To many this is not news, I think ive read in the past from Lloyd S
and a few others making the same observations, but a few of these new
pro/premium power shells and with the introduction of the tiny 1 inch
reloadables, the use of very very tiny energetic BP in very small
amounts is taken to a new level, as ive gotten to test some new
reloadables that I read had very loud and powerful lift on forums, so
if you know all about this no need to read and get angry, I just like
to post my findings :) Theres no mystery powder involved its all BP
this time.
The thing is these shells are far from overloaded by cpsc standards,
the lift of some of these shells are indeed very loud and you can hear
the lift of a lot of 1.4g shell many blocks away and know the break is
coming soon after which is not much louder. I dont really care for
loud lift or burst as long as its nice and round, i dont like
attention or large crowds coming to watch. I like quiet fountains and
mines, but I do like to watch salutes in displays, I just don't like
attention or making them myself.
Average grain size for the first 2 1.75 premium ball shells was
about .75 mm, I have a little device i made for measuring very small
stuff/while also passing the lift through various mesh/screen sizes.
In mm Ranging from about .6 to a little less than a mm .9. Two of the
selected shells that get rave reviews for their lift and burst have
even smaller granulations of about .5 with a range of .3 to .7. Theres
not much lift in many of these cups at all so there is not much flame
but the time fuse is very well primed. thats a total average between
ffg/fffg 5fa/6fa granulation calculated in mm taking the average of
grains in mm and passing through mesh screen. These were collected
from shells that I heard had loud lift (the thin paper casing makes
for a weak but sufficient confinement to give the shell lift some
noise with such fast powder), so other shells may contain sizes in the
1.2 to 1.7 range and use more powder and tighter fits using cannon/1fg
sizes to 2/4fa. very interesting experiments, to me atleast, may be
boring to others! Also imma take video and pics soon of the newer
versions of the very small 1 to 1.25 inch reloadable shells grain size
and open atmospheric burn rate. I can't hardly measure it, but in
terms of screening its about 7fa, but the shells are so loose and
light you cant really use slow powder for lift. BTW im not wasting all
these shells, I put them back together using my homemade lift which is
well milled and pressed but not as fast as the above, they are simple
in design. Plus, I like quieter lift anyway, but I did take 10 grams
of the 7fa grain size and poured it in a small funnel shaped paper bag
tightly taped to the end of my time fuse and then crimped and closed
at the top. There were no stars, just the 10 gram 7fa burst inside the
kraft over the time fuse, so i constructed a well made thick walled
cylinder shell out of 1.5 inch plastic shell casing as a base and a
lot of kraft paper tightly bound ending in a 1.75 inch very hard
cylinder shell, I used a light lift charge and since it pops lightly
almost unconfined in small amount, I knew it wouldn't be bad. It gave
me a nice deep re****t with not much to see but the orange flash of
sparks, not like whistle mix or flash of that amount by any means, but
better than the lightening bolt brand consumer black powder 1.75 ball
salutes with 7 grams BP.
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