All10Fingers Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 So far, the only stars I've made are chrysanthemum, and tiger tails. I would like to move on to start making colors. I have a little bit of barium nitrate and some saran from cookbook. Even though I don't have all the ingredients for any single recipe I can find. I somehow managed to create a nice looking green with barium nitrate, potassium perchlorate, hexamine, aluminum and saran. It burns well in a pile but I haven't been able to get the stuff to clump and harden like a star should. I just used my last 50 grams to test out pvc pipe glue as a solvent/binder. But haven't tested them yet. Any advice on color mixes that someone with very limited resources can achieve, as well as methods for turning said comp into a decent star would be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Common binding system are. Water-dextrin Alcohol-red gum Acetone-parlon Nitrocellulose laquar. Wheat paste ( Hardt mentioned it for Aluminium stars) I have not heard about pvdc as a binder. Atleast if you have parlon you can bind it using acetone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All10Fingers Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 I'm not using pvdc as a binder, I need a binder FOR pvdc. I don't have parlon or red gum. I do have dextrin but I'm not certain of its compatibility, as most recipesI find don't recommend it. If i had some sort of solvent for saran that worked like acetone does to parlon, I could dissolve the pvdc, then it just might function as a binder...hence the pvc glue experiment. The glue is the clear liquid type, not the blue stuff or the gell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 40 minutes ago, All10Fingers said: I'm not using pvdc as a binder, I need a binder FOR pvdc. Binder is usually to bind composition in order to form loose powder form into pellets. I just cant get what you mean by "I need a binder for pvdc#? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Swede Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Pure PVDC cannot be used as a binder since it is not soluble in ordinary solvents. However, most available PVDC is not pure but a co-polymer with PVC but it is still not effective for binding stars. Add 3-5 % of PVB (polyvinyl butyral) to your composition and moisten it with a 10 % solution of NC in acetone or butyl acetate. It will dry rock hard! You might have to compensate the added fuel, although PVB is a very weak fuel, with a little more oxidizer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All10Fingers Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 The pvdc is from fireworks cookbook so i should hope its pyro grade, as it claims to be. But thank you this answers my question. Although I haven't even able to repeat that initial color. I just spooned a little of each into a cup and screened it a couple times. My next try at green is "green star #5" from pyrodata but again his uses parlon and acetone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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