Chinese time fuse not igniting standar 7:3 flash!

[leedrill]

yes it will but all i was trying to get across {and dont mind my arrogance but not all blue al is just floor sweepings and the stuff that is floor sweepings is not the blue al i speak of it has been treated with two types of acids to make it very stable mine is as fine as my dark al and will not burn in the open put 5 grams of 7/3 on top of a sparkler and the sides of the pile are left un burnt VERY STABLE bright flake and floor sweepings that are fine are more reactive than that when unconfined} back to the start sorry for my rant but all i was saying is that with 325mesh bright flake i have 5grams of 7/3 is excessively loud and easy to light with visco but same thing with the blue needs to be just right to get enough heat into it. which makes repeatable results NOT RELIABLE where as my standard 7/3 with dark self confines around 1.5grams and lights with a hammer let alone visco which makes it ideal for smaller salutes and especially timed reports for the reason that sometimes the bright flake will not light and the times it just becomes a fountain dark would not as i said i think everything in this post has been covered and i think ive taken it off topic a bit but my advice is

crossmatch both ends of your TF and buy some dark al { and maybe some better TF aswell}

[FlaMtnBkr]

It sounds like every other post is directed towards a different subject (or product). As far as I know, blue aluminum was designed by two people in the US who are the only ones making it and they are selling it by drum. I thought it was shown to some Europeans who were buying some and repackaging it in smaller amounts. I guess they could now be copying it and selling it because there is nothing magical about it. And why would aluminum be treated with acid? All you would do is dissolve some of your product and then need to neutralize it. I have never heard of aluminum being treated with acid and would be curious as to why it is done here and why anyone would think that would make it stable? Aluminum powder by itself, once it has formed it's aluminum oxide layer, is quite stable.

 

Also, floor sweepings aren't going to be more or less stable if they are the right particle size and shape. Just because something falls on the floor doesn't change it's behavior. And why do you assume the inventors of "blue aluminum" only use floor sweepings? There are tons of surplus aluminum on the market so as not to need to use only floor sweepings. That is speculation on my part but I haven't heard of people getting debris and broom whiskers in their product. I don't really care because I will never buy blue aluminum, just found it odd you kept referring to that. I will use my current procedure of making flash safer which is easier to work with than blue aluminum.

 

 

It's just straight 250# Bright Al and fine perc. It will make a very loud report with 0.2g in a firecracker.

 

I have used a lot of bright flake aluminum to make flash and know how it behaves. If it works in a firecracker, but not in an aerial salute, then there is a problem with your ignition. Have you tried what everyone has told you? To either crossmatch or slurry prime the end of your time fuse? I would never spend time and chemicals making a shell, and then not cross match the time fuse which could not transfer fire resulting in a dud. It is in all the books and done by all the makers for a reason and only takes a minute. So what happened after you crossmatched your time fuse? KaBoom? There is no point in everyone continuing to tell you to cross match your fuse if you aren't going to do it. We can just stop now because it is a waste of everyone's time. You have the correct answer (most likely) and if not then we can make other suggestions. But need to try what was suggested first and then report back.

[leedrill]

A small amount of terephthalic acid or pentaerythritol is added to ensure its safety features - upon heating, the organic substance melts/sublimes and consumes a huge amount of the energy provided to the mixture. i agree with you completley fmb but to back up my statement steric acid and terephthalic acid is what i was talking about and and to be honest i dont really know what other effects that they have other than stopping oxides forming

{for which reason im pretty sure most aluminium is treated with steric acid} and desensitising it but would love to know if some one can tell me but apparently there are inferior lots of BA out there

and too answer your questions when i was researching BA and asking people about it a lot of what people would say is its just cheap crap its just floor sweepings i think you understand it is not which im glad about. a lot seem to think very low of it but in larger salutes i can see and hear it is if anything better than some of the dark but does not compare in small amounts

{ but to be honest i could never deduce wether what i have is blue head or blue al im lead to believe that blue head is more reactive than what i have }

 

I have used a lot of bright flake aluminum to make flash and know how it behaves. If it works in a firecracker, but not in an aerial salute, then there is a problem with your ignition. Have you tried what everyone has told you? To either crossmatch or slurry prime the end of your time fuse? I would never spend time and chemicals making a shell, and then not cross match the time fuse which could not transfer fire resulting in a dud. It is in all the books and done by all the makers for a reason and only takes a minute. So what happened after you crossmatched your time fuse? KaBoom? There is no point in everyone continuing to tell you to cross match your fuse if you aren't going to do it. We can just stop now because it is a waste of everyone's time. You have the correct answer (most likely) and if not then we can make other suggestions. But need to try what was suggested first and then report back.

 

 

well said

Edited July 20, 2013 by leedrill

[FlaMtnBkr]

If it has TPA added then I'm not sure I would call it blue aluminum, at least not like the original stuff that was developed in the US and given that name. TPA is what I add to make my "safe" flash and it will easily burn unconfined, it just does so very slowly. 20 g in a paper cup takes 8 or 9 seconds to burn which is slower than many star mixtures. If there was an accidental ignition I feel like you could run away with much less injury than if regular flash were to light up. Stearin or sometimes steric acid is used to help control the amount of aluminum oxide that forms. Aluminum oxide will make bright aluminum dull and gray and it is also used some in dark aluminum because aluminum oxide will slow down the reactivity of the aluminum. So by coating in the greasy/waxy stearin it keeps oxygen off the surface which is what forms the oxide layer. Some dark al also uses carbon to do the same thing. I'm not sure, but I don't think TPA or stearic acid create an acidic environment like a true acid such as hydrochloric or sulfuric would. That is what I thought of when you said treated with acid. I guess I will try to look up the PH of both TPA and stearic acid as I am now curious.

 

If I remember right, blue head is a medium flake aluminum that can be used for flitters in stars. It may also be reactive enough to work in a flash formula, not sure. But it gets it's name from the color drum that the manufacturer uses.

[Carbon796]

Blue Head aluminum was described as being a 50/50 mixture of German black and US bronze 809 . It would have worked well for either one. Edited July 20, 2013 by Carbon796

[ollie1016]

I tested a 4 gram salute (2") with visco wrapped in Kraft paper up to 1/4" and hot glued. Worked fine.

 

I tried crossmatching the inside and it worked as well. I need to improve my black match a lot if I want to start cross matching my shells. At the moment my black match strands are ~3.2mm wide and quite large. I cut the time fuse down about 7mm and then crossmatched and secured with a bit of dental floss.

 

My NC lacquer failed horribly. I dissolved some broken ping pong balls in some acetone and its turned into almost plastic/ glue. Not like true NC lacquer, so I'm going to order that in my next order.

 

For now I'm going to use 3mm visco wrapped in Kraft for the fuse for salutes. It's never failed me for salutes or 2" shells. I cut it at a 45 degree angle with a pair of anvil cutters and dip into a BP meal+ 5% MgAl prime.

[Carbon796]

Ollie, what is the actual size , diameter and length of your 2" salute. 4 grams is kind of a lite charge. Unless your dusting it on an actual bulk-ing agent like rice hulls or cotton seed.

[FlaMtnBkr]

If your NC laquer was like plastic then you didn't add enough acetone. Weigh out 10 g of your ping pong balls and add 90 g of acetone which is about 113 ml for a 10% solution w/w. You don't need to be that precise though, I would just dump more acetone in your current mix.

 

You then want to take a small amount of lacquer and mix some BP in so it is like pancake batter. A little aluminum or other metal wouldn't hurt. Then dip your time fuse in this slurry and then dip in a bag of fine granulated BP. Probably something like -30+40. Doesn't need to be exactly that size but just to give you an idea of the size.

 

Test a piece and it should give an intense baseball size of flame and sparks.

 

If you want something even hotter mix up 10 g of the following and then add NCL until same consistency as above in a small container like film comes in.

 

60 KNO3

30 Flake aluminum

10 Sulfur

 

Do as above and dip in slurry then fine BP granules. This should easily light your flash.

[ollie1016]

Ollie, what is the actual size , diameter and length of your 2" salute. 4 grams is kind of a lite charge. Unless your dusting it on an actual bulk-ing agent like rice hulls or cotton seed.

 

I do small ones during the day time when I'm testing, I normally used 20-30g in a 2" salute. It it to reduce the notice a bit, so I don't piss off every person in my area!

[ollie1016]

If your NC laquer was like plastic then you didn't add enough acetone. Weigh out 10 g of your ping pong balls and add 90 g of acetone which is about 113 ml for a 10% solution w/w. You don't need to be that precise though, I would just dump more acetone in your current mix.

 

You then want to take a small amount of lacquer and mix some BP in so it is like pancake batter. A little aluminum or other metal wouldn't hurt. Then dip your time fuse in this slurry and then dip in a bag of fine granulated BP. Probably something like -30+40. Doesn't need to be exactly that size but just to give you an idea of the size.

 

Test a piece and it should give an intense baseball size of flame and sparks.

 

If you want something even hotter mix up 10 g of the following and then add NCL until same consistency as above in a small container like film comes in.

 

60 KNO3

30 Flake aluminum

10 Sulfur

 

Do as above and dip in slurry then fine BP granules. This should easily light your flash.

 

Thank you. I will try this! I have been using a slow flash of:

Kno3 :5

Al :4

S :1

Works quite nicely, it isn't really loud but makes a good bright flash.

[nt8]

OFF:

the blue al i have is bought that way from a hungarian supplier

hungarian supplier??? interesting...