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Posted

i have mis-placed (lost) my paper on how to make sodium nitrate. one was with bicarbonite and amonium nitrate . the other with lye any one have ???

 

memo

Posted

 

NH4NO3 + NaHCO3 → NaNO3 + NH4HCO3

 

Dissolve 80g (1 mol) of ammonium nitrate into 150 ml water and add directly to 84g (1 mol) sodium bicarbonate. Boil down to about 1/3 original volume to decompose ammonium bicarbonate into CO2, NH3 and H2O and remove. This leaves sodium nitrate that can be collected by evaporating down.

 

 

NH4NO3 + NaOH → NaNO3 + NH4OH

 

Make two solutions with 100ml or so water for each, one with 80g (1 mol) ammonium nitrate and the other with 40g sodium hydroxide (1 mol).

The mixing of sodium hydroxide with water will be quite exothermic.

Mix the two and boil down to evaporate out the solid using gentle heat at the end. The ammonium hydroxide byproduct formed will degrade into NH3 and H2O and you can heat for a while to reduce volume and ensure this.

Evaporate as normal to dryness to collect the sodium nitrate.

 

Both reactions produce ammonia so do this outside or in a fumehood.

Posted

thanks greenlight

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
Arun,think of it, how will the prime stick to the stars without a binder? 😀
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

@pyrotex: i just made a 100g of your sunrise yellow stars, i'm at 58% relative humidity and temp 15deg celsius, they cannot dry properly (5 days in drying box...), still crumbling very easily...

My nano3 is lab grade, so the impurities are probably not responsible for this issue.

Question is: did you tried to bind them on pvb/alcohol basis instead of dextrin?

I'm gonna give this a try.

Edited by Sulphurstan
Posted

what temp is your dry box ?

Posted (edited)
In fact my drying box is just ambient temperature air flowing with 2 CPU fans blowing through wired meshes. Then, for "end drying" the stars stay a week or two in a airtight container with calcium chloride. It always works with non hygroscopic compositions, but with the nano3.... That's why I also don't make my reds with srno3, cos I know it could be quite difficult.... Should have a real drying box, I know.... Edited by Sulphurstan
Posted (edited)

Sulphurstan, How many percent of water did you add to pump stars?

I don's try make this stars without dextrin

I dry this stars with 20-25 С air (40-60 % humidity in the room)

Edited by Pirotex
Posted
Pyrotex , I just put enough water in order to have a thick dough, just enough to get it as cut stars. Didn't weighted the water. Once I'll shoot your comp bonded with PVB, I'll let you know how it worked out
Posted
I tried substituting dextrine with phenolic resin and the result is not bad, burning time reduce a little cause the phenolic effect on combustion, but in few hours stars are hard. May a mix of dextrine and phenolic solve both problem. I found this stars are better if made like comet (pressed) whit a max 10% of water and alcool.
Posted (edited)

Should have been using straight Alcohol with Phenolic.

With Dextrin i use straight water, and seems like my stars are harder.

I love Sunrise Yellow.

Edited by dynomike1
Posted

I have only made these stars by pressing and use dextrin and 5 % water then in the dry box and have never had a problem. found a 25 kilo bag of sodium nitrate locally now I don't have make my own. a lot more yellow stars in my future.

Posted
My favorite yellow, much better than mixing colors to get it.
Posted

Lloyd is going to hate you for that pat

Posted

The sodium is an optic yellow so he's cool with that I think. It's the blended ones that get his dander up.

I could have that backwards but although he might kill me, he can't eat me.

  • Like 1
Posted

I still have a bag of Baking Soda labeled "Lloyd's Favorite" from a couple years ago, so that probably means he hates it. :P

  • Like 1
  • 4 months later...
Posted

Can the sunrise yellow be cut and rolled

If so im guessing 75/25

Thanks

Posted
If you're using dex and cutting them, just use straight water. If you're rolling them the alcohol/water blend can help to start the cores.
  • Like 1
Posted

Thanks carbon796

Alao i am reading about dying issues with them so should i replace dextrin with phenolic resin if so are the percentage the same as dextrin and use acetone to wet it... please excuse my lack of knowledge

I am 3 years into pyro as a hobby and have only been using valines system

Posted

Typically 6% PR is a recommended minimum, but 5% is probably close enough.

 

I would use denatured alcohol, not acetone.

 

Switching to PR will add a decent amount of fuel value, over the dex based comp. Which may lead to the comp being slower or sluggish, being as its sodium nitrate based.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Cryolite is cheap and nearly insoluble in water. I got a pound of it at a local ceramics supply shop for $4.50. I made some Hardt yellow 3 with it and it was incredibly bright. I didn't have any suitable Al so I substituted 16.2 MgAL for the 19 Al.

Posted

@rellim

I am working on Hardt yellow 3 but it is very hard to ignite. What prime did you use and what mesh size on the MgAl.

Thanks

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