newb question about Al substitution

[pyrochris732]

So im just about out of Dark pyro. What difference would I see (or hear) from using the following instead of dark flake al:

 

German bright flake 325 mesh

 

Or

 

325 mesh MgAl

 

KCLO4 being the oxidizer. In an aerial salute.. 3 and 4 inch. I have some dark pyro Al in the mail but I fear it wont get here in time for new years. I know of the KCLO4/MgAl/S forumla but I am not sure how safe that will be to use.

 

Thanks, and hope everyone has a great new year.

 

Chris

[Xtreme Pyro]

So im just about out of Dark pyro. What difference would I see (or hear) from using the following instead of dark flake al:

 

German bright flake 325 mesh

 

Or

 

325 mesh MgAl

 

KCLO4 being the oxidizer. In an aerial salute.. 3 and 4 inch. I have some dark pyro Al in the mail but I fear it wont get here in time for new years. I know of the KCLO4/MgAl/S forumla but I am not sure how safe that will be to use.

 

Thanks, and hope everyone has a great new year.

 

Chris

 

I remember hearing somewhere that people have had good success with the bright flake, but i'll let someone else chime in on that one as im not too sure.

[Ralph]

In lager salutes bright flake works perfectly fine

if your using mgal your ratio should be 63 per 36 MgAl its worth noting that it is more sensative than Al based flash

 

the MgAl flash will be more powerfull than the al flash

[50AE]

Bright Al works very well, the main drawback - it's messy to work with it.

KClO3 and bright Al burst charge works great even in small devices.

[Ralph]

Bright Al works very well, the main drawback - it's messy to work with it.

KClO3 and bright Al burst charge works great even in small devices.

 

few people are keen on using chlorate flash due to its additional sensitivity

 

with decent confinement it bright al nitrate flash is fine to even at 1g

[pyrochris732]

thanks guys for the replies, so I guess S would be a no go for MgAl formula?

[Ralph]

people do add it but Im personally not comfortable adding it to flash unless I have a good reason and am making a small batch and this is with al with MgAl its even worse

 

question is how much do you value your life it can be added it will be slightly more powerful and ignite more easily but with out functions perfectly well so why put your self in more danger than necessary

[pyrochris732]

and apparently the MgAl stuff is sensitive enough.

 

Thanks

[frosty90]

50 KNO3

30 Sulfur

20 Bright AL

 

is a perfectly good composition, mix it with a filler like cereal or rice hulls. Even jsut plain 70/30 chlorate/perclorate with bright al is perfectly fine. Id guess lots oif people are put off bright flake for reports because they light it in open air and it burns slow like a flare, so they think it wont make a report. It doesnt burn fast in the open, but thats not what it needs to do! as soon as it s in a container it goes fast.

 

Magnaium 50/50 is too scary I think....like ralph said why make it more dangerous when you can already get a loud sound.

[dagabu]

So im just about out of Dark pyro. What difference would I see (or hear) from using the following instead of dark flake al:

 

German bright flake 325 mesh

 

Or

 

325 mesh MgAl

 

KCLO4 being the oxidizer. In an aerial salute.. 3 and 4 inch. I have some dark pyro Al in the mail but I fear it wont get here in time for new years. I know of the KCLO4/MgAl/S forumla but I am not sure how safe that will be to use.

 

Thanks, and hope everyone has a great new year.

 

Chris

 

I have made plenty of F from bright flake, I dont use S in it due to it being unknown as to how it would react but I found that even a small flash bag of dark Al F in the center helped a lot with getting all of the F to light with this larger Al.

 

Like Frosty said, con fine, confine, confine. I found that two layers of 300# strapping tape around a stout container make for a report twice as loud.

Edited December 27, 2010 by dagabu

[pyrochris732]

last night in the snowstorm i figured it would make no difference if i lit a salute. So I mixed a batch of 63/36 KCLO4/MgAl. It was 10 grams in a 1/8 inch case.

 

I was completely un impressed with the report. Sounded more like a black powder salute, nothing anywhere near what the normal 70.30 sounds like. I think this may have to do with the fact that the MgAl was only 325 mesh. OR, the wind was blowing crazy hard, maybe it just blew the audible effects in the opposite direction. Who knows.

 

Can anyone tell me if 325 mesh in that ratio should work just as well?

[WonderBoy]

Personally I'd just use the bright flake. I've only used MgAl for colored reports, and they were not anywhere near as loud, bright, but not loud. I've never had a need for dark Al, bright flake does the job just fine, even in small doses. The only problem I have is that it is more difficult to ignite than dark Al F.

To ensure ignition I take a little piece of tissue paper that I've crumpled a couple times and form it around my thumb to make a little pouch. Then fill the pouch with loose whistle and insert the time fuse into the pouch. Then tie or tape the loose ends above the crossmatch to hold it in place, or if on a rocket do the same thing, but use quick match instead of time fuse.

[pyrochris732]

well, my indian dark just came today. I can do some last minute mixing now without worrying about the Al!