78 replies to this topic

[50AE]

I don't have a contamination problem. Before I work with incompatible mixes, I wash my table surface with hot water and a sponge, I let it dry and I cover it with sheets of newspaper. This will prevent chlorate and sulfur contamination.
Well, I always cover my table surface with newspapers when I'm mixing something.


Perchlorates are cheaper ? How much ? The cheaper I know is Czort, 5kgs of KClO4 will cost me 94 euros including the delivery.
And chlorates ? I'm doing electrolysis, at an average of 50% efficiency. Dumping 10A in my cell, I'm making a mole of potassium chlorate for 32 hours, which means 122.55 grams.
To make 5kgs of KClO3, I need 3kg of KCl. These cost me 6 euros.
I will need 13 055 Ah of 5V to convert the entire KCl to KClO3.
This would be equal to 296 Ah of 220V
Or an average of 66kW including the losses of the power supply
66kW x 0,045(the cost of the electricity) = 3 euros

In total, I have 4500 grams of pure chlorate (500 grams go for the losses of purification) for 9 euros and some time
Compare it to the 94 euros from czort.

Edited by 50AE, 03 July 2009 - 03:56 PM.

[fruitfulsteve]

I don't have a contamination problem. Before I work with incompatible mixes, I wash my table surface with hot water and a sponge, I let it dry and I cover it with sheets of newspaper. This will prevent chlorate and sulfur contamination.
Well, I always cover my table surface with newspapers when I'm mixing something.


Perchlorates are cheaper ? How much ? The cheaper I know is Czort, 5kgs of KClO4 will cost me 94 euros including the delivery.
And chlorates ? I'm doing electrolysis, at an average of 50% efficiency. Dumping 10A in my cell, I'm making a mole of potassium chlorate for 32 hours, which means 122.55 grams.
To make 5kgs of KClO3, I need 3kg of KCl. These cost me 6 euros.
I will need 13 055 Ah of 5V to convert the entire KCl to KClO3.
This would be equal to 296 Ah of 220V
Or an average of 66kW including the losses of the power supply
66kW x 0,045(the cost of the electricity) = 3 euros

In total, I have 4500 grams of pure chlorate (500 grams go for the losses of purification) for 9 euros and some time
Compare it to the 94 euros from czort.

surely this is very time consuming, do you have to watch over it or can you just go of to work and let it get on with it? also dosn't corzt sell kclo3 for about £3 a kilo?

[50AE]

The disadvantage it's the time yes. Also, I have to go and take a look at the cell two times per day, to verify the pH and if there are any issues.
Czort sells KClO3 for 3,9 euros per kg. As you see, it's cheaper than his KClO4, which costs 15,6 euros per kg.

Edited by 50AE, 03 July 2009 - 04:15 PM.

[digger]

The disadvantage it's the time yes. Also, I have to go and take a look at the cell two times per day, to verify the pH and if there are any issues.
Czort sells KClO3 for 3,9 euros per kg. As you see, it's cheaper than his KClO4, which costs 15,6 euros per kg.

It can be had far cheaper than that

Edited by digger, 03 July 2009 - 05:02 PM.

[BrightStar]

Well, I´m using cut stars most of the time. Doing so I consider it very inexpedient to wet already dried stars again to add a second layer of prime.

Yup, as I'm sure you've discovered, the comps with high portions Sr(NO3)2 are hard enough to dry in the first place, so re-wetting isn't much fun... Gum arabic solution though seems to seal the surface rather than dissolve the star.

With cut stars, one approach is to think about pastry making. You can make up a bag of prime to use like flour. Sprinkle it on the work surface before you shape your loaf of comp, sprinkle it liberally as you cut the loaf into slices and sprinkle it yet more as you dice them into stars. It makes cutting much easier, the prime adheres well and it prevents the stars sticking together as they dry.

Edited by BrightStar, 04 July 2009 - 07:32 PM.

[digger]

Yup, as I'm sure you've discovered, the comps with high portions Sr(NO3)2 are hard enough to dry in the first place, so re-wetting isn't much fun... Gum arabic solution though seems to seal the surface rather than dissolve the star.

Yep I agree Sr(NO3)2 comps can be an issue, however I have found that it all depends on the quality. I had some naff stuff (98% ish) which was a real pain, however I got hold of some 99.9%+ and it does not seem to be any where near as hygroscopic. Nice rock hard stars that don't mind being re-wetted and don't go soft if left out for weeks!

[dr thrust]

Stop inventing these ideas, did I say that I'll be putting sulfur in my device ? Damn !
You safety maniacs have nothing to do but to harass people using chlorates, while you don't even have any idea about them - their knowledge and their ideas.

hmm "safety maniac" i like the sound of that, thanks for the accolade, use chlorate's if you like its your choice.
agreed i know nothing about you or your pyro/ ideas as I've yet to see any of your work, where as all my work good or bad is available for everybody to view/ discuss.

[50AE]

You will see my work, don't worry about it.
It's just a matter of time for my to resume my pyro activity, resume filming and posting to this forum.
However I must admit that I know almost nothing about rocketry, which seems to be your preferred section in pyro.
I'm more a shell guy, but maybe the rocketry will get interesting for me in future.

Edited by 50AE, 03 July 2009 - 11:46 PM.

[joncikas]

Hello,

I'm quite new with stars, I have done few compositions with tiger tile, red, blue stars... Not all compositions worked as I would like.. - I didn't primed them.....

As far as I understand simplest bonding is Silicone + BP... Question is: What silicone do you use? Is it spray silicone lubricant, or that's silicone used in construction, or that's something else?




Thankyou in advance

Edited by joncikas, 12 May 2010 - 12:04 PM.

[joncikas]

Hello,

I'm quite new with stars, I have done few compositions with tiger tile, red, blue stars... Not all compositions worked as I would like.. - I didn't primed them.....

As far as I understand simplest bonding is Silicone + BP... Question is: What silicone do you use? Is it spray silicone lubricant, or that's silicone used in construction, or that's something else?




Thankyou in advance

Edited by joncikas, 11 May 2010 - 10:50 PM.

[dr thrust]

hello and welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your stay here
the silicon that you enquire about is powdered silicon , cooperman435 stocks it in his online shop, here

[pyromaniac303]

Just to point out - silicone is not used in fireworks. Silicon is. Silicone is a type of rubbery plastic, silicon is the element that forms hot sticky droplets to improve the ignition of your stars.

For most stars, unmilled BP with 5% silicon is a very cheap and simple prime, but for harder to ignite ones, you may want to try 10-15%. For priming the ends of fuses to ignite metal fuelled rockets, you can use 20% silicon, 80% meal powder bound with NC lacquer.

Hope this is useful to you,
Paul

[Peret]

Can anyone recommend a good DARK prime? I made a batch of small cut stars recently for small mines, and primed them with Veline. They light ok, but I noticed the prime flares an intense white for a moment before the star lights and it quite detracts from the color effect. I hadn't noticed this with shells, where the stars are bigger and burn longer. Would it help to substitute silicon for the MgAl in Veline - would it even work? Or can anyone suggest a simpler mixture that doesn't flare? I have some silicon on the shelf but haven't had time to try it yet.

Oh, hi by the way, I'm new around here.

[seymour]

Can anyone recommend a good DARK prime? I made a batch of small cut stars recently for small mines, and primed them with Veline. They light ok, but I noticed the prime flares an intense white for a moment before the star lights and it quite detracts from the color effect. I hadn't noticed this with shells, where the stars are bigger and burn longer. Would it help to substitute silicon for the MgAl in Veline - would it even work? Or can anyone suggest a simpler mixture that doesn't flare? I have some silicon on the shelf but haven't had time to try it yet.

Oh, hi by the way, I'm new around here.

I'm sure it would work fine if you substituted the MgAl for Si. What stars are you trying to light?

[BrightStar]

Can anyone recommend a good DARK prime? I made a batch of small cut stars recently for small mines, and primed them with Veline.

Hi, given that it's for a mine, why not just step prime the stars? 50/50 BP mix/star comp as an intermediate layer then BP mix alone over that. For BP mix try half in half green mix and milled BP, all with + 5% dextrin.

You'll get a few charcoal sparks but I suppose there will be plenty of those from the lift already.