blasterman Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 I was listening to my nephew describe his chemistry teacher igniting magnesium ribbon, and it brought back my own experiences long ago with the stuff. Then the light bulb went off. My preference is for long burn effects, willows, falling strobe pots...etc. What *if* you were to cut up magnesium ribbon into one inch strips (hundreds of them) and incorporate them with a typical bursting charge? Beats the heck out of rolling stars. First thing that comes to mind would be you wouldn't get much velocity or a large diameter burst because the chunks of ribbon won't shoot far from the core burst. That's issue #1 Possible issue #2 is the difficulty in igniting magnesium strips. Would a typical bursting charge even do it, or are we pretty much stuck with powdered magnesium mixed with an oxidizer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocket Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 You would probably fined that the strips of Mg won’t light. There wouldn’t be enough heat from the burst to light the strips. Maybe if they where coated in a hot prime they might. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 No way burst would light Mg Ribbon. You'd need probably several prime layers of different types to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 You would have to give the ribbon a dichromate bath too. Priming an end of the ribbon with a good hot prime woudl probably work. You can actually buy ribbon on Firefox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 The particle size is so big, I don't think a coating would be neccesary actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blasterman Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 Aren't larger chunks of metal tougher to ignite than smaller ones though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swany Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Yes, their sentiments exactly! I have used Mg lathe shavings with meal in comets that produced globs of burning composition that fell off, and it was extremely bright (as expected). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chemguy Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Another problem with larger chunks of Mg, is that it can burn itself out, because it has less suface area, therefore less area for it to react with oxygen, so the oxygen around it can get all used up and it will go out. Believe me, it can be annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Magnesium can burn with CO2 and N2 as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blasterman Posted September 27, 2006 Author Share Posted September 27, 2006 Yeah, I've heard that. Thanks for the information - facinating replies. I might try some prime / dichromate bath on Mag strips in some small shells just to see what happens and if they indeed can ignite (reliably) that way. This past summer I saw an impressive pyro display on the fourth that featured numerous unique effect shells that were mostly just bright light. Not really big bursts mind you, but just cascading embers of blinding light that lasted about as long as a willow shell. Quite pretty and a nice comliment from your typical colored bursts.That got me down the path of Mg ribbon being a possible pedestrian approach, but there's obviously some problems involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstCause Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Yeah, I've heard that. Thanks for the information - fascinating replies. I might try some prime / dichromate bath on Mag strips in some small shells just to see what happens and if they indeed can ignite (reliably) that way. This past summer I saw an impressive pyro display on the fourth that featured numerous unique effect shells that were mostly just bright light. Not really big bursts mind you, but just cascading embers of blinding light that lasted about as long as a willow shell. Quite pretty and a nice compliment from your typical colored bursts.That got me down the path of Mg ribbon being a possible pedestrian approach, but there's obviously some problems involved. Magnesium ribbon makes an excellent "fuse," to set off a thermite reaction among aluminium,red iron oxide, and sand. →Be careful← Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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