Basic tooling and materials.

[Baldor]

Soon I will move from rocket motors to rocket headings. My target is 2" and 3" canister shells. This means I will need some tools.

 

Initially, i'm planing to make streamers, since are basically BP plus some metal. If I find (or you recommend) some composition that do not use perclorate, and are not complicated, I could try ( I wanted to try veline, but is out of the question for now)

 

I already have a ball mill, 200g capacity with stainless steel media.

 

Formers will be made from PVC pipe. Since i'm making rocket headers, OD of the canister isn't relevant.

 

An small star press, 6mm (1/4"), 19 stars is in the pipeline for next week, or the week after. An 8 mm (3/8") one will be made if the first works well.

 

I will need screens/sieves. What are the more useful sizes?

 

An star roller could be made if needed.

 

What i'm missing that I can´t find in the hardware store?

 

Metals: I'm lost with too many compositions for stars. I don't want to store all metals and sizes (budget limitations). I have some unknown size aluminium. I want to stay away from Mg for the moment since seems it's too reactive, MgAl will be Ok. Any suggestion for a reasonable shopping list? What will you recommend for a beginner with budget limitations, no perclorate, and making 6-8mm stars?

 

Other chemicals; I'm absolutely lost with to many compositions, so I can end buying something that I only use for one type of stars. Seems strontium and barium nitrate could be useful. Should I add it to the shopping list? Dragon eggs seems an easy composition, I seen formulas with Bismuth Trioxide or with lead tetraoxide. Should a novice try it? Bismut or lead? Anything more to spice all of the above and get some more flexibility?

 

Some more suggestions?

 

I think I will make my purchases here: http://www.pyrogarage.pl/chemicals.htm Somebody in EU have experience with them? I only purchased tubes from them, and I'm a happy customer.

 

A lot of questions, I know.... Sorry.

[Arthur]

There are a number of compounds that use only BP ingredients with types of and mixes of charcoal supplying the effect, then there are several compounds that use one or two additional ingredients. so you can get a range of brocades and streamer stars, then move onto glitters etc. With modern compounds colours usually require perc which is unavailable in mainland Europe.

 

Two essential tools are scales for reliable ingredient mixing and star pumps for making cylindrical stars.

[Baldor]

Thanks Arthur. Forget to mention the scales, I have one with 0.01 precision and 100g max, and another one with 1g precision.

 

I will make a star press for 6mm and 8mm stars. Keeping in mind the bigger shells I will make are 3", will I need something bigger?

[Arthur]

Always be "satisfied so far", make what you can and improve on that when you can.

[pyrokid]

The simplest glitter formulas require only the addition of sodium bicarbonate and spheroidal aluminum powder, yet the result is very impressive. Cut stars are a perfectly workable alternative to pressed stars.

[Mumbles]

For screens, a good basic set would be something like 3 or 4, 12, 20, and 40. The 4 and 12 are mostly for granulating and sizing black powder burst. The 20 is used for this as well. The 20 and 40 are good for screening compositions together.

 

If I were going for a relatively minimum amount of metals I'd look for a medium mesh atomized Al, ideally something around 200 average mesh size, but anywhere from say 120 to 400 can work. I also happen to be very fond of coarse flake aluminum, something 30 mesh or coarser. It makes nice streamers, and can be used to make firefly stars. They're sort of a unique effect you don't see super often. Titanium can be nice too, but tends to take a toll on tools if you're not careful. 40-60 mesh is my favorite mesh size here for general utility.

[Aspirina]

Hola Baldor!

I answer in English for the rules of the forum and apart the rest members can comment my post...

I already mentioned that with a can of 33cl you can make the covers of 75mm, for the 50mm ones I used a silicone tube

Meshes: I use to granulate the bp a plastic net of 1x1cm squares, I know it's big but it works well, my mortars generate a lot of force.

I recommend that you master a technique to make stars, I have a star plate with 6 holes to make 10mm stars and several larger pumps.

I have not even try a star roller (although I would like to) If you want to make cut stars, I recommend you make them with mold, if you do not do it like that, there will only be a bad job and you will waste composition.

Metals:

Mr. Nick has everything (including the kclo4), pyrogarage is a very good option, here I leave another store who also has good reputation:

https://www.pyropowders.de/

The metals that I have are:

German dark for flash powder

Brilliant aluminum used for epoxy resins, for stars

Mg/Al for stars

and 50mesh titanium also for stars

With these you can make many effects!

For other chemicals I recommend you for colors the veline system, they carry all the same chemicals and then the only thing that changes is the one that determines the color.

The common ones are:

Parlon, Red gum, Mg / Al, Red Iron oxide and I'm missing some, google has the answer...

The ones I have for colors:

Barium carbonate

Barium nitrate

Strontium nitrate

Strontium carbonate

Copper carbonate

In this store from Barcelona you can get the first 4:

https://quimicsdalmau.com/

This store from Zaragoza have a nice charcoal Vid and Pine:

http://www.granvelada.com/es/

With these tips I make my shells and I can enjoy a lot this hobby in Spain!

Here an example:

The stars of this pic are made with titanium and the classic charcoal willow composition

This case are made with fine cardboard "cartulina" I dont know the literal traduction

The rope, is classic cotton rope (chinese store)

This kraft paper is from pyroshopping.eu, the kraft paper that you can buy in normal stores is not a good option.

I hope this answer will help you!

Vamos hablando Baldor!

Edited April 17, 2018 by Aspirina

[cevmarauder]

When it comes to screens, I just bought various mesh stainless screens from McMaster-Carr and made wooden frames for them. Keep in mind that I heavily sealed the wood frames before stapling the mesh on and covering the edges with a wood strip. Much cheaper than buying pre-finished screens, and honestly, the sizes Mumbles mentioned are all you really need for quite some time.

As others have said, charcoal-based star compositions and cut stars are a great start. If you want to get into colors, Skylighter's screen-cut rubber star formulas are dandy--I got everything I needed for ~$100 when I started making stars--but they require Potassium perchlorate. Not sure what the laws are like in Spain; if Potassium Perchlorate is hard to come by, you can use the (riskier) Potassium Chlorate formulas--and if that's hard to come by, you can always make your own; electrolytic cell plans are all over the web.

Jopetes put together an excellent Spanish language formula document that's in the files section of the site--your English is great but having the Spanish names of chemicals might help you when shopping locally.

As for Dragon's Eggs, Bismuth Trioxide is a tad expensive, you can actually make your own lead tetroxide by stripping a car battery and heating the gray lead oxide powder until it turns reddish orange. Be careful--but that's the rule for everything in this hobby!

[Baldor]

Thanks all, you are great!!

 

Thanks for the sizes, Mumbles. I will look at it.

 

I planed to use PVC pipes for the formers, Aspirina, but the beer can is a great idea. How many beers I need before I get the canisters right? :-)

 

Almost all the chemicals you listed are on my list. Must dive in different compositions to narrow it. Thanks for the link to Dalmau. The charcoal I'm using now is pine from gran velada, I think I can do better.

 

Screens will depend in what can I find and the price, Cevmarauder. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a prefinished screen, even if the cost per cm^2 is higher, than buy an entire roll.

 

No perchlorate this year, maybe next. The only transactions allowed in the UE are B2B. I have some chlorate, but I have it stored away, to sensitive for my tastes. I bought it before reading enough.

 

I have Jopetes file... The famous "spanish PDF" where the monocapa prime comes from. :-)

 

I can get Pb3O4 without problem, and I know about its toxicity and how to handle it. I'm more worried about composition effectiveness and sensitivity. Are dragon eggs something a novice could try? What seems I can´r find is cupric oxide. I know I can make it via electrolysis and heating, but really, i'm not in the mod for starting another project.

 

BTW... Except for some organic components like red gum that made me work hard to translate, I actually prefer all my technical info in English. When the time comes to buy, it is easy to make the translation, but meanwhile, all the good information is in English, so it is easier for me to work with English nomenclature.

 

Back to study and screen compositions.

[cevmarauder]

Dragon's Eggs are easy to make, but take some dialing in to perfect. Copper Oxide is pretty readily available here in the states--it's the black stuff you want. I can't imagine there being many restrictions on it in the EU. It's used as a pigment in ceramics, so maybe try an art store if you want to overpay?

Or...Amazon.es: https://www.amazon.es/%C3%93xido-cobre-negro-%C3%B3xido-inoxia/dp/B06ZZX4NVF

 

DAMN! No wonder you're being really selective about your chemicals you buy. I haven't checked the conversion rates lately, but $22 a lb is ridiculous! It costs half that--literally--here in the States.

 

How are you fixed up for nitrocellulose lacquer? That's the binder in DEs, and I'll warn you, it's a bit of a workout folding it in. Are you able to get smokeless powder over there? I know your gun laws are pretty restrictive, unlike the US. Apparently, the ping-pong ball version is inferior; I had a stash of mixed powder emptied out of shells by a buddy of mine who worked in a gun store, so I never used ping-pong balls.

Edited April 17, 2018 by cevmarauder

[Baldor]

This is another question I forget to ask. I have a can of NC lacquer, the kind used for musical instruments. Will it work? Double base powder is available, but I must check if you need a weapons license to buy it. For reloading cartridges sure you need a license.

[cevmarauder]

I believe it will work just fine, but I'm going to have to defer to some of the more experienced folks here.