The Best Metallic Fueled star formulars

[TrueBluePyro]

I thought it would be cool for everyone (including my self) if we could have a thread of the very best Metallic Fueled star formulars.

Kinda cause i'm looking for the best ones and others may want to know as well.

Just post the bestest of brightest formulars you have used personly used and I will start to make a list of them.

 

Oh yeah and if you have a video of the colour just put it in with the formular.

 

------------Greens------------

Name: Emerald Green:

Barium nitrate...................50

Potassium perchlorate.........8

Parlon..............................18

Magnalium (-325 mesh).....12

Charcoal (airfloat)...............5

Sulfur................................5

Red gum...........................2

Dextrin..............................5

 

------------Reds------------

 

Name: Ruby Red:

Strontium nitrate...............50

Potassium perchlorate.........8

Parlon..............................18

Magnalium (-325 mesh).....12

Charcoal (airfloat)...............5

Sulfur................................5

Red gum...........................2

Dextrin..............................5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--AHRRwHCo

 

Name: Lancaster Red:

 

Strontium nitrate...............55

Magnesium.......................28

PVC.................................17

Edited April 13, 2009 by TrueBluePyro

[Yankie]

Name: Emerald Green:

Barium nitrate...................50

Potassium perchlorate.........8

Parlon..............................18

Magnalium (-325 mesh).....12

Charcoal (airfloat)...............5

Sulfur................................5

Red gum...........................2

Dextrin..............................5

 

Name: Ruby Red:

Strontium nitrate...............50

Potassium perchlorate.........8

Parlon..............................18

Magnalium (-325 mesh).....12

Charcoal (airfloat)...............5

Sulfur................................5

Red gum...........................2

Dextrin..............................5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--AHRRwHCo

 

Name: Lancaster Red:

Strontium nitrate...............55

Magnesium.......................28

PVC.................................17

 

Emerald green in my opinion is the best green out there, the red is debatable.

[firetech]

I'd think that the Lancaster red would be a bit hygroscopic because of the strontium nitrate, right?

[Richtee]

I thought it would be cool for everyone (including my self) if we could have a thread of the very best Metallic Fueled star formulars.

 

I'd think yer gonna have a hard time with the blues. Metallically fuelled anyway. The temps run too high with metals. Or any I have seen. Then again- I'm just a retired beginner... sigh.

[Mumbles]

If you have good Strontium Nitrate it wont be hygroscopic. Anyway, some bind those stars with PVC as the binder which helps mitigate the water absorbing. My ruby red stars burn longer than emerald green of the same size, but I've never had a problem with them absorbing water.

[PyroMan LTU]

for perfect colours I use these four formulas:

 

red - buell red / lancaster red

 

green my own:

BaNO3 - 55

MgAl - 15

PVC - 10

Parlon - 10

Hexamine - 5

Dextrine - 5

this is ok, but I'm going to modify it to even better one...

 

blue - veline blue metallic

 

purple my own:

KP - 50

Hexamine - 9

CuO - 9

SrCO3 - 6

parlon - 12

mgal - 9

dextrine - 5

 

all of them produce briliant colours without any slag or sth... for combustion agent I like using hexamine instead of red gum ofcourse its not as good as rg but it works fine, gives good temp and most importantly it is four times cheaper for me... and yeah ruby red emerald green is also good...

[TrueBluePyro]

hang on why cant I edit my msg? I want to add the rest of the formluars in but there is no option for me to do that, can an Admin help a brother out?

[Mumbles]

Theres a specified window of editing time. I'm not going to sit here and edit the first thread every time someone posts a new formula.

[firetech]

If you have good Strontium Nitrate it wont be hygroscopic. Anyway, some bind those stars with PVC as the binder which helps mitigate the water absorbing. My ruby red stars burn longer than emerald green of the same size, but I've never had a problem with them absorbing water.

I haven't ever used PVC as a binder, I do not have any anyway, but what is the solvent?

[Yankie]

I haven't ever used PVC as a binder, I do not have any anyway, but what is the solvent?

 

MEK and THF are the two more common solvents, both can be bought in good hardware/plumbing stores. It's not the cheapest though.

[Mumbles]

Are you certain that MEK is a solvent? I am just curious, I don't know for sure. I know acetone specifically causes swelling and softening, but hardly what I'd call solvent. I thought it was more like the use of alcohol in lacquer thinner, where it is a non-precipitating dillutant.

[Steps]

Anybody know any good white metallica formulas? I heard good stuff from the Luce Forte formula on Passfire saying its bright as F&*# though it contains flake al which i dont have any of.

 

Any Magnalium fueled whites?

[mike_au]

Isn't PVC glue just PVC disolved in MEK?

 

My attempt at making Yankie's flash stars failed miserably in terms of flashing, but it did make a nice spherical Al fueled white. I think it may have been a result of milling it a little bit too long.

 

I haven't made any other whites to compare it to, but it seems relatively impressive to me.

[Mumbles]

Every cement I've ever seen contains sizable amounts of THF and MEK with with additional acetone and cyclohexanone. I was just wondering if it actually was a true solvent, or just a dillutant.

[Swede]

If you have good Strontium Nitrate it wont be hygroscopic.

Mumbles, how do you determine if you have "good" Strontium Nitrate? I picked up a couple of pounds recently, but haven't even opened the package. I was unaware that it is hygroscopic. Prior to that, I was using the carbonate, but wanted to see if the nitrate was worth the extra cost and hassle.

 

Maybe I'll simply expose a gram to normal humidity and see how bad it gets.

[Mumbles]

Generally the source is a good indicator. Barium and Chemicals is about the best I've ever used. You could store that in a pile on the ground and it wouldn't absorb an appreciable amount of water.

 

You are in a unique situation to test the quality though. Strontium chloride is the "bad" contaminate. I don't know how sensitive your test strips are for your chlorate stuff, but that would be one way to check. Exposing a gram to air for a while could do the trick too. Obviously you'd want a scale with good resolution, .01g at least to measure appreciable changes.

[Yankie]

Every cement I've ever seen contains sizable amounts of THF and MEK with with additional acetone and cyclohexanone. I was just wondering if it actually was a true solvent, or just a dillutant.

 

MEK is definately the solvent, a slow one at that however. I think the acetone and such is to slow down the rate of the solvent (MEK, THC) as when it is being used for joining pipes you dont want it to melt away whilst your working

[Swede]

You are in a unique situation to test the quality though. Strontium chloride is the "bad" contaminate. I don't know how sensitive your test strips are for your chlorate stuff, but that would be one way to check. Exposing a gram to air for a while could do the trick too. Obviously you'd want a scale with good resolution, .01g at least to measure appreciable changes.

 

Interesting. Strontium chloride is soluble. I will dissolve a carefully-weighed sample and check it for chloride concentration. The Hach test strips should do the job. Another way is to add a drop or two of silver nitrate solution to the test strontium nitrate solution, and see if there is a silver chloride ppt, or go full hog and do a real titration, weighing the solid that results. It'll require a sensitive balance if the test is done on a small scale.

 

I'll give it a try and report back, and good or bad, if guys are interested, I'll reveal the source.

[Mumbles]

You know what the worst part about this is. I checked several samples of commonly available Strontium nitrates last year for contaminates for sodium content. An extra 10 minutes would have been all that was required for chloride too. It was really fun using a $300,000 instrument to measure the purity of my chemicals.

[Swede]

You know what the worst part about this is. I checked several samples of commonly available Strontium nitrates last year for contaminates for sodium content. An extra 10 minutes would have been all that was required for chloride too. It was really fun using a $300,000 instrument to measure the purity of my chemicals.

 

You dog! All I want is a GC and NMR, preferably both for less than $500.

 

I did the test... pretty interesting. 2 grams of strontium nitrate in 50 ml distilled water. The Hach chloride titration strip showed zero, but I honestly did not expect it to show anything, as the strips are for high chloride rather than low. The silver nitrate qualitative test is much more sensitive. I made a few ml of silver nitrate solution, and added it to maybe 5ml of the test solution, and saw no telltale silver chloride ppt. Interestingly, when I rinsed the silver nitrate test tube in tap water, it turned translucent white just from the chloride in the drinking water, so the strontium nitrate appears to be good stuff and relatively free of chloride.

 

It was from Thunder Valley by the way.

 

Can you reveal your test results? Sorry for causing this thread drift, BTW. I am guilty of that too often.

[Mumbles]

This was with ICP-AES. I'll send the results to you later today, the paper is at home.

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

The white star I always used was 4/4/2 kclo4/aluminum dust/dextrin. It makes a very very bright white flare type star. To add a tail I change half of the aluminum dust with aluminum flitter changing it to 4/2/2/2 kclo4/al 600mesh/ al -20mesh/dextrin.

[TrueBluePyro]

Thanks mate for going back to topic

[Steps]

The white star I always used was 4/4/2 kclo4/aluminum dust/dextrin. It makes a very very bright white flare type star. To add a tail I change half of the aluminum dust with aluminum flitter changing it to 4/2/2/2 kclo4/al 600mesh/ al -20mesh/dextrin.

 

I'v seen some videos of KClO4/Al white metallic stars and honestly they have never impressed me much. The white was always that... Yellowy white and it was never that appealing.

 

I really like the look of the Barium Nitrate and Aluminium/Magnalium stars they seem to make areas at night look as if it is day.

 

Would mind a Barium Nitrate and Titanium star! thatd be beautifully white

Edited April 16, 2009 by Steps

[Mumbles]

Thats probably because it's on video. I've seen a few of the shimizu silver wave stars. They're very white, almost silver even at times. I particularly enjoy them when some coarse flake and red gum or shellac is included(5% or so of each), it really extends the tail. Beautiful streamers.

 

I actually prefer a mix of potassium nitrate (or meal) and perchlorate as the oxidizer with a mix of aluminum flakes. I don't have my formulas on hand, but something along the lines of:

 

35 - Perc

25 - meal or KNO3

15 - bright flake

10 - dark flake

5 - Al flitters

5 - Red Gum

5 - Dextrin

 

Also, what I feel is one of the most important tricks to know for making these kind of high metal flake stars. DON'T USE WATER. Yes, don't use water to wet it. Instead use a thin wheat paste. Don't ask me why, but it makes a world of difference. The composition holds together so much better when wet. I like approximately 10:1 water:wheat paste powder.