Winokur 20 Experiments - Crossette-Style Break
Date: 2006-05-08
Description
A relatively simplistic attempt at a crossette break for a bottle rocket scale device.
The rocket motor was a conventional 1/4" ID, Rich Wolter "long" unit. Using a NEPT tube, wax-treated clay nozzle, and contaminated meal propellant. Stick was a bamboo kebab stick hot-melt glued in place. Fusing was blackmatch.
The header was a 3/4" skylighter cup set. Inside four pumped Winokur 20 stars were squeezed into a ring in the inner cup. The center of the base of this cup was punched for a piece of blackmatch and the match glued in place with meal/NC paste. The central space between the four stars was filled with loose MgAl Flash. The remaining empty space in the cupset was filled with 6:1:1 pulverone and the outer cup glued on with PVA. A clove hitch was tied around the cupset to hold it tightly closed as it dried.
The cupset was then hot-melt glued into place on top of the assembled motor.
Comments
Worked prett well!
A surprisingly good break for such a tiny "shell". Forming an almost perfect crossette break. One of the stars appeared to break up slightly. It may have been poorly pumped. It was made with my 1/4" skylighter plate and them primed in meal once dry. It is difficult to non-destructively assess the quality of the stars made in this manner, the prime layer can fill the tell-tale rough texture or voids. If you aren't careful loading the plate you can end up with a few poorly consolidated stars quite easily. It was also mechanically abused getting all four to fit into the small cupset in a perfect ring which would have fractured a poorly made star, but I did not notice any damage during assembly or I would have swapped out the star. Maybe it was just too much flash.
The SBR-style rocket went quite high with the payload, so the break effect is somewhat diminished visually but the size of the break was good for a 3/4" shell.
Winokur 20 is probably not the best choice for this kind of break. It is just too sparse when used in very small star sizes. D1 Glitter would likely have been more appropriate, or a charcoal effect, like Chrysanthemum #6 for its density. Tiger Tail may have been too slow but would be worth a try. Mag colours may be quite nice.
Attachments
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