Often I hear people talking about crackling microstars as an advanced project. Don't be discouraged, these are very easy to make. You can apply this technique to making all microstars; the process is the same. Crackling microstars have many uses. The fine powder can be used for sizzling comets, the medium sized pieces can be used for exploding cores in stars, the small pieces can be used in fountains for a neat effect and the even smaller pieces can be rolled in sparklers. You can even make those wonderful crackle balls I used to play with as a kid. Use your imagination and come up with new uses!
You are going to need the stackable screens for this one. You will also need some newspaper or craft paper, a bowl, a mixing dowel/spoon that you can throw away, and protective clothing.
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Screen - You will need a corning screen for this project. I used two sizes in the demonstration, a 12x12, and a window screen. | |||
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Red Lead - Lead tetraoxide. Very poisonous and not a great way to die (but an easy way nonetheless). Be careful with this stuff! Follow my instructions on how to reduce exposure. | |||
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Safety Gear - You will need special gloves that can withstand the acetone in the NC lacquer. I wouldn't spend too much on them because you will need to throw them away when you are done. You will also need a good respirator and long sleeved protective clothing. It is a good idea to use disposable clothing and a disposable respirator if possible. | |||
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NC Lacquer - Skylighter sells this stuff for an absurd price. You can make it yourself by dissolving nitrocellulose in acetone. I used an 8% solution for this project, I imagine you could probably dilute it to 5% if you wanted. You should also have some acetone on hand to re-moisten solution that dries to soon. | |||
You will also need the chems. The formula I used is Lancaster, column B. It consists of:
MgAl - 17
Lead Tetraoxide (Pb3O4) - 44
KNO3 - 4
Sulfur - 4
Copper (II) Oxide - 31
It worked great, I made a 1030 gram batch for the demonstration. I had a 1 pound container of lead that was measured from my chemical supplier and I divided 453grams (1lb) by .44 to get the total 1030 grams. I did this so that I wouldn't have to weigh the lead, which minimalizes exposure.
There are other formulas that work, including some that use Bismuth (III) Oxide (expensive but safe) instead of lead.
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First step is to mix all of the ingredients except the lead/bismuth and screen them together. | |||
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Pour the mixture you just mixed in a bowl and add some of your NC/acetone solution. Make sure that the bowl you use is not plastic or any other material that acetone will dissolve. | |||
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Mix in enough NC lacquer until the slurry looks like this. It should be a thick liquid. Mix everything until it is very homogenous. | |||
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Very carefully open the container with the lead and pour it into the bowl making sure no powder spreads in the air. If it is windy, wait until the wind dies down or protect yourself from it. If you use an entire premeasured container as it comes from your chem supplier, you will minimize exposure. | |||
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Stir the lead in the bowl. It will take a lot of stirring to become homogenous. | |||
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You may need to add more NC lacquer to the mix. It is a good idea to pour some lacquer on top of the lead to keep the dust down. | |||
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Stir for a while and eventually the mix will start to look like this, very homogenous. | |||
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Stir the mixture until it gets to a nice consistency. The consistency in the picture is good, it should be almost like clay. | |||
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Scoop a big glob out of the bowl with your hand and flatten it. Lay it on your corning screen until it is dry enough to work with. You will know it is dry enough when it doesn't clump up on the screen when you are corning it. | |||
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Test to see if it is at a good consistency, and if it is, grip a piece between thumb and forefinger to work with. Rub it back and forth on the screen while pressing firmly. You should hear little clumps falling on the paper below. | |||
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You can also use a spoon to grate the composition on the screen. This works well if you accidentally clump up the screen with composition that is too damp. | |||
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Here I am corning the stars on a 12x12 screen. This makes bigger stars that are louder. | |||
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When all of the composition has been screened, put it all in a big pile on the paper. Here lays 1kg of microstars. | |||
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Pour all of the finished microstars in your bowl (which should be dry now). This step is not entirely necessary, but makes it easier to screen the stars in incremental amounts. | |||
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Stack all of your stackable screens on top of each other and dump a handful of stars in the screens. | |||
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Shake the screens a great deal so that the stars can fall through the appropriate screens. Repeat this step and the previous step until all of the composition is sorted. | |||
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Pour each screen full of microstars on a piece of paper and pour them into baggies or containers. | |||
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When you are done, label the bags/containers with the appropriate mesh sizes and store for use. | |||
I tested these out and they work great! What fun! I'll post a video soon. Here is an enlarged picture of the finished product This is a large high res picture that you can save and enlarge to examine the different particle sizes.:
