oldguy Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Experimenting with differing comp's including some things not normally associated with pyro.Which I test burn off on a steel burn plate in little heavy duty stainless steel restaurant type condiment cups.(2 ¼ inch wide at the top,1 ½ inch wide at the bottom, 1 ½ inch tall). Tried an experimental comp today, visco ignited that almost vaporized the steel cup. Yes, this is done in a blast shielded area. No it wasn't thermite. But, for sure it is HOT. Edited February 9, 2011 by oldguy
Ralph Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) so ummmmm what was it ? if iuts easily ignitable it may be usefull as a prime Edited February 9, 2011 by Ralph
oldguy Posted February 9, 2011 Author Posted February 9, 2011 I don’t feel real comfortable publicly posting the comp. Simply because it is so hot & easily ignitable. As we all know, anything that will vaporize stainless steel is not a toy. But, will PM it to you & anyone else that I’m sure is mature.
NightHawkInLight Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) The temperature of a reaction is not what makes it particularly dangerous. Any pyrotechnic composition burns more than hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns with brief contact (even a mere 212 F is plenty hot to do severe damage). What makes a composition dangerous are the properties that make contact with that heat difficult to avoid. This could be a high burn rate (causing a premature ignition to result in full combustion before retreat can be made to a safe distance), high gas volume (allowing heat to transfer far distances from the point of reaction very quickly; think steam), projection of slag or molten particles (though these typically would only cause minor burns, they could ignite other flammable materials nearby), and most of all, instability and sensitivity which is dangerous regardless of the amount of energy released in reaction. Edited February 9, 2011 by NightHawkInLight
kiss Posted February 10, 2011 Posted February 10, 2011 Good Lord Man! You came across this by accident, or was this a hunch?
oldguy Posted February 10, 2011 Author Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) No accident or hunch. Just a novice carefully experimenting with various comps trying to come up with a very hot P. Perchlorate & sulfur free ground fusee/flare composition. Also trying to increase the flame envelope size & minimize smoke. Adding energetic metal fuels to overcome omitting P. Perchlorate. Also trying to keep the comp non-reactive (nitrate/metal redox). Adding a starch/sugar as a sulfur replacement. Trying to judge/measure a flame envelope size is a challenge without sophisticated expensive equipment. This comp I added some fairly chunky charcoal & Fe filings for a spark effect, to help get a visual measurement of how big the flame envelope was. Which would not be in the final comp. I gather the small amounts of metal fuels & Fe filings made it somewhat quasi-thermite like. Even though it ignited easily with visco. I expected after the burn off the cup would remain something like this; I did not expect it to shrink/warp/melt/vaporize as it did. Edited February 10, 2011 by oldguy
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