giod Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 bought my KCL04 and I beleive it came as 325 MESH (44 micron) obviously when making flash we look for <5 micron aluminum. am I to assume for the best flash comp we should try to ball mill the KCl04 AS FINE AS WE CAN? I've made a working flash with the kcl04 as is, but I'm guessing it would work a LOT better milled down further? can it even be milled that fine? same issue with the KN03 it works, but after ball milled for days still is like 300 mesh. so why aren't kn03 and kcl04 offered in finer meshes? Thanks!
mabuse00 Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 (edited) I've made a working flash with the kcl04 as is, but I'm guessing it would work a LOT better milled down further?Imho that applies for sluggish oxidizers like KNO3, but with KClO4 you will hardly notice the difference, at least not in flash. I dont see the point in making such an effort just for flash. In my experience even coffeegrindered KNO3 flash makes a nice report even in a thin walled, lightly built rocket header. Besides even your 200mesh MgAl should be fine. If this doesn't work out for you, try something else first and gather more experience before you make flash. Edited August 30, 2013 by mabuse00
giod Posted August 30, 2013 Author Posted August 30, 2013 Imho that applies for sluggish oxidizers like KNO3, but with KClO4 you will hardly notice the difference, at least not in flash. I dont see the point in making such an effort just for flash. In my experience even coffeegrindered KNO3 flash makes a nice report even in a thin walled, lightly built rocket header. Besides even your 200mesh MgAl should be fine. If this doesn't work out for you, try something else first and gather more experience before you make flash. Thanks for that.. Yes the coffee milled kn03 works fine and the kcl04 works fine.. but never got them to ignite well unconfined.. that's why i thought the problem was with the white powders mesh size. So i guess good enough is good enough, it gets the job done for reports. just was never able to achieve the quality of flash as many videos have depicted. Now the MgAl just won't go even confined. again tried is 70/30 50/50 and 50/40/10 (with sulfur) no boom, just sparks when confined. No big deal, I'll use it for stars for now. i mainly wanted to know about the standard of kcl04. i've not seen it offered anywhere as 20 micron or less, which made me think that it wasn't necessary to get it as fine as it's aluminum counterpart in the mix.. I tried ball milling my kn03 for 3 days and it doesn't seem to reduce finer than 50 micron. maybe 30.. can't imagine how long it would take to get to 5 or less to match the dark al. anyway just wante to perfect my flash before moving on to other projects.. like i said its good and powerful and the comps I'm using seem to be the preferred in terms of safety vs quality.. I actually kinda like the kn03 flash, even though its slower burning than perchlorate flash, it makes a more thumpy bass.
FlaMtnBkr Posted September 1, 2013 Posted September 1, 2013 If you bought your KClO4 and it is free flowing it should be plenty fine. The big factor with flash is how fine the aluminum is. When someone has an issue, it is 99% of the time the type of aluminum they are using. And if you are using MgAl instead of aluminum then that isn't really a standard flash. There really isn't any reason to use anything besides 70/30 with good flake aluminum. Even paint grade aluminum will make a ton of noise. But dark pyro Al is the standard stuff and is what should be used. And if you are milling KNO3 for 3 days and not getting a talc fine powder something is wrong. Either your mill isn't running efficient or your KNO3 is damp, or something. In a good mill it should be a talc like powder in just a few hours.
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