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Its OK, Utube sucks, try a real pyro site...

 

http://www.pyrobin.com/

 

Dave

 

 

Yes some of youtubes tuts are very unreliable but some are good, (very few) !!whistle.gif

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  • 3 months later...

Isn't "Flowers of sulfur" acidic?

Can't remember exactly why but I do know it isn't recomended

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Isn't "Flowers of sulfur" acidic?

Can't remember exactly why but I do know it isn't recomended

 

Yes but for BP is it important? I have used it in the past and it worked fine but I have a source of rubber makers sulfur now so I dont bother. DUDA Diesel has sulfur and it is very nice!

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Flowers of sulfur is chemically the same as any other sulfur. It's just been sublimed to purify it. It is more acidic than some other types, so be sure not to use it around chlorates.
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Yes but for BP is it important? I have used it in the past and it worked fine but I have a source of rubber makers sulfur now so I dont bother. DUDA Diesel has sulfur and it is very nice!

 

 

that rubber makers from Duda is purdy aint it :lol:

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Bah, that'll teach me to read to the end of the thread before replying, lol... Edited by TheSidewinder
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  • 1 year later...

I agree with updup, dont use the CIA method, it's outdated and really messy. Screen the comp, ball mill, wet with (I use a little red gum) alcohol and rice (hardware cloth).

 

Fast easy and most important of all: Consistent

 

D

 

so you add some red gum along with dextrin in your bp? could i just use dextrin with no alcohol. and does "rice" refer to pushing it thru a hardware cloth? is that the same as a 4 mesh screen or 10 mesh etc etc

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Hardware cloth is another term for a metal screen. Most likely Dag is using something on the order of 4 or 6 mesh (at a guess). Ricing is basically using the screen like a cheese grater with your doughy composition causing it to be granulated.
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  • 2 years later...
OK it seems everybody's uses the bp formula 75/15/10. OK here's my problem I think my powder is too fast. I made an Estes E rocket motor for my model rocket I ball milled it for 6 hours when I assembled the motor I went for a test launch and it blew up before it could get up.I want to slow it down a little how much charcoal should I add to lets say every 50 grams of bp. I'm using airfloat charcoal verry fine, a yellow flour like sulphur which is also fine. And a good nozzle mix using grog and wax. My nozzle hole is 3 sixteenths and it is a core end burning. So the bp fuel is a solid fuel all the way up to the header. Thanks for any info. On and my bp is granulated through a 16 mesh screen if that makes a difference.
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It is important to conduct post-mortem analysis on failed devices. This can reveal quite a bit of information about the nature of the failure. The nozzle being blown out has a certain set of implications while the tube being destroyed completely has a different set of implications.

 

How was the fuel compacted? I've had nozzleless rockets explode due to poor fuel compaction.

 

Was the fuel granulated with a binder?

 

It's possible that this was a fluke failure, since if the fuel was made with commonly available mixed hardwood charcoal, I have my doubts about it being too fast.

 

I'd make one or two more, and if both of those blow up, maybe widen the nozzle a bit.

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Check Ned Gorski's tutorial on BP, it is very reactive when ball milled and whetted. No pressing necessary. Pressing pucks accomplishes what integration in a ball mill or a wheel mill does (same thing), they both force the KNO3 into the carbon.

This was news to me.

So you say, I can save my money for a ballmill, and try to get savings for a bigger one, and then use my press meanwhile?

That's awesome :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ricmisano,

 

75/15/10 is the ratio for standard BP used for lift powder and burst charge. Most rocket fuels are not quite as "hot" of mix. If you have really good charcoal and other quality chemicals in the mix it will be too "hot" of a ratio for BP motors. You could add more charcoal to your BP mix to slow the powder down for a rocket fuel.

Or just keep your good BP for lift and burst charge and make a new batch of BP for rocket fuel.

Most people have a hard time making hot BP, you did a good job save it for what it is best used for.

The only other option is to press your fuel grain at higher pressures to reduce the likely-hood of catos.

Estes presses motors at fairly high pressures on the fuel grain and use strong walled tubes.

Edited by mikeee
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  • 5 weeks later...

What they said or he, she..whatever yah my hot bp blows up nozzled rockets every time. Either go nozzleless or change powder to 60/30/10. use the same tubes and everything the same, ram it the same just change the powder and go from there.

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  • 8 months later...

i use my lead uncoated for that reason, and im not crazy worried about the lead in the smoke(heh, i'd be much more worried of barium or Dichromate contamination then lead in my smoke) 000 buckshot? Hmm i'll have to look into that, and its not like you put the balls in and they suddenly "shrink" apon usage, they do shrink, but a takes quite a few batches to get them down quite a bit. I'd be more worried about my drinking water(amount of heavy metals-wise). I plan on gettting ceramic, but would rather have non-sparking SS. Mumbles, do you know what non-sparking steel is called/found by? (numbers or names, ect?) theres a factory up in the city that makes steel balls(all size's) and from what i heard they dont have a minimum order on account of the economy/ect. i want to see if they carry balls in that kind, and what price.

I've been using hard lead alloy for my balls, I've tried 50 cal and 44 cal both. The 50 seems to work best for me. I do a lot of bullet casting and keep my alloy pretty hard as I drive some of the pretty fast. A little linotype goes a long way in hardening the alloy.

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  • 3 years later...
  • 9 months later...
Hello fellow pyro's. Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this, so sorry in advance. I am going to make black powder for the first time and I am planning on granulating the BP. But I dont know what mesh screen to use for optimum performance as lift for small shells. I plan on shooting 9/16 tube shells to start then work my way up slowly. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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  • 1 month later...
Hi thanks for the tutorial. If my black powder dose not burn at all and only leaves behind glowing chunks, what could be the problem?
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  • 7 months later...

Here are some links to Black Powder Documentation:

 

Ulrich Bretscher's Black Powder Web Pages

 

The Open Range: The complete Mad Monk Files

 

The complete writings of The Mad Monk concerning the history of manufacture and research into modern manufacture of BP aka gunpowder.

 

Link to .zip which includes all 23 files as a single download

Edited by SeaMonkey
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Here are some links to Black Powder Documentation:

 

Ulrich Bretscher's Black Powder Web Pages

 

The Open Range: The complete Mad Monk Files

 

The complete writings of The Mad Monk concerning the history of manufacture and research into modern manufacture of BP aka gunpowder.

 

Link to .zip which includes all 23 files as a single download

Are people really that dim that they light up 8-month old links from a Huckleberry poster to provide useful info in a timely fashion? Could they be the same people that provide free pirating links to adult children who plainly state their illicit intentions, not long after they detail how they almost burned their house down by drying stars under a wood-burning oven indoors, with the GF hiding scared in a closet with her face covered to breathe? Or that provides impact explosives links to a fool who has no (none/zip-zero) knowledge of basic chemistry?

 

Monkey, you've demonstrated enviable genius here. I appreciate that you were born in the first half of the 1900s. but please don't let chronological age conquer your accumulated wisdom and common sense.

Edited by SharkWhisperer
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OK it seems everybody's uses the bp formula 75/15/10. OK here's my problem I think my powder is too fast. I made an Estes E rocket motor for my model rocket I ball milled it for 6 hours when I assembled the motor I went for a test launch and it blew up before it could get up.I want to slow it down a little how much charcoal should I add to lets say every 50 grams of bp. I'm using airfloat charcoal verry fine, a yellow flour like sulphur which is also fine. And a good nozzle mix using grog and wax. My nozzle hole is 3 sixteenths and it is a core end burning. So the bp fuel is a solid fuel all the way up to the header. Thanks for any info. On and my bp is granulated through a 16 mesh screen if that makes a difference.

These old posts are a hoot !!! "My nozzle hole is 3 sixteenths and it is a core end burning."

 

Bwahhhh hah ha ha ha!!!!

 

"Core end-burning"!!!

 

I pound ALL of my finned rocket F & G impulse motors. And some Es (most fireworkers won't know these terms--they're specific impulse range of commercial BP, and APCP, motors) With BP, they are variable cores. "Semi-end burners"? Where's the cutoff? But "Core end-burning" is a contradiction that's to me too funny!

 

Peace

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