Hints and tips for Australians

[AustralianPyromaniac]

It's interesting that some petiole have been arrested and others haven't. Certainly to anyone that knows anything it's clear that aushchems is a pyro supplier and he probably manufactures some quite nice devices himself so if he doesn't have I licence of some sort then I imagine that he would have his door kicked in faster then you could say "but all the chemicals are technically legal" if anyone really cared enough to try and arrest pyros. On the other hand though he is smart and doesn't ever admit he makes fireworks or engage with the community, such as although he is a membour of some forums and I believe this one he hasent been active on there for quite a long time only very earlie on to advertise his company. Edited December 6, 2016 by AustralianPyromaniac

[greenlight]

I am still not sure whether the auschems site will all of a sudden get shut down and dissappear but it seems to be doing fine so far.

 

Does anyone know a source for silicon powder for primes.

It is on amazon but won't ship here and I can't find it anywhere else and auschems doesn't have it.

[austar]

Unfortunately i have been searching for silicon powder as well, most things i can obtain through work one way or another. I wonder how very very fine crushed glass would work????

[greenlight]

Same here as a lot of my colours will not take fire without a silicon based prime.

Would crushed glass function the same way? I don't know. Maybe worth trying in spare time.

If I find some I will post source one here.

[greenlight]

This is the only thing I have found so far that is not a private company:

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Silicon-99-9-325-mesh-powder-Trace-Metal-Grade-30g-/271322382604?nav=SEARCH

 

All ths guy's stuff is damn expensive though which sucks.

 

P.S. I do not know how to delete accidental double post.

Edited December 30, 2016 by greenlight

[austar]

Wow that is expensive, i couldn't even consider paying that.

Have you considered useing a rough ground magnesium like the sawdust in a veline prime???

[Mumbles]

Crushed glass will not work the same way as silicon. Silicon burns into silicon dioxide (glass essentially), which is molten and sticks to the star. Just adding glass will act as a heat sink, and probably never melt. It might be useful to rough up the surface though.

 

Can you find silicon ingots or wafers or boules? These might be byproducts of the electronic industry. Silicon can be crushed or ground to a powder.

 

Silicon make great primes for the above reason, but there really aren't any stars that absolutely require it. You may just need thicker priming layers or burst your shells less violently.

[austar]

Mumbles, do you know if there is a difference between silica and silicone? ?

Silica is used in aluminium when casting, more so in making of ingots of aluminium.

[Mumbles]

There is.

 

Silicon - A semi-metal element. It's greenish or purple-ish and crushable.

 

Silica - Silicon dioxide or a mineral source of it generally. It's clear when pure but may appear colored depending in contaminants and impurities. It tends to be hard and abrasive.

 

Silicone - A polymeric siloxane. The most common is poly(dimethylsiloxane). These are materials with polymeric alternating silicon and oxygen bonds. Depending on the degree of polymerization they vary from liquids or oils to rubbers and solids. These are often lubricants or flexible rubbers.

 

Of the 3, silicon is the most useful for primes. Silica and it's mineral sources are sometimes added to primes to increase the roughness of the surface. Diatomaceous earth is primarily silica for instance. Silicones do not have any direct uses to my knowledge. I suggested trying out silicone oil in whistle fuels to try to reduce water absorbance, but I don't know if it's been tested. They can be used to lubricate rocket spindles as well. Silicone cutting boards would probably make nice places to cut stars. Silicone rubber spatulas are sometimes used for mixing compositions or slurries. They tend to be pretty resistant to most solvents.

[austar]

Lol yep i missed an "E" and that changed the whole context lol

Very thorough answer though mumbles, thank you

[wezoAU]

Yes as good as Auschems is, they don't have all the Chems required sadly.

[stix]

Yes as good as Auschems is, they don't have all the Chems required sadly.

 

You're right Wezo, they don't stock everything. Unfortunately on occasion they also don't know what they stock. They sold me what appears to be ferro-titanium when I ordered titanium sponge. When I emailed them twice to alert them of the error, I didn't receive a reply.

 

I guess I could complain to consumer affairs, but I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't.

 

Anyway most of the people on this forum already know that my purpose for being here is to learn or discover some new esoteric ceramic glazes. I love making pottery.

 

5mins to midnight - have a great new years.

[greenlight]

@austar, yeah I am not to keen on paying that much at all. I think it may be time to find a hot enough prime to ignite the majority of stars and use that.

 

@mumbles, So the silicon is not essential at all? The hottest perc prime should do the job in multiple coats then?

Thanks also for clearing up a question I have always wondered. The difference between the metal-like silicon and the silicone used in waterproofing and gaps.

[OldMarine]

GE Silicone II is called for in a blue strobe rocket comp though I don't know what purpose it serves.

[Exo]

You can get silicon powder from :

https://www.pyropowders.de/

They are in Germany and ship to Australia, I have purchased lots of orders from them and they have great customer service.

 

They also have an eBay store if you prefer but don't list as much stuff:

http://www.ebay.de/usr/metallpulverhandel-pyropowders?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

everything on there site and Ebay store is in German so I just use google chrome to translate the pages.

 

Here is the link to there Ebay silicon powder:

http://m.ebay.de/itm/45-m-Siliciumpulver-7440-21-3-98-0-Silicon-powder-verschiedene-Mengen-/262728361419?nav=SEARCH

 

You can't get to their Ebay store through Aussie eBay.com.au as its blocked you need to go through U.K. Or German Ebay de.

But you can still purchase and get you order shipped no problems, but I use there website now.

Hope that helps

[Exo]

You're right Wezo, they don't stock everything. Unfortunately on occasion they also don't know what they stock. They sold me what appears to be ferro-titanium when I ordered titanium sponge. When I emailed them twice to alert them of the error, I didn't receive a reply.

 

I guess I could complain to consumer affairs, but I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't.

 

Anyway most of the people on this forum already know that my purpose for being here is to learn or discover some new esoteric ceramic glazes. I love making pottery.

 

5mins to midnight - have a great new years.

I would count that as a bonus as ferro-ti is hard to get in Australia is more expensive and is one of my favorites in willow comps, but if you needed the titanium in would be a bugger.

Austchems is a good company but their services is average, I gave up emailing them long ago if there's a problem, now I just go straight to Paypal dispute and austchems reply straight away, they probably get to much junk mail or something to reply to customers emails.

Just one of those thing I guess

[Exo]

On a side note has anybody used ferro-silicon or ferro-aluminum?

The ferro-silicon might be good for primes and I'm wondering if the ferro-aluminum could be a nice effect in willow stars.

Below is the link to buy them

 

https://www.pyropowders.de/sortiment/metallpulver/eisenpulver/

 

Cheers

[Mumbles]

I've heard of ferro-silicon being used in primes as you suggested. They actually come in a variety of alloy ratios. I'd think the more silicon the better. As far as ferro-aluminum there was some on the US market quite a while ago. I had a little bit. It's really nothing all that special. It makes tails in streamers that have sort of a straw color. Basically what you'd expect from a mix of orange iron sparks and white aluminum sparks. It might work in glitters as well to give a similar colored flash.

[AustralianPyromaniac]

Hey guys, I'm looking for star pumps spesificly 1/2" or 10mm and can't for the life of me find any that ship to Australia. Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Hope everyone had a great New Years!

[chuckufarley]

Hey guys, I'm looking for star pumps spesificly 1/2" or 10mm and can't for the life of me find any that ship to Australia. Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Hope everyone had a great New Years!

Have you tried Caleb yet? I know he is pretty willing to ship internationally if he can.

 

http://www.woodysrocks.com/store/c3/Comet_%26_Star_Pumps.html

[AustralianPyromaniac]

Have you tried Caleb yet? I know he is pretty willing to ship internationally if he can.

 

http://www.woodysrocks.com/store/c3/Comet_%26_Star_Pumps.html

I have had a look, but haven't contacted him as in my experience shipping from the US to Australia is quite a pricey business and was hoping for something from china, so decided to give it a shot on the APC. But I will give it a try and get a quote, thanks for the reply.

[wezoAU]

http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/forum/25-the-agora/

You could find something in here closer, if you do get a shipment quoted and don't mind could you private PM me the price for you once you get it.

[calebkessinger]

I think my wife messaged you back. Just a single star pump would be 10 bucks shipping I believe and anything under 4lbs that fits in a padded envelope ( I can fit a lot in em ) would be 36 bucks.

 

I'm always around and will bend over backwards to help someone.

 

 

Caleb

 

 

 

 

We have flat rate boxes for international shipping also. So things like a 6x6 star plate can go for under 50 I think. I've shipped a fair amount overseas with no trouble yet.

Edited January 7, 2017 by calebkessinger

[maximusg]

I can certainly recommend Caleb. After returning to the hobby after a few years of living in the city I made an order for a couple sets of rocket tooling and it all arrived here to NSW without any dramas. Postage wasn’t particularly expensive for that kind of thing being shipped from USA. Good stuff. Will most likely make another order later in the year when the budget allows it.

 

I also made an order with auschems and had no problems. Everything showed up nicely couriered with fuels/oxidisers in different packages. The stuff isn’t cheap but the range is good.

 

I wanted to ask what you blokes have been using as a source for decent mortar tubes. Anyone got a source for short lengths of hdpe pipe 2, 3, 4”? Also interested in larger cardboard tubes. I have some success checking around the back of carpet stores, but a lot of the stuff they use to roll carpet up with is pretty flimsy these days in the larger sizes.

[AustralianPyromaniac]

I can certainly recommend Caleb. After returning to the hobby after a few years of living in the city I made an order for a couple sets of rocket tooling and it all arrived here to NSW without any dramas. Postage wasnt particularly expensive for that kind of thing being shipped from USA. Good stuff. Will most likely make another order later in the year when the budget allows it.

 

I also made an order with auschems and had no problems. Everything showed up nicely couriered with fuels/oxidisers in different packages. The stuff isnt cheap but the range is good.

 

I wanted to ask what you blokes have been using as a source for decent mortar tubes. Anyone got a source for short lengths of hdpe pipe 2, 3, 4? Also interested in larger cardboard tubes. I have some success checking around the back of carpet stores, but a lot of the stuff they use to roll carpet up with is pretty flimsy these days in the larger sizes.

Thanks for your recommendation. I did indeed order for Caleb and the tooling should be arriving within the next few days.

 

As far as Mortars go, I believe diversehobbies used to sell them, (I never ordered any) but now that they are closed I wouldn't know where you can get real Mortars in Australia unless you joined a group buy when they are organised by one of the Australian members. Or found someone who was willing to sell and ship you some... Good luck with that!

 

I just tend to make my own Mortars out of PVC... just joking, you can get long lengths of HDPE from plumbing supply stores such as Reece plumbing, plug the ends and off you go. The larger Mortars can be a problem and require larger things to plug them with best option being a turned peice of wood.

 

I myself only make small 3" shells and rocket headings so only need that size of Mortar.

 

All I do is get a length of 5m 75mm (69mm ID) HDPE from Reece plumbing, cut it into Mortar sized peices and plug it with the "blank" for lack of a better word created by a 73mm hole saw. All you do is clamp a peice of 35mm thick timber such as this

 

https://www.bunnings.com.au/90-x-35mm-un-treated-pine-timber-framing-mgp12-linear-metre_p9000662

 

To a drill press and with slow RPM use the hole saw without the pilot bit to drill through the wood and leave a perfectly sized blank. Simply plug the Mortar with the general technique and you got a Mortar tube! This could be used with any size Mortar you needed provided you could find a suitable hole saw.

 

You've also got to change the size of your former slightly because it's not exactly a 3" Mortar to but I make do.

 

I can't give any recomendations on shorter length of HDPE except kindly asking plumbers. Why would you need shorter length? It's not like your making only one Mortar. I imagine? Seeing 4" Mortars are 24" long a 5m length of pipe will only give you 8 certainly not an excessive amount. Also as I said larger Mortars aren't my field and I also can give you any info on the large cardboard tubes. Sorry.

 

Although this post didn't really answer you question directly maybe this will offer some help :-)