In Pursuit of Red

[dagabu]

Red Magnalium Chuffer Sky Rocket

 

Strontium Nitrate 55%

 

Magnalium, -325 mesh powder 28%

 

Saran 10%

 

Parlon 7%

 

Mineral oil inColeman Camping gas +4%

 

I started with the Skylighter Red Chuffer recipe and with Mum's help, I swapped out the PVC for Saran powder and then I swapped out the Vaseline for Mineral Oil. The Saran helps immensely in increasing the burn speed and the mineral oil helps reduce the chuffing. I was not looking for any noise except for the regular sound that a choaked rocket makes and was looking for a slow and even rise of the rocket to a 600' height so that they would all go off in the standard viewing height for the viewers.

 

These are by far the most expensive rockets I have made, each one takes 170g of fuel and run about $8.00 a pound for fuel vs. $1.00 a pound for fuse powder.

 

I have two rockets that will launch early in the evening at open shooting to make sure that the rockets are ready and fire with the system they are using.

 

I will be taking video and will post it Sunday night after the show is over.

 

-dag

Edited August 4, 2011 by dagabu

[moondogman]

Im assuming they are made on a UT spindle?? Can you make green with the same formula by subbing barium nitrate?

Steve

 

 

[dagabu]

Im assuming they are made on a UT spindle?? Can you make green with the same formula by subbing barium nitrate?

Steve

 

Nope, a smaller nozzle is needed, I had to turn a .30" spindle and extend it an inch to make a working rocket. The UT will just U-turn about 20' up.

 

 

Yes, the green is made the same way but with Barium Nitrate.

 

-dag

[dave321]

hi dag,

 

why do think the mineral oil reduces the chuffing ?

 

i ask because i still have not got a result to reduce my cinnamic acid smoke chuffing.

 

maybe the mineral oil will help that also,

 

what kind of oil was it ?

 

dave

Edited August 4, 2011 by dave321

[dagabu]

hi dag,

 

why do think the mineral oil reduces the chuffing ?

 

That was not the whole story, it is the lacquer thinner that causes the chuffing and since you don't need to use thinner but can use camp gas, the chuffing goes away.

 

i ask because i still have not got a result to reduce my cinnamic acid smoke chuffing.

 

maybe the mineral oil will help that also,

 

what kind of oil was it ?

 

Mineral oil.

Mineral oil

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor crude oil found in geological deposits, see Petroleum.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Mineral_oil_bottle%2C_front.jpg/180px-Mineral_oil_bottle%2C_front.jpg

http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.17/common/images/magnify-clip.pngBottle of mineral oil as sold in the U.S.

A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of alkanes in the C15 to C40 range from a non-vegetable (mineral) source, particularly a distillate of petroleum.

 

The name mineral oil by itself is imprecise, having been used to label many specific oils over the past few centuries. Other names, similarly imprecise, include white oil, liquid paraffin, and liquid petroleum.

 

Most often, mineral oil is a liquid by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum-based products from crude oil. A mineral oil in this sense is a transparent, colorless oil composed mainly of alkanes ^[1]and cyclic paraffins, related to petroleum jelly (also known as "white petrolatum"). It has a density of around 0.8 g/cm³.^[2] Mineral oil is a substance of relatively low value, and it is produced in very large quantities. Mineral oil is available in light and heavy grades, and can often be found in drug stores.

 

There are three basic classes of refined mineral oils:

 

• paraffinic oils, based on n-alkanes
• naphthenic oils, based on cycloalkanes
• aromatic oils, based on aromatic hydrocarbons (not to be confused with essential oils)

dave

 

 

 

[moondogman]

Couple of questions. Im guessing with the mgal the finer the better?

 

Could I sub straight mag for the mgal without any special treatment?

 

Steve

[dagabu]

350 mesh is really about as fine as it gets so yes, the finer the better though I will be experimenting with coarser MgAl for rockets with a little pop in the tail. No, Mg has to be treated, I made and fired these within the week.

 

-dag

[Juiceh]

I will be taking video and will post it Sunday night after the show is over.

Where's the vid!?!?

 

 

350 mesh is really about as fine as it gets so yes, the finer the better though I will be experimenting with coarser MgAl for rockets with a little pop in the tail. No, Mg has to be treated, I made and fired these within the week.

I've been meaning to make some of this fuel. I have some 1000 mesh mgal. Would this stuff possibly be too fine to use in this formula? Think I could get away without a nozzle if I used this instead of the -325 mesh I also have? Edited August 14, 2011 by Juiceh

[moondogman]

I used some mgal I had ballmilled for 6 hrs and it works wonderful. I figured I would have a couple bombs on a stick last night but they flew great. and one JATO fuel rocket with a whistle boost flew great also. figures I left the camera in the house.

 

Steve

[dagabu]

Where's the vid!?!?

 

 

I've been meaning to make some of this fuel. I have some 1000 mesh mgal. Would this stuff possibly be too fine to use in this formula? Think I could get away without a nozzle if I used this instead of the -325 mesh I also have?

 

Nope, you definitely need a nozzle of no more then 1/3 the ID of the rocket.

 

Here are the rockets in the opening ceremony last Sunday. They are the two with no shell, there was 7 fused but there was some insistence by the person in charge to fuse them their way and the rest did not fire.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmlbA_oolU

 

-dag

Edited August 15, 2011 by dagabu

[allrocketspsl]

Nope, you definitely need a nozzle of no more then 1/3 the ID of the rocket.

 

Here are the rockets in the opening ceremony last Sunday. They are the two with no shell, there was 7 fused but there was some insistence by the person in charge to fuse them their way and the rest did not fire.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmlbA_oolU

 

-dag

 

easy to tell which ones were yours had a very red tail,to bad not a little darker but still nice,did you say 5 didnt light because someone wanted to fuse them their way/Bummer!(curious what size were they?)

[dagabu]

They were 3# rockets with a 50g salute made the Laduke way.

 

 

 

-dag

[ExplosiveCoek]

Nope, you definitely need a nozzle of no more then 1/3 the ID of the rocket.

 

Here are the rockets in the opening ceremony last Sunday. They are the two with no shell, there was 7 fused but there was some insistence by the person in charge to fuse them their way and the rest did not fire.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmlbA_oolU

 

-dag

 

That was a crappy opening, lol. I almost instantly pressed 'mute' xD.

 

Those shell's were quite nice though. To bad about the twilight instead of complete darkness.

[allrocketspsl]

They were 3# rockets with a 50g salute made the Laduke way.

 

 

 

-dag

 

sweet,I hope all goes well tonite,I made new batch of fuel,wanting to get some headers up soon.One is fashioned after your timed report tutorial which by the way is probraly the best shell tut there is,crummy fuse on my first one 0 out of 19,lol All

[dagabu]

sweet,I hope all goes well tonite,I made new batch of fuel,wanting to get some headers up soon.One is fashioned after your timed report tutorial which by the way is probraly the best shell tut there is,crummy fuse on my first one 0 out of 19,lol All

 

I just posted that I had a 21 out of 24 insert failure last week, the top of the black match was blown off the time fuse due to the puller thread being too thin. The rest of the black match did not take fire.

 

-dag

[moondogman]

They were 3# rockets with a 50g salute made the Laduke way.

 

And what way would that be??

Steve

[dagabu]

Take a peek at the top of the rocket, it is a hand rolled tube about 1/8" and is fitted with a nose cone. The heading is then filled with F and glued onto the top of the rocket. Quick and easy!

 

-dag

[allrocketspsl]

I just posted that I had a 21 out of 24 insert failure last week, the top of the black match was blown off the time fuse due to the puller thread being too thin. The rest of the black match did not take fire.

 

-dag

 

for the puller thread i use the spiking thwine seems to work well,timed report shell going up tonight will see!

Edited August 15, 2011 by allrocketspsl

[aeon]

Been using a bit of this formula lately (mine):

 

Ammonium perchlorate (NH4ClO4), superfine - 48%

Strontium nitrate (Sr(NO3)2), superfine - 30%

Resinox (phenolic resin), <60 mesh - 20%

Magnesium powder, <100 mesh - 2%

 

After mixing add 1% w/w acetone and mix.The resin will be partially dissolved to help coat the Mg.

 

Use approximate dimensions as you would for 6/3/1 BP propellant (long core good!). Pleasingly, this worked perfectly first time. Though, maybe reduce the resin to 18% or even 16%, taking up the loss with AP mass, if you want it faster - sometimes the ignition can be a little slow. Launch rockets with this stuff out of tubes to allow them to come up to pressure and gain speed.

If pressing this formula, you could add a little Ti if you want a sparky tail. Do not tamp (gently!) this with Ti in it, it will be overly sensitive.

 

The flame off this formula is really red, and there is not very much smoke at all.

Edited September 2, 2011 by aeon

[dagabu]

Been using a bit of this formula lately (mine):

 

Ammonium perchlorate (NH4ClO4), superfine - 48%

Strontium nitrate (Sr(NO3)2), superfine - 30%

Resinox (phenolic resin), <60 mesh - 20%

Magnesium powder, <100 mesh - 2%

 

After mixing add 1% w/w acetone and mix.The resin will be partially dissolved to help coat the Mg.

 

Interesting comp there aeon, I have some AP and some Mg that I can try. Thanks for the posting.

 

I do like the smoke effect though, it helps during day shoots to see the motor.

 

For comparison:

 

Red Magnalium Chuffer Sky Rocket

 

Strontium Nitrate 55%

Magnalium, -325 mesh powder 28%

Saran 10%

Parlon 7%

Mineral oil inColeman Camping gas +4%

[dagabu]

Just posted in the Agora:

I have milled Dupont brand Strontium Nitrate that I used fro my "rockets red glare" rockets for $5.00 a pound. Actual shipping via USPS applies.

 

This is NOT prills, it is milled and can be used as is with no milling. Great reds.

 

-dag