jermain

I'm having a few issues with making small amounts of flash powder.

First of all, I'm completely aware of how dangerous FP is and taking the necessary safety methods, I've started by only making 2g amounts at one time so if it does go up in my face it would hopefully not cause to much damage.

Anyway the problem has been completely the opposite, my FP is incredibly slow reacting. First of it is incredibly hard to get going, as i understand it FP should ignite instantly, not with me, I struggle to get it going even by placing the 2g batch on top of newspaper and then setting the whole newspaper on fire. Even this struggles to set it off, once it does start reacting it of course is very bright but can take up to 10 seconds to burn through 2 grams!!! It reminds me of when I first tried making BP with a pestle and mortar and how slow burning that was.

I am currently using a 70:30 potassium perchlorate to aluminium powder mix and using the standard way of mixing (that being on a piece of a4 paper, can't remember what the method is called). I ensure that the compound is fully mixed before testing so that cannot be the issue. After the first couple of poor reactions I tried ball milling some of the KCl04 but this had little effect. I have even tried using some of my potassium nitrate stock to see if it was poor KCl04, but I could not get this to even light.

The KCl04 and aluminium powder I ordered from hobby chemicals (could it be that these chemicals are not v.gd?)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi,

First post etc. bit of a newbie and looking for some help. I made this rocket recently out of ball milled (7-8hrs) 75/15/10 composition. It was one of my first experiments with rocket motors. Though it took of it seemed to lack the power to gain enough elevation and then veered at a 45 degree angle. Can anyone help me as to why this happened.

Also before setting of this rocket I had made numerous attempts at making motors. Some instantanously exploded and others burnt for 4-5 seconds without taking off.

This rocket was not cored as I have found that most cored rockets just explode without any burn time.

Any help would be appreciated.