AlexPyro66 Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 Is iron powder good for sparks in salutes and stars?Can titanium be substitude with iron?
AlexPyro66 Posted March 2, 2013 Author Posted March 2, 2013 Aluminum bestAluminium will be good for some stars but not as good as Ti and in salutes it wont even be noticable
AlexPyro66 Posted March 2, 2013 Author Posted March 2, 2013 Ti is expensive so I want to know if there are any other metals as good as Ti
LTUPyro Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 Is iron powder good for sparks in salutes and stars?Can titanium be substitude with iron?For salutes, I dont think it would work good. Here is stuff called FeTi, it's Iron and Titanium mix that can easily work in salutes and stars. Fe should work in stars. but not as good as Ti. Fe is kinda hard to ignite and also Fe would give Gold color. Also I recommend to cover Fe with linseed oil, because in stars Fe will rust in time.
AlexPyro66 Posted March 2, 2013 Author Posted March 2, 2013 For salutes, I dont think it would work good. Here is stuff called FeTi, it's Iron and Titanium mix that can easily work in salutes and stars. Fe should work in stars. but not as good as Ti. Fe is kinda hard to ignite and also Fe would give Gold color. Also I recommend to cover Fe with linseed oil, because in stars Fe will rust in time.Ferrotitanium is good for stars and salutes but also is more expensive than Ti are there any other metals i can use?
Oinikis Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 according to reactivity series, zinc is closer to titanium, than iron. i think you should try. if fe doesn't work try Zn, or add bit oxidyzer. i've found out that if you put bit of KNO3 into charcoal, when making creamora, it ignites more easily. in stars it should work with hotter comps.
LTUPyro Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 Ferrotitanium is good for stars and salutes but also is more expensive than Ti are there any other metals i can use?Well I had some succes with 40-60 mesh Mg in bombettes and canister shells, that gave really bright sparks. But when making salutes with Mg for sparks make sure that Flashpowder and Mg not gonna mix, cause magnesium will just burn at the same time with FP, or even ruin it and don't give any sparks. I usually just fill canister shell with 2/3 flashpowder, then put little bit of tissue or toilet paper on FP and then fill 1/3 with Mg.
AlexPyro66 Posted March 2, 2013 Author Posted March 2, 2013 Well I had some succes with 40-60 mesh Mg in bombettes and canister shells, that gave really bright sparks. But when making salutes with Mg for sparks make sure that Flashpowder and Mg not gonna mix, cause magnesium will just burn at the same time with FP, or even ruin it and don't give any sparks. I usually just fill canister shell with 2/3 flashpowder, then put little bit of tissue or toilet paper on FP and then fill 1/3 with Mg.I plan to coat the walls of the salute with glue and then add the metal powder can i also use mg/al?
LTUPyro Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 I plan to coat the walls of the salute with glue and then add the metal powder can i also use mg/al?I guess that should work too.
FlaMtnBkr Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 Iron should work if used immediately. Otherwise, the oxidizer will cause it to rust immediately. Also, you aren't going to get very good sparks from any 200 mesh powder, at least not big long lasting individual sparks. You need coarse material for that. A common cut for the 'grape nuts' ti is -7+18, which is actually a bit bigger than grape nuts cereal from what I remember. Steel isn't used much because of how quick it turns to rust in the presence of strong oxidizers. Even when coated with something like linseed oil, it has a short shelf life. Metals are pretty expensive in hobbyist quantities and there isn't much getting around it.
nater Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 Different metals give different effects. I have some iron shavings that give off really delicate, branching sparks. It is great in a fountain, but needs to be viewed up close and whatever you make needs to be fired almost immediately. For salutes, I would just stick to ti or leave any metal out. For stars and fountains, use whatever gives the effect you want.
AlexPyro66 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Posted March 3, 2013 Ok thank you very much all of you.One more question i plan to coat the inside walls of a 3'' ball shell with Ti how much grams will I need for shell?
LTUPyro Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 (edited) Ok thank you very much all of you.One more question i plan to coat the inside walls of a 3'' ball shell with Ti how much grams will I need for shell?Well it's actually hard to tell. You need to glue flakes as close as you can if you want to get nice break. But I recommend to use 70/30 Kclo4/Al +10% Ti, works every time. Edited March 3, 2013 by LTUPyro
AlexPyro66 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Posted March 3, 2013 Well it's actually hard to tell. You need to glue flakes as close as you can if you want to get nice break. But I recommend to use 70/30 Kclo4/Al +10% Ti, works every time.I am litle afraid to use sponge Ti inside the composition because i have hear that it may produce sparks
Zumber Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 coating of Fe with linseed oil isnt good idea.For fountain that uses cast iron gives bright yellow sparks and if Fe is used in stars for sparks it is better to use SGRS as a binder or simply stars should be pumped also one cant give gurantee that all Fe particle will burn some of them will blown blind.
AlexPyro66 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Posted March 3, 2013 coating of Fe with linseed oil isnt good idea.For fountain that uses cast iron gives bright yellow sparks and if Fe is used in stars for sparks it is better to use SGRS as a binder or simply stars should be pumped also one cant give gurantee that all Fe particle will burn some of them will blown blind.What about FeTi Is It better than Ti what colour does it give?
LTUPyro Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 What about FeTi Is It better than Ti what colour does it give?FeTi is almost the same as Ti. FeTi gives more like yellowish orange color.
nater Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 FeTi and Ti are not at all the same. FeTi burns yellow / gold and Ti burns silver.
Zumber Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 not saying which is better thats all depends upon type of application.Ti alone gives silver spark and FeTi gives gold/yellow.
Mumbles Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 coating of Fe with linseed oil isnt good idea.For fountain that uses cast iron gives bright yellow sparks and if Fe is used in stars for sparks it is better to use SGRS as a binder or simply stars should be pumped also one cant give gurantee that all Fe particle will burn some of them will blown blind. Why is coating iron with linseed oil a bad idea? Also why is it better to use SGRS as a binder for iron containing stars? 1
Zumber Posted March 4, 2013 Posted March 4, 2013 coating of Fe with linseed oil will take a long time to dry. pumped star needs less amount of water and SGRS has ability to absorb water from stars so there is very less period where Fe and water particles will be in touch to cause corrosion.Also stars will dry faster.
GalFisk Posted March 6, 2013 Posted March 6, 2013 I've coated Fe with paraffin wax (cheap candle wax), it's been sitting in storage, sometimes outside, for more than four years now with no signs of rusting. I may test mixing it with wet KNO3 and let it sit, to see how rustproof it really is. Coating was done by heating the powder in a skillet until it was hot enough to melt the wax (3% by weight), which was then stirred in until the color was uniform. The cooled powder was lumpy, but the lumps were easily sifted back to powder again.A daylight bonus of burning the powder is tiny trails of wax smoke from each individual grain. It works great at 5-10% for adding tails to s/s rockets, and I'll use it in fountains and for tailing BP rockets when I get that far.
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