MrB Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 I'm thinking I should be able to get away with a common base mix, containing the parlon, red gum, MG/al, and dextrin. The colors, should be safe, well, i think, but what about the green? It needs 5% more magnalium then the rest, could this safely be added to the color premix? (Barium carbonate, barium nitrate, and potassium perchlorate) It's going to be like one 13'th of the content. Or is premixing the stuff simply a bad idea altogether?B!
Mumbles Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 Green is the oddball of course. Most people just make the green separate if they're going to use a base mix and color mix. Otherwise your "Base mix" really only removes the necessity to weigh out the Parlon and Dextrin. To use a universal base mix for every color but green, you still need to add the carbonate/nitrate, extra perchlorate, extra red gum, and extra MgAl.
MrB Posted February 6, 2013 Author Posted February 6, 2013 My thought was to use a base mix, and a top mix for each color, so to speak. Use 10grams of base for 15 grams of top, and hey, done. (numbers pulled out of my ass, it's morning, and i don't drink coffee...)But i guess one could make 2 sets of bases, one for green, and one for the rest. Thank you for bouncing the idea back and fourth. I was sort of guessing i wasn't the first to get bored of mixing these over and over, but i haven't been able to find any "pre mixxing advices" so to speak.B!
taiwanluthiers Posted February 6, 2013 Posted February 6, 2013 Just remember, carbonate + MgAl is almost as pyrotechnic as Perchlorate + MgAl. It seems the MgAl burns hot enough for carbonates to be an oxidizer in itself. It's not very fast (nor sensitive) like perchlorate but it's enough to cause accidents... I made a mix of MgAl and Strontium carbonate and it actually burns fairly well.
MrB Posted February 6, 2013 Author Posted February 6, 2013 So if even not very sensitive, still a hazard. Right. I give up, i'm just not going to risk it. I'm not about to take a low risk zone, and make it slightly more risky just coz i'm lazy. Thats the spirit that will get my hands blown of in the end. Thank you, both, for your input.B!
taiwanluthiers Posted February 6, 2013 Posted February 6, 2013 not to mention you might get things confused... it's just safer to mix it up right when you need it.
GalFisk Posted February 6, 2013 Posted February 6, 2013 (edited) Don't give up yet, I've used a base mix for red/orange/blue and was quite happy with it. When I needed green, I mixed it separately. The base mix was parlon, red gum, MgAl and dextrin, containing no oxidizers it should be safe enough - normal storage conditions for fuels apply. The top mix contains only oxidizers (percohlorate and carbonate) and will not burn by itself either, and can be stored the same way as other oxidizers. 70/34 would be the top/base ratio, or 70/30 if you leave out the dextrin and bind with RG or parlon. Doing it this way, you get four instead of 12 measurements for the base needed for three of the colors.Savings for green are too small, as already mentioned, so it's best to make that separately.It would be possible to make a "difference mix" to change the ratios as required, and mix the base, difference, and green top together. The difference mix has the same ingredients as the base and can be stored in the same manner. Since I like math, let's calculate. I haven't double checked everything, please point out if i've made any mistakes. Base mix:Parlon: 15Red gum: 9MgAl: 6Dextrin: 4 Required for green:Parlon: 15Red gum: 6MgAl: 11Dextrin: 4 The biggest difference is the MgAl which needs to go from 6 to 11, or nearly double. To make things easier, we can create a formula which requires 1:1 mixing of base and difference mixes. The advantage to this can be seen below: 50% base mix:Parlon 7.5Red gum: 4.5MgAl: 3Dextrin: 2 50% difference mix:Parlon 7.5Red gum: 1.5MgAl: 8Dextrin: 2 To save the maximum amount of weighings, you can make a base mix with everything except the red gum, set aside a portion of this for the difference mix, and then add in the red gum to the main batch. To the difference batch, you add the smaller amount of 1.5 parts red gum, and the missing MgAl (5 parts, to get from 3 to 8). The top mix for green would be mixed at 69 parts, to 15.5 parts of base and difference each. 70/15/15 may be good enough and is much easier to remember. You can also calculate the amount of base-mins-redgum you need to set aside: for every 100 parts of green you need, set aside 7.5+3+2 = 12.5 parts of base-minus-redgum for making difference mix. Summary:Top mixes: carbonate+perchlorate(+nitrate in green). Storable as other oxidizers. Use 70%.Base mix and difference mix: storable as fuels.For red/orange/blue, use 30%. For green, use 15% base+15% difference. This actually turned out simpler when I imagined when I begun. Edit: I forgot to account for the dextrin being +4, that changes things slightly - but not too much. Edited February 6, 2013 by GalFisk
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