[robbstech]

Hi, All I'm new here and hopefully I will enjoy my stay!

I have been interested in pyrotechnics for a while now and I started off with amateur rocketry which was all fun and games but I just wanted more. So I decided to pull my finger out and I started bying basic chems to make straight forward black powder!

I got my chems today and I weighed out 74.6g potassium nitrate, 13.5g charcoal and 11.9g sulphur. I placed all these chemicals in a blastic jar and i just carefull mixed them together...The mix had lumps of sulpher in so I placed a marble in there and shook it until I got a farly fine powder. (green mix i think).

I poured out a small amount around 2g onto the ground outside and lit it at arms length. I was shocked to see that it did burn farely fast . It wasn't that good though. But hey for my first time I got something to combust whheeeyyy!

Anyway to my questions;
1) Which type of charcoal is best for making BP?

2) Can I use marbles for my ball mill (under construction)?

3) I am a web designer by trade and I was wondering if it would be OK for me to make a site showing all my pyro creations in the future? I want to stick this hobby (it is great

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from all you kind people!!!!
Rob

[dr thrust]

hello and a big welcome glad to have you on board.
theres all manner of charcoals used in pyro, for example pine charcoal is the best for bright orange tails in rockets and charcoal based stars such as " tiger tails"
for the fastest bp, willow charcoal,alder charcoal are getting you on the right track.
as for milling media its been discussed to death lol, try the search function but to get you started ball mills
marbles aren't used they can break up, and don't have the dead weight to pulverize the chems together.
there are three types of media, ceramic( expensive and may spark when hit together at high speed) these are usually used for milling single chemicals not comps
number two lead, cheap, very very heavy in the bigger drums, you'll need a kick ass mill! and the surface of the lead wears slightly contaminating the bp (to no ill effect)
this can be seen more clearly when milling kno3 as you can see a slight color change (off grey)
thirdly brass media usually brass rod cut down( expensive again but very hard wearing)
as for your own website thats up to you, there are very experienced member who have there own sites, most of us use hosts like you tube, or pyrobin
hope this helps regards chris

This post has been edited by chris m: 06 September 2010 - 09:27 PM

[phildunford]

I second the hello from Chris M!

As to websites, I have run one for the last 8 years or so.

You must be very careful not to encourage people to break the law by including appropriate disclaimers & keeping it sensible - other than that, it's up to you!

[robbstech]

Well thanks for the warm welcome guys....For the website part, I was just worried about the police knocking down my door due to showing people how to make (lets face it...b***s in the wrong hands) But I will think about this more...

Also thanks chris, that info you gave me on ball mills and charcoal really cleared things up!

I think I am really going to enjoy my stay here

Thanks
Again

This post has been edited by cooperman435: 08 September 2010 - 04:15 PM

[dr thrust]

a pleasure!, whatever questions you have ill guarantee somebody here will have the answer
i can see with your questions, you are indeed just starting, so id consider buying a few books on pyro and reading up before you Begin, here's something to get your teeth into what every pyro should know

This post has been edited by chris m: 06 September 2010 - 09:26 PM

[robbstech]

Wow, that is going to be an interesting read 1 last question;
when I used to play around with model rockets I applied for an RCA document..thinking I would never get one I applied anyway!
Anyway about 3 months later I recieved a letter from HSE and it contained my RCA document!

Now I was just wondering what can I actually so with the RCA doc? Can I just transfer the explosives or can I store them also?

More info here http://www.hse.gov.u...rmation/rca.htm

Thanks
ROb

[dr thrust]

your doc is nice to have, but wont help you with homemade stuff as legally you cant make a device or store your hombrew comps, the ukps are working to change this, one last rant