Prime

[TheEskimo]

I didn't know where to put this exactly...It isn't a finished product, but I wanted to get this out to you guys to have a look-see. I was trying some colored stars, and I had a gander at Veline's Superprime. Goodness knows I really don't want to touch PDichromate, and I didn't have any red iron oxide. So, I thought to myself, whats a nice, hot, easily ignitable prime that a pyro could use, while using a modicum of chemicals. I assume that since you want a hot prime, you are using colored stars, and colored stars, unless organic, use the same chemicals as these, except for the Al. I took a look at the chems I have, and thought, gee, most everyone should have these chems; they aren't too poisonous, and any reasonable pyro should have easy access to virtually all of these. Then I looked around, and saw that Veline's prime works reasonably well, so I thought I should try and modify it for those of us not wanting to use certain chems.

And here is the almost-final, rough product. The formula may need some straitening out, but it appears to work well with metallic-fueled stars, and ignites fairly easily.

Here it is:

55 KClO4

20 airfloat, I use Skylighter

10 -325 Magal

5 dextrin

5 redgum

5 -325 bright flake Al

It doesn't add up to a hundred, but it seems to work fairly well. I will try some sawdust, to give the prime some rubbliness, so as to enhance the ability to catch fire. It burns with a fierce, bright light, and gives off a good bit of smoke. It burns about the speed of good greenmix. It can be wet with either water/alcohol, or alcohol.

Any concerns, comments, additions, etc?

P.S. Sorry for my verbosity, but I tend to wax eloquent when I get excited about something, and as my contacts start sticking to my eyelids.

[FrankRizzo]

That outta work just fine Eskimo! Here's a commercial one based on the same chems called "Pinball Prime":

 

66.67 - Potassium Perchlorate

13.33 - Charcoal Airfloat

8.89 - Red Gum

5.56 - American dark. -325 mesh

5.56 - Dextrin

 

The author uses a 75-15-10 mix of KClO4, AF Charcoal, Red Gum with an addition of 1oz/lb fine metal (MgAl, American Dark Aluminum, or silicon) and 1oz/lb dextrin. The above percentages are what the formula works out to. However, I hardly think it's necessary to measure out to the 100th or even 10th of a gram to achieve proper results.

Edited August 22, 2009 by FrankRizzo