50AE Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I recently discovered KClO3/NH4Cl smokes and I like their effect a lot. The composition I use is50 NH4Cl40 KClO315 lactose+5 liquid paraffin. The composition is very slow burning without any flame, even in the open. I hand press it into 20mm 10cm tubes and this is the smoke device. It contains about 50g of mixture. So what happens is, the device is lit, it smokes nicely and slowly for about 20 seconds, and then it goes BANG, not very loud, but it has a HE sound, like a percussion cap or a dragon egg. Then finally for about 5 seconds it smokes more intesively and stops. Inspection of the burnt device - it is filled with unreacted NH4Cl, which is the first suspicion - maybe it creates pressure and doesn't let the gases to escape easily.The tube was side torn near the end of the rammed composition. The composition doesn't bang in the open though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave321 Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 (edited) hi, a better composition would be colpophony 40pot chlorate 35sugar (icing sugar or lactose) 15ammonium chloride 10 see http://www.youtube.c...u/1/AHUHzuNQztg what happened in your case is that a hard solid plug of reacted material formed, causing pressure to build up, followed by expulsion of the plug, and then continued burning of the remainder. .........lactose comps. can sometimes show an increase in ash volume. dave Edited June 12, 2011 by dave321 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I would find a new formula. The equilibrium will favor the reactants, but it doesn't take much ammonium chlorate to cause issues. I also am not particularly fond of mixing acidic ammonium chloride with chlorates. The mix functions by vaporizing ammonia and HCl, so a number of other mixes could probably be developed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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