pyroMIKE Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 (edited) Wanting to make some cut stars of this for 4 and 6 inch shells.. Couple questions. What is the best prime for these?When it says use 25% alcohol, what does that mean, and what type of alcohol ? Edited December 19, 2017 by pyroMIKE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldMarine Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 (edited) The 25% is by weight and denatured alcohol is the one of choice. Don't just dump all of the alcohol in or you may end up with a slurry rather than a patty and you'll be twiddling your thumbs until it evaporates enough to make it usable. DAMHIK As far as the prime I use a layer of monocapa covered with a screen mixed BP+ 5%silicon on most everything but charcoal based stars. Edited December 20, 2017 by OldMarine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starxplor Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Usually when I see 25% alcohol, they mean 25% of liquid is alcohol, 75% is water, and then a couple of percent of weight of comp is used of this solution. So, a 100g batch would use maybe 5% solution, 5g weight, and of the 5 gram, 1.25g would be alcohol and 3.75g would be water. I am not sure I have ever seen 25% being the total solution, that seems very high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldMarine Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 I've not seen that much alcohol either but if it is a water wetted I've never seen more than 10% alcohol added to break the surface tension of the water to help wet the comp. I didn't ask about the formula and only answered the question as presented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldMarine Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Looked the formula up and it is a water bound comp so more than 10% alcohol will keep the dextrin from binding properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 The 25% alcohol thing probably originated with the PFP or an older pyro database. It was probably recommended in one formula and got propagated all over the place. I don't know how much alcohol inhibits dextrin binding. I have known people who use 25% without issue. There are some some cases where you can use straight 70% isopropanol without issue with dextrin bound stars. I don't think anyone really understands that one just yet. I try to use as little as possible personally. The drying time, despite popular conception, is really not changed significantly. The amount of alcohol really isn't that critical to be honest. It helps to break the surface tension of water, and helps to get the liquid distributed faster and easier. I use a splash when I'm wetting and call it good. Isopropyl alcohol is my preferred choice. Ethyl/Denatured is a fine choice as well. For cutting stars you tend to get stars on the wetter side of things. You can certainly pre-mix your wetting solution or make up a stock. Pouring some in for your pyro homies also works just fine. Typically I add about 80% of the estimated water I'm going to need, toss in some alcohol, and kneed it all together. From there I finish off the wetting to the desired consistency with a spray bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMat Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 I make a stock solution of 80/20 water/ denatured alcohol and use it for stars and BP. Unless, alcohol is specifically not to be used, as the old lady in the hot sauce commercial says: "I put that sh%t on everything." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynomike1 Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 I use 75/25 well water and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and never had a binder problem with Dextrin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NtzPrinter Posted December 23, 2017 Share Posted December 23, 2017 I typically use a solution of 75 parts distilled water to 25 parts denatured alcohol. Works well on all of the dextrin bound comps I've used. Never had any problems with the dextrin not binding the comp and drying into hard stars, comets, etc. When pressing on the hydraulic press I add about 5% by weight of wetting solution to the comp. Run the wetted comp thru a 20 mesh screen 3 times to get a good, thoroughly homogenized mix ready for pressing. I also use it when rolling primes containing dextrin onto stars by misting stars in the roller and adding dry prime powder to stars as they roll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NtzPrinter Posted December 23, 2017 Share Posted December 23, 2017 (edited) Wanting to make some cut stars of this for 4 and 6 inch shells.. Couple questions. What is the best prime for these?When it says use 25% alcohol, what does that mean, and what type of alcohol ?For this star comp, I normally use BP meal powder with about 10% metal (AL, Mag/Al or silicon). The added metal helps to ignite these stars. This is fine as long as you used the Bleser White Strobe formula containing potassium nitrate, barium nitrate, sulfur, Mag/Al and dextrin. As for the wetting solution, I use 25% by weight of denatured alcohol mixed with 75% by weight of distilled water. It's not really critical. You can just fill a measuring cup with 3/4 cup water and add another 1/4 cup of alcohol to get a good mix. Typically the water/alcohol solution is added at 5% of whatever the total composition weighs. After adding the wetting solution, run the comp through a 20 mesh screen 3-4 times to get a good distribution of the liquid into the comp. Edited December 23, 2017 by NtzPrinter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyroMIKE Posted December 23, 2017 Author Share Posted December 23, 2017 You guys are awesome.Thats what i was gonna do was 25% alcohol 75% water then 5% by weight of the solution. I just wanted some assurance..Thankyou for the help!! Merry Xmas and happy new year!! Gonna make a couple pounds of these stars for white strobe shells..Pretty pumped about it LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynomike1 Posted December 23, 2017 Share Posted December 23, 2017 I roll Blessers white strobe and they are easy to light but i still put fence post and BP w/ silicone on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bengalPyro2000 Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Last week I made some white stobe.. I rolled them by using of 70/30 alcohol /water solution. Primed them with simple prime 90:5:5 (meal powder :charcoal :Dextrin) +5%magniliam. This method work very well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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