composition super bright white flare

[AirCowPeacock]

Ehhh..maybe a dull red-orange... Don't bother trying it.

[Seymour]

You actually can if you overload with sulfur.

 

Perhaps try 70/20/10 KNO3/Sulfur/Charcoal.

 

Nothing like a good metal based mix though.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Seymour

[Mumbles]

By adding sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), you can probably manage to make a yellow flare.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Today I'm going to try this, all by weight:

KNO3: 24 grams

Sulfur: 7 grams

Al coarse: 3 grams

 

All of this in a PVC pipe

[AlexPyro66]

Today I'm going to try this, all by weight:

KNO3: 24 grams

Sulfur: 7 grams

Al coarse: 3 grams

 

All of this in a PVC pipe

Better to use 6 grams al and PLEASE DONT USE PVC it is dangerous and aneccery you can make very easy a paper tube by wraping a wooden doowel with craft paper

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Made it today and not worked at all

Thanks AlexPyro66 for the advise, it was only a test.

6 grams of what? sulfur or Al?

I'll try again with the classic 5:3:2 ratio

Another stupid question: can I use as a binder pine resin? I'm obsessed with binding the mixture and not pressing only the powder

Edited January 27, 2013 by AirsoftSmokeScreen

[AirCowPeacock]

you bind and press it. Dampen the mixture with your solvent to the point where it is powdery but sticks together if you pinch it between your fingers.

[AlexPyro66]

Made it today and not worked at all

Thanks AlexPyro66 for the advise, it was only a test.

6 grams of what? sulfur or Al?

I'll try again with the classic 5:5:2 ration

Another stupid question: can I use as a binder pine resin? I'm obsessed with binding the mixture and not pressing only the powder

6 grams of Al and 5%Dextrin and add water until it is like a thick paste and press it in the tube with your body weight(better not to ram)

[AirCowPeacock]

I find a thick paste ruins the tube, makes it impossble to fit the rammer in (because it softens the edge of the tube,) is harder to scoop, and totally unneccicary.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

I just made another composition and it worked quite well.

I've tried KNO3:Al:S 65 g: 15g: 10 g mixed carefully and added about 2 grams of Sodium Bicarbonate. I then put the mixture in 3 different card tubes ( only poured the powder, not pressed).

All of them worked very nice on the ground, lasted each of them about 30-40 sec, they were so bright that they blinded me for an hour even it was in the daylight

The only problem is all of them were very hard to ignite ( I used homemade fuse from safety matches, didn't work so i light some newspaper and put it on the flare)

Now the questions are: will green visco fuses have the power to ignite them? and if I put about 5% paraffin wax to coagulate the mixture will It ruin my flares?

Thanks

L.E. Can I bind those with linseed oil about 5% instead of paraffin wax?

Edited January 30, 2013 by AirsoftSmokeScreen

[AirCowPeacock]

Paraffin oil is not paraffin wax. They are different. As the name suggests, paraffin oil is liquid, paraffin wax is solid. But sure, linseed oil *2%* should work fine.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Thanks, yes I know but I have alot of paraffin wax ( 20 kg) which I used as a binder in the "legendary smokes"

I found linseed oil very cheap and since I didn't worked with this my question is: I mix the kno3, s and Al then I pour the linseed oil and mix it again till is mixed finely and then pour all the mixture In my cardtube and wait it to dry?

I read that the linseed oil gets dry in about 24 hours

And is that a danger of a spontaneously combustion of the linseed oil? Or maybe with the other ingredients till it will get dry?

Sorry if this are stupid questions but I'm a newbie

Edited January 30, 2013 by AirsoftSmokeScreen

[Mumbles]

You will want to press any composition into the tube. Even hand pressure from body weight is better than nothing. Not all linseed oil is created equally. It doesn't really dry. It cures from an oil into a resin or plastic-like substance. Depending on what you have, this will take somewhere between a day to several years. There is always the risk of fire when dealing with linseed oil. The curing process generates heat. If that heat is trapped somehow, like a pile of rags, it can eventually lead to self-ignition.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

I have found Siccative linseed oil which I understand it "dries" in 24 hours ( if you use it for wood, so I guess a longer time since it will be pressed in a tube with little air) Does only 2% of linseed oil have the ability to compact all the mixture so it won't exit the tube before I ignite it?

[AirCowPeacock]

Yes

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Thank you all guys for the advises.

Today I made the first one that lasted about 50 seconds and it was only about 40 grams of composition.

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/wWLd8Boysdk

 

It looks a bit like a fountain but the composition wasn't fine mixed, the sulfur was not grinded well etc but I will progress

But Could someone tell me a better binder? In this video I've used 2% linseed oil but it's too hard to dry and the smell last so much

Beside dextrin and shellac what can I use?

I'll try soon another one with 5% paraffin wax to see if it ruins the flare ( I like this binder because is so easy to use and it doesn't smell at all)

[psyco_1322]

The wax can serve as a binder, but in the case of your smoke mix, that's not it's primary function. The wax gets atomized and sprayed out the nozzle, creating the thick white smoke that the paraffin smokers are known for. If you have too large of a nozzle, the wax smoke will catch fire, and you will get nearly no smoke.

 

Sometimes wax is used as a "binder" in bp rocket fuels. Usually only 3% is used, any more is likely to really slow the fuel. This is usually mixed into the composition by first melting the wax, then crashing in an amount of Lacquer Thinner. The dispersed wax in liquid is mixed into the fuel and screened a few times for good incorporation. You could probably use this for your mix, and ram it lightly into your tube. Otherwise, dextrin would a good binder to use. If you don't have any, it's quite easy to make, just bake some corn starch in your oven till it gets a golden brown, usually 1-2 hours.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Ok thanks, I will try make some dextrin.

Anyway, since my flare wasn't so "white", maybe because the snow or from the sulfur or whatever I would like to try to make a flare with KNO3, charcoal, sulfur and/or sodium bicarbonate to increase the duration effect and dextrin as a binder.

Can someone tell me what ratios with work the best for a long burning handheld torch?

I was thinking about something like:

KNO3: 65%

Charcoal: 15%

Sulfur: 15%

Baking Soda: 3%

Dextrin: 2%

Thanks again

[AlexPyro66]

Better to use 55% kno3 and 25%charcoal(mixed not airfloat)

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Thanks AlexPyro66 I'll try your method.

But I have made 2 flares with 65 KNO3 20 charcoal and 10 sulphur 3 baking soda and 2 DEXTRIN ( yes, I finally made dextrin today and it rules )

Thank you guys you are awesome, I appreciate your advices.

I'm gonna test 2 these days and put a video

Again, nice forum, awesome people who have patience with beginners

Cheers

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Here is my Aluminum flare ( unfortunately in the video looks yellow, but it was pure white in the reality)

http://youtu.be/YY4PR-6B960

 

And here is a test for a yellow flare with kno3, sulfur and charcoal which lasted very long

http://youtu.be/vZgfjO0Z8rc

 

From what I've seen the Aluminum based ones works better with linseed oil than dextrin

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Sorry for spamming this thread but I made another test of the white and orange flare

The orange one was long lasting and smooth burning but the aluminum one a bit irregular burning

http://youtu.be/ULEADLGR-dc

http://youtu.be/4ZxVGDta34A

 

Can someone tell me please if I can add some Copper Sulfate to one of these to give it a greenish-blue color?

Thanks

[AirCowPeacock]

it will not work. If you can get copper powder, you might be able to do something.

[Seymour]

Even with copper powder you're going to need a cleaner flame than you get with these mixes. While copper powder is in some green formulas that are rather atypical, I've only had success with metallic Cu in rather standard blue mixes with perchlorates and a chlorine donor, where it can produce some lovely shades.

 

You can make a rather nice precipitated copper powder by adding Zinc dust to Copper sulfate solution. A pretty pink cloud appears instantly. However, if you have Zinc powder, then you can add that to black powder and similar mixes to get a bluish green of sorts.

 

Get Zinc powder, Aluminium and Titanium to expand what you can do with KNO3. If you want to make an assortment of decent colours, get Barium carbonate/nitrate, Strontium carbonate/nitrate, Black copper oxide (or basic carbonate, Cu metal dust, oxychloride, but not the sulfate), a chlorine donor (Parlon, saran so on), Magnalium, A resin fuel, Potassium perchlorate, and perhaps either Potassium chlorate, or in my opinion, Ammonium perchlorate instead.

 

Other than white, off white, yellow, zinc's dirty aqua, and ember red you are pretty limited with Potassium nitrate formulas, without using chemicals more exotic than Ammonium perchlorate. Sure you can make a decent green with Boron, and some sort of colour with Potassium nitrate, magnesium and colourants, or even Black powder made with Strontium nitrate, but these colours are really not good enough to justify the use of the Magnesium and colourants.

 

In summary, get zinc dust.

[AirsoftSmokeScreen]

Thanks guys,

another question if you don't mind

The yellow/orange ones was charcoal based and I'm wonder how can I minimize the sparks and maximize the flame?

I don't mind those sparks but I want it to look more like a torch rather than a fountain

I have used this composition:

KNO3: 70

Sulfur: 20

Charcoal: 4

Sodium Bicarbonate: 2

Dextrin: 4