Can I make rcandy rockets using these materials?

[SoloFlight]

Hi

 

I'm just starting out making my own rockets and have chose rcandy to work with.

 

I've read quite a bit and watched lots of videos, but I'm still a little unlclear. There is lots of info. on how to make rcandy fuel but no so much on actually making and loading smaller, paper tubes with rcandy mix, at least none that I've come across yet.

 

Is it possible to make small rockets using the materials I have pictured? I only have the commercial fireworks included to show how I would like my finished rockets to perform (if not better).

 

Do I need any special tooling to form a core or can I just pack rcandy mix into the tube?

 

I have the electric skillet, potassium nitrate, table sugar, karos corn syrup, wooden spatula, and absolutely plan on doing all my cooking outside as safe as possible.

 

If you guys could let me know what else I might need that would be great.

 

Thanks for any help

[ollie1016]

Hello there,

 

You can make R-candy rocket with the materials your currently have.

 

 

However, your post suggests you haven't had any/ little pyrotechnic experience before. A key thing you are missing is safety gear.

 

When newbies first start making r-candy the likeihood of the pot catching fire is very high as you are inexperienced. This is natural, and with practise you will get better over time.

 

I recommend you do alot more reading on the Internet about r-candy rockets and have a look at some threads on the forum.

 

Ollie

 

[mikeee]

Soloflight,

 

Do you have a thermostat temperature control on the electric skillet?

You want to control the temperature of the skillet so it does not get too hot.

Scott Fintel has a nice video on his website that shows you how to make/cast the fuel.

http://www.thefintels.com/aer/propellants.htm

[Jonathan]

Soloflight,

 

I've had very good luck dry-mixing KNO3 + powdered sucrose + Fe2O3 (just a pinch). This mix has sent cored, nozzled, top-fused bottle rockets up into low-hanging clouds. These were 3/8" and 1/2" I.D. rocket motors. I've made rocket candy with sucrose and both Karo and cane sugar syrups but have never gotten the hang of turning the product into anything other than an intensely-burning curiosity. FWIW.

[SoloFlight]

ollie1016- Yes, I'm absolutely new to all of this but I have done quite a bit of research so far, still have a ways to go before I cook the Rcandy fuel though.

 

 

I'm just trying to get everything I need all lined up, so when I do finally cook my first batch it just doesn't sit around. If I can get away without buying any rocket tooling right off the bat, then that would be good to know.

 

I wanted to get a face shield, but am unsure on what type is best. I also saw a video where a pyrotechnician says not to wear a face shield because it just concentrates the hot gasses and "burns your face off", not saying he's right. How do these two look:

 

http://www.ebay.com/...=item460d08ed3b

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/...=item19e1c6e899

 

mikeee - Yep, my electric skillet has a thermostat to regulate the temp. Paid less than $20 for it at Walmart, hope it works out o.k. Thanks for the link to that great site.

 

 

Jonathan - So maybe I should try a dry mix first? My tubes are approx 5/8" inside diam. x 3" long, how would I go about making them fly and how high will they get? Do I need any specail tooling? My smaller tubes have an inside diam. of 1/4" x 2" long, are these more trouble than they are worth when it come to loading them or do they turn out pretty cool?

 

 

Are you saying you tried to cook rcandy and it hasn't worked out for you so far? How are you going about cooking it?

 

I could really use some help when it comes to the tooling and what tubes to buy. I don't want to blow $135 on tooling when I can get the exact same thing for $40 someplace else.

 

Thanks for all the help guys

[SoloFlight]

Attached some pics: Just to help me understand better- are the small moon travelers considered end burners or core burners? I always thought they were made by a machine but I saw an article showing how they are made and I guess it's all done by hand, that's why I thought it would be simple to make small rockets (maybe I'm wrong)

 

The plastic tubes used for whistling moon travelers are the same exact tubes used for saturn missles and I've seen them for sale, but it seems people have trouble fusing them because they are so small. I wanted to buy some of the small plastic tubes and make super-loaded whistling moon travelers, but I guess it's harder than it sounds because I haven't seen or heard of anyone else doing it. Here is the article: http://www.usfirewor...how-saturn.html

 

Also how are these black cat bottle rockets made? They are really fast, shoot up super quick but are ultimately unimpressive, with a very poor report. The whistling moon travelers are from the late 1980's (I guess) and they are awesome, very impressive.

 

 

I was of the understanding these small type rockets were massed produced and easily made by hand, how come people have trouble loading them after buying the tubes?

 

Also, on the dixie whistlers- they whistle 3 times, but the last two are unimpressive. How are they constructed so that the 3 whistles are delayed?

 

Sorry for all the questions, just hoping someone could clear a few things up for me.

[mikeee]

Soloflight,

 

R-candy is a lower power fuel which will require a nozzle to increase the thrust created by the motor.

You can use kitty litter for a nozzle mix which needs to be rammed into the rocket tube.

You could make your own basic tooling to start with.

Pick one type of rocket and work on getting that one to work.

You might want to check out a couple of websites that make rocket tooling to see the difference between the rocket tooling.

http://www.firesmithtools.com/# Ben Smith has some good tutorials on making rockets & fuel.

http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/index.html Danny Creagan has a lot of good information on rocket fuels and making rockets.

Danny Creagan is the current president of the Pyrotechnic Guild International he has a lot of good information on a lot of different

projects you might be interested in.

http://www.skylighter.com/ Skylighter is another good website, you might want to check out the Turbo-Pyro kit which will teach you

the basics involved with fireworks type rockets, shells, fuels, stars, comets, fountains, etc.

You should also see if you have a local club that is into rocketry or pyrotechnics, these clubs usually meet once a month and you

might find someone in your area that can show you the basics.

[mikeee]

Soloflight,

 

Both of those face shields will work, but you still want to wear saftey glasses that fit close to your face.

A flame will roll around the edges of a basic face shield like those.

The best shields are an arc flash type face shield.

Some of the better ones are a pull over the head style with a see thru lense.

These types are a little spendy and the face shield can fog over very easily.

The other option is a Balaclava pull over face protector.

This is what the race car drivers wear to keep fire from burning their face.

You can buy these fairly cheap and they work good with a basic face shield and safety glasses.

The other thing you need are some heavy leather welding gloves.

Most burns happen to the face, hands and arms, this what you want to protect.

Cotton clothing is what you want to wear, no nylon or polyester fabrics.

[dagabu]

Preach it brother! The Elvex ProGuard is the very best face/head/ear protection I have ever used, it offers an all in one design that encloses your head and face. I think it overall use in pyro is limited due to the lack of a seal around the neck and sides but for everything else including shooting a show, its fantastic!

[hindsight]

For years, I have worn the 3M 6800 full-face respirator doing construction and metal work. I can testify to its ability to protect ones face from flying bits of debris, but haven't tested it in any sort of conflagration. It has the added benefit of protecting the lungs from harmful gases (if fitted with the appropriate filters), or particulate matter generated by the manufacture of pyrotechnic compositions (if fitted with P100 filters). http://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/3m-6000-series-full-facepiece-respirators.html.

[ollie1016]

ollie1016- Yes, I'm absolutely new to all of this but I have done quite a bit of research so far, still have a ways to go before I cook the Rcandy fuel though.

 

 

I'm just trying to get everything I need all lined up, so when I do finally cook my first batch it just doesn't sit around. If I can get away without buying any rocket tooling right off the bat, then that would be good to know.

 

I wanted to get a face shield, but am unsure on what type is best. I also saw a video where a pyrotechnician says not to wear a face shield because it just concentrates the hot gasses and "burns your face off", not saying he's right. How do these two look:

 

http://www.ebay.com/...=item460d08ed3b

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/...=item19e1c6e899

 

mikeee - Yep, my electric skillet has a thermostat to regulate the temp. Paid less than $20 for it at Walmart, hope it works out o.k. Thanks for the link to that great site.

 

 

Jonathan - So maybe I should try a dry mix first? My tubes are approx 5/8" inside diam. x 3" long, how would I go about making them fly and how high will they get? Do I need any specail tooling? My smaller tubes have an inside diam. of 1/4" x 2" long, are these more trouble than they are worth when it come to loading them or do they turn out pretty cool?

 

 

Are you saying you tried to cook rcandy and it hasn't worked out for you so far? How are you going about cooking it?

 

I could really use some help when it comes to the tooling and what tubes to buy. I don't want to blow $135 on tooling when I can get the exact same thing for $40 someplace else.

 

Thanks for all the help guys

 

The second face shield looks better it, may be and extra few dollars but its worth it!

 

I've heard that aswell, I personally think it's a bit of a myth. When ever I'm dealing with live compositions or live pyro devices, I always wear PPE. This is because of Dag, a very respectable and knowledgable member was badly hurt a few months back. It can happen to anyone, any time/ place.

 

All doom gloom apart, when your first rocket goes up. You'll have a fantastic feeling inside. Best of luck

[ollie1016]

Preach it brother! The Elvex ProGuard is the very best face/head/ear protection I have ever used, it offers an all in one design that encloses your head and face. I think it overall use in pyro is limited due to the lack of a seal around the neck and sides but for everything else including shooting a show, its fantastic!

 

Dag!! Hello my friend! I'm very happy to see your name back on the forum!! Yes that face guard looks very good. I have one like that for striming in the garden, ( and pyro). My prayers and thoughts are still with you and your family Dag.

[TranslucentDragon]

I wouldn't recommend dry mixing because it doesn't combine the particles well enough in my opinion unless you are using a ball mill or the particles of KNO3 and Sucrose/Karo are really fine (in which case you can diaper). Dissolve all of your ingredients (except for additives if you're going to use them) in very hot to boiling water in your electric skillet (shouldn't be flammable because it is in liquid form, but still good to wear safety stuffs) until you see nothing but a clear liquid. Boil out the liquid until you have very few bubbles and a semi-solid, light beige substance (this would be the point to add additives) of your R-Candy. Take a small piece out to test. Roll into a strand. If you light one it, it should burn all the way to the other end without having to relight it. You should use either a torch or fuse to light it, as lighters don't work (and aren't considered safe in this practice).

 

Relatively quickly, put the mushy, putty-like substance into your rocket and try to compress it as much as you can. As soon as it is cool it will harden to a complete solid and you will have to reheat it (THIS IS NOT WHAT THE REHEAT BUTTON ON YOUR MICROWAVE IS FOR. Don't use a microwave ) in order to put it into rockets or shape it, so you need to put it in the rocket BEFORE it cools completely.

 

If you add Red (or brown depending on dialect) Iron Oxide to R-Candy it will make a faster burning rocket. Alternatively, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) added to R-Candy will make smoke bombs. Just in case you were wondering.

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask the community.

[Dodad]

You CAN make KNSU rocket fuel without cooking. You will need a coffee grinder, (http://www.walmart.com/ip/FARBERWARE-17-Piece-Rocket-Blender-Stainless-Steel/22903915). to grind your Kno3 and sugar. Look on Skyliners web site, (http://www.skylighter.com/Rocket-Kits.asp). You will find what you need. Follow the links to get the instructions. You will need a 40 mesh screen. You could make the tooling, and it may work ok, but It would be better to buy it. See here, (http://fireworktools.com/collections/rocket-tooling). If you buy the tooling, just buy the 4 oz refill kit from Skylighter and you will be all set.

I just went through all this and am making reliable rockets now. You will need a decent deadblow hammer.