I do have a question or three about Creamora fireballs.
I actually exchanged several emails with Ned when starting our fireball project.
Ned’s article on Creamora’s - that was available through Skylighter - talked about the advantage of using a round bottom canister to fire a creamoras.
I was hoping that the round bottom would also focus the heat of the fire and raise the fireball temperature.
I developed a canister made from 5 gallon propane tanks that most folks use on their outdoor gas grills. To safely cut those canisters in half YOU MUST FILL THEM COMPLETELY WITH WATER TO PUSH OUT ANY REMAINING PROPANE GAS. After draining the water back out of the tank it is then safe to cut them in half with a 2 inch abrasive disk driven by compressed air or electricity. Then we finished the fireball launcher by adding a sheet metal wall high enough to approximate the volume of a 5 gallon bucket.
I did notice that a round bottom did tend to focus the dust cloud and help attain a higher altitude for the fireball than what we experienced when using a flat bottom bucket.
If anyone is interested I would gladly share pictures of the four canister launchers we have made.
That aside, my first question has to do with the fat content in the milk replacer that is recommended. After the first time using lamb’s milk replacer, I noticed that there was an oily slime all over the canister launchers and electric ignition equipment. I have read that the higher the fat content of the creamora fuel, the better the fireball.
I have not encountered this. What I found in all three attempts in using lamb-milk replacer is the higher the fat content in the creamora fuel, the more oily slime is produced covering everything.
I have spent hours trying to get everything ground as fine as possible. But I still did not get a fireball hot enough to consume the oily residue.
I am tempted to add “something” to the milk replacer / saw dust mixture I use for creamora fireballs to raise the flame temperature in hopes of burning up the oily residue before it covers everything.
Does anyone have a suggestion of what I could use to raise the temperature of the fireball?
Either that, or I go back to regular non-dairy creamer and give up the higher fat lamb milk replacer.