Solvents

Different compositions of stars require different solvents. Usually the solvent needed is determined by the material that is used to hold the star together (IE the binder). Certain metals cannot come into contact with water; you should be aware of the nature of your ingredients before attempting to custom make your own formula.

• Dextrin - A wonderful and widely used solvent, it is soluble in water. Occasionally alcohol is added to the water (around 30%) to speed up the drying time. Too much alcohol and the dextrin won't be properly activated, resulting in brittle stars. The more dextrin used, the longer the stars will take to dry.
• Red Gum - Another great solvent, it is soluble in alcohol. A lot of compositions use both red gum and dextrin, in these cases use both water and alcohol as a solvent. Be careful, most store bought alcohols contain a portion of water and sometimes glycerin. Read the label before purchasing. I prefer USP grade ethyl alcohol.
• Shellac - This stuff is comes from the lac bug, but lets try not to think about that when using it (-: Shellac is soluble in alcohol and acetone.
• Parlon - Doubling as a chlorine donor, this material is made of rubber. Soluble in acetone, this is a fairly difficult binder to work with.

Prime

Most stars need to be primed to function correctly. Stars are usually designed to burn somewhat slowly. Slower burning compositions are usually not very easy to ignite, because of this a prime of faster easy to light composition is used to coat the finished stars. Without prime, most stars will fail to light and become projectiles or falling debris rather than colorful effects. Make sure you choose a compatible prime with your star composition, if you use incompatible ingredients undesired reactions can occur. Instead of meal, try greenmix. Greenmix is more drossy and therefore ignites stars in an easier manner. See the safety section for chemicals that shouldn't interact with each other. Don't coat chlorate stars with a prime containing sulfur!

Pumped Stars

What's the Deal With Pumped Stars?

Pump stars are cylinder shaped stars that are ideal for roman candles. They can also be used in any other application that uses stars, but manufacturing them is slightly tedious and most people prefer to use other types of stars in shells and other projects. Pumped stars are created by filling a tube with a star composition, pushing the composition out with a dowel, and cutting it into sections. They are convenient for the beginner who wishes to experiment with small batches of star composition and does not have access to expensive tools.

What You Need:

Composition - can be chosen from the formulary.

Screens - can be made in the tools section

A Bowl - to mix the composition in

A Dowel - to stir the composition and the solvent

Star Pump - a cheap star pump alternative can be purchased, see the tools section for details.

Prime - usually just meal powder, or meal powder with a little Al. Make sure you use a compatible prime with the star compo you are using.

Cup With a Lid - this will be used to coat the stars with prime.

Kraft Paper - to let the stars dry on and to act as your working surface

Safety Gear - Gloves, goggles, respirator, hat; the usual.

Spray Bottle and Solvent - To prime the stars with.

Manufacture:

			After selecting a composition, screen all of the ingredients together. The demonstration is using a 1kg batch of neon green metallic stars.
			Make sure that the mixture is somewhat homogenous, this can be done by screening the mixture several times until color is somewhat even.
			Pour some of the compo in a bowl. As you can see by the picture, I have put about half of my compo in the bowl and will add more compo as needed.
			If the mixing dowel has been previously used and there is composition sticking to it (usually from parlon bound compositions) I burn off the excess composition before working with it.
			Now pour the solvent. ONLY A LITTLE! More can always be added if the mixture is too dry. This compo uses 5 parts dextrin and 2 parts red gum so I am using about 35% alcohol mixed with water.
			Knead the composition adding more solvent as needed. Getting a good consistency is tricky; always have extra compo to add in case you add too much solvent. Ideally, it'll look like clay. tapping the composition with the palm of a hand should not make water rise to the surface. The composition should be just barely held together when clumped in a ball. If it is too wet the stars well be blobs. If it is too dry it will be hard to push out of the pump.
			After the desired consistency has been reached, or the manufacturer has given up, press composition into the hollow tube of your star pump. You can do this by pushing the end into the composition and sliding it out of the bowl. Hard force may be required. If composition is not filling the tube it may be too dry or too wet.
			Once the tube is full insert the dowel into the end with room in it. Put the other end of the tube onto your paper and press down on the dowel, squeezing any water that may be in the composition out and compressing the material. If more than a tiny bit of water, or wet composition comes out of the tube, the composition is too wet.
			Now slowly press the composition out of the tube with the dowel, cutting off sections as the come out. Once you get the hang of it, you can just use your thumb to very quickly slide sections off. Be sure to wash the pumps out if the dowel gets hard to remove when reloading composition. Failure to do this may make it very hard to remove the dowel from the tube.
			After all the stars have been made (the picture illustrates three sizes of pumped stars and two sizes of microstars) allow them to dry for a little while until they are strong enough to prime (IE strong enough to not break apart when being handled).
			Now that they are strong enough to prime, spray them very well with the solvent used to in the star composition. Make sure they are sprayed evenly on all sides.
			Get the prime ready, this is greenmix with 2 micron aluminum added. Greenmix is used because it produces high amounts of liquid dross, coating the stars in the hot substance ensuring their ignition. The aluminum lowers the ignition point of the meal and makes it more reactive.
			Put the sprayed stars in the container (you should have a lid for it). The container should be filled leaving empty room.
			Dump the prime on the stars, make sure to use an excess amount, it will be screened out later.
			Put the lid on the container and roll it around coating all of the stars with the prime. A clear container or lid acts as a nice window.
			Now screen the excess prime out of the stars. This prime can be re-used.
			Dump the primed stars on paper and allow to dry for a long time. Between three days and three weeks depending on your climate.

MicroStars

What's the Deal With Microstars?

Microstars are used on place of course metals in compositions to create what appears to be colored sparks. They can also be used to miniaturize larger pyrotechnic devices like shells and mines. I use them in fountains, small rockets, and my micromines. Microstars do not need to be primed, doing so is tedious and unnecessary.

What You Need:

Screens - These can be made from the instructions in the tools section of this website. Between 8 and 16 mesh work well for making microstars.

Composition - Certain compositions work better than others for microstars, experiment and find which ones you like best!

A Bowl - to mix the composition in

A Dowel - to stir the composition with

Kraft Paper - to let the stars dry on and to line workspace

Safety Gear - Gloves, goggles, respirator, hat, the usual.

Manufacture:

			After selecting a composition, screen all of the ingredients together.
			Make sure that the mixture is somewhat homogenous, this can be done by screening the mixture several times until color is somewhat even.
			Pour some of the compo in a bowl. As you can see by the picture, I have put about half of my compo in the bowl and will add more compo as needed.
			Now pour the solvent. ONLY A LITTLE! More can always be added if the mixture is too dry. This compo uses 5 parts dextrin and 2 parts red gum so I am using about 35% alcohol mixed with water.
			Knead the composition adding more solvent as needed. Getting a good consistency is tricky; always have extra compo to add if you add too much solvent. Ideally, it'll look like clay. tapping the composition with the palm of a hand should not make water rise to the surface. The composition should be just barely held together. If it is too wet it will stick to the screen. If it is too dry it will turn into a powder when screened.
			Lay your screen on some newspaper or Kraft paper. Make sure that you have enough paper to hold all of your finished stars.
			Depending on which solvent you used (acetone or water/alcohol) you may choose to put a blob of the composition on the screen and wait for it to be hard enough to granulate. This step works well with acetone soluble formulas.
			Form a ball of the composition. Pressing firmly, grate the ball along the screen in the same manner cheese is grated, but with more downward force.
			Larger mesh screens (8x8 and larger) have bigger holes and less force should be used.
			A spoon or other tool can be used to push the compo through the screen. This is simply a matter of preference, but can be a lot easier on the hands when making large batches.
			Allow the finished microstars to dry until very hard. After this they can be screened and sorted in different mesh sizes or used as is.

Pill Box Stars

What's the Deal with Pill Box Stars?

Pill Box stars are probably the least common of the stars. The design is used for difficult to ignite compositions. I have never made a pill box star, but my strobe pots are essentially just large pill box stars. Pill box stars consist of composition inside a tube with a fuse running through it: These stars do not need to be primed.

The red line in this picture illustrates the black match/fuse. The grainy stuff is the composition, and the top and bottom lines are the casing.

What You Need:

Thin Walled Tube - Pill box stars are consist of a composition inside a tube.

A Piece of Fuse/Match - To run down the length of the tube.

Screens - These can be made from the instructions in the tools section of this website.

Composition - Usually hard to ignite Ba/Al comps.

A Dowel - to stir the composition.

Kraft Paper - to let the stars dry on and line your workspace.

Safety Gear - Gloves, goggles, respirator, hat, the usual.

A Cup - To pour the composition into the tubes with.

Solvent - Whichever your compo calls for.

Manufacture:

			First weigh out all the parts of the composition and put it in the screen.
			Screen the composition until it is somewhat homogenous, this may take multiple passes through a screen.
			Coin tubes will work well for pillbox stars, but you can roll your own tubes if you like tedious busy work.
			Now mix the composition in your cup. I am using this glass one so you can see how much solvent I am using. A clay like substance is undesirable for this project, instead, try to get a thick protein-shake-like slurry.
			Using a soda can with the top cut off, pour the slurry into the cut pieces of tubes. Make sure the tubes are flush with the surface they are laying on (Kraft paper or another disposable surface).
			Insert a piece of black match that runs all the way through the composition and allow to dry.

Cut Stars

What's the Deal with Cut Stars?

Cut stars are probably the simplest stars to manufacture. Be careful though, certain compositions are almost impossible to cut. It has been my experience that compositions that use acetone as a solvent or course metals are not very friendly to the cutting process. Beginners might wish to try cutting stars before any other method.

What You Need:

Screens - These can be made from the instructions in the tools section of this website.

Composition - Most compositions are friendly to the cutting process. Have your dowels handy in case cutting them is too difficult.

A Dowel - to stir the composition.

Kraft Paper - to let the stars dry on and line your workspace.

Safety Gear - Gloves, goggles, respirator, hat, the usual.

A Bowl - To pour the composition into the tubes with.

Solvent - Whichever your compo calls for.

A Special Composition Shaper - You will want to make a device to shape your composition either into a loaf, or something that looks like a slice of bread. You can either make a wooden box with four sides, pack the composition in, remove the box, and cut the loaf into slices, or you can make a wooden frame (like a picture frame) that you can mold a slice out of. Instructions for making these will eventually appear in the tools section.

A Knife - Drywall knives work well, this will be used to cut the stars into little squares.

A Cutting Board - Kraft paper will work. A surface is needed to cut the stars on.

Manufacture:

Coming soon.

Rolled Stars

What's the Deal with Rolled Stars?

Rolled stars are some of the most frequently used stars in pyrotechnics. Professionals use this method frequently because it can be semi-automated with electric machines. A rolled star consists of a core (lead shot, a microstar, a seed, etc.) that is rolled around in composition and sprayed with solvent. The core eventually grows into a star with much rolling. This can be a tricky process to get the hang of, but stars can be cranked out relatively quickly when it is mastered. Rolling stars can be used to create stars with effects at the center (like dragon eggs) and can also be used to make color changing stars. Rolled stars can be primed in degrees, making them easier to ignite.

What You Need:

Screens - These can be made from the instructions in the tools section of this website.

Composition - Choose from the formulary!

Safety Gear - Gloves, goggles, respirator, hat, the usual.

A Cup - To hold and pour the composition.

Solvent - Whichever your compo calls for.

A Bowl/Machine - A steel salad bowl works well. You can also buy or build a machine that will spin the bowl for you.

Cores - People use lead shot, seeds, dragon eggs, microstars, sand, and many other little things. You can buy cores from discountpyro.com.

Patience - If you don't have a machine, you'll need a lot of patience (-:

Manufacture:

Coming as soon as I build my star roller (-: