kenT Posted November 24, 2008 Posted November 24, 2008 I have access to a number of magnesium castings. After examination I found some that look as though they could make good rocket nozzles with little work. At this point i am only using candy fuel or home brew black powder, and am just planning to try some epoxy based fuels. My question is would it be at all safe? I know it has a fairly high melting point and i am only thinking about single use motors. I am not concerned about a bit of erosion or burning. I am more concerned about explosions!
oskarchem Posted November 24, 2008 Posted November 24, 2008 Maybe I don't understand very well, but you want to use magnesium as the casing for the rockets? Or only for the nozzles? If for the casing, It would be a big no, because in the case of a CATO you would have magnesium flying around. But if you only want to use it as the nozzles, yeah, why not, if it ever CATO's it will just be projected into the ground.
Mumbles Posted November 24, 2008 Posted November 24, 2008 Depending on what happens, the nozzle will not always be projected straight into the ground. It can shatter just like the casing, which would produce horizontal fragments. I would in general advise against it. The metal will very easily melt under these conditions. It may make for an interesting effect as molten magnesium is sprayed from the rocket as it flies though. Is there any reason that the more traditional clay based nozzles are not usable? With the machines needed to machine Mg nozzles, a quick set of tooling could be turned out as well. Are you more interested in high power rocketry, or the bottle rocket type of things we are more versed in here?
kenT Posted November 25, 2008 Author Posted November 25, 2008 (edited) I was thinking about a rocket motor with an ID of 1". I thought the visual effect of the nozzles burn would add a cool effect.I didn't think the nozzle might actually explode but that it might react with the fuel in some way.I do make nozzles the conventional method, but I just kinda thought it might be an interesting experiment. I didn't want to do something wreckless and dangerous though. Edited November 25, 2008 by kenT
ActionTekJackson Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 I was thinking about a rocket motor with an ID of 1". I thought the visual effect of the nozzles burn would add a cool effect.I didn't think the nozzle might actually explode but that it might react with the fuel in some way.I do make nozzles the conventional method, but I just kinda thought it might be an interesting experiment. I didn't want to do something wreckless and dangerous though. Well, I'm certainly glad you asked. One thing I've learned with rockets is always expect what can't go wrong to go wrong.
psyco_1322 Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Congrats, you just commented on a 2 month old post.
Mumbles Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Be nice. He's been here a lot longer than you.
ActionTekJackson Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Congrats, you just commented on a 2 month old post. Lol, yet he is correct... I get a little over excited at times... I forget there are dates on the posts.... my bad.
Swede Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 2 months isn't bad. But occasionally you'll get a 2 YEAR post resurrected from the dead... and it's not always a bad thing. Sometimes you get some great nuggets of info from the new posts. I think a Mg nozzle would be a cool experiment, but I'd be FAR away upon launch!
Pretty green flame Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 Eh, waste of good magnesium, melt it over an 800 degree fire and alloy with the same ammount of Aluminium
psyco_1322 Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 I'm not sure how cool a magnalium nozzle would be. I would think the magnesium one would surely catch fire if the rocket was not a core burner, or if it burned for a good duration. I made magnesium burst about a month or two ago. Coated some of those Mg cures with red gummed bp, waited to see if there was going to be any bad reactions for about a week. Nope. Loaded a shell, had it for a few more weeks, shot it, worked great. The burst anyways, the shell overall sucked, as I didn't even care to boost it. I was thinking Ti nozzle. I have this Armstrong Ti that seems more soft it its form that you would normally expect Ti to be like. Since it originally used to make pressed Ti parts and such, < or at least that's what I've determined its used for, it should be ok to press a nozzle with. Hmm...this might be my next project as soon as it gets about 10F.
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