insutama Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I have a large amount of 230 mesh atomized magnesium just wondering what i could use this for in pyro other than making flash powder. Is there anyway i can use it to make stars or anything ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogeryermaw Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 absolutely. magnesium is great for stars. it has extreme light output but it is very reactive so use caution. mind compatibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOPETES Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Insutama.Indeed, magnesium can use it to make colorful stars, meteors to adorn the rise of aerial shells or meteors for Roman candles. Color purity and brightness achieved with magnesium exceeds that obtained with magnalium, but for added security and to use water-alcohol to the stars was invented magnalium, much less reactive but sacrificing some brightness and purity color. Anyway most of the colors you can see in fireworks throughout the world are made magnalium. If you want to use water-alcohol magnesium should always be used compulsorily potassium dichromate but with great caution and good protective equipment for your body and your lungs, but you have the other option of working with magnesium and MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), acetone or a mixture of both to make stars or meteors without danger of autoignition, applying the layers below priming, but the layer of black powder must contain red rubber in place of dextrin. There are some types of magnesium having a passivation protection or otherwise, as stearin, making them somewhat less reactive, but the best method is to dilute in water bottle alcohol an amount of potassium dichromate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogeryermaw Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 as JOPETES says: magnesium is best treated with a dichromate salt to passivate the surface of the magnesium. also as he cautioned: dichromates leave a waste product that is both harmful to you and the enviornment. check with your local hazmat waste disposal facilities to see if they accept carcinogenic liquid wastes before you make a solution you can't get rid of safely. reactive metals like magnesium react quickly and viloently with water which we use a lot of for binding. the reaction releases heat which drives the raction faster. passivation elimintes the reactive surface with an oxide layer that will protect it from further reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPyro Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I think magnesium is also good for white flare compositions. You could try your hand at making some parachute shells! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 My 5 cents. Color stars made with magnesium only require 60 # with 100 -120 being the optimum. Your 230# is propably best used in vitamin f or in hot primes. If you make flash with it, have a look into sulfate flashes, 1:1 sulfate to mg. It has a quite different aound, compared normal 7/3 (really low pitched), and e.g. if made with bariumsulphate gives a nice green flash. For the part mentioned above, do not use dichromate. It is a nasty poison witch can be left out. For passivation use lineseed oil. Except if you where hoing to use AP. An other good treatment is the use of parlon in a solvent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andres1511 Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I would make Magnalium with your Mg.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMetcalf Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Magnesium does indeed produce very nice colour stars with a good colour depth. This is because the formation of Magnesium Chloride in the flame is relatively colour neutral so it doesn't 'wash out' the flame with the added white you get from Aluminium, either alone or as part of Magnalium. The mesh size you have will burn fast so it might not be that suitable for star production but the best option is probably to find a nice Parlon bound composition and try a small batch and see how you go. With it being Parlon bound you can skip the treatment step as the Parlon will waterproof the star. Shimizu has some good Magnesium fuelled compositions if I remember rightly, although they may have PVC as the chlorine donor but you can just do a straight swap out for Parlon and not have much of a change in the star qualities I imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Yes shimizu has very nice mg fomulas. If you want to use parlon, swap 15% of the pvc for mg to keep the result. Making magnallium from 230# mg would be a waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insutama Posted June 6, 2015 Author Share Posted June 6, 2015 thanks for all the replys guys. looks like ill need to get some more chems before i can make stars with mg. but good to know i can put this 4lbs of mg to use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts