633 replies to this topic

[BigG]

List your star Formulas here

[Jerronimo]

Hi I allready posted my red and blue star formulas on other parts of the forum
but hey here they are anyway.

Red star:

potassiumchlorate 55%
strontiumcarbonate 25%
sugar 20 %

blue star:

potassiumchlorate 50%
coppersulfate 25%
sugar 25%

Note:Be aware of the properties of potassiumchlorate it MUST not come in contact with sulfer in any way!!!

Also wear a good dustmask coppersulfate and potassiumchlorate are toxic.

Edited by Jerronimo, 07 November 2003 - 03:40 PM.

[BigG]

As promised – here is a formula that uses calomel for chlorine donation. Unfortunately, it uses Potassium Perchlorate – but maybe one day every UK pyro will have access to that.

Lancaster describes this as “very old-fashion but beautiful pillbox stars.”

Lilac:
Potassium Perchlorate: 60
Shellac: 10
Strontium Carbonate: 5
Copper Oxychloride: 5
Calomal: 20

[Bub]

BigG,

I hear what you say about perc, but, where on earth do you get calomel from ?

...B.

[pyrotechnist]

Has any one made them fireworks that spin by thrust in the air I do not know what they are called but i can make them. They have a thrust hole a chuck basically and the fuse is inserted in the chuck and the lift charge is over the top of the clay plug and then you have the second fuse and clay plug with the blast with nice stars. It works of the thrust I know how to make a nice willow star from Takao Shimizus book on making fireworks.

Ingrediants
Willow star mix
Potassium nitrate 35
Sulphur 12
Charcoal 45
Dextrin 8

Virtually you are just changing the grams of chemicals used in gunpowder to make different effect you can do other stuff to with changing the grams of chemicals in gunpowder. i have never tested this but wanting to when i get to make a ball mill.

Edited by pyrotechnist, 06 December 2003 - 08:56 PM.

[BigG]

BigG,

I hear what you say about perc, but, where on earth do you get calomel from ?

...B.

I think it will be quite hard to get This formula is posted in relation to discussion on another thread (nostalgia ? look for Pharaoh's serpants?), and demonstrate modern formulas that still use Calomel.

BigG

[lord_dranack]

Here is a green formula that I just tested:

30 parts KClO3
30 parts Ba(NO3)2
10 parts BaCO3
10 parts shellac
2 parts dextrin

Bind with 50% alcohol
I think it gave a slightly better green than the standard 7 Barium nitrate, 7 potasium chlorate, 2 shellac formula. However the green is not too good as there is no chlorine donor other than the chlorate.

As regards calomel, it seems to be quite expensive. It is listed in Sci-chem's catalouge as mercury (I) chloride, and costs ?5.05 per 25g.

[alany]

I've been working on a Zinc spreader star, using KClO4 as the oxidiser which makes it safer than the KClO3 based Zinc spreader, and better than the KNO3 based ones:

14 Zinc (dust)
7 Potassium Perchlorate
3 Sulfur
2 Charcoal (airfloat)

+5% Dextrin, moistened with 1:3 alcohol/water, pumped or cut, meal primed.

The standard disclaimers apply, this is experimental stuff, I've made three batches and several shells with it. It is likely fairly sensitive, but not overly so in quick anvil tests. It is also quite energetic, the stars will tend to be self-propelled, especially if not primed well.

I am very partial to "D1 Glitter" which was posted on rec.pyrotechnics. It is similar to Winokur #25, but lacks the Iron Oxide, I am not really sure who to credit for it:

53 Potassium Nitrate
18 Sulfur
11 Charcoal (airfloat)
7 Aluminium (-325 mesh, spherical)
7 Sodium Bicarbonate
4 Dextrin
1 Boric Acid

Ball mill, sans Aluminium, for 1 hour, screen in Aluminium, moisten with water and pump. Meal priming may help stabilize burn time be establishing burn on full surface but blowing blind doesn't seem to be a major problem. It is cheap and easy to make, relatively non-toxic and puts on a good performance.

Edited by alany, 08 October 2005 - 05:17 PM.

[Matt]

Ok people, ive decided to make D1 glitter withoud boric acid as i have none. How badly am I going to die?

-Matt

[The_Djinn]

Matt

As I know you are aware, the boric acid is there to counter a reaction. A bit like a safety net. What you really need to ask yourself is "do you want to remove the safety net ?". You may get away with it 9 times out of 10, but is it really worth it in the end ?

Personally I like to play safe, and tend to encourage others to follow suite.

On a lighter note, I am sure I am not the only one that has been sitting in front of the Xmas tree looking at all the bright coloured round balls that come in various sizes hanging on the branches and thinking that they "WILL" make great formers for shells and all the tubes of sweets that the kids have can be put to good use with a bit of kraft paper to increase wall thickness.

Mark

[alany]

You'll be fine Matt.

The efficacy of solid boric acid in the composition is questionable at best, it is better to dissolve it into the moistening solution. The Al/Nitrate reaction isn't a big deal for small batches, it takes fairly large quantities for sufficient heat to build up and cause problems. Spherical and coated Aluminium isn't really reactive enough either.

You should be able to get boric acid from the chemist if you really need it.

On Christmas materials for pyro... I found a nice brand of wrapping paper that has a core of rolled (~ 250 gsm) kraft. Most seem to have no core, or a spiral wrapped tube (which incidently makes a great head extension for 1 pound stinger payloads), but these had a few turns of loose, thick kraft.

[Matt]

Hmmm, seems my stars are somewhat different from yours Alan. Mine seem to be a very "quick" kind of glitter. Kinda looks like millions of little microstars, I would say it only barely passes off as glitter. I also made flash cores out of the kno3 slow flash listed in the bengal fires post. I cut em up into ~3mm squares and primed with meal. I get 1, 2 and even 3, although sometimes none short bright flashes. Cant wait till the stars dry to test em.

-Matt

[Richard H]

Why, why, why do people ignite pyrotechnic mixtures inside? It seems like an accident waiting to happen to me.

[alany]

A tiny quantity like that is fairly harmless.

I agree about stars which are likely to be self propelled and set remote fires. A little loose BP-varient meal has so little energy it can't really escape more than a foot or two in any direction. For flash or poisonous compositions you'd be pretty insane to try indoors, if for no other reason than inhaling the smoke.

If you are doing it with containers of other compositions in the room, then yes you are asking for an accident no matter what the composition. Consider though that people use sparklers and cake fountians indoors, both of which are rather energetic and excellent at causing burns and starting fires.

[BigG]

A tiny quantity like that is fairly harmless.

I agree about stars which are likely to be self propelled and set remote fires.  A little loose BP-varient meal has so little energy it can't really escape more than a foot or two in any direction.  For flash or poisonous compositions you'd be pretty insane to try indoors, if for no other reason than inhaling the smoke.

Alany - how do they say in the UK? I'm not amused. Little or not little, you do not ignite a composition home in a coke can using a burner from the top. That's about 4 no no's in a one second video. Your post has been deleted. No warning level increase this time because I'll just consider it a momentarily foolishness. You want to post videos? outdoors please.

BigG

Edited by BigG, 04 February 2008 - 10:45 AM.