Geir Andersen - Rough edges » Pyrotechnics

Too bloody cold!

Geir Andersen — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:48:47 +0000

All this snow and wold weather just makes it hard to be outside testing. Knowing that I can’t test stuff, makes it hard to make new stuff… It’s a vicious circle! Last batch of BP is dried and tested and I’m well chuffed again. This’ll work great as break. I have to make a mill to get good liftpowder but I can use what I’ve got, just have to use a bit more than the optimal percentage.

I’ve got a few canisters ready for filling, but I have to make some stars and test those. Lacking dextrin as a binder, but hopefully I can make that during the coming week. My starmix has not been tested yet so I don’t know if it’s even usable, but hopefully with some good priming it’ll do the trick. My testing-mortar is ready, and this time I’ll make sure to test it while filming. Great to have some video documentation to see the progress from start to finish.

Snow is the worst part of winter. It can make for some very good photos, but again…too cold to take the camera out (for me). My camera can handle the cold, but I can’t .

Finally!!!!!!!!!

Geir Andersen — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:39:33 +0000

Today I got my first successful launch
On a downside, I didn’t bother to film it as I didn’t think it would work.

I built a very small shell, maybe a 1″ canister. I didn’t weigh it to measure the liftcharge, so it didn’t go quite as high as I wanted. The spolette I made was waaay to long and the shell actually fell back down before lighting… Booboo. Still was fun though, but I need some real timefuse!!!!!

I’ve never been more chuffed than when the mortar went of, and I saw it lift. The trail from the spolette was just cool. This was something I made myself. Learning… Here I come!

Not working until evening/night tomorrow, so I’ve got a couple hours left of today . Off to make some “pipes” for some slightly bigger canisters.

Not today

Geir Andersen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:45:29 +0000

Didn’t have a chance to do anything yesterday, as I was a bit tired from a 12 hour shift. All I did manage to do, was update my WordPress to the latest version. This was long overdue.

This morning was a bit on the dozey side, so no work done. Only 7 hours of work today though . I really don’t mind, I love my job :D.

I have to make some more BP though, it takes time to dry so best to have it ready

WOW!

Geir Andersen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:17:17 +0000

Success!!
NC lacquer alone didn’t do the trick, but mixing in some good starmix meal with the NC was successful. Homemade fuse, dipped in the NC/Starmix solution and let dry a few minutes = USABLE!

I only made one video today, and that was just another test of the BP I just made. This time though, it was shot from a different angle and with better light. It shows the burnrate and gas production pretty well.

Keeping in mind this is sulfurless, but using sugar, I’m not at all displeased with the quality.

I did make a dummyshell today, and I used about 1g of this BP as break. As I have no stars ready, I used rice as a “filler” LOL. Had to have something to stop the can crushing when spiking. Didn’t use a mortar or anything to get it up, I just put it on the ground and fired. The sound was so loud it actually spooked me a bit. Wasn’t expecting that big a reaction!

Got 11 hours of work a head of me tomorrow so I don’t think I’ll make anything new. Thursday maybe, Friday for sure!

Oh, and a side note! I made a small mortar and used about 1g of BP to try for lift. Again… WOW!
I just can’t wait to make a mortar to fit my shells and see what it does.

Oh Yeah!!

Geir Andersen — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:10:44 +0000

Finally! Some BP I can actually use

This wasn’t even completely dry when I tested it. I also made a dummy shell, but the homemade fuse just isn’t enough. I remade the shell and used a “sparkler” as a fuse, but still no luck. Second remake and third shell went off.. Happy camper. I made a simple spolette and used that as a fuse. Success! Spolettes are reliable, but for small 1″ and 2″ dummy canister shells… Have to get/make some viable fuse.

Only got a few hours at work tomorrow, training a new guy, and should have time to pick up what I need after that. Really hope NC lacquer will improve the reliability of the fuse. If all is well, I might have my first real homemade shell before the weekend.

I also need a mortar to lift the shell and I need some parts for that as well. Building my own mortar so I need a few parts for that as well. Don’t think they’ve got that where I’m going tomorrow, but hey… You never know.