285 replies to this topic

[littlejohny]

I have emailed the fertiliser supplier for NSW on pottasium nitrate fertiliser and he hasn't responded yet

[Pepsi]

Yeah, It is become tricky to find. I obtained some off ebay as well but i don't think it will last long . It seems to be of decent quality. The BP i have been making with it performs as well as the Ag sourced KNO3 Bp i was making a couple of years ago.

Anyway, i have also been searching for some colouring agents, Strontium, Barium Nitrates and Carbonates etc. Does anyone have any info on where these can be obtained. Perhaps a chem supply who ships to the individual? As well as some decent fuse, anyone who can help please contact me.

tarney@tpg.com.au

why not experiment making your own fuse,? its easy and fun to make see below;-

http://www.unitednuc.../quickmatch.htm

http://www.pyrounive.../blackmatch.htm

http://www.pyrounive.../quickmatch.htm

Anyhow have fun....
P

[maximusg]

Yeah mate, lol i said "decent fuse". Blackmatch has its limits and is just genrally s**tty compared to say, Visco. Thanks anyway man.

[alany]

Blackmatch and spoulettes are completely adequate for most amateur work. Maybe not quite as expedient, but patience is the first skill a pyro must master.

Personally I use blackmatch *far* more than I use visco.

[Mumbles]

I live in the US, where visco is quite readily available. Even I use Blackmatch much more than I use visco. I use visco to put a delay between lighting and launching of my shells. I used to use it for makeshift timefuse before I got proper time fuse as well. Besides the delay on my leaders, about the only thing I use it for is timing on my small plastic shells that will only accept visco. About the only one that actually requires visco is the small plastic shells, but even those can be overcame.

[maximusg]

Yeah I am still making do with black match. It may be my err, lo-fi blackmatch but it is still unreliable when used in applicationas that require the fuse to pass through very small, or completely tight spaces like salutes or the 1/4" Bottle Rockets I am working on..... Sure i use it alot, but i would prefer the reliability of a professionally made fuse. Anyway, thanks champs. Alany, do you have any specific techniques for making narrow, yet reliable spoulettes?

[alany]

I wouldn't make spoulettes much smaller than 5 mm ID, the tooling required to ram them if they get much smaller gets delicate and must be made from stainless steel for strength. You can press or roll them damp with a binder, I used to use a cigarette machine for this purpose and it worked rather well, but drying takes a *long* time. Pressing is safer to avoid any voids in the powder.

Ignition also becomes less reliable as they get smaller, you should tie blackmatch across the face of them anyway no matter what the size, especially if top-fused.

For 1/4" bottle rocket motors I use blackmatch almost exclusively, despite the tooling being designed for chinese "visco". If you are having problems with the match going out at the nozzle then an immediate fix (while you perfect your blackmatch) is to add priming slurry to the match before inserting it. Bound with NC (ping pong balls are fine) using acetone it dries very quickly, about 10 minutes to be usable, a water slurry might need a day or more but in a lot of ways is easier to work with.

Using high quality, well milled Meal for your blackmatch should help. If your match seems drossy then add extra charcoal, it will be more sparky and perhaps skip but should be more reliable. If it is burning like incense and/or hold-firing then it is almost always due to insufficient coating of BP rather than a lack of oxidiser in my experence.

I use fairly fine three-ply cotton thread and the soaking method with a fairly thick slurry. I size it by hand, getting quite black in the process. I've found this works just as well as a sizing die and is faster. You shouldn't strip off so much slurry that you can easily see the pattern of the string. I haven't been bothering to dust my match of late.

[maximusg]

Thanks man those are some really good tips, i appreciate it. Using a slurry to 'cork' in the fuse is a really god idea i am going to try that this weekend

[Pepsi]

Yeah mate, lol i said "decent fuse". Blackmatch has its limits and is just genrally s**tty compared to say, Visco. Thanks anyway man.

"Visco" or Saftey time fuse has its applications too, although expensive here in Victoria.

I think, and its only my opinion, ..Master the"art" of Black Powder/Lift Powder * Black-Match/Quick-Match...
.......Then Move on to other things, remember making good reliable B.P. and Lift requires a lot more expertise than making "Flash" and other more Showy, ...and dangerous compounds.

Pepsi

[Amleth]

Hi, I'll go you halves in a bag... I'm in Geelong, Vic.
Pepsi

Half a bag is still out of my range, ATM. 5 kilos is heaps for small-scale hobby stuff, anyway. I dunno about you but that'd last me 6 months to a year, easily. I was ideally looking for other Perth locals to split a bag with (to save shipping worries), but it's seems pretty obvious now that that's not going to happen. The only other non-Eastern-States person I met on here was Matt, and he vanished off the face of the forums back in late September.

Still, if I could find four other interested people Australia-wide, I'd probably do the leg-work and organise divvying up, postage hassles, etc (it's legal to surface-ship oxidisers here, right?). We'd still need around three more people who want some, though, and naturally I'd expect people to pay for their own shipping costs.

(For those who missed it, I'm talking about tech-grade potassium perchlorate. There's a supplier local to me that sells 25kilo bags. Price at last checking was $581, so 1/5th share would be 5kg for $116.20, plus shipping. The price of the bags does vary slightly over time, but it should still be pretty close to that.)

If anyone's interested, PM me, and I'll start keeping a list of names. (If you just post a response it might take me a couple of weeks to notice like with Pepsi's... )

[maximusg]

YGPM

Edited by maximusg, 18 January 2006 - 06:04 AM.

[littlejohny]

1/5th share would be 5kg for $116.20, plus shipping.

I don'y have that money lying around, but i would be interested in 1kg lots

[maximusg]

"Visco" or Saftey time fuse has its applications too, although expensive here in Victoria.

I think, and its only my opinion, ..Master the"art" of Black Powder/Lift Powder * Black-Match/Quick-Match...
.......Then Move on to other things, remember making good reliable B.P. and Lift requires a lot more expertise than making "Flash" and other more Showy, ...and dangerous compounds.

Pepsi

Expensive? So you have a supplier for it? Wouldn't be able to PM some details would you mate? I'd be interested in getting a bit no matter the cost. Just for some experimentation.

[Amleth]

I don'y have that money lying around, but i would be interested in 1kg lots

For too small a split size, the logisics of finding so many people is really impractical, and organising the whole mess just isn't worth the effort. A kilo won't last you very long anyway, unless you just want to make flash with it, and in that case maybe you should hold off until you're a little more experienced. You can still make a perfectlly servicable salute with BP anyway, and it's a hell of a lot safer to work with...

On the other hand, right now we have two people confirmed, potentially four pending confirmations, and I don't plan on organising another buy until I run out (which I expect will be quite a while), so if you want to have some available when you are ready for it this might be your only chance...

[littlejohny]

Yeah well, I don't have much money at the moment but if I did i wouldn't say no to the offer.