42 replies to this topic

[Zinginex]

Sorry but in the pinned stars thread it is just oo big to search for this answer and i couldn't find it on first few pages anyway. But the question is can you cut D1 stars? I'm just gonna make some meal powder and add 20% 400 mesh al to them but do i have to press roll them or is it just a star where you can prepare it anyway you want?
Thanks

[Bonny]

Sorry but in the pinned stars thread it is just oo big to search for this answer and i couldn't find it on first few pages anyway. But the question is can you cut D1 stars? I'm just gonna make some meal powder and add 20% 400 mesh al to them but do i have to press roll them or is it just a star where you can prepare it anyway you want?
Thanks

Although you are not actually making D1, I'm sure cutting will be fine, just be sure not to over wet the comp.Glitters can be rendered useless if too much solvent is used

[cooperman435]

The norm is slightly larger 200# to 300# al in atomised form (in oposition to flake) and only about 10% or less. to make it glitter it would be helpfull to add sodium bicarbonate too to delay the glitter effect

[Zinginex]

The norm is slightly larger 200# to 300# al in atomised form (in oposition to flake) and only about 10% or less. to make it glitter it would be helpfull to add sodium bicarbonate too to delay the glitter effect

Ah wicked. Sodium bicarbonate? Can I use baking powder/bicarbonate of soda? lol
So will 400 mesh eleminate the glitter effect but still give a nice silver "sparking" star?
Thanks

[Bonny]

Ah wicked. Sodium bicarbonate? Can I use baking powder/bicarbonate of soda? lol
So will 400 mesh eleminate the glitter effect but still give a nice silver "sparking" star?
Thanks

Sodium bicarbonate IS baking soda, don't use baking powder, it is not the same.

[MDH]

Baking powder and magnesium makes a good flash. Hahahahah. It's all those phosphates .

Sodium Bicarbonate is your general ideal fire retardant. Any one of them will work, as long as the metal reacts over time. So what you want is a fire retardant, but just enough fuel (and respective oxidizer) to outweigh its effect. Which is why if you just artlessly threw a whole bunch of sodium chloride, also a commonly used fire retardant in, the whole thing would either just fizzle or stop burning. You have to use just the right amount.

Glitter is touchy to get right. Good luck.

P.S. 400 mesh will work... arguably even 60-80 mesh will work but with that you don't need a delay agent since it takes a moment to burn and will glitter anyway.

[Zinginex]

Baking powder and magnesium makes a good flash. Hahahahah. It's all those phosphates .

Sodium Bicarbonate is your general ideal fire retardant. Any one of them will work, as long as the metal reacts over time. So what you want is a fire retardant, but just enough fuel (and respective oxidizer) to outweigh its effect. Which is why if you just artlessly threw a whole bunch of sodium chloride, also a commonly used fire retardant in, the whole thing would either just fizzle or stop burning. You have to use just the right amount.

Glitter is touchy to get right. Good luck.

P.S. 400 mesh will work... arguably even 60-80 mesh will work but with that you don't need a delay agent since it takes a moment to burn and will glitter anyway.

Ah ok thanks for the replies. By "Any one of them will work" do you mean baking powder/ baking soda/ bicarbonate of soda would all work to delay the glitter?
And i know it's off topic but what percentage should you add of sodium bicarbonate?
Thanks

P.S. : Is the reason for "pumping" stars for stars that need the powder to be compressed. As if you rolled it or cut it the powder would not be a "compacted star"?

[cooperman435]

when dampened the composition needs alittle help to be closely compacted so as when it is dry as much of it is in contact with the rest as to be very hard. Also it stops the star being porous so the flame front cant break into the stars centre and excesively increase the burn rate.

As I have only experience with sodium bicarbonate I advise using that, In D1 its 7% of both ali 325# spherical and sodium bicarbonate.

If your making glitter u may as well stick to a tested formula!

D1 Glitter

Potassium Nitrate 53
Charcoal 11
Sulphur 18
Sodium Bicarbonate 7
Spherical Aluminium (Passes 325#) 7
Dextrin 4

"Notes"

Milled 20mins from ground up willow charcoal then ali mixed in. 100g of comp wetted with 24ml of water (diluted with 1/3 meths) and press pumped.

[Zinginex]

when dampened the composition needs alittle help to be closely compacted so as when it is dry as much of it is in contact with the rest as to be very hard. Also it stops the star being porous so the flame front cant break into the stars centre and excesively increase the burn rate.

As I have only experience with sodium bicarbonate I advise using that, In D1 its 7% of both ali 325# spherical and sodium bicarbonate.

If your making glitter u may as well stick to a tested formula!

D1 Glitter

Potassium Nitrate 53
Charcoal 11
Sulphur 18
Sodium Bicarbonate 7
Spherical Aluminium (Passes 325#) 7
Dextrin 4

"Notes"

Milled 20mins from ground up willow charcoal then ali mixed in. 100g of comp wetted with 24ml of water (diluted with 1/3 meths) and press pumped.

Ah right well i just used the last 6 grams of my willow charcoal and I'm grinding 30:6:4g of just normal meal powder in my mortar and pestle atm so its a bit late but oh well ill just add some aluminium like i've done before Ill try that though next time once I've made my pine charcoal which I.... borrowed... from my school tech department lol Thanks for the replies.

Edited by Zinginex, 05 February 2008 - 10:31 PM.

[MDH]

Ah ok thanks for the replies. By "Any one of them will work" do you mean baking powder/ baking soda/ bicarbonate of soda would all work to delay the glitter?
And i know it's off topic but what percentage should you add of sodium bicarbonate?
Thanks

P.S. : Is the reason for "pumping" stars for stars that need the powder to be compressed. As if you rolled it or cut it the powder would not be a "compacted star"?

No. Only the purest baking soda should be used. You could add a few hundred milligrams (or grams) more baking powder to make up for the difference... but otherwise try sticking to pure sodium bicarbonate.

On the other hand you could use other carbonates - like barium carbonate which I think is known to assist in the brightness of the glitter as well as act as a delay agent. Sodium Chloride will create an ever so slight yellow (trust me, ever so slight it's not really viable as yellow unless you use magnalium) and act as a delay agent. I heard on another forum that a person who pulled a firework apart found super fine sawdust used as a delay agent in a fountain but I'm not sure whether that was its function.

As I mentioned in another thread, paraffin wax can also be used as a delay agent in non BP-style mixtures.

You will want precisely the same percentage of bicarbonate as you have aluminum. If you have a coarser aluminum, less bicarbonate may be necessary. Fine AL will need more delay agent.

Edited by MDH, 06 February 2008 - 04:50 AM.

[Zinginex]

No. Only the purest baking soda should be used. You could add a few hundred milligrams (or grams) more baking powder to make up for the difference... but otherwise try sticking to pure sodium bicarbonate.

On the other hand you could use other carbonates - like barium carbonate which I think is known to assist in the brightness of the glitter as well as act as a delay agent. Sodium Chloride will create an ever so slight yellow (trust me, ever so slight it's not really viable as yellow unless you use magnalium) and act as a delay agent. I heard on another forum that a person who pulled a firework apart found super fine sawdust used as a delay agent in a fountain but I'm not sure whether that was its function.

As I mentioned in another thread, paraffin wax can also be used as a delay agent in non BP-style mixtures.

You will want precisely the same percentage of bicarbonate as you have aluminum. If you have a coarser aluminum, less bicarbonate may be necessary. Fine AL will need more delay agent.

Ah right i understand now thanks very much. I'll try the sodium chloride as i definetly have salt I'll try some out next time i have some charcoal and tell you the results or if i have anymore questions.
Thanks

[pyrotechnist]

No. Only the purest baking soda should be used. You could add a few hundred milligrams (or grams) more baking powder to make up for the difference... but otherwise try sticking to pure sodium bicarbonate.

On the other hand you could use other carbonates - like barium carbonate which I think is known to assist in the brightness of the glitter as well as act as a delay agent. Sodium Chloride will create an ever so slight yellow (trust me, ever so slight it's not really viable as yellow unless you use magnalium) and act as a delay agent. I heard on another forum that a person who pulled a firework apart found super fine sawdust used as a delay agent in a fountain but I'm not sure whether that was its function.

As I mentioned in another thread, paraffin wax can also be used as a delay agent in non BP-style mixtures.

You will want precisely the same percentage of bicarbonate as you have aluminum. If you have a coarser aluminum, less bicarbonate may be necessary. Fine AL will need more delay agent.

Sorry for bumping this but I have used average supermarket baking soda and have had beautiful D1 stars that had a long golden tail of bright flashes lasting a good amount of time. So you do not need the purest of sodium bicarbonate for D1 to work. I also have seen people use coarse chemicals without any type of ball milling and still achieve beautiful D1 stars, actually even nicer D1.

[spanner]

You can rest assured that food-grade baking soda is as pure of sodium bicarbonate as you need (or are likely to find, outside of Fisher Scientific, et al). On the other hand baking powder has an acidic component.

[Mumbles]

Yes, food grade is very pure. It makes me wonder why my lab insists on purchasing lab grade sodium bicarbonate for neutralizations, when you can buy a pound of it at the supermarket for less than a dollar.

I personally don't ball mill any of my glitters. However I would not recomend coarse chemicals. They have been posing problems for me lately. My KNO3 has been too coarse and producing flaming shit that bombards the earth. The delays on the glitter is exceptionally long and pretty, but it's not worth it for all the fire hazard. The KNO3 comes from prilled fertilizer, and I am just not getting it fine enough. I was grinding it to pass a 60 mesh screen, and that is apparantly not fine enough.

I would also not recomend wetting a composition to 24% and pumping it. You'll just get a goopy mess. That is more than twice as much as you could ever concievably need. 12% is the absolute maximum I could ever see needing, and that is strictly reserved for extremely high charcoal and lampblack stars.

Edited by Mumbles, 19 October 2008 - 12:02 AM.

[spanner]

D1 and most glitters I know of call for 6% to a maximum of 8% water. I did read somewhere that more water could be used w/o any deleterious effects IF dried correctly(?) but that little bit of info wasn't forthcoming from the OP...

Two exceptions are these:

Aluminum Glitter Shimizu
Reference: Text: Fireworks Principles and Practices Revision: 3rd Edition Author: Ronald Lancaster Chapter: 6: Chemistry of Fireworks Compositions Page: 151
percent Component
50.00% Potassium Nitrate
20.00% Sulfur
17.30% Aluminum (atomized)
6.90% Charcoal (pine)
5.80% Iron (III) Oxide

Magnalium Glitter Shimizu
Reference: Text: Fireworks Principles and Practices Revision: 3rd Edition Author: Ronald Lancaster Chapter: 6: Chemistry of Fireworks Compositions Page: 151
percent Component
50.00% Potassium Nitrate
25.00% Sulfur
12.50% Magnalium (60 mesh)
8.30% Charcoal (pine)
4.20% Iron (III) Oxide
For these two comps, Shimizu calls for 17% water to make stars (presumably cut) or 33% to use as a sparkler comp. He adds to not use boric acid to avoid hampering the effect, just keep your batches small to avoid heating, and to dry at room temperature.