Milling

[ray]

Would it be wrong to mill AP, alu, and a bit of Fe ? hoping to get a better thrust if i can do this, with a binder of course, thank you.....

[greenlight]

I would not put any mixed oxidiser and fuel compositions in a ball mill other than black powder even if the binder is present.

Ammonium perchlorate is quite a strong oxidiser too.

 

If I am right shouldn't you be able to mill or grind the two seperately, mix them well and then add the binder.

Edited January 11, 2017 by greenlight

[OldMarine]

For everything other than BP I mill the ingredients separately then screen together. What you propose is very dangerous.

[Mumbles]

To be totally honest, milling AP on it's own has it's own set of issues. It in itself, is technically an explosive which can be set off by impact. Ball mills probably would be fine, but I would make sure to do it far away from property and things you care about. Additionally, once you get below a certain particle size the handling and safety issues reportedly increase.

 

Everyone else is correct though. I would not mill any live composition that's not BP or BP components. I would say this is especially true when metals are involved.

[gdeputy]

If you're having low thrust issues with AP based propellants, something is going wrong other than how well things are mixed. Are you using a binder, or are these just pressed, or....? What Kn (ratio of propellant surface area / nozzle throat surface area) are you running the motor at?