32 replies to this topic

[Potassium chlorate]

I have made one rocket with Ruby Red. It had the same dimensions as a BP core burner with ½" inner diametre. It was slow but finally took off, though it tipped over before it reached its apex.

[dr thrust]

very interesting indeed, your comp with or without dextrin as the star formula suggests?
have considered tinkering with the formula? lowering the parlon and upping the charcoal content to produce more gases?

Edited by chris m, 06 September 2010 - 10:15 PM.

[Potassium chlorate]

I left the dextrin out.

Yes, it should probably be more charcoal and less parlon, maybe also some more potassium perchlorate.

Those rockets should be shorter, but since I don't have a spindle with the right dimensions I had to compromise.

[vaslop2005]

An update on the formula front...

I just tested a 3/4" rocket, with 1/4" nozzle and 65mm long spindle

using

40 ammonium perchlorate
35 barium nitrate
20 epoxy
5 dark Al

it had roughly 40g of fuel, and burned for between 4-5 seconds (so needs a bit of tuning) but sounded powerful enough.

now moving on to testing red and blue (copper sorbate?)

[dr thrust]

good luck with the copper sorbate, ive been waiting a eon for the stuff to dry out, what colour did you get from your motor white?
i see that the blue strobe rockets use ap and copper oxide

[vaslop2005]

well actually it was a very nice green, (i did get a video, but the colour is awful on my camera)

I have never had a problem with copper sorbate drying, but try heating it to 100c in an oven.

I'm proposing maybe

80 ammonium perchlorate
10 copper sorbate
10 epoxy

and increasing the barium nitrate in the green

40 ammonium perchlorate
40 barium nitrate
15 epoxy
5 dark Al

[dr thrust]

thanks, i'll try the oven, when the domestic authorities are out and about.
ahh, green of course, ap has 20% chlorine content,DOH! i was looking for a chlorine donor in your formula as apposed to parlon with a 70% content was the green a little washed out?
ive only used k perc based fuels where this burns white

Edited by chris m, 22 September 2010 - 08:32 PM.

[vaslop2005]

well I find that with the purity if the flame (lacking in potassium ions and dense smoke) the green stands out quite well.

also assuming that you use 10% parlon with 70% chlorine =7 chlorines
then 40% ammonium perchlorate with 20% chlorine =8 chlorines

but i guess i could replace some of the epoxy with PVC (cheaper and has a higher fuel value)

I did try using a go getter formula

50 ammonium perchlorate
20 parlon
8 red gum
6 hexamine
4 dark Al
12 CuCO3

but this had too much chlorine and refused to burn with the characteristic 'big blue flame' but with a small orange flame.

[dr thrust]

thanks , colored rockets fuels are certainly a steep learning curve for me .
im looking forward to the blue propellant as ive yet to see a copper sorbate blue in action and mine is a wet sludge at the mo!

[Potassium chlorate]

I read on Skylighter that there was a guy who used barium chlorate and shellac as a rocket fuel. It made the same wonderful green as usual, but the rockets had to be short and have very special dimensions, otherwise they exploded.

[vaslop2005]

I too have read that article many times, trying to learn this art, but I decided that I didn't like his method...

Also I'm hoping that the explosions where due to the barium chlorate 'preheating' when the fuel is light, where the outside of the fuel heats up due to infra red rays penetrating the fuel. When in large rockets this effect is amplified.

Also high powered green rockets use formulas similar to the ones I'm using, but just a bit more profesional...

I'll post more discoveries soon, hopefully!

Edited by vaslop2005, 24 September 2010 - 06:06 AM.

[Potassium chlorate]

Yes, he rammed them, which isn't very wise with something containing 90% chlorate.

[vaslop2005]

I have just tried my proposed blue formula... And somewhat unsurprisingly, their was a small sharp pop, and the fuel was spread around everywhere. This is obviously due to the copper acting as a catalyst...

Copper presents a bit of a problem, as it is the only way to make blue... (maybe some hexamine would slow the burn a bit, without impeding the colour)

[digger]

good luck with the copper sorbate, ive been waiting a eon for the stuff to dry out, what colour did you get from your motor white?
i see that the blue strobe rockets use ap and copper oxide

Did you get your copper sorbate dried out?

I vacuum filtered some on Thursday and dried it in my drying cab overnight. Dried out real quick (got most of the water out with the vac filter).

I made 10g of 70/30 with perc. I did a quick burn rate test (dry mix). It turned out at about 8 seconds per inch so should be fine for a rocket fuel. Interestingly it had a slightly blue flame without a chlorine donor.

[MDH]

thanks , colored rockets fuels are certainly a steep learning curve for me .
im looking forward to the blue propellant as ive yet to see a copper sorbate blue in action and mine is a wet sludge at the mo!

There was a video for a short time on youtube of copper sorbate and potassium perchlorate which was removed due to "community violations" (surprise), and it was a nice blue - a little like a very good Shimizu KP blue. The flame seemed to have a leafy quality to it, with darker, deeper blue around the edges.

I'm not sure how well you filtered your precipitate, but widely spread out on a wax sheet it should be drying easily as it is fairly insoluble.