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50# Bag of KNO3... How far will that go?


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Posted

In reply to a status update a while ago, a 50# bag of KNO3 used to make 75:15:10 BP will make approximately 2600-1/2" *BP rockets!

 

A 50# bag of KNO3 used to make 75:15:10 BP will make approximately 225-1" *BP rockets!

 

*Based on a 3" long tube for a 1/2" end burner rocket and Universal Tooling for the 1" rocket

Posted
Thats a lot of rockets!
Posted
Haha how much did that cost you?
Posted

225 1" rockets isnt all that many f you have a place you can shoot from regularaly and are putting headers on them it will go faster than you think

 

or if you made heaps of stars it can go pretty fast too Ive used almost a whole sack of KNO3 This week

Posted
1" rockets are a lot bigger than most amateurs typically make, or tend to comprehend. Even so, 225 is approximately 135g of comp per rocket, so 100g of KNO3. I don't know what geometry of rocket Dagabu was talking about, but as a maximum, about 9ID worth of solid comp in a 1" tube is 115 cubic centimeters. Even with a full core burner spindle, it only occupies 10cm^3. The densities are a bit low for what I'd expect. You could probably get more in there. An end burner is more appropriate.
Posted

225 1" rockets isnt all that many f you have a place you can shoot from regularaly and are putting headers on them it will go faster than you think

 

or if you made heaps of stars it can go pretty fast too Ive used almost a whole sack of KNO3 This week

 

That's true about the stars. As far as the rockets go, I don't know about you but it would take me about a year to ram 200 some rockets. Anyway, kno3 is the most important pyro chemical, so how I think about it is, stock up if you have the money. Everything else you can make yourself or do without, but if nitrate becomes expensive or unavailable you're pretty screwed. I buy less of other chemicals just so I can afford a bigger stock of nitrate. Maybe that's just because I absolutely love my charcoal streamers. That nice soft sizzle my thick bushy TT stars make as they dissolve in the air...I daydream about such things.

Posted (edited)

Stupid question, but 50# = 50 pounds?

 

I just made my first steps with a 1lb coreburner tooling only tiny bit shorter than the RTS suggests, and i managed to squeeze a mere 50g of 60-30-10 fuel inside.

With little thinner Bulkhead and shorter nozzle section and denser, ball milled fuel i might get about 60g.

 

Even if i make them nozzleless with lean fuel mixture it wont cost me more than 50g KNO3 per rocket. So 50pounds are good for 500 rockets.

 

And since any type of DIY Pyro is illegal in my country, most of my experiments are relatively small scaled, low key, quiet.

1lb is overkill on most occasions, 20-30g payload is sufficient to play around and try out things.

 

My next rocket project will be based on little 10mm id x 50mm tubes. I guess my KNO3 will last pretty far than...:)

 

 

 

edit:

Oh, sorry, i think dagabu meant 1 inch diameter, i was thinking of 1lb. 3lb is another story...

Edited by mabuse00
Posted (edited)

1" rockets are a lot bigger than most amateurs typically make, or tend to comprehend. Even so, 225 is approximately 135g of comp per rocket, so 100g of KNO3. I don't know what geometry of rocket Dagabu was talking about, but as a maximum, about 9ID worth of solid comp in a 1" tube is 115 cubic centimeters. Even with a full core burner spindle, it only occupies 10cm^3. The densities are a bit low for what I'd expect. You could probably get more in there. An end burner is more appropriate.

 

I based the 3# fuel on my Universal Rocket Tooling 3# set, I actually weighed a tube, nozzle, fuel, delay & bulkhead separately so I could get an accurate weight for each fuel grain.

 

Sorry: 1# = 3/4", 3# = 1" ID

Edited by dagabu
  • 1 month later...
Posted

IIRC a 50# bag of HAIFA13.5-0-42 crystaline GG was approx $70-$80 delivered w/hazmat.Ebay also seems to have pretty reasonable buys on #50sacks of Solvay Krystal K brand of KNO3 @similar prices/specs to the Haifa brand.Once in a great while a sack of Champion KNO3 appears on ebay-elsewhere.better get what you figure youll need.Local hardware stores/Lowes etc no longer carry any single nitrate fertilizer

OT urea which may also be gone very soon.Although Urea has limited use as far as Im aware(rel newbie) in Pyrotechnics :blink:

Posted
also, although it is highly unlikely, if you made nothing but candy, assuming the 60/40 ratio, you could make 41.6 batches, making 3/4 inch rockets by 2 1/2 inches, it would make 82
Posted
Better recheck your math on that one. 50 lbs of kno3 will make way more than 82 3/4" sugar rockets.
Posted
Better recheck your math on that one. 50 lbs of kno3 will make way more than 82 3/4" sugar rockets.

50 pounds=25kilos, i used to make these regularly and one batch does 2, 25000 grams (of kno3)/60(grams)=41.6, i know that 6 is supposed to round up but if i did that you would have two non existent rockets so i rounded it down to 41 lots of 60 grams and as one batch does two, 41x2=82

Posted (edited)

50 lbs = 22.68 kilograms. Still you are using nearly a pound of fuel in a 3/4" motor?! That seems high.

 

Edit. 25000 g/ 60 = 416.6 g. Which by your formula would be 832 rockets.

Edited by nater
Posted
whoops, your right, i accidentally went cross eyed and moved the decimal place 1 to the left, , they were 6 cm tall as well and i rammed them hard,
Posted

Why are you so continually full of shit on things that are so easy to prove you wrong on? Intentionally providing misleading or false information is not something we take lightly here.

 

A 6cm tall 1lb rocket has a volume of 17.1 cm^3. According to your above statements, you're fitting 50g of fuel in these rockets. Packed brim to brim, that is a density of 2.92g/cc. That is a density 40% higher than pure KNO3 alone, not to mention sucrose which is substantially less.

 

Typo or not, you need to be careful about what you say. This particular instance would likely only be agrevating, but the danger in this hobby leaves little room for sloppy information.

 

 

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