Starmine

[Blaf]

Another nice device to play with...

I recently made a short starmine - a small tube (15mm inner dia) of some 7cm in lenght with bentonite plug 6-7mm thick. First I drilled a small hole almost touching the plug and pushed a short piece of fuse through it. Little spoon of granulated BP is then added and a few cylindrical stars, then some more BP to cover them and so on. All in all, there was no more than 8 stars of mixed size inside. Last ones are topped with plug of tissue paper and that's it. This one was fired successfully and sprinkled stars in hand-fan shaped burst flying up to no more than 7 meters.

Small is beautiful, isn't it?

Blaf

[Duvel]

I'm really impressed Blaf .. Do you have some pic's..?? :P

[Ananas]

What kind of stars did you use?
Did they burn op at 7 meter or were they still burning when falling down?

First I drilled a small hole almost touching the plug

Where did you drilled that hole trough, because I don't understand how you can almost touch the plug when you drill trough it?

Besides the questions it doesn't sound too hard to give it a try, maybe I'll try somewere around new year.

Nice work. :wink:

[Blaf]

Good morning you two!

Duvel, as for the image – I'll take a shot next time...this starmine ended up on the sea bottom after firing (RIP) with no photos taken. Sorry!

Annanas, here you are:
I used Gold & Silver Rain stars (see Stars topic...) which burned completely on their way up.
The fuse hole was drilled through the tube side just above the end plug so when I sticked a fuse in, it was literally touching the plug.
This small device is definitely worth trying and I can only guess how bigger device would be performing like...

Blaf

[Duvel]

To Bad ... Good luck the next time :wink:

[signet]

WOW! I've made a starmine and didnt even know it. Just lying around my hous was a toy cannon made of bronze with a big mouth(more like for decorating in your bookshelf in your library ) so i figured why not put some bp i just made and some homemade stars(actually they were supposed to be the bp) into the cannon and give it a puff?
So that's what i did. Not knowing how powerful it would be i stood behind a wall and fired it electrically.lucky i did so because when i pulled the switch, the thing blew up, pieces of metal flew every where(i did this in a ground of an old building so no one was hurt).Pieces even suck in the wall.
But there was still the stars shining for about 7-8 secs. For a second i did felt like i was in heaven. I felt sorry for the cannon.it was so beautiful :cry: .Guess i still have lots to learn

[Blaf]

Signet, are you sure it was Black Powder? Besides, these decoration cannons are being made of very brittle compound and can't withstand any pressure. As for your stars, 7-8 seconds is far too long burning time...try to make them burning quicker next time.

Blaf

[yellowcard]

Man, that is kind of dangerous....
Blaf, i put my fuses also always very low, just above the end plug.
As you say, it works great :D

[Pretty green flames]

What do you guys think of these two mines

Cheers

3_inch_better_pearl_mine.wmv

4_inch_better_pearl_mine.wmv

[yellowcard]

Wow... 3 and 4'', they're really beautiful. Do you have come pics of the mine, and especially of the stars ? Are they made the way you show us on your website ?

Can you give me the composition of those Pearl stars ? They're really beautiful. And how big were they ?

Good work .

[Pretty green flames]

Sorry, i don't have any pre fire pics, the mines were put together on site in the dark. The stars were cut (1x1x1cm cubes). The mine was made according to the instruction on my site yes.

The composition for the pearl stars is as follows.

Potassium nitrate-47
Barium nitrate-10
Sulfur-18
Charcoal-10
Aluminum (Atomized) -10
Dextrin-5

Thanks for the nice words.
Cheers

[Tyneman]

Awesome mines PGF!
Great hight, and they keep burning just untill they reach the top. Awesome jog again.
Gr33tZ

[deadman]

Great job PGF. I know you have a digi cam, so you need to remember pre-fire pics. We all love them so much. So I know you used HDPE mortars as well as assembled them in the dark. Come on don't leave us hanging. Details are everthing in this game.

Was there any wadding used?
What kind of lift?
How much lift/ stars?
Size of stars?
Length of mortar?
Are yours always so loud?
I'm assuming top fused, but how were they fused?

I know you answered some of these somewhere else, but I figured others would like to know as well.

[Pretty green flames]

http://petelin.gozdis.si/~jakal/mines_by_rooster.htm The mines were made as in this tutorial but excluding the disc.
We used 200g of stars for the 4 inch and 60g of 20-30mesh lift powder (pressed and corned). The stars were cubes measuring 1x1x1cm. We didn't use any wadding except the casing of the mine by itself.

Hmm length of mortar, 70cm of tube + 10cm wooden plug, so 80cm overall.

Yup, most of the time they are loud hehe.

The fusing was done with quickmatch (First the lift went in, then the quickmatch was inserted into the lift powder, then the stars were thrown in)

[deadman]

Hello all. Last night I had the experience of two starmines. One was 25g of stars and 8 grams lift. The other was a 2" aeriel shell that turned into a starmine. The shell weighed 86g and was lifted with 8g. I spiked it very well (or so I had thought). I believe the problem may have been from a bit too much lift. This is the fastest powder I've ever had, as well as leaving it in meal form. I know rushing is bad, but I wanted to let it fly so bad .

Well the intended star mine was more of a color test. I didn't get to see too much color because I never primed the stars and it turned out they definitley needed prim. 3 out of the whole lot was all I seen. It was bleser's organic purple. Unfortunatley, I did not like what I did see.

The shell/mine was actually an amazing mine. It was just white (BP based) cut stars. Various sized. I think the burst gave a nice extra flame out of the mortar. The funniest part was when the "casing" of the shell landed in a tree. Good times.