Apollofrost Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 According to pyroguide you can substitute potassium perchlorate for kno3 to make gunpowder that burns purple. Is this true? Because that would be awesome. Article Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50AE Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Maybe great, but more expensive . I'll never use perchlorate instead of nitrate, because of it's price and also it's hard to find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Hi Hm, it is not very expensive here (expensiver, otherwise 4€/1000g). But I think that neither you can ball mill it like ordinary gunpowder nor can youram it in a tube for rockets. Well, it is really worth a try Stinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apollofrost Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 Well i'm thinking of making a small amount of the stuff and adding 5% aluminum to see if it would be suitable for rockets. But I might just end up with low grade flash instead of rocket fuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Yeah, that thread is a bunch of crap. It won't burn with a purple flame. Perch is really not much safer to mix with sulfur. The mix is essentially "KP", which is actually a much stronger burst than BP. You are correct, you would not want to ball mill it. For the high speed burning, it is much more pressure dependant than BP. I'm not positive whether or not a rocket would generate enough pressure. It would have to be a core burner at the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyco_1322 Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 What you would get is like Mumbles said is a KP powder that is usually used as burst for medium sized shells. It would also be comparable to a black powder substitute, AKA Pyrodex. That making about useless for lift. Its expensive in the sense of amount of powder for materails used. 700g of KP burst goes now where when put on rice hulls. The same with bp would yield you quite a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozentech Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 According to pyroguide you can substitute potassium perchlorate for kno3 to make gunpowder that burns purple. Is this true? Because that would be awesome. Article Here Burns purple ??? More like typical charcoal orange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Aside from the concern about mixing with sulfur, you can press perch mixes. Whistle rockets coming to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 You can, however, make an effective lift powder with only potassium *chlorate* and charcoal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I green mixed a 10 gram batch today to investigate, not that 10 grams is going to tell me much, but I am a chicken. 75:15:10, Mortar and pestle, some water and alcohol, screened, dried. What I found... first of all, it is more sensitive than BP. A pinch on concrete was easily detonated with a tack hammer. That surprised me a bit. A small pile burned much like a decent BP, especially quick for a green mix. In other words, if you need a few grams and don't feel like ball milling, the perchlorate green mix was better than an equivalent normal BP. But it was nowhere near as fast as a good milled BP, at least to my untrained eye. Being daylight, I didn't notice any colors at all. So that is definitely the question, why bother with perchlorate BP when regular BP is as effective, cheaper, and probably safer? Oh yes, Mumbles, do I have to worry now about the remaining 6 grams spontaneously igniting? I have been taking and archiving samples of my mixtures in small plastic bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyco_1322 Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 It didnt detonate it deflagrated. There is a difference, a few thousand feet a second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 It's pretty stable. I use KP all the time, no worries about spontaneous ignition. Detonation or deflagration, it's still sensitive stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 It didnt detonate it deflagrated. There is a difference, a few thousand feet a second.So a sharp, potent <crack> is deflagration? I'm not doubting your definition, but it did more than simply ignite. I've never seen (or heard) unconfined "BP" do that. It was pretty interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GalFisk Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Yes, even flash powder probably doesn't detonate. In a detonation, the explosion is moving faster than the speed of sound in the explosive material, and is propagated by the shockwave rather than heat/flame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Interesting, I didn't know that. Thank you, and Mumbles, for the confirmation that stored Perch. BP isn't subject to spontaneous ignition or other weirdness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Gal is correct. Flash actually burns subsonically, but the difference is so slim as to be meaningless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyco_1322 Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Smashing something under a hammer is confining it. I wacked some flash that would have normally just poofed but left my ear ringing from the pop. Too much flash lit at once could possibly detonate, or if its hyper killer fast flash it wont take much. Whislte fuel is about the same. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zAZO9a Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 ive heard that the more flash you use the less confinement it requires same with whistle. so. it has to have a point where confinement is no longer necessary..200 pds of black powder will explode without confinement im led to believe therefore .. that it would take a whole lot less flash to acheive some serious boom without confinement .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxsavage Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I read that 50 grams of flash is critical mass and will explode without confinement. The same article said it would take 500 lbs. of black powder to reach critical mass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan999ification Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Both correct to my knowledge. Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flying fish Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I believe that 50 gram number originated from Lancaster (someone correct me if I'm wrong) who was not using the high grade aluminums of today. In reality I would not trust more than a few grams of decent flash not to bang unconfined. Also, I just realized that this topic is old....like dinosaur old! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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