11 replies to this topic

[Rooster]

_Po_:

Name of composition: Akwapo Green
Composition Type: Real perdy!
Creator: _Po_
Color/Effect: Aqua
The Composition (by weight): 3:4 meal:Zn powder with 5% dextrin
Any Precautions/Incompatabilities: Nope
Precedure/Preparation: 50/50 water/alcohol until workable, pumped, rolled or cut, no prime needed


Here's a crappy .gif of a mix of aqua and C6 stars. It's kind of impossible to see them but they're the ones that go the highest:


Name of composition: Po's Silver Glitter
Composition Type: Glitter
Creator: _Po_
Color/Effect: White/sliver glitter
The Composition (by weight):
15- KMnO4
1.5- S
3- Al flake/shreds
Enough- NC Lacquer
Any Precautions/Incompatabilities: KMnO4/S/Al will be slightly sensitive and degrade over a long period of time
Precedure/Preparation: Mix with NC Lacquer until workable then form star shaped balls with your hands (remember to WEAR GLOVES unless you want brown poo-hands for a while), no prime needed



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6C_the_second:

Both of those look really good, I like the Akwapo Green more.

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Frkonaleash1010:

I made a bunch of the Akwapa green mix and i was impressed with the color so I made some stars. They are loaded into a 2inch cylindrical shell right now just need to attach the lift and find a place to launch. I will 70% chance of getting a vid and if someone can get the frames we can put it into the comp Database with pics. If not I might be able to make a star mine with them cause IDK if my shell is actually gonna work.

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Blindreeper:

Just get me the video and I will make the stills.

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_Po_:

Okay, I got a video of a 1" cylindrical shell with some aqua stars in it. It also had C6 though. It's easy to pick the aqua ones but it's not vewry good quality...



Video

I'll go and get some star gun shots soon.

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Frkonaleash1010:

I can deffinitely vouch for the amazing Akwapo green stars. I just set off a 2inch cylindrical shell and I didn't put enough lift obviously but the shell went up and broke perfectly symetrical releasing akwapo green stars which seemed more blue than green. Shell burst low due to not enough lift so some hit the ground but it was amazing. These stars burn relatively slow so they dont need to be that big at all. Heh I am very happy.

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DB:

That shell's lauch sounded nice _Po_, how loud was it in real life? I'm going to do a shell with the Akwapo stars in the future, they look awesome. Good work _Po_!

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Sparkler:

"I just set off a 2inch cylindrical shell and I didn't put enough lift obviously but the shell went up and broke perfectly symetrical releasing akwapo green stars which seemed more blue than green."

The stars are supposed to be more blue than green. They are aqua. I belive akwapo is pronounced aqua-po

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Chaz:

Argh! Po I'm officially holding you responsible! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!:




Ok, so heres what happened. I made 7g of it, poured half of that onto a brick and lit it. Burnt nice and green. Then very foolishly, about 10 seconds later poured the rest onto the exact same spot on the brick. I was pouring it from a sheet of paper I was holding. Shwomf - it all ignites with my right hand bang in the centre of the flame.

Damn I'm a fool... Just joking about it being your fault BTW. Right now my hand is dunked in an ice bath. You have any idea how long it took to type this with my left hand?

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The pictures are pretty big so I linked them instead of having them directly in the thread. Sucks about your accident, at least it doesn't look too bad.

Speaking of accidents, I was biking home from work today and my friend I was biking with got hit by a car right in front of me! Luckily he isn't hurt too bad either, but his bike is totaled.

-EP

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Frkonaleash1010:

The thing I found about burns is to never put it in water. It makes it feel better but the second you take it out it hurts again. I find it better to go take asprin, ibuprofen, vicoden , or your pain killer of choice and just wait for it to stop hurting which wont take too long.

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andyboy:

That's just plain wrong. You need to cool it as much as possible, i don't mean that you should use dry ice though.

What happens is that your tissue heats up very fast but for a (most often) short period of time. The outer layer of your skins might get burned of, but the "leather-skin" - the second layer absorbs the heat. The absorbed heat continues to destroy the underlying tissue.

If you where to cool down the already damaged tissue the heat will not go as far down as it would otherwise do and you would save a lot of healing and hurting.

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Frkonaleash1010:

yes cooling it down is one thing but I burnt my hand with Zn/S flash on accident and everytime I took it out of the water it hurt worse than the initial burn so I had to keep it in the ice water. Next time I just took some pain killers and put ice that was in a bag on top of it. I didn't dunk it in the Ice water. Then again I can half the skin on a finger falling off from that burn so maybe that was why the water hurt the skin/flesh.....

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Chaz:

Its not as if it really matters. I'll take my hand out once I get bored or theres a danger of it freezing off

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_Po_:

Finally some second...other opinions! Yeah, it's supposed to be blue more than green. That's what I liked about it. Also the reason it's called what it is. Akwapo is aqua Po, yeah.

So then, turns out it wasn't a contamination from something in the paint that made the blue colour. Chaz, you said it was green right? After learning it's not the paint making the blue I'm thinking it's something to do with either water or dextrin. Try making it into stars and see what colour it is.

Too bad about your supidity there, Chaz, it went and got your poor little thumb all burned up.

They only have to be small. I guess if they were bigger it would make a nice effect though. The last batch of them I made are 1.5mm x 5.5mm x 6.5mm and burn for 2.3 seconds. Pretty slow.

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Chaz:

Yeah the two piles I tried were definately green maybe with a slight tinge of yellow, but I did however do it in bright sunlight. In a pile it burnt pretty fast, 3g pile burnt in about 1 seconds. Of course it'll burn a lot slower when its a star.

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Frkonaleash1010:

Rabid General had the same thing happen. When having the mix in a loose pile he said it was greenish with a tint of yellow. However once her made stars and sent them in the air aqua they were. I really dont understand because me and him used same mesh Zn and basically same BP and my mix burned aqua before making stars. But either way they still look aqua blue in the air or so he said.

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Chaz:

I reckon its the dextrin messing with the colour. The piles I tested did not have any dextrin in them.

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Frkonaleash1010:

My piles that I lit were aqua blue.....That was before I added dextrin. I made 7g of the 3:4 mix 3g:4g. Burn aqua blue to me......Then I made a larger batch and added dextrin....still aqua.

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_Po_:

Dry mixed with the dextrin added makes a lime greeen too. So it's something to do with the activated dextrin...Meh, makes aqua so me happy.

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[Rooster]

Chaz:

I've made just over 100g of the composition including the dextrin. I tried lighting a small pile of it dry and it was the same colour as before. I've made it into stars, and they're drying now.

About how big does everyone make theirs? I've varied the size of mine.

Compared to a CD.

I just went and counted how many stars I've got from 100g, 85 or so.

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Frkonaleash1010:

Well, I made stars that were 1/2 inch -3/4 inch and they burned way too long. I would suggest 1/4" to 1/2" max

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Chaz:

Good gawd - I just lit a small pile of leftovers from the batch of drying stars, and it did indeed burn aqua. A very different colour to how it burned dry mixed.

Nice find Po!

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_Po_:

That's great. Told you so!

"The last batch of them I made are 1.5mm x 5.5mm x 6.5mm and burn for 2.3 seconds. Pretty slow."

I got that mixed up...I read the thing wrong. It's actually 4 x 7.5 x 8.5mm (weighs half a gram). That's still very slow. They have a big flame which is good. The fact that they burn so slow will compensate for their weight a little, right? Blind, do you still have issues with weight? Per 1g you get around five seconds burn time. That's hella long for a star.

I got a video just before. I did something kinky with an APC banner there... If it needs to be removed for stills I'll upload another one.

Video

Colour is a problem with my camera. For some reason it doesn't like aqua. They just kind of look like zinc spreaders in that video...

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Crysalis:

Yeah Po I made a star very similiar to your Po's silver glitter a while back for my first shell, they burned quite long and actually hit the ground although it burst only about 50m up . I still think KMnO4 stars look the best out of any i've tried, the really bright vivid white is really amazing.

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quest:

I tried making "Po's Silver Glitter"
thay burn pefectly but do need prime, Im using Fe\KMnO4\S to prime tham.....

You sure you use flake/shreds Al? Im using it too and it need prime

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_Po_:

Yeah, they're pretty coarse shreds. I think they're off a lathe. Mine ignite pretty easily without a prime. The NC should start them off fairly well. And keep them going. What sort of NC did you use? That could be the problem.

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quest:

I used NC from pingpong ball

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_Po_:

That's the same as what I used. Maybe you could observe how they burn and what residue they leave behind and alter the ratio to see if they ignite then.

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This how my stars look like:


And this how thay burn:
Video

In the start I used Bp to prime it, but you can see it took the star some time to light, whan I tried to use in star mine most of the stars didn't light

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somebody:

Your Al looks very coarse, try to find finer Al

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Blindreeper:

It could have something to do with the fact yours are round not oblong like Po's are! I have seen them and his Al is coarser than that.

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_Po_:

Yes, it could be because mine have some fine points where they can ignite easier. Here are some of my stars. I can't roll them properly because the shreds sort of...Theyr'e sort of like fibres in the star so I can't shape them properly.


And here are my shreds. As you can see they're pretty coarse.




I'll have to get quick time so I can watch that video...

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quest:

I made cut stars too and they didn't see any different.

I got coarser Al too, but as fine as the Al is as easy to ignite are the stars.
Or maybe im mistaken?

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Mumbles:

How many times must I repeat this? You can't roll stars that have particles larger than 100 mesh or so. If you do, they will sink to the bottom and probably not roll up much. They have to be cut or pumped.

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Blindreeper:

I have actually never heard you say that mumbles. Also these coarse particles that stick out catch fire very easy and light the rest of the comp so fine aluminium may not do it any good.

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Mumbles:

Here, search through my 2100 posts and you will find it. There is a fair chance that I said it in the newbie section though so there could be a problem saying that. Look in some of the star rolling threads. The one that I mentioned being able to make some 2000 stars or so in 15 min with propper cutting tools is a good place to start, as I think I said it in there.

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Swany:

I just made about 110g of akwapo stars. Each burns for about 3 seconds and is ~1/3in ID and weighs about ~1.5g. Very nice stars, as soon as the first set was dry, my buddy and I went outside armed with a spoon and a zippo. These stars PWNED!!11
Very nice aqua color that leans to green for me. Good stuff.

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Lil_Guppy:

I've been biting my tongue on this for a while now, but I just canna hold it capt'n! The second composition is not a glitter comp. Flitter or snowball yes, glitter no.

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_Po_:

Yeah, I should have changed the name. I didn't really know what a giltter star was back then.

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[Rooster]

Lil_Guppy:

Eh, I think everyone gets confused with the differences between glitter and flitter, but one you have seen glitter in action there is no mistake as to what's what.

Btw: The akwapo comp is not bad at all

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Dragonman586:

has anyone tried the 3:4 meal zn mix bpy itself as a rocket propellant. I havent ried it yoet but i think lowering the amount of zn could do the trick.

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alany:

And this belongs in this thread why?

To answer your question: Yes, I've tried many Zn/BP varients as propellants. They suck, they are dense and slow burning, the effect is not very good to bother with them. They don't even look much good in gerbs and drivers.

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TKo Productions:

Hey Po! Thanks for posting the formula!

I made up a batch of these Akwapo stars today. The loose powder definitely burned lime green, but once I added dextrin and cut them up they burnt aqua but still on the green side.

I launched a few out of my star gun, and for some reason the little buggers didn't really burn all that aqua/green. Instead, they just left an orange charcoal tail with a hint of green at the tip. Maybe they aren't completely dry yet. I'll give them another day or two to dry and then give you guys an update.

On a side note I think I unintentionally inhaled alot of zinc powder. I feel sort of like a cold is coming on, a headache, the beginning of a soar throat, swollen lymph nodes in my neck, and alot of mucus. My Zn powder was around 600 mesh, so I recommend that if you're thinking about making these to wear a dusk mask.

I'm going to go to bed.

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Frkonaleash1010:

I took the Po's Silver glitter comp and loaded it into a 3/4"ID by 3 1/2" fountains. Bentonite clay nozzle and endplug with the nozzle diameter of 15/64th" which is inbetween 1/4 and 1/3 the ID of the tube....I usually use 1/4 but I wanted a wider spray then a taller one to get the true effect. Unfortunately it started raining so I will post results tommarow night. I took the comp and packed it into an open ended tube and it looked nice so I figure it would work relatively nice in a fountain.

Turns out once this stuff gets rammed into a tube with a nozzle it doesn't want to ignited. I had to drill a 1/4inch core and pack it with over fueled kno3/sugar to get it to ignite. It does make a fairly nice silver fountain but I think a BP/Al would be much better. The BP/Al ones also ignite without a problem unlike these. I tried a BP/600mesh Al prime and it didn't work. But the over fueled kno3/sugar left a glowing mass in the core and about 5-10 seconds later of the smouldering sugar ash sitting there finally ignited it.

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Mephistos Minion:

I made some of the silver "glitter" and burned a 15g pile in my yard, it lit the whole thing up.

I have video but its 3mb, I dunno if its worth uploading.


EDIT: Got my KMnO4 stained hands on some video editors, so here is the vid (smaller version) the white gets washed out due to the paper it was on burning too.

Video

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d4jon:

What kind of charcoal should be used in the bp for the akwapo? Less sparks right?

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i.k88s.f.u:

Actually Pine charcoal makes great akwapo, it gives them thick and long sparks tail,here is a photo of pine akwapo:



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rooster:

Wow! Those stars look really amazing! Gotta try some of those!

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_Po_:

I've only ever tried willow charcoal, because my meal uses willow. They don't have much of a tail. Tails look nice though. I might have to have a play around with this and try some Al or MgAl with it.

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al93535:

How much charcoal did you add? Was it any more then just the standard 15% in the BP?

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i.k88s.f.u:

they contain only the 15% of charcoal in BP. The BP is made by the CIA method, also i prime those stars with the same pine BP.

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[dragonman586]

Hey Po where or how exactly did you get those Al shreads?

[Givat]

You can get Al shreds from factories who process Al. it's a by-product and most of the factories will give it to you for free.

[Spoony]

Hmmm.... I think I may ask this battery shop that isnt that far away if I can have their scrap Al, they have massive tubs of it.

[justanotherpyro]

I tried Po's silver glitter. I like it alot, but for the ammount of more expensive chems used it isn't practical for me. I was thinking about re-doing it with maybe around 5 parts of C for some extra volume. I think it would look nice with a TT tail with the bright Al tail. Any thoughts?

[aa92td]

I think its stupid...if you want TT tail You should mill the powder--->
KMNO4+S+Ball-mill=Boom now think agian if you want to try it.
And another thing-
those starts have beautiful silver tail i think its only make them uglier

(sorry about my english)

[justanotherpyro]

I think its stupid...if you want TT tail You should mill the powder--->
KMNO4+S+Ball-mill=Boom now think agian if you want to try it.
And another thing-
those starts have beautiful silver tail i think its only make them uglier

(sorry about my english)

Did I say a single thing about milling the powder? No, I didn't. I mainly want to give the stars some volume. More 1/4 inch stars for the ammount of chems(other than C obviously) used, without sacrificing to much of the effect is what I am trying to obtain.

[d4j0n]

These stars are very similar to granite stars. What is the difference? Granite stars are supposed to be green, though. Is this akwapo a paler green?

[_Po_]

It's more of a blue colour (at least for me it is) and doesn't have as many orange sparks, it also has the advantage of not needing to mix up a new composition, just add zinc and dextrin to meal powder. I must admit it didn't take much creativity to come up with.

It isn't supposed to have an orange tail (too similar to granite). I think it was because I used willow charcoal in my BP and was used pretty efficiently in the combustion and didn't leave much for sparks. As far as I remember this composition uses less zinc than Granite.

[Yankie]

Has anyone got a video of the silver glitter? i would like to try some if i knew what it looked like as i would have to get some more chemicals for it.