Whistle mix

[invisibleworld]

When making whistle mix with potassium perchlorate and sodium salicilate, the recipe calls out for patrolium jelly and solvent as an ingrediant to de-sensitise it while mixing. Is this method used when making whistle mix using Potassium Perchlorate and sodium/potassium BENZOATE to de-sensitise it as well? Or will it ruin the mix?

[Gottagotomoz]

I'm pretty sure both compositions will work for the rocket mix. You should be fine with using benzoate.

[Mumbles]

The solvent and petroleum jelly is used regardless of the mix. Mineral oil with no solvent is used sometimes as well.

[al93535]

I have used both sali and the benzoate with that recipe, both work excellently! I use mineral oil with camping fuel though, and of course the iron oxide. These mixes are generally used for rocket fuel. However, they are my standard and only whistle mixes because they perform so well.

 

You do not need to use anything other then the perchlorate and fuel to achieve a whistle though. But you do need to make sure to get a really good mix, and be sure that both ingredients are really fine before hand.

[cplmac]

I melt my vaseline, but add enough acetone to the dry ingredients first to make a nice play doh.

[psyco_1322]

OK how about a mixed catalyst for whistle. 50:50 Fe2O3:CuO? Burn better, worse, whistle on crack?

[qwezxc12]

I think Copper Oxichloride as a catalyst is the easiest "whistle on crack" to achieve...significantly higher performance than CuO:

http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/rockets/whistletests.html lists it as having some of the highest tested thrust in his test rig. I used it in 60:40 Whistle:BP coated crispies and benzolift...Yowza!

[psyco_1322]

Interesting. Well I never got around to that part of the site. As I am still exploring at the present time. I dont have any copper oxychloride. Sad but true. I have iron oxides of all colors but yellow. Thought I might try the mixed catalyst, too late now already mixed it in.

[yellowcard]

Hi guys,

 

I've just made an 1'''diameter whistle rocket, containing 50gram of Whistle mix, KClO4 and sodiumbenzoate, with some additional titanium for the effect. The vaseline/petrolium jelly was cafefully molten on an electric stove, then some aceton was added, then the mix, and then some more aceton.

While I was pressing the mix in tje tube, the tube became whet from the ( I think ) Acetone and cracked...

 

Now my question: How much acetone and petrolium jelly should I use when wetting the mix ? And how long should it be on the stove and how long should I dry it before pressing it in the tube ?

 

Sorry guys for the many questions and bad english, but i'm new on Whistle Rockets and i'm from Holland .

 

Bye, Yellowcard

[psyco_1322]

You want to let the acetone evaporate COMPLETELY out of the comp before pressing the whistle fuel.

 

For 100g use +3g of vaseline desolved into 25mL of solvent(ie: White gas). You can also add +1g of catalyst (red iron oxide or copper oxychloride).

 

Hay I know someone from Holland! She went to school with me as a exchange student. She's in Australia right now though.

[pudidotdk]

Have anyone tried benzine as solvent? This is more ready available for me than toluene and what not, and it dissolves the petroleum jelly well, even when not heated.

[psyco_1322]

I have no idea what benzine is.

[FrankRizzo]

It's what we call white gas or Coleman fuel. Yes, it will work but you will have to spread the finished fuel out on newspaper and let the solvent fully evaporate in a warm sunny area.

[pudidotdk]

Ah, now I know about those names, I wondered what the heck coleman fuel was

 

But don't you have to let the solvent evaporate anyways no matter what you use?

[psyco_1322]

Ya you do. Somepeople just arnt that smart *coughcoughrizzocoughcough*

 

OK so yah thats what everybody seems to use and like.

[FrankRizzo]

What I meant to emphasize is white gas evaporates a bit more slowly than other whistle mix solvents like acetone or toluene and may form a higher boiling azeotrope that requires more effort to completely remove. If you don't fully remove the solvent, the power really suffers.

[asilentbob]

Yup.

 

I'm a bit sad to find that you weren't mistaken in your spelling of benzine... I was hoping that you were meaning benzene... in which case I would be begging for a litter or 2 right now...

[psyco_1322]

I was just joking with you Rizzo. Does toluene really evaporate fast? I thought it was kinda slow but I really dont know, never worked with it before.

[cplmac]

Toluene is a little slow on evaporation. I always use acetone, once you rice the comp out onto some newspaper it's completely dry within two hours. The main reason I use vaseline is that it helps prevent water from being absorbed by the whistle fuel. This is particularly a problem with the Sodium Benze and Sodium Salicylate. I always melt the vaseline then add it to the wet comp, it's easier to mix it all together that way.

[yellowcard]

Thanks for al the help guys !

 

I made a 100g batch today. It contained 76 KClO4, 23 grams Sodiumbenzoate and 1 gram of Fe2O3.

I molted 4 grams of Petrolium jelly/vaseline, and after that I added 20 grams of Acetone. Then I put in the 100grams of mix and stirred for a while.

Got it out the beaker and placed it on a sheet of paper. It's drying now.

This was the result, what do you guys think ?

 

And is it thick enough like this, or should I go for a little more vaseline ?

 

Bye, Yellowcard

[cplmac]

Oh boy, where to start. First, the color is about right, that's about it for the good news. You need to mix it a LOT better. Put all the ingredients in a ziploc bag, and then smash it around with your hands for a good 5-10 minutes making sure you break up even the smallest white lumps, and little dark red spots. When the entire thing is the same color without spots that are lighter then others and without any real noticeable dark red spots, take it out of the bag and rub it through a screen onto some newspaper. The stuff you have looks like whistle chunks not whistle grains. It might still work though, I would probably take what you have and rub it through a screen anyways and give it a whirl, it should still work. Good luck and keep us posted.

[TzaRocket]

I want to ask if somebody tryed this:I mixed up some whistle mix (sodium benzoate/sodium clorate) with some NC laquer(Acetone,ping pong balls) /It had the consistency of clay,i spreaded on a piece of glass to dry.After it was dry(2 hours) completely I tryed a piece and it went in a flash.No matter how big the piece of whistle was it burned in a flash.I tryed it in a tube along whit another tube with simple whislte mix and I was socked: the normal whistle mix just barely whistled and the one treated whit NC laquer had a long,clean whistle.By the way the whistle mix I make is not powdered enought to whistle,yet treated with NC laquer it whistle like hell.Tomorrow i will make some more and film both so you could se for you shelf the diference.

[cplmac]

Normal whistle doesn't use Chlorate. Chlorate whistle is MUCH more powerful than standard whistle, it will chirp ear piercingly loud just in a 1/2TBLSP size pile of loose grains. This stuff is dangerous, extremely fast and hot, about as close to flash as you get without aluminum. I'm interested in the binding you tried though, never tried that.

[Mumbles]

Eugene Yurek on passfire uses something similar to break his small shells. He binds normal whistle (perc and benzoate/salicyliate) with NC lacquer and granulates it through a 20 mesh screen. He states that it is VERY powerful.

[cplmac]

I'm going to have to try that out, sounds interesting.