23 replies to this topic

[Delmar]

Looks simple enough. I had to drill a hole in the clay for my fountain. Does the nail stay in the board or will it come out after a few rockets? Does the nail cause sparks?

[Richard H]

Nails are usually made of steel, which is a ferrous metal. If struck with another piece of steel or iron then you might get sparks.

I recommend that all your pyro tools should be made from NON-FERROUS (do not contain iron) metals such as brass.

If you don't want to make your own tools or are having difficulties just buy them.
Rich Wolter does some very cool tools. Check his website at: http://www.wolterpyrotools.com/

[Edited on 11-7-2003 by Richard H]

[Delmar]

Rocket tools are not cheap. Going to make a board with a nail in it. Should I be concerned about mixing fillings(brake turnings)in with the rocket mixture?

[Richard H]

If you are using a steel spindle, then yes. Although the risk is small the potential for a turning to rub against the spindle when consolidated with your rammer might cause an accident.

Be carefull.

[Delmar]

Thanks for all the help.I rammed the rocket mix without the turnings around the spindle.Then some mix with fillings on top of that.Sure is messy.Would wetting down the mix and leaving it to dry hurt anything?Have done a few tests and they burn ok.Need to make a few sticks and test how they fly at a field instead of in the ground.

[bernie]

Smart way to go about doing things. Let us know how it goes. If it doesn't go you need to add KNO3 to your comp. If it 'goes' but does not take flight then you need to add some charcoal.

When you wet the rocket comp make baseball size lumps and scrub it through some window screen. This is commonly called 'ricing'. If you get it too wet it gets all stuck together. 25% water should get you in the ballpark. You can use a % of alcohol if you want to help the drying process along. I do this with any comp that has a tendency to be messy or get airborn easily. It measures better and runs through a funnel real good compared to 'flour' or powder.

[Burn to live]

What r some good combinations for a rocket mixture?

[bernie]

A rocket with a hole in the center like what is described above ......

Lancaster gives these percentages for a 19mm id rocket with a 10mm exhaust and the spindle being 120mm long

KNO3 61
S 5
C 150 mesh 20
C 40 mesh 14

Some fussing around will be required to get it to perform optimally. If your rocket tooling/tube id differs from the good Reverends then just base the spindle design on the above and shave off %s.
Example : 32% of 19mm = 13mm, 32% of 10mm = 6.8mm & 32% of 120 = 81.6mm. Now you have the dimensions for a 13mm id rocket. Roughly.

The longer spindles on the 19mm and larger sizes make it just about impossible to remove a solidly rammed rocket from a straight spindle. These are tapered and still require some force to get the darned things off. 1/2" may still put up a struggle.

Spindles can be made shorter for a multitude of reasons. The trade off.... your gonna need a faster mix. This means less sparks and depending upon just how short you make it, less power. Hopefully some of our more versed rocket makers will add to this brief overview.

[Matt]

Yea, try getting a 23mm rocket off a 15cm straight spindle.......... With teleflite propellant! that stuff it so bloody sticky. its a 2 man job haha but the rockets perform really good so its worth it. Whilst were on the subject of rockets, has anyone ever tried a sulfurless black powder propellant? I have played around with a few with a propellant of:

C 10g
KNO3 30g

If you get the chance, try it. These rockets are extremely quiet ( still a tad noisy naturally ) bur if you make a meal powder rocket and one of these, same dimensions. Then go out and launch em and you will see the difference in noise. I have made a few 5mm rockets with this stuff. A man with a cold could breath louder than these lil things!. No good for sparks though.... and they arent terribly strong..... but its interesting to see how quiet they are, plus you should burn a pile of it. A lil suprise for ya, ill let you find out what it is. has to be a 3 teaspoon pile though. This post has probably been no help to anyone

-Matt