TonyBro1 Posted March 13 Posted March 13 So i made some black match that burns slowly and it worked good when i tried it out first. The fuse bends pretty easily and there is a slight chance the fuse stops there. Which makes my fireworks dangerous and unreliable. Is there anyway to fix this problem?
Zumber Posted March 13 Posted March 13 How much percentage of binder you have used? What kind of binder? For flexible (easily inserted into match pipe) and stiff match, gum arabic about 2 to 3 percent dissolved in warm water is good choice. Second is combination of dextrin and CMC (2 to 3 percent Dextrin + 1 to 1.5 percent CMC) and third choice is 3 to 4 percent of dextrin would work well for black match.
LiamPyro Posted March 14 Posted March 14 I have the same issue with my black match despite binding with a combination of dextrin and CMC. Works fine for multi-strand quickmatch but I don't trust the reliability for crossmatching or priming inserts - the match is incapable of burning through a hole or under a barrier. Next batch, I'm going to try using hot charcoal instead of mixed hardwood. A common fix I've heard for this issues is to "massage" the BP slurry into the string to ensure that it is soaked all the way through (there should be no white core when cut). In my case, the problem still persists despite doing this.
Zumber Posted March 14 Posted March 14 (edited) 3 hours ago, LiamPyro said: I have the same issue with my black match despite binding with a combination of dextrin and CMC. Works fine for multi-strand quickmatch but I don't trust the reliability for crossmatching or priming inserts - the match is incapable of burning through a hole or under a barrier. Next batch, I'm going to try using hot charcoal instead of mixed hardwood. A common fix I've heard for this issues is to "massage" the BP slurry into the string to ensure that it is soaked all the way through (there should be no white core when cut). In my case, the problem still persists despite doing this. The place where I live has favorable working weather condition,so I often prefer gum arabic as a binder. I have never had an issue with black match/cross match/or match where there are folds or bends. I use pure cotton thread strands & soak them in BP slurry for hours or two, then I pass it through bp slurry and nozzle and tie it over frame and dry this match for a day or two ensuring there are no any white piece of threads left behind. Next day I again apply second coat of BP slurry over it and dry it out pretty well. I use 100 gram BP and 2.5 gram or 3 gram of gum arabic (dissolved it in hot water) solution. Edited March 14 by Zumber
Mumbles Posted March 14 Posted March 14 The not being able to burn through holes is a fairly common issue with rather poor black match that only has a surface coating of black powder. There are a few ways to remedy this. The best binder in the world probably wont totally fix it however. The first is to massage the black powder slurry into the string itself. This is most common when using a single strand of wider cotton string as the blackmatch base. It's messy, but works well and honestly isn't that hard. The biggest issue is the string getting knotted or tangled when trying to hang it up to dry, but there's some best practices to minimize that. As a friendly tip, try using warm water. It's so much more pleasant, and starting thin and thickening up as it cools seems to help get better penetration and adhesion. The second is to use multiple thin strands of cotton and drag them through a black powder slurry before aggregating all the strands together and passing through a sizing die. This still just coats the surface of each individual strand, but has the effect of incorporating black powder into the core when the multiple strands are combined together. This is the preferred method by some as it's cleaner and more suited to larger scale production. There are some drawbacks and factors to contend with, but it is a different way to the same goal.
LiamPyro Posted March 15 Posted March 15 This is good info. My blackmatch is black all the way to the core, but still struggles to burn when constricted - again, works great for quick match despite this. Does the type of charcoal or overall preparation of the black powder affect this characteristic much? I know some people just use screen mixed hardwood BP, I’ve been using ball-milled hardwood BP (saving my willow for lift and burst). Just got some cedar which I’m planning to use…
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