Mnemotron

That'll work excellently and it matches the blue I have made with CuCl2 - But the burning properties are better than mine since I rarely ever used hexamine (I used dextrin, PVC and shellac)! It seems like the hexamine is a bit high but perhaps the paper you lit it on is producing the orange tip in that video.

Good luck with your future devices.

Hi MDH,

This is my Cucl2 star test:
Do you think it's ok?.Thank you!

Either method of priming will work. My personal preference is to use a slurry, and then dust it with powder to "dry it up".

If they blow blind from a shell then something is wrong. Perhaps the Strontium carbonate content, if large enough, is inhibiting the burning significantly enough to inhibit ignition, or reduce the speed at which the flame is extinguished to below the speed it's thrown from the shell at. Adding a metal to the prime seems quite unnecessary considering that there is no metal in the star composition. Potassium chlorate usually burns hotter than Potassium nitrate, so hopefully H3, or similar, will be more successful than Sulfurless BP.

Potentially they are soft, or the prime has not bonded well enough, and the burst either smashes the stars, or smashes the prime off them. Take a star, and using your fingers try to crush it. If you can, even if it hurts to do so, then I would consider this to be a likely cause of your problem.

Ok,i'll try.Thank you for the infos!!!

You can use Si, though usually Chlorate stars are much more ignitable than perchlorate ones, so the Silicon is probably quite unnecessary.

I would be less comfortable using Sulfurless BP + MgAl. You've probably heard of the nitrate/Aluminium reaction. Magnalium, being 50% Aluminium counts, and because it's alloyed with Magnesium, it's more reactive.

When Nitrates react with Aluminium, ammonia is produced, as I'm sure many of us are aware from experience!

Ammonia is incompatible with chlorates in quite an extreme way, since Ammonium chlorate can be produced.

So not out of fear of the nitrate/Aluminium 'incompatibility' which everyone mixes, because it can be made stable enough to work, but out of fear of the resulting Ammonium/chlorates incompatibility I advice everyone to avoid the mixture of nitrates, chlorates and Al or MgAl.

Finally, why don't you use a chlorate/charcoal prime, like H3, or perhaps with a small quantity of resin. I am aware that many people fear the contact between the chlorate star and the BP in fireworks, but this is not as dangerous as many people believe, plus it is very safe when using the stars in shells where H3 is used as the burst, the logical option to me.

Thank you for the response.Next time i'll try with H3 mix for priming.Even if the chlorate based stars are known to be easily ignitable than perchlorate ones i have some problem with mine comps,i don't know why.For example my red star (kclo3,srco3,shellac) once primed with sulfurless BP ignite whell if i try them in a mortar,but in shells they blow blind .That's why i want to try with silicon.For priming do you suggest me to make a slurry or wet the star and rolle them in the powder?
Thank you!

7% Si in meal is usually quite enough. It easily sets fire to stars, trees, jeans, boots...

Been there, done that, still have the scorch marks

Can i use sulfurless BP + 7-10 Si or MgAl fr priming my chlorate based star?

You guys might want to do some more reading before you keep playing around with chlorates.

Hexamine is made from Ammonia and formaldehyde. This process can, and does I believe reverse to an extent. Not so much that you will be left without Hexamine, but so you will be left with Hexamine with an Ammonia contamination.

People always talk about the incompatibility between chlorates and Sulfur, but in my opinion the chlorates and ammonia incompatibility is worse.

I certainly hope someone comes along and explains why I'm wrong, but if not, I suggest saving the Hexamine for perchlorates and nitrates.

There is a risk of auto-ignition?