Mumbles Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 If you want to compare speeds, you're going to have to use similar amounts. 15g is not a standard amount and you will have trouble finding anyone to test against. Go use 1gram, and then it will be a lot easier. Secondly, the best test of speed is down a unit length angle iron pipe not a pile on the ground. Firing a projectile is also appropriate. You're not going to be able to tell jack shit from your test.
flying fish Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 I agree with Mumbles. There are too many variables to make a conclusive comparison just by posting a video of it burning. Plus it seems like there was alot of BP used in the Pecan test, and I would really rather lift stuff with that powder! However, I'll post a video of a few grams of it burning (possibly tomorrow evening) just for kicks and giggles . I granulated the powder through a window screen earlier today, and I am now waiting for it to dry. Another thing I found interesting, was that the speed of the milled powder did not improve much between 6 hours and 12 hours. I guess this means that my coin mill is more efficient than I thought it was! (Edit: I was reading through some older posts in the Willow alternative thread, and apparently you are supposed to mill BP made with Hardwoods for longer than soft woods. So perhaps I wasn't being completely fair to my commercial airfloat charcoal!)
hst45 Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Speed is relative. For our purposes it's only important as to how a particular powder formulation compares to another one or ours, not some pie-in-the sky standard. Who gives a damn if your powder is faster or slower that someone else? And how the hell would you know? That's not what you're using. Borrow ideas from fellow pyros of course but you can't compare your stuff to anyone else's' unless you can do it face to face because the variables are too broad to be of any value IMHO. I posted this a while back, but just to reprise an idea, here's my "racetrack" speed tester. Cut two saw kerfs (grooves) in a board of about two or three feet long. Fill the grooves with two different formulations of BP and light them together; NOW you can see what is in fact faster. Other comparisons are irreverent.
mormanman Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 hst45 I said that it CATOed but I've never had one do that before. I just want to see for kicks and giggles too (the bp). And I know that it doesn't matter how fast its just fun to see. Bytheway my Pecan bp was 1/2 an oz.
jacob Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Where did you get that stuff mormanman? i could use some perc.
mormanman Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Well jacob I order it from Firefox but they rejected my order. I hate the stupid laws the government put to keep us safe from the boomers and kewls.
Mumbles Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Did you not see the restrictions on the front page? 1 pound of oxidiser, and no metals finer than 100 mesh. No wonder they rejected it. Also, you only ordered the ingredients to make both whistle and flash. No big suprise there.
mormanman Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Did you not see the restrictions on the front page? 1 pound of oxidiser, and no metals finer than 100 mesh. No wonder they rejected it. Also, you only ordered the ingredients to make both whistle and flash. No big suprise there. It wasn't finer than 100 mesh (I think).
Mumbles Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 100 mesh is 150 microns. Less microns mean smaller particle.
mormanman Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Well crap. I was getting it cheap. Cheaper than discountpyro (I think....again).
jacob Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 I order it from Firefox but they rejected my order OK that makes since, but you didn't say where you ended up geting it .
Mumbles Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Send me a pm later, and I will point you in the direction of a cheap 25 micron Al source Mormonman. I hope you wanted the atomized form for glitters or the like.
hst45 Posted October 11, 2007 Posted October 11, 2007 I'm happy because we FINALLY got some rain here, so I don't have to worry about setting the field on fire. I shot off a few 4 oz. core-burners with 2" ball shell headers, some 2" mortars, a couple of comets, and a two-stage 4 oz. coreburner with a 10 gm. flash header that went dead right and ended up as a surface-to-surface missle into the beaver pond. Rodents beware....
flying fish Posted October 11, 2007 Posted October 11, 2007 As promised, here is the video of my Willow Pulverone (2.93 grams) And a 1-3/4 inch shell lifted and broken with the same Pulverone (It was supposed to be a test of some beraq inserts, but as you can see my delay was too quick...And since I have no experience with Beraq I decided to use BP instead of flash for this test): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uL5mnUq_qs Overall I am happy with the performance of my Willow Pulverone! Edit: Here's occasional happyness for you...I passed all my classes for summer term!!! Ok, I'm not one to fail classes (I never have), but I was really worried about Circuits. I kind of blew off a bunch of quizzes at the beginning of the term, and then later found out that the quizzes were weighted as 40% of the grade! The Prof told me that I needed an 81.5 on the final to pass. So either I did alright on the final, or he curved the class. Either way, I'm happy.
optimus Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Speaking of Gore, this news made me pretty happy : ) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7037671.stm
hst45 Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Albert Arnold Gore jr., following in the the footsteps of other "great" men, like Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat.
optimus Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 My family has long-held links with both the BGS and USGS, in fact I've seen the very ice cores that Gore references, or, I should say, mis-references. I regularly talk with 'real' scientists about the subject, including my father who happens to be an international authority on Geophysics, and alot of his colleagues on both side of the pond share my reservations about Gore's 'science'... Anyway, this isn't the time or the place! In other news, I have 3 hours left in my current job - after that it's gonna be a few months of pure pyro till I get back to employment! It's gonna be a big Nov5th for me this year! Can't wait!
flying fish Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Yeah, I agree Global Warming is occuring and will likely become a problem. But why do people need Al Gore to tell them? He's simply not a scientist or in any way an authority on the subject. Sure he is a well known political figure, but does he have a degree in anything even remotely related to science? And it seems like if anyone mentored him, it was a bunch of "noobs"... Like, I was a research assistant for a MEMS and microfluidics project for 3 months. I wouldn't dare go and direct a film about how microtechnology is going is going to benifit us in the future, because the people who should are the people who have been studying microtechnology for years and years (and years). However, I will feel comfortable talking about the narrow part of microtechnology that I studied. It's a matter of qualifications, and viewers should be able to get past a guy's fame and ask "is he qualified?" Maybe famous people with a scientific background should be making these films. Like Steven Hawking, perhaps Dean Camen and Albert Einstein (oh...wait). As you can see I'm really on a rant now. But that's what people do when they are occasionasionally unemployed (aka happy).
flying fish Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 I guess you have a good point. I mean, I don't think Al Gore can be trusted when talking about a scientific issue, and I would HOPE that most people realize that. But likely the goal was to get people talking about global warming. In that sense it succeeded.
hst45 Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 BlueSquib, I'd be more than happy to have an intelligent conversation on the scientific aspects of global warming with an intelligent, open minded person such as yourself. My issue with the likes of Albert Arnold Gore Jr. is that they elevate global warming to a religion. They condemn me as an infidel if I dispute their assumptions, and damn me as a heretic if I present opposing scientific views. They buy "carbon credits" as the renaissance rich bought indulgences from the Church. They pick and choose those scientific arguments that support their claims and condemn the scientists who present opposing data. The scientific method requires that we evaluate ALL data, formulate hypotheses, and test them. The "the sky ifs falling" crowd has, in my opinion, drawn their conclusions and will only confirm that data that validates their preconceived notions, discounts the opposing data no matter how valid, and demonizes those persons who present opposing evidence. A scientist should have no agenda to prove or disprove a theory, his agenda should be trying to find the truth, no matter where that search leads. I am perfectly willing to accept empirical data regarding temperature change; I have yet to be persuaded that these equate to an overall, man-made, irrevocable, climate change. Convince me; don't damn me or ridicule me.
crazyboy25 Posted October 13, 2007 Posted October 13, 2007 well... i finished my starmine and both my 4" aerial shells i can't wait to test them over thanksgiving (im gong to the perfect test site) and my friends dad is an aerospace engineer and the people he works for are getting rid of some Pyrex glassware so im gonna get some of that. im also going to stock up on visco fuse and get for the first time willow airfloat charcoal up until now ive been using hardwood airfloat so maybe now i can make decent BP. i also PLAN on getting an Xbox 360 i hope that works out and when i scrape together some more money i will make a large order that should hold me over for the next two years. anyway CANT WAIT TILL THANKSGIVING
Tweetybird88 Posted October 27, 2007 Posted October 27, 2007 I finaly got some KClO3 at a reasonable price. I just couldn't bring myself to pay the skylighter price. 20lb for $112 seems good to me.
frogy Posted October 27, 2007 Posted October 27, 2007 I finaly got some KClO3 at a reasonable price. I just couldn't bring myself to pay the skylighter price. 20lb for $112 seems good to me. $5.60 a pound when you bought 20 pounds? I thought that was expensive lol Solar Flare Chemicalshttp://www.solarflarechems.com/chemicals.html $4.50 a pound for KClO3, but you'd have to wait forever for him to get his ass into gear and do the order
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