alexpyro101 Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 Here's a total newbie question that I never asked in my few years of pyro. For the 75% water alcohol mix should i be mixing by volume or by weight?
Mumbles Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 I've always done it by volume, and even then only very approximately.
FrankRizzo Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 By volume. Liquids are almost always measured by volume.
alexpyro101 Posted June 18, 2012 Author Posted June 18, 2012 Thanks everyone, turns out I've been doing it right.
cogbarry Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Good question actually. I'm also fairly new at pyro although I've had interest all my life and loved class c fireworks in my younger days. I've been mixing alcohol and water by volume and for the most part, by eye. Some of the clear bottles have measuring lines which help. Of course,there's always the issue of refilling and such. I suppose you could have spray bottles dedicated to many different mixtures, that's pretty much what I do. I've also used the same method for cutting NC lacquer with acetone. This brings up another issue I had, most plastic spray bottles fail with acetone as it destroys the nozzle. I followed a tip I found (I think on this forum) and started to use the walgreen's spray bottles found in the hair spray section. I found that NC lacquer clogged the nozzles on these bottles unless I ran straight acetone through the nozzle after use.
Potassiumchlorate Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 I have one bottle for water for SGRS, one with alcohol/water for dextrin, one with isopropanol for shellac and red gum and one with acetone for parlon. Like you I have experienced that NC seems to clog the nozzle, so I pour the NC on the stars and make pumped stars. What NC-lacquer concerns, I actually use percentage by weight. 20% for pumped stars, 5% for NC-bound prime.
cogbarry Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 I have one bottle for water for SGRS, one with alcohol/water for dextrin, one with isopropanol for shellac and red gum and one with acetone for parlon. Like you I have experienced that NC seems to clog the nozzle, so I pour the NC on the stars and make pumped stars. What NC-lacquer concerns, I actually use percentage by weight. 20% for pumped stars, 5% for NC-bound prime. Interesting, I had been using NC for rolling stars or in most cases, rolling an outer layer over AP stars. I found that switching the nozzles between my pure acetone spray bottle and NC bottle and running a couple squirts of pure acetone through the NC nozzle solved this issue. It only clogged if I used it and then let it sit without clearing the nozzle this way. I wasn't using anything thicker than a 5% - 8% mix though, cut with acetone. I'm still trying to get a good handle on the different solvent/binder systems and when to use them. I know that in some cases, the star comp dictates the solvent as in parlon stars which require acetone or something that will disolve the parlon. I had originally used NC to mitigate the issue that occurs when rolling a nitrate over AP. However, I found that my stars rolled nice and smooth when I used NC. I may just need more practice, but I can't get stars to roll that nicely with water/alcohol and dextrin.
Potassiumchlorate Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Haha, my problem is quite the opposite. I am pretty good at rolling with dextrin and water. I was also good at rolling with alcohol and shellac for a while, but it seems that I'm not as good at it as I used to be. I think it should be better if I had a star roller. You should only bind with parlon, if the composition contains uncoated magnesium or not sufficiently coated Mg, i.e. anything but potassium dichromate coating. AP blues are good to bind with NC-lacquer. All others can in principle be bound with dextrin or SGRS.
cogbarry Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Haha, my problem is quite the opposite. I am pretty good at rolling with dextrin and water. I was also good at rolling with alcohol and shellac for a while, but it seems that I'm not as good at it as I used to be. I think it should be better if I had a star roller. You should only bind with parlon, if the composition contains uncoated magnesium or not sufficiently coated Mg, i.e. anything but potassium dichromate coating. AP blues are good to bind with NC-lacquer. All others can in principle be bound with dextrin or SGRS. Thanks, I plan on buying or building a star roller. I'm leaning towards the cement mixer solution. Until then, I'll keep practising rolling by hand. Can the alcohol and shellac replace the water and dextrin with most comps? The issue I have with dextrin and water is with spiking. I know this can be controlled by increasing alcohol, rolling wetter, etc. The NC worked so well, I think I could end up with nice round stars from cube (knife or screen cut) shaped cores. It is a little messy though .....and the NC is expensive.
Potassiumchlorate Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Shellac is a bit tricky to roll with, because it only hardens just when it is about to dry. In that case I think red gum and alcohol would work better. Shellac and alcohol can substitute dextrin and water, though. Shellac was used as a binder for centuries, though in those days they cut all stars.
cogbarry Posted June 19, 2012 Posted June 19, 2012 (edited) Shellac is a bit tricky to roll with, because it only hardens just when it is about to dry. In that case I think red gum and alcohol would work better. Shellac and alcohol can substitute dextrin and water, though. Shellac was used as a binder for centuries, though in those days they cut all stars. Ah, thank you. I may just give that a try at some point. (the red gum and alcohol, that is) Edited June 19, 2012 by cogbarry
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