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The best flash powder


weknowpyro

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Hi,

This thread will be mainly to talk about the best flash powder out of thema all.

Firstly i would put at the bottom Kno3 and Al as it seems no better than regular meal powder. Second to last comes in with kno3 + mg i have seen this used many times in salutes and just makes a loud pop and shoot tubes across the gardens. The rest is up to you say wht u think....

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I know someone is going to say what makes the best? The safest, the loudest?

 

I would say that superfine Mg or Mgal with chlorate would be the scariest. Lowest critical mass, very loud, and very powerful. Of course then there is all the additives you can add to make it even more sensitive, scarier, and maybe a bit more powerful.

 

For the all around best flash powder, in terms of safety, loudness, stability, and power would be good ol' potassium perchlorate and dark aluminum 70/30. At least I think so.

 

There are places where you may need real fine mg or mgal with perc, such as in breaking a small crossette.

 

Mag/55 is also reported to be a very powerful flash composition.

 

I have personally made flash with superfine mgal and KClO4. It is very powerful stuff indeed! As well as having a critical mass of less then a gram! I don't think I would combine this mgal with chlorate for any reason other then maybe a 1/20 of a gram as a test for my curiosity.

 

Also, KNO3 with Mg can be pretty powerful itself. I think it is mostly dependant upon the particle size of the Mg.

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Well, if we are going to play dirty, then perhaps one could use exotic oxidisers/fuels; say XeO3, and perhaps some Nd powder?

 

For practicality purposes, KClO4/Al is the easiest, and gets the job done nicely.

 

There are speciality flash mixes, ones with more power, slower ones, darker bursting ones...

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i personally have not made it but have handled and messed around with flash powder..i have only heard aluminum and perch. and heard the nitrate is just more dangerous...aluminum and perch will do just fine..
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How about KMnO4 based flashes. I've heard them to be very powerful but also to be more sensitive than the traditional flashes. I have had had good experience with it but have steered away from it lately.

 

Now for the all around winner, I agree with al as being the potassium perchlorate and dark aluminum 70/30. Safer than the KMnO4 and more stable.

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Of course, one has to wonder how KClO3/Zr flash would perform? Outrageously expensive and I imagine just about as sensitive :blink: ? I'll stick with my 70/30, thank you.
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Yeah i would agree with you altogether Kclo4 has a winner for its self but some exotic flashes can be an intresting substitute sometimes.

 

For example i used a exoctic flash for my aerial salute as seen in my pic using kmn04 and al + s and had about 5g of this stuff and it made hell of a bang.

 

I thought I told you this before, don't double post. Use the edit button.

 

-Rooster

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Well, if we are going to play dirty, then perhaps one could use exotic oxidisers/fuels; say XeO3, and perhaps some Nd powder?

I tried a Nd and sodium peroxide one once....too bad sodium peroxide is so hygroscopic. I have also tried Mg and sodium peroxide as I do not exactly have much Nd powder. Even without measuring components or using finely powdered metals and just fine crystals of peroxide it still gets a rating of 'oh god my eyes'.

:P

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Theres a flash mix on Powerlabs that says loudest report with perchlorate. I've made it, and it works rather well but I dont know that its the loudest. Its

KClO4 64

Al 23

S 13

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I recently tried out a BaNO3 based flash powder and realized that the flash is much brighter than standard 70/30 and it produces a deeper boom. The testing was done using two 3g polumnas made with same size paper and same length of tape for reinforcement....even same size fuse not that it would really make a difference. The two were lit off right after each other.
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I personally like KClO4 and Al. Why mess with safety when its not worth having an accident.
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Frk, what ratios did you use for the BaNO3 flash? I made some 50/50 BaNO3/Mg flash before and it was extremely bright but I didnt try it in a salute or anything. It burned really fast unconfined though.
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If you want brightness, some Ba(NO3)2, Mg shavings, Al, and KClO3 was enough to have some friends and me stumbling around the back yard for about 5 minutes.

 

Barium nitrate is fun stuff, albiet toxic.

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The scariest flash I ever saw was 50/50 German dark Magnalium/Potassium Perchlorate.

 

Made a sharp bang at anything above 0.2g!

 

It's pointless to use this for anything but breaking tiny crossettes.

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The scariest flash I ever saw was 50/50 German dark Magnalium/Potassium Perchlorate.

 

Made a sharp bang at anything above 0.2g!

 

It's pointless to use this for anything but breaking tiny crossettes.

is this stable?

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I use permangante/AL/slufur it works great and ive never had any trouble with it regardless of what most people think altough i do take great care. me and 'weknowpyro' could never get chlorate/AL/S to work properly.
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The Ba(NO3)2 comp I used was

Green flash

Source: rec.pyrotechnics

Comments:

Preparation:

potassium perchlorate.............................6

barium nitrate....................................3

Aluminum powder...................................5

 

There are a couple different ones out there but I deffinitely thought it was a bright flash powder and was the only one I tried. Does anyone know any proven colored flashes using ba or sr nitrate or carbonate?

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I've made red from Sr(NO3)2, and green from Ba(NO3)2. The magnesium I used was -100 mesh. It is pretty powerful stuff. The red was very red. The green was kind of washed out, but there was definatly some green.

 

Red Flash

Strontium Nitrate - 50

Magnesium - 50

 

Green Flash

Barium Nitrate - 50

Magnesium - 50

 

I also highly suggest you guys move on from the Permanganate. As far as I am concerned anyone who continually uses permanganate in pyrotechnics is nothing more than a kewl, too lazy to get real oxidisers. Permanganate combined with sulfur is just asking for trouble. No matter how safe you think you are(probably a lot less safe than you think), it is extremely dangerous and you will get hurt. Sulfur increases it's sensitivity severely, and may cause spontaneous ignition. Even though I have 99.95% pure sulfur(yes, it really is that pure), I would never even think about mixing it with permanganate. You guys are probably lucky, and I mean really lucky, if yours is any purer than 97 or 98%.

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I only use KMnO4 for flash because it works with the aluminium I have. Once hobbychem gets in their 5 micron dark aluminium, im never going back to KMnO4.
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could u supsitute mg for al in the comps.i doubt it myself but just asking.

Why never go back to kmno4?

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Well it will be easier and cheaper to make KClO4/Al flash, and I dont like the chances of KMnO4 flash spontaneously igniting. Thats why the biggest device I have made with KMnO4 flash is 6g.
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