Random Thread #1

[Mumbles]

I've never grown CuSO4 crystals, but I do have pretty extensive experience growing other crystals. Slow and steady is the name of the game here. You have to avoid dust and agitation. While it is cooling, maybe add a piece of cheese cloth or cotton ball over/in the top of the beaker/flask.

 

If you want REALLY big crystals, you're going to have to go a different route. Use seed crystals and a saturated solution at RT. The really good crystal growers have temperature controlled chambers and all of that.

 

This website is very helpful:

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/crystals.htm

[Ventsi]

Yeah, I'm going for the big guys.

 

I already do have some seed crystals forming in a solution. One question, I'm going for a multi sided and fancy looking crystal instead of a square-ish one. Any Idea how I can achieve that?

 

Like this:

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FQE/G91F/F6B7SZC5/FQEG91FF6B7SZC5.MEDIUM.jpg

 

Not like this:

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/images/crystalscoppersulfatemediumlarge.jpg

 

 

I think I'll use the acrylic as a cover for my work area so when I'm done I can just take it off a and wash it up.Or perhaps as a cover on the tops of my star plates...

[NightHawkInLight]

Use a big ol batch of solution and you're likely to get a good variety of crystals out of it. It would be VERY strange if you were to only get single perfectly formed boring crystalline structures. In fact I would think they are quite rare due to the unavoidable chaos in the system.

[Mumbles]

The multisided ones would be called twinned crystals. When doing what I do with crystals, that is bad. If you have to try not to get them really. They'll start growing on their own. To get the perfectly formed crystals you have to break them off or get really lucky.

[Ventsi]

Yeah, twinned crystals.... Thats what I'm going for.

 

Also since I got it from a pottery supplier , there is a fare share of insoluble greenish crap. I'm voting for CuCO3 or similar. Will this affect the crystals at all? I can try and filter out as much as possible but not all off it.

 

Scarbelly, all the MSDS sheets I read stated it was 117g at 100 *C in water. Thats lower than 100g in 60ml of water. I actually tried your method and I'm still waiting for the rest to dissolve.

 

I guess I'm just doing this for fun, plus at the end I'll have pure[er] CuSO4 to work with.

[Mumbles]

Well a boiling solution of CuSO4 will be hotter than 100C. If you look at a good KNO3 solubility curve, it goes to 112C or so. I'm not saying it will get hot enough to dissolve 100g in 60mL of water. If I were doing this, I would stick with about 10% below the max solubility. It will give you some time to move the beaker and a bit of leeway as far as cooling it slowly.

 

You need to get the crap out of there if you want good crystals. One of the better ways would be to dissolve it at room temperature, and let it sit over night, and siphon off the good clear liquid at the top.

 

Another thing to consider is to insulate the beaker while it is cooling, or heat it in a water or oil bath, an allowing it to cool in the bath. It will cool much slower this way.

[scarbelly]

Alright, well when I did it, it WAS very difficult to get it to all dissolve and it started to precipitate out as soon as I took it off of the hot plate, but it DID all dissolve....

[Ventsi]

Hmm I'll try boiling the water with the CuSO4, but all I need is a saturated solution at room temperature right?

[scarbelly]

The more you get in there, the bigger your crystals will grow. At a higher temperature, you can get more in there. You want it so that at any temperature LOWER than what you dissolved it at, it is VERY supersaturated.

If you start with hot water, that'll work too, just boil some water and then try to get in as much CuSO4 as possible before it cools too much, again making sure that any cooling is very slow.

 

If you saturate it at room temperature, cooling to the same temperature will not give you the same yields (because you didn't include as much CuSO4)

[Ventsi]

Would you guys advise suspending the seed crystal from a thin plastic string or just dropping in on the bottom of the jar?

 

Also, I'm a bit scared of putting the seed crystal in while the solution is still hot. But when I let it cool down there was a blue forest of crystals on the bottom, and If I do put in the seed crystal and it does not melt , will that keep the forest of x-tals from appearing?

[Miech]

You get a 'forest' because of dirty glassware. Crystals form at places where there is a disturbance in the solution, whether that is a seed crystal or filth. When I was growing crystals I cleaned the beaker as good as I could, and that way I only got a few small crystals other than the one on the seed crystal.

 

I might grow some crystals some of these days, I haven't been doing that for a long time.

[TheEskimo]

Anyone know if milling BP with the binder slows it down more than screening in the binder afterwards? I imagine it wouldn't do much, and I'm getting sick of having mill dust floating around while screening in Dex/RG.

[TheSidewinder]

In my experience it hasn't made a bit of difference. I always add the Dex before milling.

[50AE]

I'm currently cleaning all my pyro workplace. I saw some containers filled with failed and inusable comps. I'm going to put all these mixtures and stars into one and I'm going to light it tonight. I'm calling it "junk coctail"

[Bonny]

I'm currently cleaning all my pyro workplace. I saw some containers filled with failed and inusable comps. I'm going to put all these mixtures and stars into one and I'm going to light it tonight. I'm calling it "junk coctail"

 

 

Just be careful what you mix together as you do use chlorates if I'm not mistaken. You might just want to burn them up individually instead to be safe.

[Pretty green flame]

I'm currently cleaning all my pyro workplace. I saw some containers filled with failed and inusable comps. I'm going to put all these mixtures and stars into one and I'm going to light it tonight. I'm calling it "junk coctail"

 

Put them in separate paper bags, a very long fuse, light and run. Don't forget the camera

[Twotails]

I did a cremora like that(well not realy a cremora>.<) built like a cremora, A layer of BP, then a sheet of tissue paper, then composition(a type of Red flare i think) it was interesting, not as big a fireball as wanted, but it works ok..(one could always make a large tube the size of there arm, pour the mixtures( the one's that wont react with each other) and make a large-super lance...

 

Well, off to build stuff.

[dagabu]

Put them in separate paper bags, a very long fuse, light and run. Don't forget the camera

 

I second this as the safest way... a long ways away!!

[NightHawkInLight]

The most staggering example of stupidity I am yet to see:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6RuwW147Yo#movie_player

 

Despite the pyrotechnic side of me screaming at such blatant abuse of explosives, I cannot help but laugh at the spectacularly hilarious effect of the explosion on the kids hat. Very funny, in that - it's always funny till someone loses a face to a sledgehammer sort of way. It could have easily been a horror show.

[firetech]

Nighthawk,

We all had a good laugh about that a while back. It's quite a ridiculous video and I still get a kick out of it

[Miech]

There is a more civilized version of it too, it's called a klaphamer in Dutch. You can even order them at http://www.klaphamer.nl, but the powder you have to put in it is for some obscure reason no longer available . Edited January 16, 2010 by Miech

[NightHawkInLight]

I knew I had seen the video before...Just couldn't remember where or when.

 

On another note, i took an IQ test as a result of a thread on another forum. I scored 128 on the 'TA^3': http://www.highiqsociety.org/iq_tests/

 

I'm interested to know what you guys can rank in at.

[Richtee]

I knew I had seen the video before...Just couldn't remember where or when.

 

On another note, i took an IQ test as a result of a thread on another forum. I scored 128 on the 'TA^3': http://www.highiqsociety.org/iq_tests/

 

I'm interested to know what you guys can rank in at.

Well, crap. 104. I have a hard time with that "spatial" crap. Ah well... I'm still your choice for a partner in Trivia ;{)

[TheEskimo]

I wanna know what Mumbles got! Haven't tried it yet...I'm kinda busy. Well, busy enough to not take an IQ test, but not enought to not reply on APC

[Twotails]

Im working on a timed insert using the maltise slurry methoud. it SEEMS to be working(Although it was a PITA to scrape into the hole in the side) I left a clump on the outside(aswell as the inside) to make it easyer to light. I'll be testing this one on the ground, just to check that the diamiter hole i punched works at passing fire to the inside. If it does, I'll work on a thinner coat, then work on timing it. the comp burns fast(when it comes time to dial it in, i'll start fooling around with it) right now its 50/50 KP/BP bound with Redgum. I expect ot to burn too fast, but im using this comp just to start testing this out.