Sparklers or Flares

[weknowpyro]

Hi,

Has anyone ever tried to make sparklers either tradtional sparklers or Morning glory type sparklers. Recently i have been making some, they have turned out more like flares but my iron filling sparkler was great.

Heres a picture of a kclo3 and al sparkler.

[aquaman]

If want to try some other sparkeler compositions look at this Site

[Swany]

Flares, eh? I am going to make some military flares, which entails Mg and teflon powder, and some NC laquer.

 

They should be quite bright.

[dragonman586]

Sparkler #2

Source: rec.pyrotechnics

Comments:

Preparation:

 

Potassium nitrate.................................14

Sulfur............................................3

Charcoal..........................................3

Aluminum..........................................2

Binder............................................qs

 

for this one can 600 mesh al be used. (Boric acid must be added to add stability right?)

 

What is the composition for that formula anyway?

[optimus]

Flares, eh? I am going to make some military flares, which entails Mg and teflon powder, and some NC laquer.

 

They should be quite bright.

Be careful with those things - I hear they have an unfortunate habit of spontaneous combustion...

 

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.pyrot...0c5be78dee92001

[weknowpyro]

Hi,

Evertime i have mixed bp with al and made it wet so that i can hold it together it seems to not want to burn it just smolders anyone else had the same problem?

 

The compostion for that flare mix/ sparkler was 2 parts kclo3 and 2 parts al but to get it to ignite i primed it with a bit of sulphurless bp.

 

You can edit your posts by pressing the EDIT-button in the top right corner of your post. That way you do not have to double post.

 

-Rooster

[delta_echo]

Sparkler #2

Source: rec.pyrotechnics

Comments:

Preparation:

 

Potassium nitrate.................................14

Sulfur............................................3

Charcoal..........................................3

Aluminum..........................................2

Binder............................................qs

 

for this one can 600 mesh al be used. (Boric acid must be added to add stability right?)

 

What is the composition for that formula anyway?

My guess is that 600 mesh Al will burn way too fast for a sparkler. Will probably look more like a flare. By increasing the Al size, you should be able to produce some nice spark effects. I can't say what size will be best, however, as I have very little experience with sparklers. Too large of a mesh size and it may not light or you may have burning chunks of composition that hit the ground causing a fire hazard. And yes, buffer Al in the presence of nitrates with boric acid.

[optimus]

The only type of sparkler I've attempted is the dipped stick kind. I'm not sure if I used the correct Al for this as the sparks all burned to the ground, but it was still a great effect. I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has any tips for getting an even coating on the stick... Mine were quite lumpy.

 

Name: Degn, Ruby Fire Stick

Source: Westech

 

Aluminum, flake, bright. -325 mesh, 36 micron   6

Strontium Nitrate   6

Potassium Perchlorate   2

Shellac   1

 

 

NOTES:

Screen all indredients except shellac. Dissolve shellac in alcohol and then add other ingredients. Stir until the consistency is like thick glue, then dip thin wooden sticks to half their length and allow them to dry.

 

 

Action photo : )

 

Edit: updated link - it's hosted here now.

[Givat]

Care to use another host for the action photo?

[weknowpyro]

That sparkler compostion sounds good i might give it a try i managed to get the stuff on my stick quite even by rolling it. But next time i'm going to try a morning glory type sparkler which is inside a tube, anyone ever made one?

[Mumbles]

If your coating is lumpy there are two things I would try. First of all, make sure everything is very fine. Ball mill the individual chemicals if you needed to. If the mixture is still too thick, you could add some more alcohol solvent. That would thin it up a bit, and hopefully remove some lumps. I've never actually made sparklers, but I know the consistancy it should be.

[weknowpyro]

I made a morning glory sparkler tonight using the compostion listed above of-

Potassium nitrate.................................14

Sulfur............................................3

Charcoal..........................................3

Aluminum..........................................2

 

worked really well. But creates alot of slag.

Here are some pictures of prefire and action.

 

Prefire-

http://www.apcforum.net/files/weknowpyrosparkler1.JPG

http://www.apcforum.net/files/WeKnowPyroglory.JPG

 

Action shot-

http://www.apcforum.net/files/glorysparks.jpg

 

Action shot does it no justice because i was all the way down the other end of my garden so the flame kinda looks massive to what it really was.

[DeAdFX]

This is a picture of my sparkler that I was jabbering about in the compistion thread...[For more info visit my post.]

60% KClO3

20% 90%Ti/6%Vn/4%Al powder

15% Cream of Tartar

2.5% Guar gum

2.5% Xanthan gum

+water as solvent

 

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/99/0176rhr2.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7496/0175rdm4.jpg

[shadopyro]

The closest ive come to good (ish) sparks on a dipped composition sparkler is just meal powder with extra course charcoal pices and cut bits of aluminium foil. -it seemed to be pretty good, only problem was that if any sparks hit your skin it hurts real bad so id suggest using a real long stick!

[mormanman]

well since this topic is here um does anyone know what is in road flare and signal flares like the aireal one

 

i'm trying to make a sparkler and was just wondering i that would work

[whitefox77]

I just came up with a good sparkler composition.

 

I make some of Shimizu Falls aluminum stars:

Potassium nitrate: 41

Sulfur: 7

Aluminum: 49

Dextrin: 6

Solvent: 25% alcohol

 

For aluminum I used Indian Dark I got off ebay. I made the mix a bit too wet and the popsicle stick I used ended up quite coated, so when I was done with the stars, I let the popsicle stick dry, then, holding well away from me with a pair of pliers lit it up. It was beautiful, but burned very fast for a sparkler. So I made a 50g batch of the star mix, and added 7g of baking soda. It's still a little fast, but it works very well, and looks a hell of a lot better than commercial sparklers.

 

I'm pretty sure I'll be making a big batch of these dipped onto BBQ skewers for the kids at 4th of July (although I'll be playing with the backing soda mix to try to slow it down a bit more first).

[GraafVaag]

Using a coarser type of Aluminium will also slow down your mix. If this makes it unignitable, try a hot prime, or 50/50 fine and coarse alu..

[Mumbles]

I would also suggest wetting the composition with boric acid solution, especially if you are going to be using such a reactive form of aluminum. Additionally, baking soda will actually make it even more likely to react unfavorably. Modifying the ratios of the KNO3 to Aluminum would probably be the best bet.

 

Again using a reasonable form of aluminum, such as one meant for glitters would slow it down to a speed that would likely be more to your liking, and have longer sparks.

 

This probably goes without saying, but I would do some extensive testing before giving these things to children, not that I can really recomend giving homemade fireworks to children in the first place.

[whitefox77]

I'm not personally very familiar with boric acid. Is this the same as Borax? If not, is there a way to get boric acid besides ordering from chemical supply (like the way I can either buy dextrin, or make it from baking corn starch)?

 

I'm also unsure what you mean by saying the baking soda will react unfavorably. It was my understanding that in this mix, baking soda would basically be an inert substance that would slow down the reaction but would not change the over all behavior. Was I mistaken?

 

I'm a little worried about using a larger form of aluminum. This already produces sparks that reach all the way to the ground, and fan out quite a bit. I don't think I want the sparks to go any further than they already are. I certainly wouldn't want them bouncing around on the ground smoldering.

 

----------------------

 

As I look at my 31 posts, and Mumbles almost 2,500, I realize I may be way out of place in what I'm about to say, but it's a concept that goes I believe is generally true beyond pyrotechnics.

 

Just because something is home made doesn't mean it is of lesser quality, or made with lesser consistency. My aunt's home made cherry pie will beat anything you buy in a store. Some of the "home made" computer programs I've written beat anything available like them on the commercial market. I disagree with the basic assumption that is prevalent in pyrotechnics that because someone makes something by hand them selves it is inherently more dangerous than a smiler device that is made by hand by someone in china.

 

I have seen commercial sparklers with wide variations in performance. I once lit two at once from one box, and had 1 burn 3 times faster than the other.

 

I will do extensive testing with these as I perfect both the formula, and the method of making them. Because I have a personal stake in the outcome (the safety of my children), and because I'm not getting paid based on how long or how many I made, I don't think it's far fetched to say that I will probably implement even more stringent quality control than may be implemented commercially. I see the most important QA factor as being consistency. I need to find a mix that isn't too hot and doesn't produce sparks that are too long or too hot, then I need to find a method of making the sparklers that I am able to use that provides extremely consistent results. Lastly, I'll be burning several sparklers from each batch myself before anyone else can use them to verify that they came out properly. I believe that this will provide at least the same level of safety in use as commercially bought sparklers.

 

I realize that questioning the status quo isn't likely to make me a whole lot of friends, but it's in my nature to form my own opinions.

[Frozentech]

I'm not personally very familiar with boric acid.  Is this the same as Borax?  If not, is there a way to get boric acid besides ordering from chemical supply (like the way I can either buy dextrin, or make it from baking corn starch)?

 

Boric acid is totally different from Borax. You can find Boric acid in many hardware stores as an insect poison ( used as a "green" roach poison - also good against ants) I've also seen it in drug stores sold as an eyewash / antiseptic.

 

I'm also unsure what you mean by saying the baking soda will react unfavorably.  It was my understanding that in this mix, baking soda would basically be an inert substance that would slow down the reaction but would not change the over all behavior.  Was I mistaken?

 

He's referring to the unfavorable reaction between Aluminum and nitrates that occurs in a basic pH environment. Boric acid is commonly added to KNO3 / Al mixes as a buffer to prevent it, adding bicarbonate would tip you back to basic pH.

 

I think that rather than using a waterfall comp, which by design has sparks falling to the ground, and probably bouncing on the ground... you could go with an established sparkler comp ? Here's a link to Dan WIlliams' Super Sparklers:

 

http://fogoforum.us/sparkler.php

[whitefox77]

Ah, I get it. I'll hit the hardware store for boric acid tomorrow. I'll have to look into using a different inert substance since baking soda will neutralize the boric acid.

 

The state I'm in has laws against the use of perchlorate in sparklers, so I wont be using the Super Sparkler mix.

 

Over all I really like the look of this mix, so I think I'll stay with the basic mix, and try tweaking quantities, or adding an inert substance to slow it down. I'll admit that I'm still very new at this, and not the best chemist out there. But that's why I post about what I'm doing, and ask lots of questions.

[Mumbles]

Well, obviously you get the right idea. You want to make sure they're reliable and safe before giving them to any one. I am a bit young to have children of my own, but I would still be wary of giving anything I may have made to my nieces. Commercial sparklers are easily the most dangerous device around as far as amount of injuries caused, specifically to young children. I am certainly not trying to state your home-made items are any more dangerous or of lesser quality than a commercial item. If you've seen home-made shells verses commercial shells, I think that the exact opposite is true actually.

 

Boric acid is some weird stuff due to some certain chemical properties that I won't get into. I've heard people say that they will neutralize each other, but I'm not 100% sure. Guess it never hurts to check. Boric acid "dissociates" as the following

 

B(OH)3 + H2O ---> B(OH)4 - + H+

 

I don't mean to be a spoil sport about this, but the sparklers you'd be making would be illegal to some degree whether or not they have perchlorate in them.

 

We'd be happy to help you find an appropriate formula. Being that the formula you have is infact a waterfall composition, it is meant to have very long burning sparks. You may wish to find something a bit less metal rich, and experiment with it.

[GalFisk]

The HCO3- ions will eat the surplus of H+ ions, raising the pH. You can't make the mixture acidic without destroying all the NaHCO3.

[Mumbles]

Not neccesarily. Acid-base theory is far more complex than just that. From a classical sense, yes they would neutralize each other. Like I said boric acid is a weird species. I am just not sure if there would be enough present to actually neutralize it, in a fizzing sort of manner. If it's not fizzing, there is still carbonate/bicarbonate in the composition that will act to retard the composition.

 

Being that boric acid isn't a true acid in the fact that it gives up hydrogen ions, I can't find reliable Ka data to determine if the reaction will go to H2CO3(which is what decomposes into CO2 gas), or to HCO3-. The Bicarbonate ion is amphoteric in the fact that it can act as a base or an acid. There is a somewhat reasonable chance that bicarbonate could be a stronger acid than boric acid, and would push the equilibrium toward boric acid and carbonate instead of Carbonic acid and tetrahydroborate.

 

I'm not sure if tetrahydroborate is the correct name, but you get the picture.

 

 

All it takes is to toss some boric acid in a bicarbonate solution to find out.

[GalFisk]

Interesting, apparently I need to read more chemistry.