21 replies to this topic

[pyromaniac303]

Oh right, that makes sense now, thanks.

[Mumbles]

The fuel tablets can be made to work if that is all you have. They are nearly pure hexamine with a small amount of wax. If you crushed the tablets up and dissolved it in water, the wax can be filtered off leaving nearly pure hexamine once the solution is dried. It can also be made from formaldehyde and ammonia if you have that available.

[dr thrust]

i use the hexamine fuel tablets, for my model steam engines, and if i leave any unused tablets out in the fire tray for a week or so, then i find they are usually sitting in a puddle of water!, so hexamine definitely attracts moisture!
so i guess its worth bearing in mind it may have a impact on star drying times?, and airtight storage of stars/devices, funnily enough i like the smell.... strange

[rollie]

The reason for the use of hexamine is that it dramatically increases the size of the flame envelope. Thus it has two functions, to increase the size of the light source and to reduce the temperature as the heat is spread over a larger volume.

It does work, my best blue to date had hexamine in it.

Would you mind sharing the forumula? Pleeeeeease?!

[BrightStar]

so hexamine definitely attracts moisture!

There's been some discussion over on Passfire recently on substituting Lactose for Hexamine for just this reason, with purportedly good results. I'd be very interested to hear more on the equivalence ratios etc. if anyone has tried this...

Would you mind sharing the forumula? Pleeeeeease?!

I suspect that's a valuable commercial secret for now

Edited by BrightStar, 08 June 2010 - 03:58 PM.

[digger]

I have tried the Lactose formula some time ago now.

They are OK, but the flame envelope is small, and they are easy to blow out. You do need to seriously step prime them if you want a decent break.

There is a coated grade of hexamine that is available which is not so much of a problem from a point of view of turning into a puddle of water.

As a hint just add a couple of percent of hexamine to your favourite formula (checking for incompatibilities) and see the difference.

[Potassium chlorate]

I'm going to try hexamine for blue compositions. I hear they often use it in Russian fireworks.