SpudFiles

I've been making these and launching them from my 1" pneumatic cannon. Pretty easy to make and I can get glowsticks at the dollar store.

I use a piece of 1" pipe and a 1" cap as a mold. Aluminum foil is used to hold the mold upright. I give the mold a quick spray of Pam cooking spray on the inside to help release the parafin.

I melt the parafin in a foil pan in a skillet of water. I pour the parafin into the mold to a depth of about 1.5". I let it cool for about 15 minutes, then put the entire mold in the freezer until the wax is solid.

Be sure not to bend the glowstick while you are removing it from the mold. You don't want to activate it until it's time to fire it.

i thought about using 6" long industrial high intensity glowsticks in my planned 2" hybrid... looks like a good idea of making a sabot kind of thing... excpet i'm not sure it would work too well for a 2" bore.

Now break the glow stick to activate it with out tearing up the wax sabot. Quit a challenge.

Not that hard, you just grip it right after the wax with pliers.

pretty cool. i found instructions on the net for DIY glowsticks made from luminol and another component. could be a cost effective alternative to buying sticks and you could vary sizes

Cool cool, how did you keep the wax from forming all the way to the bottom of the endcap?

starman wrote:Cool cool, how did you keep the wax from forming all the way to the bottom of the endcap?

It flows all the way to the bottom on the first mold, but that piece tends to break off and stay in the mold when I remove the glowstick. That makes it easier on subsequent castings.

JRRDW - It isn't hard at all to activate the glowstick without breaking the wax. I'm using baker's wax which is slightly soft even when cooled. It has enough flex to survive multiple launches as long as it lands on grass or dirt.

I've used these. They're awesome at night time. I didn't use wax, though. I simply wrapped them in duct tape.

The neat thing about these are (besides the fact that they look like tracer ammo) is that you can easily find them and use them again.

PhotoKirk wrote:It flows all the way to the bottom on the first mold, but that piece tends to break off and stay in the mold when I remove the glowstick. That makes it easier on subsequent castings.

I gotcha. Nice work Photo..!

Cool, you should try and get a night video like sgort87 did, see how it turns out. I agree, nice work.