Fuses

[Pyroman2]

My BP for Blackmatchs contains 5% Nitrocellulose

( aceton /solvent to NC's products).

IMO it's very good binder.

[TheSidewinder]

I'll second Mumbles on the shellac powder. Try a batch with it as the binder. IIRC, alcohol dissolves shellac completely. It's a better fuel than dextrin, so you may need to play with the charcoal percentage in the base mix of BP. Maybe 2-5%? If someone knows the figures for the "fuel values" of dex vs shellac, please post them.

 

M

[Pretty green flame]

Well, following the suggestion of Mumbles and Thesidewinder i have made 1 meter of black match using shellac as the binder. The results are not as good as i expected, burn rate is very poor compared to the starting powder, burn rate decreased by a lot. So shellac is out of the question. I have yet to try NC lacquer and red gum but i will report back with the results.

 

@Pyroman2

 

Do you use a 5% solution as a wetting agent for the blackmatch or do you add 5% in weight of pure NC to the powder and use acetone as a wetting agent?

[Pyroman2]

Sorry I made mistake above....

I use 10% solution (no 5%) Nitrocellulose, .. I use pure NC, who is add to acetone.

And next I add this solution to meal powder until it'll be wet slurry.

(and so I don't use 5g pure NC for 100g BP, but I use 10% NC lacquer as a binder).

[TheSidewinder]

Well, following the suggestion of Mumbles and Thesidewinder i have made 1 meter of black match using shellac as the binder. The results are not as good as i expected, burn rate is very poor compared to the starting powder, burn rate decreased by a lot. So shellac is out of the question.

*****SNIP*****

If the burn rate decreased markedly, I think you need to reduce the charcoal quite a bit more. Or maybe add 10% more nitrate. I know I've seen some info that said shellac can be used as a substitute for Dextrin, provided you adjust the total fuel content vs oxidizer. But it gave no starting points.

 

Now my own curiousity is piqued. When I get back from vacation (I'm sitting in an Albuquerque, NM, KOA right now) I'm going to experiment and will post the results.

 

M

[Pretty green flame]

Well, following the suggestion of Mumbles and Thesidewinder i have made 1 meter of black match using shellac as the binder.  The results are not as good as i expected, burn rate is very poor compared to the starting powder, burn rate decreased by a lot. So shellac is out of the question.

*****SNIP*****

If the burn rate decreased markedly, I think you need to reduce the charcoal quite a bit more. Or maybe add 10% more nitrate. I know I've seen some info that said shellac can be used as a substitute for Dextrin, provided you adjust the total fuel content vs oxidizer. But it gave no starting points.

 

Now my own curiousity is piqued. When I get back from vacation (I'm sitting in an Albuquerque, NM, KOA right now) I'm going to experiment and will post the results.

 

M

I shall increase the percentage of nitrate by 10% and see if it gets any better.

[mormanman]

My fuses are just smoke powder rammed into a plastic straw even short fuses last a while

[asilentbob]

My black match earlier in this thread was pretty crappy... making quick match with it was pretty crappy too, it wouldn't burn faster in the tube reliably... so a few shells didn't go anywhere for a few minutes... yeah minutes... Recently i have used up all that black match, and it seemed that with simply rapping the end of the tube and a bit of the black match in duct tape so that the fuse has to burn past the duct tape first... has made a world of difference.

 

I'm considering making some more black match with my much better BP... or getting some fast chinese paper fuse to use as leaders. But i don't really feel like paying hazmat... so might get some if its at the 07 PGI convention.

[pyromainiac420]

For detonating my primaries I usually use sparklers. Because they throw alot of SPARKS(surprise lol) great caution must be taken to make sure that the sparks wont hit the charge. So say I'm using it to detonate a AP blasting cap inserted in 40mils of methyl nitrate, I would first dip the metal end of the sparkler in wax.(Because AP is a peroxide based explosive and we dont want to take chances, and while were on the topic of peroxides I wouldnt reccomend using a sparkler for detonating HMTD) Then I insert then wax end into the detonator carefully. Next step is to tape around the end of the blasting cap.(So there is no space atall for the sparks to go inside.) Also make sure that the other end is sealed if your using a liquid explosive especially. Next step is to insert the blasting cap into the main charge.(At the blast site, not before transportation.) Then tape around the whole that the blasting cap is being inserted into.(In this case so that the spark wouldnt hit the MN.) Now you should be good. I've also heard of people rapping the sparkler in tin foil but I havnt tried that personally.

 

Another fuse can be made from KCL03 and sugar dissolved in water. You then dip a string in for about 5min.(It will change colour.) Then take it out and dry it.

 

You can get Kcl03 with this method.

 

 

Cut the heads off some matches, you need alot of matches to get heaps of the stuff. Place the matcheads in glass jar with twice the amount ofacetone shake the jar till no powder left on matches.

You will end up with bright red liquid due to the dye in most matches

filter this and keep liquid.

Evaporate all acetone and you will be left with KClO3 crystals that are red from the dye but dosnt seem to affect it in any way.

I did try this but I am yet to test the results.

[ULTRABUF]

I would strongly recomend editing your post before a mod sees it, discussion of HEs is not allowed outside the HE section.

[mormanman]

Ok I don't mean to be a jerk and try to be a mod or an admin but I notices some talk on HE and you can get screwed over for talking about HE outside of the HE section. But I made some quick match fuse from Golden Powder and it was nice and fast like wow.

[asilentbob]

Exactly.

 

Plus, it wouldn't be in the HE section either as you don't have access.

 

For a good reason.

 

 

I was thinking about making some "exotic" match (comps you wouldn't normally make match with) just to see how they preform. IE. binded whistle comp match. Or CuO/Al match. I'm thinking CuO/Al match on KNO3 impregnated string would be interesting. Perhaps binded with NC lacquer... or parlon/red gum/dextrin. NC lacquer might be for the best so the Al doesn't react much with the water.

[mormanman]

Exactly.

 

Plus, it wouldn't be in the HE section either as you don't have access.

 

For a good reason.

 

 

I was thinking about making some "exotic" match (comps you wouldn't normally make match with) just to see how they preform. IE. binded whistle comp match. Or CuO/Al match. I'm thinking CuO/Al match on KNO3 impregnated string would be interesting. Perhaps binded with NC lacquer... or parlon/red gum/dextrin. NC lacquer might be for the best so the Al doesn't react much with the water.

I don't know what the first part is sopose to mean and who it was directed to but anyway I'm not offended either way so that last part doesn't matter.

 

Well, how would CuO/Al make a match, I mean I thought it was a thermite (I have never played with those but if it burns like iron oxide and Al then sure it would work but dang it would be hot.)

[deadman]

Well for match purposes the Cu/Al would have to be very fine. My guess would be a very fast, very hot fuse. I also see NO flexibility without NC lacquer. Would be interesting, but even ceramics greade CuO is a bit expensive to use on match. I may give this a try as I have about 50 grams collecting dust right now. Maybe. I don't have any cotton string though. Just nylon. Hmmm... we'll see.

[mormanman]

Just to point out Big Lots has cheap cotton string.

[itwasntme]

I had the idea of a hot fuse. I made 5/3/2 KNO3/Al/S with 625 mesh spherical aluminum. I made it like black match, but it was silver. When burnt, it strobed. First it had a tiny little orange flame, then it flashed. It had white sparks, it looked like the sparklers on the wires, the way their sparks look, just like things shooting with long tails. It looked like that, but silver colored. I made one batch way back in March, and it was able to light thermite. Now, I made a new batch, it wont burn through thermite, it just dies. I probably used too much water.

 

I use it now as a sparkler to show my little sister. Do NOT hold.

 

Also, I tried zinc/sulfur, since it burned hot enough to light thermite for me a while back. It sucked. Since nothing in it was water soluble, it fell right off when you touched it. If you make match, there MUST be something water soluble in it.

 

For now, I use a thicker match, and with metals, for slag. The slag for me is good, because it will light things easier, and with Mg shavings, it ignites very easily. It makes the Mg burn pinkish, possibly potassium carbonate?

[deadman]

A while ago I tried to use a KNO3/S/Al/C (65/15/15/5) mixture as a fountain mix. No particular insipration just wanted to try. Using spherical aluminum from Hawk Mountain. I am aware it is similiar to flash mixes but different proportions, just so no one asks. Anyways I tested a small loose pile before making a fountain. It too strobed through smoulder and flash phases.

 

BTW not a good fountain mix. It burned slow with low sparks maybe 2 ft. Had a nice white jet though. Didn't seam like very much thrust though. About a 3rd of the way down it burned through the tube wall. HOT stuff.

[asilentbob]

Mormonman, no the above was directed at pyromaniac420.

 

Just toying with ideas really, could make an interesting, fast effects fuse. Or a sort of sparkler fuse like itwasntme made.

 

Yeah NC, parlon, red gum, etc could be used if you wanted alcohol and/or acetone... Or dextrin, SGRS, CMC, etc could be used if you wanted it to be a water soluble binder. You could even have something like CuO/Al/dextrin, then coat it with NC to reduce Al coming off. Don't know how it would preform... another downside is that my CuO/Al is really messy with the flake Al and its defiantly something I'm not looking forward to doing as much as i want to know how it will perform. If a courser, less messy granular Al was available to me id consider using that.

 

In my experience when i put a bit of my CuO/Al into NC laquer and painted it on a stick... holding it over the kitchen burner would give green/white flashes, and it didn't seem to keep burning by itself. Perhaps adding a bit of black powder to the goo would help it burn by its own.

[mormanman]

Mormonman, no the above was directed at pyromaniac420.

Oh, ok, sorry about not being smart enough to relize that.

[pudidotdk]

Anyone tried making their Chinese paper fuse?

I made some, dang it's hard to roll. But they work nicely, they propell themself when burned, and I was also able the make them completely waterproof by coating them in NC.

 

Nice.

[Caramanos2000]

My flying fish works great in shells but my strobe and falling leaves wont ignite, wut do i do?

[optimus]

Are you priming the ends after cutting at an angle with a razor?

 

If not, give it a try.

[Caramanos2000]

Dab it in some Bp and dextrin?

[mormanman]

Um I'm not sure if this is HE or not but what is the fuse that the gold miners use the only thing that I know about it is that it gets very hot very fast and burns very fast like a peice two feet around a two foot (in diameter) tree would be cut down. They also use a very very slow burning visco of some sort for a primer basicly and 2 feet of that will burn for 2 hours.

[Pretty green flame]

Um I'm not sure if this is HE or not but what is the fuse that the gold miners use the only thing that I know about it is that it gets very hot very fast and burns very fast like a peice two feet around a two foot (in diameter) tree would be cut down. They also use a very very slow burning visco of some sort for a primer basicly and 2 feet of that will burn for 2 hours.

You are talking about PETN det cord which has no place in pyrotechnics.