mikasaurus Posted February 16, 2013 Posted February 16, 2013 Hello, I recently purchased some red smoke dye from Hobby Chemical Supply and am attempting to make a nice red smoke mix. After some experimentation I settled on: 0.8 oz Dye0.6 oz Potassium Chlorate (made from my chlorate cell!!!)0.4 oz Lactose When I pack the composition into a tube it tends to go out whereas the loose powder burns far too hot and fast to produce any red smoke. If I get the density in the tube just right it will spew out a nice red smoke but even then it's VERY slow. However, if I increase the KClO3 in the mixture to speed up the burn rate all I get is a big flame. Any thoughts on how to improve this smoke composition. I'm not really sure if it's more of a composition flaw or a packing flaw but any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!!!
laserkoi Posted February 17, 2013 Posted February 17, 2013 try adding some icing suger . here a link to a smoke kit suplyer .ps it says makes 10 so should be easy to work out the formula . .http://www.oliverbrown.co.uk/acatalog/Smoke_Bomb_Kit__Smoke_Generator_.html from the obove i make it .per unit 5g dye 3g potassium chlorate 2g icing sugar, size your nozzle, between 3mm to 5mm is ideal. not something i have made my self . yet
mikasaurus Posted February 17, 2013 Author Posted February 17, 2013 Well I tried making two canisters like the ones on the website you sent me. I used a 3/4" by 3" cardboard tube and pounded in a bentonite clay plug, filled the tube with 10 g of loose composition, and taped the other end. I drilled a 3/16" nozzle in the bentonite plug. I used powdered sugar in one of the canisters and lactose in the other. To my surprise, the sucrose one outperfomed the lactose one. The lactose canister even went out a few times. I still want to make the smoke bombs burn a little faster. Right now it's much more slow and drawn out than the video on the website. I might order some potassium chlorate in case my homemade stuff isn't pure enough. I might also try ball milling the composition and seeing if that speeds up the burn rate. Overall, pretty cool though!
Oinikis Posted February 17, 2013 Posted February 17, 2013 why do you use chlorate for smoke mix? i think nitrate works well enough.
Seymour Posted February 17, 2013 Posted February 17, 2013 (edited) Have you made coloured smoke though? Chlorate is capable of sustaining combustion at a very low temperature, when nitrates would not sustain combustion because of chlorates low activation energy. Coloured smoke compounds tend to need lower temperatures to work well than you can achieve with nitrates. Edited February 17, 2013 by Seymour 1
Scrumpy Posted February 18, 2013 Posted February 18, 2013 Seymour is spot on, nitrate burns too hot and ruins the dye, chlorate burns cooler and produces a good colour.
Mumbles Posted February 18, 2013 Posted February 18, 2013 I hope you meant that you were going to try to ball mill the chlorate or components separately. Trying to ball mill a mixture of chlorate and sugar is very likely to result in an explosion. It's a remarkably sensitive mix actually. Sucrose is actually a little more sensitive and reactive than lactose too. This may be why that smoke burned better. Well I tried making two canisters like the ones on the website you sent me. I used a 3/4" by 3" cardboard tube and pounded in a bentonite clay plug, filled the tube with 10 g of loose composition, and taped the other end. I drilled a 3/16" nozzle in the bentonite plug. I used powdered sugar in one of the canisters and lactose in the other. To my surprise, the sucrose one outperfomed the lactose one. The lactose canister even went out a few times. I still want to make the smoke bombs burn a little faster. Right now it's much more slow and drawn out than the video on the website. I might order some potassium chlorate in case my homemade stuff isn't pure enough. I might also try ball milling the composition and seeing if that speeds up the burn rate. Overall, pretty cool though!
Oinikis Posted February 18, 2013 Posted February 18, 2013 Have you made coloured smoke though? Chlorate is capable of sustaining combustion at a very low temperature, when nitrates would not sustain combustion because of chlorates low activation energy. Coloured smoke compounds tend to need lower temperatures to work well than you can achieve with nitrates.Seymour is spot on, nitrate burns too hot and ruins the dye, chlorate burns cooler and produces a good colour. thank you both!
mikasaurus Posted February 25, 2013 Author Posted February 25, 2013 Sorry I meant ball milling them separately. I didn't really word that right. My potassium chlorate is crystalline and I crushed it as best as I could by running a rolling pin over a bag of it. I'm going to build another ball mill jar in the next few days that I can dedicate to chlorates and then mill it down to a nice powder. I'm hoping that will improve the burn rate of the smoke comp.
Recommended Posts