49 replies to this topic

[alany]

Spherical magnesium! Now that's something I could use, never seen it in AU though.

I thought you might prepare the copper oxychloride from a hypochlorite of something else like calcium or sodium. Never bothered trying the gardening variety, figured it wasn't pure enough for blue colours. I'll have to get some from bunnings and give it a go.

What zinc do you use, the 3u dust from AMPS?

[BigG]

I wouldn't consider them to be a thermite. The second burns very softly and gentle. Worked in a pill box star though. It was while back so I don't remember much The zinc comp ignites very easily from a match - unlike the alumnium comp.

I get the copper oxichloride from bunnings of all places! It is in a yellow box and 200g will set you back about $7? Not bad not good. If you put a match to a pile of the oxichloride it gives them most amazig blue colour - I just wish I could harness it into a star. It says 400g/kg available copper present as copper oxichloride which works out to be around 90% The other part is probably copper hydroxide or something similar. It is pure enough to make the blue colour.

Forgot to add that the oxichloride and magnesium (-325 mesh spherical) in a 50/50 ratio is a faint purple flash powder. It burns very fast with a whomp sound.

So you CAN make a blue without chlorates and perchlorates. Just may not be very good.

Daniel - Please read again my post carefully:

?Guys - you CAN NOT make any colours using KNO3 as your premier oxidizer without metallic fuels.?

So ? basically I said ?if you are not going to use Chlorate or Perchlorate ? you need metallic fuel ? which is what you did use ? in both your formulas.

Your first formula uses very fine aluminium ? still producing very poor blue. I do not expect this blue to become better if you use even finer aluminium ? too hot ? but you might be able to improve slightly.

In the second ? you use Zinc, which burn green-blue in any case ? even without copper oxychloride ? read my post under ?green stars?. Still, it very good if you have no access to real blue, but overall, can be called blue only by people with lots of imagination.

So, where exactly do you prove me wrong?

Edited by BigG, 07 August 2004 - 10:27 PM.

[BigG]

Sorry about that, I guess it was in the heat of the moment.

The zinc was the finest grade they had from AMPS, IIRC it was around 4-6 micron they said.

The spherical magnesium I got from AMPS also. But they have stopped selling it.

Shame Some grades of spherical magnesium grades give this lovely sizziling sound. Great!

[Dan]

I knew about the fillers in the PVC pipe but I didn't think it would stop it from burning! Any other things apart from sculpy? Sorry for my ignorance but what is sculpy actually used for in crafts?

sculpty is in the clay section in the craft store.

[miniskinny]

I had a good "newbie" blue star formula that I made up on my own , or at least I think I did
Potassium chlorate: 85
Copper Sulfate: 10
Dextrin:5
I bound this with water, but I did add a lot more dextrin than 5 percentile, and I came up with stars, that were fairly solid within minutes (5). I could then shape it with my hand, but after subjecting it to a few explosion tests, I found that they would not break apart. A day later, they were rock-solid. I tested them also in a home-made star-tester (just a single-shot roman candle, basically) and the stars do not go out in the air, and perform quite well. Though they do burn for a very long time, even the small ones would hit the ground and burn, after going around 30 feet in the air and back,
hope this could help:
mini
EDIT: The explosion test was safe. My dad recommended that I do this:
I bought an Estes rocket motor (Yeah I know I'm a cheater, but might as well support Estes with it's ongoing and very admirable business). At the end I put several stars, and a mix of 0.5g flash powder and 5 grams of BP.

Edited by miniskinny, 30 August 2004 - 01:19 AM.

[Phoenix]

This topic may be of interest to you, if you are experimenting with chlorate compositions:
http://www.ukrocketr...p?showtopic=676

[The_Djinn]

A good "newbie" formula... not with chlorate and sulfate.
This formula should or could be quite sensitive and I am sure BigG will elabourate when he see's it.

Mark

[Sparkler]

Unless you use a different screen name on another form id say Daniel Scott is a lieing a******. That is not your work. That is not your reseach. You took that of another forum you are indeed a lieing, cheating, no good, poo poo head!
Any of these pictures look familiar!??!? http://www.xsorbit2....165765&start=40

Edited by Sparkler, 11 September 2004 - 02:04 AM.

[miniskinny]

I'd have to agree with Sparkler...Unless Daniel is also involved in that forum...

[Matt]

Oi! keep the forum friendly. Question before slaggin'. Although i do lean toward your side, be nice

[The_Djinn]

Although I have just skimmed through this thread, I dont see anywhere that Danial has claimed those pictures or the formula are his so I do not know why this has become heated a heated debate. BUT... as it does appear to belong to someone else, credit should be given where credit is due as we do with formulas by Lancaster, Shimizu etc.
Now stop the slagging match and get on with it.

[Richard H]

I think an apology is in order Sparkler.

Cheers

[miniskinny]

--Back to the original topic, as BigG is bound to say very soon; Is my formula safe? I have not subjected it to any friction or impact tests, and have gotten rid of all of my stars that had that formula in it, for safety purposes.