Fountains

[Duvel]

Hi you all !
This is my first Topic in the English-section, and I'm really impressed that you can find here more information than in the Dutch-section (compliments to Blaf :wink: ).

Back to the Topic.. What kind of fountains do you make the most ?
Sorry for the bad English..

Duvel

[Blaf]

You got me by surprise Duvel!

As for fountains, I have made some...yes I have. I should take some photos so that you have general idea of how they look like but it's nothing new as they look like rocket engines with a larger nozzle. I made them mostly with Aluminium and Iron particles and they all worked well. If you would like, I could post you the recipe.
Sorry, no coloured flames on my side because I can't get certain chems...

Blaf

[Duvel]

You can always post recipies.. :P

[Exhile]

Take some meal powder and add about 20 pct of a coarse metal powder or charcoal powder to it,

This composition has also given great results to me: 70 KNO3
30 Al flakes
+20 coarse Al powder(30 mesh)


This composition gives blue and white sparks and if made properly can go over 4 meters.

[HellBound>LordOfDark]

I made some very succesfull fountains, and they were also very cheap, and because you don't need exotic chems or anything special you can make rather big fountains. Too bad I didn't have a camera to film my fountains, but they word very wel. I'll post how you make them (receipe??) later, I haven't got much time now, but they can reach 4 meters, if made correctly...

(my English is not very good, I'm sorry)

[HellBound>LordOfDark]

Here you go guys:

Sodium nitrate.......2
Amonium nitrate....1
Charcoal...............1

Both sodium nitrate and amonium nitrate are very cheap availeble fertilizers. All the components are powder, but sinds i have no ballmill, they aren't very fine.
I used a tube, with an inner diameter from 6 cm, (2.4 inch I think) and the tube itself is 2 mm thick. The tube is about 20 cm high.
I concluded the tube with a couple of centimeters (3 or 4) of sodium carbonate (gips). The hole I drilled was1 cm I think.


These fountains can reach four meters, and last a long time. Next time I'll take some pictures, and if possible make a film.

[signet]

I'm a begginer at pyro but i've tried some fountains but ended up screwed.
I tried the charcoal but it only produced short flames and NO FOUNTAIN. Maybe i was just stupid and got the mixture wrong.
Can someone post how to prepare the materials please? Do you just mix them all up and grind them really well or does the stuff has tobe specific grain size?

[Duvel]

Has anyone of you guys ever tried to make a fountain with a color (like blue, red, green, purple etc.)?

[explomaan]

I did but it didn`t work.

Purple fire composition
Source: rec.pyrotechnics. Composition from "Magic With Chemistry"[7], chapter "colored fires"
Comments: Dangerous mixture, since it contains both sulfur and a chlorate.
Preparation:

Copper sulfate....................................1
Potassium chlorate................................1
Sulfur............................................1

When I ignite a very small test tube with this dangerous mixture, only some smoke leaved the tube. Loose powder gave a blue flame with orange parts.
I soon get new chemicalien within with which I will make red and blue fire.

this post has been made using altavista.

[Blaf]

Signet, you should ball-mill the fountain composition for an hour or so to make it work nicely. If the recipe calls for coarser metal or charcoal particles, they could be added after milling and mixed by screeening or diaper mixing. But ball-milling is no doubt essential for strong and rich fountain shower.

Blaf

[the antverpian pirate]

I also made a fountain but i havn't tested him yet so i dont know how good he's going to be.

But i do have one litle question about fountains, when you throw in your comp do you press it like with rockets or do you just tap the bottom of the fountain so it gets a litle more packed on eachother but not pressed or do you just throw the comp in without tapping or pressing?

Ok you do have a nozle so the air wont get to it all at once but dont you have more risk of a CATO because the powder can burn more rapidly since it aint pressed like a rocket?

Pirate

[yellowcard]

Well i don't pess my composition I put in the fountain, and my nozzle's are just something like 1/4 of the ID

[Tyneman]

I allways hand-press mine.
Don't even bother making a nozzle everytime. (lazy me)

'Pinching' can work too. I use less hard casings for fountains, so a piece of string or a staple is verry fast to create a sort of nozzle.

Gr33tZ

[the antverpian pirate]

Ok that sounds good.
I just tapped the bottom of the fountain so that my comp (meal+ironpowder) packed a litle bit thighter on eachother and my nozle is about 1/4 off the diameter.
The total lenght off the fountain is about 20 cm and its in a tube off rolled kraftpaper and the nozle and end plug are made of plaster.
I hope it will work as good as the bangers but ill have to have some patience to test it.

Pirate

[Blaf]

Pirate (and others), fountains are also pressed or rammed devices. If you leave your powder loose inside, even if you tap it against hard surface to settle the comp, it really means nothing and leaves too much space between comp particles which furtherly leads to inconsistent and erratic burn rate. It can even go BANG if the nozzle is too tight. In making fountains we're facing the same phenomenon called "flame propagation"...if particles are loose, burn rate of the comp is too high. Therefore, comps in fountains are always rammed (to slow down burn rate) just like in rocket motors. I do that using wooden dowel and hard rubber mallet and never had single problem. ¼ dia nozzle sounds good to me, though...
Yes, I know, I had to post an image eons ago....

Blaf

[the antverpian pirate]

Ok the next i build i will press with a dowel and mallet.

One other question when you've pressed the comp in your tube and you have filled up the top and made a nozle how do you stick the fuse in?
Because now it was just tapped and i could slide the fuse in the comp not real easy but it went ok, but when you press it that wont be as simple i guess.
So do you have to drill a small core just for igniting or do you fill up your nozle with loose meal where you put the fuse in and top up with some toilet paper or somthing like that?

Pirate

[Tyneman]

After pressing I allways put a little 'ignitor mix' on top. Just some KClO3/sugar 50/50. Then stick fuse in there, through nozzle. Stick it with a little BP-paste or cottonwool.

Gr33tZ

[Blaf]

Right, you can drill a shallow core, say 10mm, it can be narower than nozzle dia and fuse could be applied as you said, everything would work OK. I do wrap it with strip of tissue paper and just stick it into nozzle so that inner end of fuse touches composition. You can stick the fuse and then pour some meal slurry (little thicker than blackmatch mixture) around it as well. Of course, this has to be dried before use.
But generally, my fountain nozzles are sealed by piece of Alu-foil after production and they wait to be "armed". Namely, I ram the nozzle plug first, drill a nozzle hole and then place round piece of double-folded Alu-foil on the inside part of nozzle plug. The hole is now closed and composition can be rammed in without spilling through it. Just before use I tear the foil with needle or toothpick and stick my fuse in.

Blaf

[the antverpian pirate]

It finaly happend, i tested all my devices yesterday so here is the report.

I had 2 fountains, one of them wasn't pressed and one was and they where about 10 cm long and had an ID of 11mm and a core wich was 4mm.

I first lit the fuse of the pressed one and i runned like Forest Gump.
Then there was a nice his and the comp(meal and aluminium powder) caught fire and there was my first homemade fountain .
The fountain reached a height of about 1-1.5 meter and it lasted about a half minute and when it was about halfway it almost stopped and then returned with full force so that was a nice effect althoug it didn't was the intension.
The tapped one was almost the same as the pressed one exept it dind't last so long but it did reach the same height.

So im quite happy with the results but now i have to make more meal because im out and then i want to test some different comps.

Pirate

[Blaf]

Half a minute lasting burn, hey Pirate!!! Sounds too long to me...and about choking thrust at half of its burn, it could be caused by clogged nozzle or unevenly rammed comp. But leave it to history to decide....

Finally, a few lines on how the fountain should be mounted and fuse attached to it as well as its overall look when assembled. I'm sure you all know this, maybe better than me...but I've taken images before you did, heh...

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So, presuming that fountain is already rammed, we need cardboard base, hot-melt glue stick, gas-torch...that's for start.

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The body is glued to cardboard base and meal slurry mixed with a plastic applicator stick...If you look closer into the nozzle you could see Alu-foil punched...

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And this is it, with home made fuse sticked in, ready to go hissss...

Blaf

[Tyneman]

Verry nice pics Blaf.
Makes it all clear and understandable.
Though I hardly ever put a baseplate under my fountains. I just stick them in the ground for a couple of centimeters.

Gr33tZ

[the antverpian pirate]

Well that half minute is rufly estimated but I do think it was about that long.
But youre probably right that my nozle clogged up and my comp also wasnt rammed as evenly as my rockets so that also can be an explanation.
But the fountains i made did where about twice the size as the ones you have in the picture.

Nice tutorial on how to make a decent base and ignition :wink:

Pirate

[Blaf]

Hello there!

Again, last weekend I fired one of my fountains for no specific reason. It was beautiful evening and my cousines kids were watching me in anticipation...so I said, why not. I took one with my new fuse out of my pyro-bag and placed it on the balcony. Of course, this balcony wasn't exposed too much, it's on the north side of their house so nobody saw anything except us lucky ones.
The botom line is - it worked perfectly and lasted well over 10sec. which is fairly long burn time. My cousines closest neighbour obviously heard fountain hisssss and clapped her hands all the way and asking for more. So, this one worked nice, no clogging, no burn rate changes. Nice shower of silver (Al) and reddish (Charcoal) sparks was rushing up with little smoke. Kids loved it...

Blaf

[Sickman]

Well I had to try a fountain aswell

Grabbed one of my lesser quality hand rolled kraft tubes
Rammed a endplug with betonite clay and filled it with some GP and Al.
( gp 75:15:10 with 1gram Al added total aprox 8-9gram)
No nozzle and the composition is hand pressed.
I had no gluegun when i made this so i used a gardenstick to keep it upright.


It was just a little fun test nothing spectacular
*movie*

Greets Sickman

[Duvel]

Looks really nice for a Green Powder fountain.. !

I've made one myself too:
http://pyroforum.nl/viewtopic.php?t=799
I'll translate the text if you really want, Blaf..

Duvel