
Hot Prime
#1
Posted 25 June 2008 - 08:09 PM
70 KNO3
15 Charcoal
8 Dark Al
4 Redgum
4 Dextrin
3 Spheroidal Al
1 Boric Acid
I've been using Veline's Superprime with fine results, but I wanted to do something that didn't use the dichromate or the "wood meal". I wanted a prime that was hot enough to light Ammonium perchlorate blues, metal-fueled greens and reds, etc and didn't contain sulfur, for the obvious reasons. I've been using a similar version of this as a an intermediate prime to run interference between perchlorate and chlorate based star comps and a dusting of BP meal that of course contains sulfur, but I've found that this prime is easy enough to light that the BP meal is unneccessary. This seems to be hot enough to light anything that I've made, and yet easy enough to light that it takes fire without the extra step of a BP prime or step priming. Bind with water.
The math majors in the class will notice that this doesn't add up to 100 PERCENT; all too true, these are the raw numbers based on ratios, not percent, and represent the results of my experiments and are not meant to be percentages. As I went I upped this and deducted that, and this is the result. If you're hung-up on 100 feel free to round up or down to your hearts content. Try it, and I think you'll be pleased.
- mpithan42 likes this
"Who is John Galt?"
#2
Posted 25 June 2008 - 10:18 PM
The sky is my canvas, and I have 2,113 pounds of powdered paint in the workshop.
#3
Posted 27 June 2008 - 08:50 AM

#4
Posted 27 June 2008 - 09:23 AM
KNO3+NH4ClO4->KClO4+NH4NO3
hygroscopic ammonium nitrate is formed. Therefore AP stars should be primed with potassium perchlorate.
#5
Posted 27 June 2008 - 09:46 AM
I think it burns slower than flake, so it will stay burning longer to help ignite the stars. You could try some granular Al or maybe a coarser flake if you have I guess. I think silicon might be even better than the Al though.What is the function of the spheroid Al in that comp? Can it work well without it? I have none.
#6
Posted 27 June 2008 - 06:30 PM
Still, like the others I'm a bit skeptical of the prime. Maybe it's ok if the stars are dry enough to prevent significant amount of chemical interaction? I'm wondering if there is any possibility substituting in KCLO4 instead of KNO3 would make for a working prime formula?
Also, why would you not want sulfur in an AP blue star prime? It is just going to wash out the color, or is there an incompatibility there?
Furthermore, isn't iron oxide also sometimes used in hot primes? I wonder what the addition of that could further increase the burning temperature (say for instance if I had some stars that were exceptionally good at playing Hard-to-light)
#7
Posted 27 June 2008 - 07:11 PM
#8
Posted 27 June 2008 - 07:27 PM
The company that my company shares a building with does microelectronics...probably based in silicon, so I wonder if they have some scrap that I can like...grind up or something. When I come in on Wednesday, I have to ask for information on their wafer packaging, fill up on De-iononized water with their DI machine, so what's asking for one more thing while I'm at it?!
#9
Posted 27 June 2008 - 08:52 PM
My goal was to make a universal hot-prime that would light any of the stars that I make. Since I occasionally dabble with chlorate-based comps, I decided that sulfur was not to be used. My first comp was just 75/15/10 substituting redgum for sulfur, which didn't work at all well. I then decided to "hotten" this with some dark Al; still not good. This is the point where I added the boric acid since I was using aluminum and a nitrate. I added a bit of spherodial Al to give it a bit of extra long heat to light some of the hardest lighting stars, and this is where the research bore fruit. I tweaked the ratios a bit, and this seems to be the best that I've acheived.
Swede, flake Al would probably be a good substitute for the spherodial since it's the long, hot burn that seems to be the key to lighting hard-to-start stars. Maybe MgAl works too; I'll have to try that.
Pudi, if you're concerned of binding this onto AP based stars, what do you think about leaving out the dextrin and binding with shellac flakes and ethanol?
"Who is John Galt?"
#10
Posted 27 June 2008 - 09:24 PM
A thin Perchlorate prime in between would probably work, while still keeping the heat of this outer prime.
#11
Posted 27 June 2008 - 09:35 PM
Or, plan "B", maybe a quick roll in NC lacquer?
"Who is John Galt?"
#12
Posted 27 June 2008 - 10:10 PM
Now there's an idea. Are you suggesting just a simple KP intermediate, or would it also have additives to make it hot? Well I suppose if the layer is thin enough it shouldn't matter, right?I don't know if you didn't realize, as Pudi said... AP and KNO3 are incompatible... NH4ClO4 + KNO3 -> NH4NO3 + KClO4... Simple Double replacement.
A thin Perchlorate prime in between would probably work, while still keeping the heat of this outer prime.
I attempted an arbitrary Meal/Speroidal aluminum star formula (80/20) recently, and apparently the aluminum percent was way to high, because these stars really left some extremely nasty slag behind (far worse than your typical Antimony sulfide stars). I bet they could do a pretty dang good job of lighting stuff! Though the brightness of it may wash out colors.
#13
Posted 27 June 2008 - 10:59 PM
Obviously should contain KClO4, A fuel, A hot fuel, and some binders.
Superprime isn't really needed though.
Probably just a KClO4, MgAl, Charcoal, Red Gum, and Dextrin mix.
Maybe even drop the dextrin, and keep it Acetonte\100% alcohol bound with Red Gum.
A thin roll of NC Lacquer would also work... The film would eliminate, or extremely inhibit the replacement reaction. It's also nice that AP stars are not porous (in most cases), so the Lacquer won't be absorbed like crazy... Quite literally a think film should do it.
#14
Posted 28 June 2008 - 12:29 PM
The sky is my canvas, and I have 2,113 pounds of powdered paint in the workshop.
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