HDPE Tubes

[meggsy]

What are people's experiences of using HDPE tubes? I have seen a recent report that shows they do fragment, and it wasn't just one failing; others appear to have bulged as a result of just the lift charge and are now useless. How many of you out there use HDPE tubes and what are your experiences?

Be interested to know.

Steve

 

[999]

I use HDPE and fiberglass. Myself and my friends have exploded plenty of each as testing platforms to find out what really happens when they go. Usually an upside down 6" color or an upside down salute of any size will do the trick.

HDPE that we have in the US, bulges and shreads into long, thin strips and strings of plastic. It will fling HDPE shreds everywhere, but these are NOT shards (not hard, harmful material). The only thing to worry about IMO when HDPE explodes is the flying wood plug, or pieces of the flying rack if it was once part of a racked battery and the actual stars from the exploded shell.

Fiberglass usually blows into dust and strings. Sometimes when a glass gun goes, it can fling chunks of the tube (like 3 or 4 inch chunks) but so far I have not seen chunks flung with any violence. Usually they are within 10 feet or so of the gun and don't appear to be flying at missile speed. I've never been hit by one, so I can't tell you how much damage they are capable of.

Personally, I prefer fiberglass. They are lighter, there is no worry about knocking the plug out, the rim dosn't stretch or shrink, some are sealed from ground moisture (some leak) and they seem just as strong as HDPE.

 

[tommy-gun]

First i want to react that i haven't had any problems with the wooden plug flying because it was still in the rack when my tube on purpuse exploded.
The trick is to make the rack side as high as the plug is. Then you minimize the effect of flying wood from plug and rack. In fact of an mortarbreak the mortar can expand in open air. Indeed the hdpe material will stretch and bulk out or burst into light schrapnel that will not travel far, because it has almost no weight and therefor no kinetic energie.

Second : Fiberglass isn"t lighter, stronger if you use a hdpe endplug that can be welded onto/into the hdpe pipe.
Most fireworker use for heavy shells like cylinders or salutes special fiberglas mortars or cardbord,hdpe,aluminium or steel mortars.

Only thing about hdpe mortars is that they dont last a liftime. After about 100bottemshots the fittng becomes narrower and some brands of shells will not fit anymore. But fiberglass will not last a lifetime to.

Greatings tommy-gun

I use HDPE and fiberglass. Myself and my friends have exploded plenty of each as testing platforms to find out what really happens when they go. Usually an upside down 6" color or an upside down salute of any size will do the trick.

HDPE that we have in the US, bulges and shreads into long, thin strips and strings of plastic. It will fling HDPE shreds everywhere, but these are NOT shards (not hard, harmful material). The only thing to worry about IMO when HDPE explodes is the flying wood plug, or pieces of the flying rack if it was once part of a racked battery and the actual stars from the exploded shell.

Fiberglass usually blows into dust and strings. Sometimes when a glass gun goes, it can fling chunks of the tube (like 3 or 4 inch chunks) but so far I have not seen chunks flung with any violence. Usually they are within 10 feet or so of the gun and don't appear to be flying at missile speed. I've never been hit by one, so I can't tell you how much damage they are capable of.

Personally, I prefer fiberglass. They are lighter, there is no worry about knocking the plug out, the rim dosn't stretch or shrink, some are sealed from ground moisture (some leak) and they seem just as strong as HDPE.