Freese

If it has a choke, then you have a firecracker.

It has a choke (nozzle), but very little core and stingers have a side vent to get the rotation. I could swear I read that whistle mix can be used with them, but now I"m not so sure. The 75/15/10 BP meal (white pine charcoal, ball milled 20 hours +/-) works VERY well. No CATO, goes up streight and high. The whistle mix is press under a hydrolic jack.

When the time comes, I'll use a loooong fuse and get far away. There's no header on that thing.

What ball mill did you get mate?

the "small" unit that hobby fireworks makes. Hobby Fireworks

the "small" unit holds a one gallon container easily. I use 29lbs of lead cylinder media I got from him, too (with high antimony content. The cylinder shape give more contact area that the .50 cal. lead ball shot I was using.) The motor turns the barrel easily - I guess around 150 - 200 rpms. MUCH faster then that used Thumler machine I waisted money on. At least I can use that barrel too, for smaller jobs. Yes, I spent far more than I planned on (and much more than I should have or can justify, but what the heck, it should last forever.) Don't let the plywood appearence fool you, it's a well made unit and the top cover keeps the sound down. (It also holds in the heat, which Matt (the maker of the unit) says will make better BP, I just hope it doesn't increase the chance of a "CATO" in the ballmill. ) When Gary sends me the tooling, I'll be all set!

Well, I made up some Stinger type rockets using the meal powder from my nice, shiny new ball mill. White pine charcoal, 75-15-10. Added 5% Al powder and 5% Ti powder. I was duly impressed by their performance. Hard to say how high they went, because they were almost out of sight (no header for these test runs). Can't wait to see what the core BP rockets will do. Just waiting on the tooling to arrive.

I read a rocket tutorial which gave a 60-30-10 formula. This guys instructions also called for using green meal (no ball mill or CIA processing). He also suggested using 22% 80mesh / 8% airfloat charcaol. I imagine it would never CATO with that type of comp, but what sort of performance can you get with that. I think I'll stick with the 75-15-10 ball milled with airfloat white pine charcaol. I can always cool it with a bit of motor oil if necissary.

Stay Safe!

Where I live, there just aren't many trees, but there is Russian Olive (now on the bad plant list, the government used to pay people to plant it, go figure.) It grows along streams (riparian) like willow. Any idea how fast a BP one can produce using Russian Olive for charcoal?

Sorry for promoting my web site guys but look at the second pic down, why not try this idea, I dont claim to be the only person to try or use these, it works great and looks excellent when rising, but really only best in day time displays http://pulsar46.tripod.com/id6.html

It was your website that gave me the idea (thought I wrote that in the post, should have been clearer to give credit where due )

Thanks for the input. This is, as Justice Holmes would put it, a marketplace of ideas.