TheSidewinder Posted January 1, 2008 Posted January 1, 2008 Definitely too slow to make good lift. Coulld be used in a star, though, as long as you adjust the formula. You could also increase your grinding time by a factor of 5 or 10. That will help, though it's labor-intensive. Really, though, you need to get some sort of decent ball mill. M
nick2354 Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Firstly, I'm very sorry about the VERY late reply, I have been so busy working. I tried the CIA method and It worked reasonably well, I also granulated my bp. I used Methylated spirits for cooling it down. I was wondering does it have to be an Alcohol, because lets face it Methylated spirits is about $5 for 1 litre. Would an Ice batch be sufficient and using only like 20 ml of Methylated spirits to granulate. If this post dosent make alot of sense to you, I will go into more detaill if required. TheSidewinder: I'm not up to making stars yet But hopefully soon .
oskarchem Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Well,making stars is not hard actually, just wet your composition, and cut it up into squares.
mormanman Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Well,making stars is not hard actually, just wet your composition, and cut it up into squares. When I was starting out I rolled my stars. I just took my ball mill and tipped it at an angle and threw my comp in and sprayed it with something to wet it. I just takes so long to do so now I pump and cut with a syringe my mom got me for the hospital.
Mumbles Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 There are two factors involved in the CIA precipitation method. The first is cold to obviously help the KNO3 precipitate. The second is the alcohol, of which greatly cuts the solubility of potassium nitrate. So in short, no, you cannot cut out the alcohol and expect to get the same results. It is inadvisable to granulate the product with methylated spirits anyway. It won't activate the dextrin, and offers no binding properties of it's own.
Frozentech Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 Firstly, I'm very sorry about the VERY late reply, I have been so busy working. I tried the CIA method and It worked reasonably well, I also granulated my bp. I used Methylated spirits for cooling it down. I was wondering does it have to be an Alcohol, because lets face it Methylated spirits is about $5 for 1 litre. Would an Ice batch be sufficient and using only like 20 ml of Methylated spirits to granulate. If this post dosent make alot of sense to you, I will go into more detaill if required. TheSidewinder: I'm not up to making stars yet But hopefully soon . I see Mumbles already answered this, but I will repeat him.. The alcohol does more than just cool the hot slurry. Since KNO3 is not very soluble in alcohol, or at low temps in H2O, it causes it to 'crash' out of solution without forming large crystals which lead to weak, slow, slaggy BP.
asilentbob Posted January 8, 2008 Posted January 8, 2008 When I did precipitation method BP I used acetone. It evaporates away faster than alcohol and you should be able to get it for around $6/gallon. Either way there is a big fire hazard. You really need a mill though. I'd recommend asking around to see if anyone you know has a AC 1725rpm motor with about 1/20 HP. More HP is fine, but once you get past about 1HP the motor is so strong that there are much better uses out there for it than driving a ball mill.http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/misc.html#ballmillA simple ball mill like that can be made and should last for a very very very long time and be able to handle a pretty good load giving ample room to grow. Make sure the motor is continuous duty rated with some sort of overheating protection. Thumler's Tumbler 15lb aka Model B "mills" have a 1/50HP 1phase .9Amp 1550rpm continuous duty overheat protected motor and they make superb ball mills, however they are pricey, I just happened to be lucky enough to have a father who is a very serious hunter that reloads his own cases. I'm going to (try) to make a large combination ball mill / star roller / potters wheel soon with a 3/4HP 1725rpm motor that I got out of a trap shooting machine... I'm going with the basic design in the link above... just expanding it...
nick2354 Posted January 10, 2008 Author Posted January 10, 2008 I have about 120grams of CIA method black powder cooling in my fridge. I will let you all know how this burns. Mumbles: Sorry I didn't mean granulate, I meant corn. Sorry I really shouldn't type here when Im really tired. Frozentech: Thanks for that Information, Its helping ALOT understand better. asilentbob: I dont know about buying acetone, I get funny looks when ask I for Potassium Nitrate. Buying acetone at my age will not happen since It is used in the making of a HE, they store may refuse me sale/call the police/perform a citizens arrest, If none of them happen, my mum see's me with a Acetone she will FREAK and never let me do anything pyro related.
Mumbles Posted January 10, 2008 Posted January 10, 2008 You know, there are a lot of things that can be made into high explosives. Many stores are not aware of these uses. It's possible to make explosives from cotton, are they not going to sell you t-shirts as well? The worst case scenario is they think you're going to huff it, and not sell it to you because you're not 18. Regardless if you mean corn or granulate, alcohol still wont work. The granules will have no structural strength what-so-ever.
nick2354 Posted January 12, 2008 Author Posted January 12, 2008 Are Corn Flour and Corn Starch the same thing? I wont to make it into dextrin. I asked a guy at my local supermarket for Corn Starch he said Corn Starch is Corn Flour. I did some Google searchs, but found multiple different answers, some saying yes others saying no. Mumbles: I dont know what explosive is made out of cotton but Im guessing the other ingredient would be fairly hard to get. AP was used in the London subway bombings. I think AP would be fairly common to most people.
hst45 Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 I dont know what explosive is made out of cotton but Im guessing the other ingredient would be fairly hard to get. AP was used in the London subway bombings. I think AP would be fairly common to most people.This is way off topic and in the wrong section, but nick's posts got me thinking so please indulge me. If the gov-mit want to screw you, just think of some poor SOB with a hangover who goes to the local Walgreens and buys a bottle of aspirin. He's obviously a terrorist for this purchase. The indictment: Aspirins: A source of phenol for the synthesis of TNP The bottle it came in: A containment vessel for the above compound The cotton in the top of the bottle: A source for nitrocotton, obviously uses as a primary to initiate the above. The cardboard box the aspirin bottle came in: Source for charcoal, used to make blackmatch fuse to initiate the above terrorist device. Life without parole. (We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread)
crazyboy25 Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 You want corn starch if you live in the US it shouldn't be very hard just look for the bag labeled corn starch. Lets not get into HE's outside the HE section and lets not discuss unfounded conspiracy theories or compounds of which you have limited knowledge.
hst45 Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 Lets not get into HE's outside the HE section and lets not discuss unfounded conspiracy theories or compounds of which you have limited knowledge.Point taken on the HE discussion, but dude, it's a JOKE, lighten up!
nick2354 Posted January 12, 2008 Author Posted January 12, 2008 I live in Australia. LOL, back to the matter at hand. Some websites said corn starch is the American name for Corn Flour, and Corn Flour is the English word. Im guessing since my country was formed by English convicts, that Corn Flour is Corn Starch. Are there any Aussies who or English that buy Corn Flour to make Dextrine.
rocket Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 I use corn flour to make dextrin, works fine. I too was a little confused about the how corn flour/starch thing when I first got into the hobby.I'm pretty sure there the same thing.
hst45 Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 nick, I just checked a box of corn starch in the cupboard. Here's the complete list of ingredients, in order, as printed, to comply with USDA regulations: corn startch Wow, that really helped . Glad the good 'ol Department of Agriculture cleared that one up for us, eh? Sorry that I can't help with the Australian/American translation. Wasn't it Churchill that said "America and England are two nations divided by a common language"? I'm not sure if what we have is processed FROM corn, or is just ground-up corn. This is as fine as flour, and the stuff we have here that's coarse is called corn meal and it's useless for pyro but great for biscuits. I'd take the stuff you have, put in an oven on low, and see if it turns a nice golden brown. If not, hey, P.M. me for a good biscuit recipe.
crazyboy25 Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 Well I can't tell you which one to buy but a good way to tell if you buy one is add water. If it is corn starch it wont dissolve it will turn into a non-newtonian goop which will turn hard when squeezed and runny when let to sit. flour will just turn to a sticky mess. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Mumbles Posted January 12, 2008 Posted January 12, 2008 Yes, corn flour is what you want. In pretty much every country beside the US, it's called corn flour. Flour must be the metric spelling of starch.
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