Below is a collection of my fireworks pieces that have been video taped and digitized thus far.

All the DIVX videos are encoded using DIVX 5.0. If you cannot view the files correctly you can download the codec from www.divx.com.

Update 1/20/2004:

Tested the use of both H3 on rice hulls, and BP on rice hulls for lift with much success. Shells were made with BP on rice hulls and powdered salicylate whistle. Shells broke much weaker than with KP on rice hulls with granulated sodium benzoate whistle. Also used my first chlorate stars, and broke my first shell with H3.

Update 10/13/2003:

All shell were made with KP burst on rice hulls and whistle mix grains. The whistle mix grains are about the size of Fg powder, maybe larger. Seems to be a bit to large, but they seemed to work. The 2.5" shells were made by dumping stars in each half, then KP rice hulls, then shaking the half to even everything out. This was repeated till each half was full. After that half of the noted amount of whistle was added to each half then the shell was closed and sealed normally. The 3" shells were made by lining the walls with stars then setting the KP hulls on tissue over the stars. Then the whistle was added the same as above.

This is a pic of shells that have yet to be fired as of Sep 23, 2003. They are using new methods that I have not tried before such as semi-authentic Italian canister shell styles. Also shown is my first aerial star mine and first double break shell. Will post pics and hopefully video later.

Here are some video's fired of the shells in the above pic.

The large MPEG's are the original files. File size for the DIVX versions are about 15 times smaller.

Upper right shell in the pic: 3in_paper_can_tigertail_to_blue_sisal_twine_spiking-digi.MPG or Divx version

Shell was made with 12 verticals and about 4 horizontals of sisal bundling twine that was covered in paste. The paper that was used for the casing and pasted layer was builders paper from home depot. The canule(sp?) was 1/2" copper coupling tube. Burst was FFg powder filled about halfway then 3/4 teaspoon of granulated whistle, then filled to the top with more FFg powder.

Upper middle shell: 3in_paper_can_glitter_to_red_to_crackle_cotton_spiking-digi.MPG or Divx version

This shell was made almost exactly like the previous one. 12 verticals and about 6 horizontals of cotton twine that was covered in paste was used instead. The central burst cavity was the same size and used about the same amount of whistle. Either FFg or Fg powder was used as the burst in this and the above shell, I can't remember. Both shells were pasted in with 3 turns of the same builders paper with grain running in the vertical direction. As you can see the burst is more symmetric then the first, but it is a small diameter.

Upper left shell: 3in_can_blue_and_green_fibertape_spiking-digi.MPG or Divx version

This shell was made in a similar way as the above shell, but it used no paste layer, and used 8 verticals and 4 horizontal strips of 1/4" fiber tape spiking. It was then covered in masking tape to seal it. The canule(sp?) was 3/4" copper coupling tube. This shell also had about 3/4 teaspoon of granulated whistle in the burst.

Lower right: 2_1-8in_red_break_to_green_break_double-digi.MPG or Divx version

This shell was made with my whistle on rice hulls intermixed with stars then closed and sealed with my standard xylene glue. A hole was made in bottom shell so the top one could be inserted into it. Then the area between the shells was hot glued to seal it from lift gasses and hold it together. Then I used a strip of paperboard and then tape to keep some structural integrity to the shell during lift. The shell was under lifted and the breaks seemed rather poor. Star ignition is poor on most of my shells because I was using stars from July that were inadequately primed. Timing between the 2 shells seems just a tad too long as well.

Not shown in pic: 3in_chrys6-digi.MPG or Divx version

Standard 3" plastic ball shell. This shell was made in a fairly standard way. 1/2" chrys #6 stars lining the shell wall then covered with tissue paper. Each half of the shell was filled with whistle on rice hulls then closed and sealed with xylene glue. This shell surprised me with it's poor performance. I figured I could break it almost as hard as I wanted to without worrying about stars being blown blind, but it seems I got very poor star ignition.

Note: Not positive my whistle on rice hulls is very well coated or very fast. My granulated whistle seems to be slower then other peoples whistle as well. I am using sodium benzoate which is likely the cause.

My first shells and Mines:

The following videos were shot about a month before the 4th of July 2003. They are my first set of aerial shells I have made thus far.