peterpyro Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 I want to get a better variety of chemicals, to make cooler stuff for the 4th of July, and have been contemplating what I should get. Last year i depleted all of my potassium nitrate, potassium perchlorate, charcoal (homemade from plum trees) I think I still have a bit of sulfur left, still have plenty of Dark pyro and blue aluminum, slowly accumulating some steel shavings, still have some barium and sodium nitrate, I think that's about all that I can think of right now. The chemicals I am looking to get are: Mg/Al (200mesh), (more) Potassium perchlorate and nitrate, Potassium chlorate (which i cant seem to find anywhere except Skylighter, but I don't want to pay their price), Red Gum, Parlon, strontium Nitrate, Copper (II) oxide, Charcoal of course, and some more sulfur (depending on what I have left, id have to go check). With these chemicals, I have a few recipes that I have scoped out: SparklersExtra bright torchFountain #1Cone Fountain #3Flying-Squib #3Flying Squib #2Metallic star dustBrilliant white starPirotex's Violet stars Of course these are not the only things I will be making, but this is what I have planned to make. Anyone got anything to say or suggestions on chemicals to buy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkWhisperer Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 That list should keep you pretty busy for awhile. Can never have too much perc, KNO3, charcoal, metals. Doubt anybody's going to go through your project list one-by-one. Atomized Al is always useful, too--I like Alcoa 120. Cheap and useful as is, or you can screen sort various size ranges. Plenty of others, too. Consider some carbonates for colored metal stars. Perhaps some sulfates if you plan to mess around with ground-based strobes. FWC has KClO3 in stock for $6/pound, though you can do a whole lot probably without ever needing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justvisiting Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Homemade charcoal from plum trees, you say! How good is it? Do you use it for your BP, and if so, how do you process it? I ask all these questions because plum charcoal was found to be the best performer for black powder in a study in Pyrotechnica 17 by Roger O 'Neill. Since then, we've come close to one guy testing it, but he never posted any results. To be fair, all the charcoals and BPs in the study went through unusually laborious processes to make black powder that was milled for 'just' one hour. I always expected that under 'normal' amateur pyro conditions of preparation, plum would be way far down the list. Just curious what the OPs real world experience with it was Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterpyro Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 SharkWhisperer I have seen FWCB's chlorate, but I'm a kid, and my pocketbook doesn't like that you have to buy at least 2 pounds, though I might just have to do that. Justvisiting, I'm quite the noob, so I don't really have much experience with discerning whether or not plum charcoal is as good as they say, but it works well for me, and its the only thing I've had access to so far. when I was starting, I did some research, and found that Plum was supposed to be the better alternative to willow, so I went to my plum tree in my backyard and found a couple branches to use. I don't have a ball mill, but I use a coffee grinder that I got from a local thrift store. I just mill the PN and sulfur together, then the charcoal, and then mix them. This plum tree is got some problem with it, and I think we are going to cut it down soon. You can PM me if you want a sample. Another thing that I have recently thought of just randomly is going down to some kind of metal store and seeing if they have metal shavings that I could snag, but id have to do a bit of research... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justvisiting Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Thanks for the info and the offer peterpyro! I do have some plum myself, but never got around to testing it. Now that I read that you are "a kid", let me just say one thing: potassium chlorate can bite you on the ass more easily than many other chems. I played with it as a kid, and had a few close calls. If anyone ever suggests trying Armstrong's mixture- Don't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkWhisperer Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) I personally wouldn't be grinding KNO3 with sulfur (low ignition temp) together in a coffee grinder. Sounds like a fire waiting to happen. In your hands. Suggest grinding separately (or sulfur with charcoal, but charcoal alone is super messy in a coffee grinder as it is and can only do small batches). And best if you had a separate coffee grinder for oxidizers and another for fuels. And if you can see dust floating off your chems when you open your grinder, it's a good bet that you're breathing that in. Be safe.Peterpyro: "I don't have a ball mill, but I use a coffee grinder that I got from a local thrift store. I just mill the PN and sulfur together, then the charcoal, and then mix them." Edited January 20, 2021 by SharkWhisperer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterpyro Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 justvisiting thanks for the heads up, I'm already past Armstrong mix cause I cant seem to find the counterpart as it seems to be very hard to come by in the U.S. or anywhere, and I've already had the thrill of firecrackers, so... SharkWhisperer i hear a lot of people say that, and while i do think it could happen, at the small rate and large time intervals between, I think ill be ok. Also I like the idea of a respirator when doing that... Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiSkittlis Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Well barium nitrate for green, if you're into that. (I have a really nice green formula if you're intrested) Also one thing that I regret not getting myself is ammonium perchlorate for strobes, and the bismuth-wathever for crackling stars. Other than that you're good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterpyro Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 i have some barium nitrate, and id like to hear the formula. Ammonium perchlorate sounds a bit scary, and the bismuth trioxide or subcarbonate/lead tetroxide is expensive, but someday I will... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiSkittlis Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 (edited) Actually, I'm not quite happy with it yet but here's what I have so far: 60-barium nitrate15-magnalium15-parlon10-red gum The reason I say I'm not quite happy with it yet is becuase I have thought of adding a few percent of copper oxide to it to make it just a bit more blue-ish and have had some succes so far, but haven't come up with a perfect formula just yet. Nontheless they are still probably the nicest green I have tried (in my opinion), and I tried dozens. You can also substitute barium for strontium, also looks quite nice, but there are probably better reds out there. To clarify, I haven't come up with the formula compleatly on my own, but have slightly modified one of them, don't know what it's called, but the modification improved it significantly. Bellow is a 4" N1 to green shell I made. Don't look directly at the stars but kinda around them when they are the brightest, that's what they look like irl.(Also excuse the portrait mode, my camerawoman is an idiot lol) http://pyrobin.com/files/20201231_190843.mp4 Edited January 26, 2021 by BiSkittlis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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