoal and sulphur and steel balls for nitrates and chems alike. I've got lead balls too (I purchased it at fishing shop) and used it only once to grind KNO3...I didn't like it because they were too messy so I've put them aside for future use. Well, as regards to remote switch off button, I haven't done anything yet...at the end of feeding cable I soldered a chinch socket so that I simply plug or unplug it from appropriate female socket. Just for informational purposes – the lenght of my mill including motor is little more than 30cm while width is 15cm. As for the motor Pk, it comes from another source. I'm not sure which one because I just picked it up from one of my carboard boxes containing various mechanics. I did not calculate anything (motor runs at 200-300 RPM) and the final RPM outcome was a stroke of pure luck. You asked if fan motors would be good for this - I don't really know but they seem to run at much higher speeds and they have no significant power, just rotational inertia, which itself is not enough. On the other hand, if you can find a nice transmission with rotation ratio of say – 1:20, well, then I'll give it a try. Blaf

Here we go....the first image shows how my mill looks standing on the floor. Construction is made of aluminium bars and ABS plastic sheets of 3mm thickness. Looks nice, doesn't it? href> The plastic jar is of 1 liter capacity and has been made of PVC water line tubing. The other one I use much more often is smaller than this one and red coloured. Rotation speed is little more than 60RPM which I found quite appropriate. Since I've got a regulated power supply I can always adjust voltage and rotation speed accordingly...but 12V works fine. href> Here you can see two shafts that rotate simultaneously due to the rubber belt linking them. The parts come from an old, broken Xerox photo-copy machine (thanks guys!). href> The motor can been powered by 12V car-battery or regulated power supply. Transmission is cog-wheeled with approximately 1:2 ratio. href> The same detail from another angle. href> Hope those links work well. Questions and suggestions are welcome!!! Blaf

This is a small step for me but giant leap for Pyro Community... The Tourbillion project has reached its glorious finale! Yes it has! Namely, yesterday, there was a friendly football game between Brasil national team and Croatian selection...a perfect time to light some harmless fireworks to contibute general football frenzy. As a matter of fact, I wasn't interested at all in the game itself and actually drove my car, riding back from my summer residence. And (this is crucial moment...) when I parked my car...I thought...what a heck, everybody's watching the game on TV...this should be perfect time. And it was! I took my forgotten project from the box, lit the fuse and placed it on the wide concrete part of my parking...I retreated a few meters and waited. Boy, when it started I just stood with my jaws opened...the humming sound was so powerfull, and sparkling circle should have been two meters in diameter!!! It took off to about 10m in height and stayed there for a second or so, then suddenly lost the roatation speed and landed almost at the same place where it was lit. In total, effect lasted between 5 and 8 sec. and believe me, it was a scary one. It should be noted that Tourbillion body was made of carboard tube (12mm inner dia.) some 60mm in lenght, nozzle and end plugs were at least 10mm thick so that we have 40mm of charge in total. I just wonder what would happen if I used full lenght tube of 80mm... and propeller should be made of wooden ice-cream sticks instead of carboard strips. All in all, well....you should have seen a smile on my face. Greetings from Blaf p.s. I have impression that this is just a beginning...

Thanks for instructions Gamekeeper!!!! I'll do it very soon... Blaf

I would just like to say this: Guys, you should see my home-made ball-mill. It's a real beauty....and Imean it. Blaf p.s. If I ever discover how to post an image of it, I'd do it right away...