Kitty Litter as nozzle mix?

[dagabu]

Has anybody ever tried like 50/50 bentonite and Kyanite???

 

That is the nozzle in my pic, 100 parts Kaolin, 100 parts Bentonite, 10 parts toilet wax ring dissolved in white gas, 1 part graphite. (Ned Gorski?)

[PyroMan16]

Or has anybody tried granulating bentonite to make it easier to work with?? Think I saw it on the Amazing 5-cent rocket article

[Eric70]

Or has anybody tried granulating bentonite to make it easier to work with?? Think I saw it on the Amazing 5-cent rocket article

 

Please share details on how to do this, never heard of it.

[dagabu]

Please share details on how to do this, never heard of it.

 

LOL!

 

Sure, take some unscented kitty litter and smash it with a hammer! Seriously, just ram kitty litter raw, no grinding necessary for tame BP rockets. Ball mill it (for a real long time!!) if you want air float.

 

Erci, look and my avatar, its a Bentonite/*Kaonite/wax mix, makes super hard nozzles and wont accordion the casing walls.

 

Dave

 

Referred to as Kaolin in an earlier post, that was clay I got for pottery.

[dagabu]

Try putting a piece of masking tape on the bottom, and ramming on a smoother surface.

 

You will see nice jump in performance if you allow for a jet bell for escaping gasses and if you taper the inside of the nozzle, you will see higher pressures without as many failures. Its all about fluid dynamics.

 

Dave

[Eric70]

LOL!

 

Sure, take some unscented kitty litter and smash it with a hammer! Seriously, just ram kitty litter raw, no grinding necessary for tame BP rockets. Ball mill it (for a real long time!!) if you want air float.

 

Erci, look and my avatar, its a Bentonite/*Kaonite/wax mix, makes super hard nozzles and wont accordion the casing walls.

 

Dave

 

Referred to as Kaolin in an earlier post, that was clay I got for pottery.

 

 

Dave, I was just being a dink. I am a journalism major and sometimes I cannot help myself.

 

I have something of a pet-peeve for posters who say "has anyone tried doing...?" Okay, if you have done it please elaborate with details or a link. It may help others. Mind you I say pet-peeve, I don't have it in for Pyroman16 or anyone else.

 

I knew what Pyroman was talking about, I have seen the Amazing 5-Cent Rocket article, probably have it archived somewhere, too. One could do a google search for the article but for such a small facet of information you might as well sum it up in the post.

 

My nozzles work fine but I am always open to more information. What I need to get dialed-in is headers for my rockets, need some nice effects. I am hoping to find time this month to make some stars before the weather turns cold.

[dagabu]

Dave, I was just being a dink. I am a journalism major and sometimes I cannot help myself.

 

I have something of a pet-peeve for posters who say "has anyone tried doing...?" Okay, if you have done it please elaborate with details or a link. It may help others. Mind you I say pet-peeve, I don't have it in for Pyroman16 or anyone else.

 

I knew what Pyroman was talking about, I have seen the Amazing 5-Cent Rocket article, probably have it archived somewhere, too. One could do a google search for the article but for such a small facet of information you might as well sum it up in the post.

 

My nozzles work fine but I am always open to more information. What I need to get dialed-in is headers for my rockets, need some nice effects. I am hoping to find time this month to make some stars before the weather turns cold.

 

Are you a member of Northern Lighters Pyrotechnics? If not, come to the next shoot at Guardian Angles next Saturday, you will get about a thousand ideas for headers. I don't mind the smarty pants stuff, got thick skin

[Eric70]

Are you a member of Northern Lighters Pyrotechnics? If not, come to the next shoot at Guardian Angles next Saturday, you will get about a thousand ideas for headers. I don't mind the smarty pants stuff, got thick skin

 

I am not a member, probably will give that serious consideration next year. I live in SE Minnesota and work 2nd shift during the week. I think there are a lot more people in the area into fireworks than I ever imagined. I work in Rochester and a few times a year I see some shells going off in the west when I am outside on break. I have heard there's a club in that area, not sure.

 

I have been shooting Class C stuff for 24 years and love watching the professional displays. Over 6 years ago I started studying how to build your own. A friend helped me make the tooling and I made my first 1 lb BP rocket in early 2006 - rolled my own tubes, loaded up on 4-oz bottles of sulfur from a dollar store going out of business, found the rest at Walmart. The sulfur is sublimed so it is acidic, that is okay as long as it is not used with chlorates.

 

I bought some of that crackling fuse from Pyrocreations and that makes a nice simple header fill for the 8 oz BP rockets. The only thing I have done for headers on the 1 lb rockets is sticking on top one of those strobing flash pot things you can buy around here. For some reason my friends think that is cool watching it come down like a falling star. It burns out about 50-75 feet from the ground. The 3 lb BP rockets are still in a testing phase, I think when 10 in a row perform without any glitches it will be time for some headers. I roll my own 3 lb tubes, cheaper that way. Bought some 1 lb tubes earlier this year when Skylighter was having its big sale.

 

Hopefully I will find time to start building my own shells - we shall see in the next year or two.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Eric70

[Ventsi]

WHAT the F ???

So I bought 10# of tidy cats and sieved some trough a 20 mesh screen and tried to ram it as a nozzle. Worked poorly but usable, did a fountain to bounce with it. The nozzle ripped out of the top of the paper tube at the bounce stage, it was still in one piece but it was a bit crumbly from the beginning.

 

Then I blended some cat litter until it was pretty fine , heated it and mixed in a 80/20 ratio with wax. This didn't work for shit, the stuff was really fluffy and compacted vert poorly, though it gripped the tube walls quite well.

I got so frustrated after a day of trying out different meshes, different % of wax and so on that I just abandoned the project.

I'd appreciate some help from someone who has worked with Tidy Cats Litter ,

[dagabu]

WHAT the F ???

So I bought 10# of tidy cats and sieved some trough a 20 mesh screen and tried to ram it as a nozzle. Worked poorly but usable, did a fountain to bounce with it. The nozzle ripped out of the top of the paper tube at the bounce stage, it was still in one piece but it was a bit crumbly from the beginning.

 

Then I blended some cat litter until it was pretty fine , heated it and mixed in a 80/20 ratio with wax. This didn't work for shit, the stuff was really fluffy and compacted vert poorly, though it gripped the tube walls quite well.

I got so frustrated after a day of trying out different meshes, different % of wax and so on that I just abandoned the project.

I'd appreciate some help from someone who has worked with Tidy Cats Litter ,

 

Sorry, I hope you have a cat

 

What you need is the cheapest, most basic, no scent, no color, no flavor crystals, no nothing but clay, kitty litter. Pour a few inches in the bottom of a pail and pound it down with a 2x4, no need to air-float out of it. If you pay shipping, I will send you what I have.

[Ventsi]

Exactly what I have, I pounded on it pretty hard with a 2lb Raw-Hide mallet on top of my ramming post. The stuff is pure bentonite. I paid $1.50 for 10 pounds, doesn't get much cheaper than that.

 

I suppose I'll keep on trying tomorrow. I'll tone the wax down and try different milling times/meshes/additives.

 

Thanks though.

 

EDIT:

LOL, flavor crystals.... ,I'll have see about that.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Ventsi

[TYRONEEZEKIEL]

No Flavor crystals..

 

HAHA :lol:

[dagabu]

Exactly what I have, I pounded on it pretty hard with a 2lb Raw-Hide mallet on top of my ramming post. The stuff is pure bentonite. I paid $1.50 for 10 pounds, doesn't get much cheaper than that.

 

I suppose I'll keep on trying tomorrow. I'll tone the wax down and try different milling times/meshes/additives.

 

Thanks though.

 

EDIT:

LOL, flavor crystals.... ,I'll have see about that.

 

Sorry, I'm at a loss. I press everything, big sissy boy with ten fully intact fingers and two thumbs... er, eight fingers. Hammers are great for putting racks together and driving re-bar through eyelets, not rocket building.

[Mumbles]

Eric, if you're interested, I could give you the contact information for a WPAG member in your area. We're having a shoot in 2 weeks. If you come, I bet you can hear some interesting stories from Steve LaDuke. He's one of my favorite parts of the shoots.

[FrankRizzo]

Tidy cat is way too name-brand. You want the cheapest stuff you can find at Wal-Mart....Special Kitty

 

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/07/87/42/12/0007874212690_215X215.jpg

[Mumbles]

Is that a new bag? It was always in red bags for me.

[Eric70]

It should be the red bag (that's what I use). Looks identical to the yellow one but it is strictly clay, no "flavor crystals."

 

 

 

Tidy cat is way too name-brand. You want the cheapest stuff you can find at Wal-Mart....Special Kitty

 

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/07/87/42/12/0007874212690_215X215.jpg

[TheSidewinder]

Eric is correct, the red bag is the one with no "Odor Control" additives.

 

An easy way to tell is just take a small handful and inspect it.

 

The yellow bag has granules which are partly colored blue.

 

The red bag has granules that are strictly gray.

 

Where I live, the yellow bag costs a SMALL amount more than the red bag, but either one will work just fine.

[dagabu]

Tidy cat is way too name-brand. You want the cheapest stuff you can find at Wal-Mart....Special Kitty

 

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/07/87/42/12/0007874212690_215X215.jpg

 

Special Kitty... Awww! "He blowed up real good, didn't he?"

[FrankRizzo]

The WalMart in my area stopped carrying the red bad in anything other than 50lb bulk, so I started using the yellow bag stuff. They both work the same. The yellow has a bit of a perfume to it, there's no silica gel crystals in it. Edited September 15, 2009 by FrankRizzo

[dagabu]

The WalMart in my area stopped carrying the red bad in anything other than 50lb bulk, so I started using the yellow bag stuff. They both work the same. The yellow has a bit of a perfume to it, there's no silica gel crystals in it.

 

Flavor crystals are essential to good smellin tail.... er, uh, oh, uh, nevermind

[Eric70]

That 50 lb bag would last a long time! The 25 lb one (or is it 20) is going to last me a few years.

 

The WalMart in my area stopped carrying the red bad in anything other than 50lb bulk, so I started using the yellow bag stuff. They both work the same. The yellow has a bit of a perfume to it, there's no silica gel crystals in it.

[trag]

Just so I have it laid out explicitly...

 

The plain clay kitty litter such as Special Kitty from Walmart is all (or mostly all) bentonite clay?

 

Also, I was thinking about adhesion to the tube wall. What if one were to add perhaps .1% - .5% expandable graphite to the nozzle mix? Expandable Graphite

 

As the nozzle heats up the graphite would expand, and either fill in erosion and help it grip the tube better, or-- plug the nozzle, and pop the tube. One or the other...

 

It could be an interesting experiment though.

[TheSidewinder]

Yes, the Special Kitty brand in the red bag is all Bentonite.

 

The yellow bag has some additive for odor control, but the amount is negligible and you don't need to adjust for it in any way.

 

For adhesion, use fractured Grog. It's available at pottery supply stores, and that's where I got mine. It's roughly 40 mesh.

 

(I think Graphite would *decrease* wall adhesion?)

 

Graphite mostly reduces nozzle erosion.

[Ventsi]

I just got to try out some *real* super fine bentonite clay. My mom bought a 1lb tub , for god knows what but I swooped a little and tried it as a nozzle by ramming it. I must say it worked absolutely great, nice smooth, easy to drill in to , no flaking, super hard etc..

 

So I've given my cat litter away and placed an order for 1lb of clay from Cracker. I'll make some legitimate nozzle mix once I get it.

 

PS: This was pure % Bentonite, or at least so the box states. It costs $7 and I was making fun of my mom the whole way home for buying it.