Random Thread #1

[dragonman586]

Sick of being flamed, huh?

I'm not the one being flamed. There are a bunch of others though. Like that artificier kid. He got flamed a couple times. Some people need to deflate their heads understand that this is a forum where people can come to get help. Just hold the flaming until they get really whiney.

[ULTRABUF]

I just found a nifty video about alkali metals. They drop 2 grams of rubidium in a bathtub, and then they drop some cesium into another bathtub. Its pretty sweet. Go to google video and type in brainiac alkali metals.

[Rogue Chemist]

Heh I had only seen rubidium and caesium on sub gram scales in water. We got 10g of each in the lab I work at. The packaging they come in is insanely big for the size, a 5g vial of Cs came triple packed, with the biggest package being an aproximatly ~2x2 cardboard box.

[Skinflint]

Does anyone know if reloader smokeless powder works well for making NC lacquer? I'm planning on buying single-base smokeless powder and supposidely it is made up of just NC and a few other minor additives like dinitrotoluene and dyes. I'm going to use the NC lacquer for dragon eggs, flash pots, Mg stars, etc. I've never heard whether or not anyone was successful using smokeless powder or not. The additives may cause a problem, even with single-base powder. Any experience?

[Mephistos Minion]

I have only used smokless for coating fuse and a making a putty of a certain organic peroxide. I dont imagine the additives will effect it too much as it burns cleanly. Although watch out for powdersa with higher NG content, when mixed with acetone, dont touch it with bare fingers or you will get a headache.

[Karl]

Heh I had only seen rubidium and caesium on sub gram scales in water. We got 10g of each in the lab I work at. The packaging they come in is insanely big for the size, a 5g vial of Cs came triple packed, with the biggest package being an aproximatly ~2x2 cardboard box.

Yeah I saw that episode of Brainiac too. Pretty neat isn't it. Would be interesting to know where they get all of their HE from for their 'Favorite Explosive Of The Week'......

 

Just to add to the ‘random’ thread……

 

 

I just got back from firing two of my latest rockets. 18mm tube, 13mm inside diameter.

Propellant was my own special blend, the formula is still under wraps at the moment but for a motor this size, it can lift a hefty lot!

 

But these two rockets decided to CATO, I think my core was a little too long and my end cap couldn’t take the sudden pressure. One header had Chrysanthemum #8 stars in it, with a few pieces of Flying Fish visco

 

The second header was pretty large, had 6 BP + FeTi inserts in it, which worked and I am made up about. It also had the last of my Red, Shimizu KP micro stars. Ohh and a few more Chrysanthemum #8’s.

 

Both CATO’d and activated the payload at about 5ft which was pretty amazing. The first rocket spewed its payload upwards kind of like a mid air mine which was nice. The second just exploded and threw lit inserts everywhere.

[Canadian_Pyro]

I just found a nifty video about alkali metals. They drop 2 grams of rubidium in a bathtub, and then they drop some cesium into another bathtub. Its pretty sweet. Go to google video and type in brainiac alkali metals.

Jesus Christ, that was insane. Reminded me of back in the day, when I used to play with Cobs and similar devices.

[Frozentech]

Does anyone know if reloader smokeless powder works well for making NC lacquer? I'm planning on buying single-base smokeless powder and supposidely it is made up of just NC and a few other minor additives like dinitrotoluene and dyes. I'm going to use the NC lacquer for dragon eggs, flash pots, Mg stars, etc. I've never heard whether or not anyone was successful using smokeless powder or not. The additives may cause a problem, even with single-base powder. Any experience?

Yes it will work fine as NC lacquer for general pyro use. I was told by a person just yesterday that a double base powder makes superior NC lacquer for Dragon Eggs. If you google rec.pyrotechnices for recent discussions on NC lacquer, you will find instructions on preparation.

[fredjr]

just showing off my new toy

2006 HD softtail deuce

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

That is a prettry nice bike....i know someone with an 05 softail chromed the fuck out.....everything possible except seat is chrome basically.

 

And I think I may have just set a record for the amount of different star comps made in one day. Granted they were all in 10g amounts but I had to of just made and tested 20-25 different formula for red, green, blue mostly with one of them being purple and a couple being white.

[Swany]

Find any you liked? I need to get the 4th run ready....

 

I am going to decaffinate some coffee sometime soon via refluxing with DCM. Should be intersesting. I like refluxing. Smells like success.

 

EDIT: I also need a relatively small amount (~100g) of BaCO3. If anyone in the 'states is willing to trade/sell this amount, please contact me via PM. Thanks!

[justanotherpyro]

Get some from the clay and art center. It would probably be better. Unless someone is close to you.

[ULTRABUF]

I have a quick question about stars. How hard should they be? Because I just made a very small batch of cut stars and they are dry now, and I can crumble one with about 25-35 lbs of pressure from my fingers, and I was wondering if this is too brittle.

[Canadian_Pyro]

I found this on rec.pyrotechnics, it looks interesting, I may try the 2nd process.

 

"CIA BLACK POWDER" REVISITED

Donald J Haarmann

American Fireworks News

http://www.fireworksnews.com/

No. 35 August 1984

 

With the sale by Desert Publications of their "CIA Field Expedient

Preparation of Black Powders" booklet many pyro's rushed out to their

local stores and purchased potato ricers, and isopropyl alcohol by the

gallon. Soon after the little woman had left the house, they proceeded to

produce the damnedest mess seen in a pyro's kitchen in quite a while,

along with black powder of varying qualities.

 

However, all is not lost as H.W.Voigt and D.S.Downs at the Seventh

International Pyrotechnics Seminar presented a paper dealing with

black powder igniter pills produced in part with black powder obtained

using a modification of the CIA method. Their paper contained several

interesting revelations, the first being an early attempt at producing

black powder using a "salting out" method [aka, the precipitation

method] by one Edward Greene [uSP 160,053] of New York, N.Y.,

January 25, .1875! Greene's method consisted of mixing the sulphur and

charcoal in a saturated solution of potassium nitrate, as close to the

boiling point of water as practical, and then removing the excess water

by connecting the mixing vessel to a vacuum, with constant stirring.

[The boiling point of water at 760mm of mercury (atmospheric pressure)

is 100 C, however, if the pressure is lowered to say 100mm of mercury

the boiling point of water is lowered to only 52 C, therefore a great deal

of water can be removed rapidly (flash evaporation) resulting in the

"salting out" of the potassium nitrate.] No doubt due to the difficulties in

producing the required vacuum, and for other more technical reasons

this method was never used.

 

The second revelation is the fact that although generally credited to the

CIA, the production of black powder through the use of alcohol as a

dehydrating agent was developed at Frankford Arsenal, by T.J.Hennessy.

("Field Expedient Preparation of Black Powders", Frankford Arsenal

Memorandum Report M67-16-1, Feb 1967.) Now you wife has someone

to blame for the mess in her kitchen! If you want to get her off your back

have her put the potato ricer to its intended use, Kartoffelkloesse which

are a lot more difficult to make well than black powder! [Remind me to

tell you the story of The WiZ's adventures in making Sauerbraten some

time!]

 

The method they use differed from the "CIA" process in a number of

important ways: Whereas the CIA method added alcohol to a mixture of

sulphur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate in hot water, Voigt and Downs

method mixes the sulphur and activated carbon black (in place of

charcoal) in alcohol, along with two other ingredients, and then to the

mixture is added the potassium nitrate dissolved in hot water.

 

The Details provided by them are as follows:

 

45 grams of K nitrate was dissolved in 45 ml. of water at about 75 C. 2.5

grams of K nitrate were added to compensate f or loss in the filtrate. [A

loss of less then 6% as compared with a loss of over 18% for the CIA

method.]

 

6.24 grams of commercial flowers of sulfur [most pyro's do NOT use

flowers of sulphur due to the possibility of its containing free acid, so

normal pyro grade sulphur should be used.] and 8.76 grams of activated

carbon black [not lamp black] were suspended with vigorous agitation in

a solution of 0.135 gram of polyvinyl pyrrolidone [a dispersing agent -

try wetting sulphur some time!] and 0.6 grams of mercaptan terminated

polyacrylic liquid polymer [b.F. Goodrich Co. Hycar MTA - a binding

agent, don't worry, you can leave it out] in 135 ml. of 95% ethanol.

[isopropyl alcohol is cheaper and just as good.]

 

"The al[c]oholic suspension of the fuel components was cooled to 15 C.,

after which the hot aqueous KN03 solution was introduced gradually

with vigorous agitation whereby the KN03 was precipitated in the form

of very fine particles intimately mixed with fuel components." The

resulting product was then washed with alcohol and dried.

 

The process was also tried: 1/ using channel carbon black, and NO Hycar

MTA; 2/ using wood charcoal that was ball milled, and NO Hycar MTA;

3/ using maple wood charcoal, colloidal sulphur, and NO Hycar MTA; 4/

and using a 50/50 mixture of maple wood charcoal, and carbon black

powder, WITH Hycar MTA. All of these methods produced black

powder equal to the standard DuPont [Goex?] black powder when tested

in a "Closed Bomb."

 

At a $1.85 or so a pound for commercial black powder all this would

seem a lot of work for little gain, and I would be remiss if I failed to

mention that for better or for worse, black powder is listed as an

explosive in 18 USC section 841©, and therefore you would be in effect

manufacturing an explosive material. DH

[Mephistos Minion]

Is there any way to see a list of the files being hosted on the APC filehost? I looiked on the page but couldn't find a link like Chaz' filehost had.

[Mumbles]

There is not. Doing so causes people to just go and browse and watch a ton of videos. This wastes bandwith. If we allowed it, we may go over our bandwith. If you want me to look for something I would be more than happy to do so.

[d4j0n]

What kind of grog should I get from C&A? I kinda forgot which one it was.

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

Any powdered grog or bentonite clay should work for nozzles.

[justanotherpyro]

I made a big batch of flitter to blue stars with a thick prime. They blue is a bitch to dry so I put them under a heat lamp. The lamp was set at a certain height but dropped down closer to the stars and when I got back they were being baked. They were hot to the touch, and I am curious if this is bad for them. None ignited or anything, but the prime on the outside got rock hard and was a little hard to ignite. Does baking like this mess them up or drive them in?

[Mephistos Minion]

There is not.  Doing so causes people to just go and browse and watch a ton of videos.  This wastes bandwith.  If we allowed it, we may go over our bandwith.  If you want me to look for something I would be more than happy to do so.

Ah I see, very fair point, I know I used to do that on Chaz' (sorry Chaz) when I was home sick from school and very bored

 

EDIT: A happy man I am. I am going to my site tommorow for the night with my grandpa. We are making a drying box. I also got to use my meat grinder to powder a bucket of lumpwood BBQ charcoal. It's really heavy stuff, hopefully it will work well.

[mr.pyro]

Well this weekend I made it a weekend of supply aquisition... I went to several places around town and got a bunch of crap.

 

-2 gallon glass jar for brainfevers nitric distillation setup.

-stand for the center beaker

-1 L beaker from goodwill

-1/2 gallon of sulphric acid

-hexamine from the sport shop

-went looking at 3 health food stores for erythritol, but ended up getting it off ebay

-new digital scale

-bunch of chem supplys, ph paper, testtubes, beakers from online

-zippo fluid

-bottle of antifreeze(ethlene glycol)

-new hotplate

 

I am happy that I did all of this because I finally have a job that pays some good money. Also I put that jar to good use and distilled over 100 ml of fuming nitric from brainfevers way in about 7 hours or so, not too bad. So I have this hexamine, and Im going to try and make some RDX, I know theres a method without acetic anhydride, I just have to find it! As well Im going to retry the edgn synth, as my last one ran away and a etn synth.

O well so this was a good day, it is amazing how much shit you can get from otc. Nitric acid from walmart is cool!

[d4j0n]

So I need the high mesh grogs? Actually, will sand work in place of grog?

[maximusg]

Sand is too coarse to use as a material for nozzle manufacture. A good nozzle clay can be otained by milling kitty litter. It is what I use and it has never failed for BP rockets.

[TheSidewinder]

You don't HAVE to use Grog, but it makes for a stronger nozzle.

 

I use 40-60 mesh fractured Grog. (Apparently there's more than one type, but it's "fractured" that you want.)

 

I use the method in Sleeter's book, which uses Bentonite, Grog, and Paraffin (this is the U.S. terminology; Europeans call it something different since "Paraffin" there means White Gas, or camping stove fuel, here.

 

I have yet to have a nozzle failure using his "recipe".

 

In fact, EVERY cato I've had blew the tube apart but the nozzle was untouched, still firmly stuck to the piece of tube it was in. Twice I have recovered ONLY the nozzle, and the paper tube immediately surrounding it, with not a trace of the remaining parts.

M

[Canadian_Pyro]

For some reason my fucking mill jar lid fused to the jar with 2 pounds of BP inside. Pipe bomb anyone? Hehe, no I wouldnt do that to my expensive mill jar.