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(110 votes) Published: Oct 08, 2007 12:08 p.m. In 9 Favorites Lists Viewed 736 times
You may be thinking why I’m posting my guides, I have no idea either, enjoy:
-----BY UK-SWAT-----
Welcome to one of my pyrotechnical guides, today I am going to be making quite an interesting firework- a basic 1” mortar. This guide will be very useful to you if you cannot buy 1” mortars. I’m going to be showing you the following:
- How to roll your own mortar
- How to make standard 1” shells.
So here is it:
First off you need to find a dowel or piece of metal that has a diameter of around 1”, if not then slightly larger than 1 inch. This is because you can tape up your shells if the mortar is too big:
Cut out a piece of foil around the size of a sheet of A4 paper:
Roll it around your rod tightly and bind it to the rod with some tape, this is there so that when you roll your mortar it doesn’t stick to the rod.
Now you need 6 sheets of A4 printer paper to roll your mortar with:
Roll up the first half of one sheet of paper on the rod as tightly as possible, keep one hand on the rod so that it stays like this:
Now you need a paint brush and some glue. I use PVA glue that’s watered down so I can spread it easily, spread the rest of the sheet of paper lightly with glue and roll it up. Make sure you apply pressure to the rod so that the paper is tightly wound around the tube
Now that the first layer is on you can paste an entire sheet of A4 and roll it on, repeat this with the other sheets of paper.
Now pull the tube off the rod, the foil should stay on the rod:
Now wait for the mortar to dry for 2 days or if you’re impatient like me then throw it in the oven for 1-3 hours.
Should be dry by now.
Now hold the foil and pull it out from the tube, discard the foil.
Here is a picture of the dried tube, it actually looks like a piece of PVC piping. This has a major advantage over using PVC (which you should NEVER use) which is the fact that this tube will not shatter if your shell gets stuck.
Now use a generous amount of hot glue to secure the tube to a base- the base can be from double corrugated cardboard to even wood if you wish.
Drill a fuse hole and fuse the bottom of the mortar:
Now you have completed the mortar! Next part is completing the shell. On water bottles with sports caps they have those protective plastic caps on top that you are meant to discard, if you don’t know what I’m talking about then this should show you:
Now you need to roll a small tube, just use pritt stick and a piece of paper. Roll this tube around something thin, I used a 5mm piece of rod.
Trim it so it is around 1-2mm under the height of the cup and hot glue it in the center.
Now drill a hole in the middle.
Fuse the device, depending on the burn rate of the fuse you may have a different length of fuse. You want the fuse to burn for around 2.5 seconds before blowing up the shell. Because I’m using flying fish fuse there is 2.5cm of fuse sticking out.
Now fill the tube in the middle with your burst charge. In my case I’m just using granulated whistle mix with 1% charcoal and sulphur, you can use regular whistle mix, fast BP, flash powder, whatever… Just use an energetic mix.
Now stuff a small piece of tissue at in the top of the tube:
Now fill the outside of the small tube with stars, the stars I am using are cut stars which are green mix with 25% al. This is a very nice mixture for stars as the stars tend to “twinkle”. Fill any gaps between the stars with meal powder if you wish.
Sorry about the bad pics now, you need to cut a piece of cardboard or plastic to make a disk and place it on top of the shell- it should go 1-2mm down.
Now hot glue that 1-2mm gap up to seal up the shell.
Finally wrap the shell evenly with tape of pasted strips or paper. Use what ever you want.
Now you need to work out how much lift charge you need- for this shell I used 3 spatulas of slightly modified whistle mix, you should work out how much lift you need yourself. Dump the lift charge into the bottom of the mortar and place the shell in fuse side down, as you can see my shell doesn’t slip right in:
I just give it a prod with a stick and it usually drops in- that’s how tight it should be. If it isn’t that tight then add a couple more strips of cello tape. If it is too tight then take off some strips- too tight means the mortar could explode.
There you have it, a completed loaded mortar.
No video? Because I tested it, it worked perfectly but the video sucked ass. My camera is not very good and it actually makes my firework look pathetic so no video.
Oct 08, 2007 3:55 pm - i haven;t seen U-swats eggs in a while. that was nice 5 and faves.!!!!!!
Oct 08, 2007 5:04 pm - Wait, your using them little bottle top protectors, those things are TINY! I cant imagine fitting anything noticable in there, hell, I have stars bigger than that.
Oh, and also, why add the 1% of charcoal and sulfur to the whistle mix, i cant imagine 1% of a fuel making it any stronger.
Oct 08, 2007 7:21 pm - see I told you this was good.
AMS gave it a 5.
Oct 08, 2007 10:48 pm -
Quote:
AMS gave it a 5.
Actually, I 5* alot of eggs.
I only 0 those that deserve it. This one was not agaisnt the rules, was not a mindfuck to try to understand, had good grammar, and was a badass concept.
Oct 08, 2007 11:07 pm - Very nice egg 5*, and hooded alchimist you get a 0* on your profile :),
Uk-Swat, Im not sure about this but i hear that you could get them casings of those KINDER-SUPRISE things that the toys come in, and you could use it as the shell for the stars and stuff maybe it would work better?
Oh, and also, why add the 1% of charcoal and sulfur to the whistle mix, i cant imagine 1% of a fuel making it any stronger.
It was an experiment at the time, and you may not believe it but the effect this creates is good. You’re forgetting this isn’t a peony shell (which in small sizes look pathetic), the stars leave a gold and silver tail which looks impressive even in small numbers.
Quote:
May I ask where you learned all this shit?
70% The internet
20% Experimentation
10% Putting 2 and 2 together
Quote:
1.)Wh t is fishing fly fuse?
It’s "flying fish" fuse. It’s a type of commercial visco that is able to fly when lit- they normally come in various colours (mine burning green when lit). Don’t be fooled though, half the time it doesn’t even take off the ground.
Quote:
Uk-Swat, Im not sure about this but i hear that you could get them casings of those KINDER-SUPRISE things that the toys come in, and you could use it as the shell for the stars and stuff maybe it would work better?
They work, but I’m not to sure as to whether they’d fit in a 1" mortar.
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