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That is slightly odd; standard 70/30 flash should be easier to ignite. What type of Al powder is it? German dark or Indian blackhead? If not, the characteristics of the Al may be inhibiting...

The powder is most likely copper chloride. If you were to add this to the break charge of a shell, it would possibly give a hint of blue/green to the break itself (not the stars, of course). Most...

Kessie,

Many vendors now stock single-effect and single-color devices, including comets, mines, shells, and all sorts of cakes -- because they saw the demand for these type of themed effects for...

Viking,

Were the inserts manufactured in the style of the true Maltese beraq, or did you use time fuse? Given the long delay (2, 3, and 4 seconds), I imagine you used time fuse. The purists...

Dave, there are a couple tricks that you may wish to pass along to your Cobra trainees. Before inserting the wires into the spring-loaded clips, bend each wire back onto itself, and then insert it. ...

My hat's off to you, sir.... that was better than the city show I saw last night. Nice pace, great product. If you have the clearance, you might try angling some racks slightly, so the shells have...

Good heavens... "The non-profit organization had raised $31,000 from the community, but that fell far short of what was needed to light up the sky on the 4th of July."

Maybe I live a sheltered...

Boy, I remember that detonation at PGI in Appleton (the first video in Dave's post). I must have been standing next to the guy who shot the video. Talk about a BOOM... it felt like the ground...

Which unplugged mortars are you looking at? If you are comparing two types of HDPE mortars, either those with wood plugs, or those molded as one piece, it's up to your personal preference. I think...

There is little to no advantage in using a 15" mortar. Even a 12" plugged mortar gives you at least 10.5" of empty "barrel" (assuming a 1.5" plug). That's plenty of room for the lift charge to...

I wouldn't say that the binary mixing method makes them SAFE to transport and store. It may make them safer, but you never know how much action they have seen before you got your hands on them. If...

One common technique is to use a ground salute, wired in series or parallel with the Cremora (or Dragon's Breath). If one makes their own salute, an e-match port can easily be built into the device....

Thank you. That guy seriously needs to lay off the uppers.

It is my understanding that flash powder made with blue aluminum is difficult to light (hence, its safety rating). I have heard that salutes made with blue aluminum flash need to be initiated with a...

What part of Iowa are you from? Are you a member of the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association?

I also thought of dipping the wicks in NC lacquer/BP slurry, and dredging them in fine BP meal or fuse powder... but that might create so much fire that the wicks would burn completely off. You might...

Their formulas for colored flash (which are well-guarded) are a highly sensitive compositions, most likely using chlorates. The process for manufacturing the beraq involves piercing the filled...

Currently the Cobra 18R2 has no audio capability, so you would have to manually sync them as best you could. However, as demonstrated by Cobra at the PGI convention last month, there is a forthcoming...

Greetings, Laquil, and thank you for sharing the interesting videos and knowledge. I have been fascinated by the Maltese shells, particularly the Beraq. The colored Beraq (perhaps there is another...

One of our fellow members in the IPA (Iowa Pyrotechnic Association) is a licensed distributor for black powder. We buy all of our 2FA and fuse/meal powder from him. Typically it comes in 25lb bags....

Whatever you do, if you set the roll of aluminum foil on top of a loaded rack, don't forget it there... you can also shoot through a whole roll of it. Talk about a mess!

I've learnt two things when using visco with quickmatch. One, don't run the fuse on top of the mortars. The visco isn't fast enough to outrun quickmatch, and a shell leaving a gun can rip the visco...

I wish I could remember the name of them... but I bought some canister shells at PGI last year (available through a few retailers) that are packaged in a tall, thin, red box. I believe they're...

I have piggy-backed shells & mines several times. Pull the mine on the BOTTOM (duh). Remove the fuse from the mine, and bore the fuse hole out a bit larger. I like to poke another hole into the...

I've built racks both in multiples of 10 and 12. The benefit of building in 10's is that if your shells come 12 in a box, you can shoot a couple of 'em to get your jollies, and you can still fill...