I got a site with some cool pics on it

[Madog555]

hello, i made a small pyro site with some pictures on it of devices i made.
http://www.geocities.com/madog555

it is strictly a PYROTECNICS page so im not putting anything on any HEs on it. i have some reasons not to...

anyways i thought you guys might want to see those pics, i will put directions on soon and hopefuly some pics of BP salutes.

[NoltaiR]

Here is a collage of sugar smoke pictures (they have all been put together to be one large picture). All the sugar/KNO3 mixes used were made using the 'wet method' which I have described a few times before on the old forum.

(its geocities so you will have to cut and paste) www.geocities.com/noltair/smoke.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/noltair/smoke.jpg)

[Madog555]

cool, im guessing that you mix it with water to get it more intimate(i also thought of doing this but i just never have) that would be way safer than melting it

[kingspaz]

NoltaiR, about the wet method, is that just dissolving the KNO3 and sucrose in warm water then evapourating the water?

[NoltaiR]

Basically yes, however I use BOILING water rather than just warm.. and I use a 4.5:6 ratio.. When it is ready for use it is still quite notable wet, and requires a small amount of flash or BP in a pile on it as a ignition source.

The whole idea of using this method is that the smoke is much thicker and the composition lasts a lot longer. Also it only burns in a gradual outward direction, rather than the whole pile igniting as it would if it was dry.

[Ctrl_C]

who set off the 2 liter bottle smoke grenade? anybody got a link to those pics or wanna u/l them to the ftp? those were insane.

[Madog555]

wasn't it zero with the 10lb/ 2 liter botle of melted KNO3 smoke mix?

he never posted the pics :(

[NoltaiR]

yeah he posted them on the old forum.. they looked pretty nice but then again his method (the traditional way) caused his 'grenade' to break into peices and therefore it was jut a bunch of little grenades. I believe that most of it fell in a creek or something like that.

Anyways it was because of his that gave me the idea to want to beat him (as far as weight and size goes).

[vulture]

A very good smoke composition is sauce binder (maizena or some polysugar) with KNO3.
Burns very slowly and produces much more smoke than the same amount of sugar does.

Just wet it, put it in the desired form and let dry. It gets rock hard afterwards.

[BrAiNFeVeR]

Well for all who's interested, I've been busy !! :rolleyes:
No really ! And I've made a geoshities site in the fair amount of spare time I had recently due to the bad weather.
So here (http://www.geocities.com/brainfevert/index.html)it is, and don't start bitchin', it's my first site ever !!

Contents will change over time as more project are made that fit under my scanner ...

[Madog555]

hey, u like based it on myn

thats ok, i don't care

anyays i added some directions for BP, some flash formulas and a small downloads section, there is plenty to come

i would like to put some nice pictorial instructions on, it would make my site kinda special, not many sites have that

[0EZ0]

Hey Madog do u have, "The Complete Book Of Flash Powder"? if u do could u plz upload it onto the ftp? Someone put it on the ftp but it won't open on my comp.

Cheers

[0EZ0]

[ 03 March 2002: Message edited by: 0EZ0 ]

[bangandow]

Nice site Madog, I hope to see some more pics on there soon =)

Brainfever, what did you use to get a clean cut on that light bulb to make the flask. I'm having trouble cutting mine without jagged edges...

[Madog555]

thanks, i willl upload it right now.

that is where i got it originaly

edit: BrAiNFeVeR, i can help u with the intro sound if you want it. just switch the file extension to .mpg and embed it in the background of the site with this tag

{embed src="xxx.mpg" loop=true autostart=true hidden=true}

replace the {}s with <>s

this will have a hidden, looping, sound that autostarts. you can adjust the variables to your likeing

[ 27 February 2002: Message edited by: Madog ]

[ 27 February 2002: Message edited by: Madog ]

[BrAiNFeVeR]

Yes idd Madog, it is based on your site. I just wanted an easy background to test stuff on. Your site provided a good base.

For the bulb, I first take of the lead part with some tongs, then gently heat the metal(not too sudden, or glass will break), so the glue comes loose. Then I punch out the centre of the lamp with the NiChr wire attached to it.

Then trim the rest of the glass on the inside of the bulb with a small round file or someting (you don't want to do this too far, or getting a clean edge will become very difficult) the rest is just sanded of with a smooth piece of sand-paper, to make it less sharp. It took me some time to get it good clean.

Oh, and I don't want an intro music that starts automaticly, it's very annoying I think ...

[ 28 February 2002: Message edited by: BrAiNFeVeR ]

[Madog555]

ok, just thought that you might have wanted it and didn't know the html for it

[Madog555]

i put some more stuff on it and soon i will put a pic of a small BP salute goin off and a nap charge. i would like to put some pics of stuff with flash but they are harder to take pics of. i will soon put up a pictorial on makeing BP salutes.

[vulture]

Err, i think your formula for thermite is wrong, IIRC it should be 3 Al/1 Fe2O3.
If your using FeO, it's a different ratio, i could work it out, but i don't have time right now.

BTW, filling up crackers completely works better than leaving room for expansion. A firecracker explodes because it has no room for expansion.
If you open a commercial firecracker you'll see it's completely filled.
If you leave room for expansion the pressure doesn't build up as fast as in a completely filled one.

I once filled up a cracker with ca 20g of flash, compressed it and glued it with silicone. It made a really deafening bang.
Shrapnel end endplugs were found 10m away.
(lucky i was inside when it went off)

[ 02 March 2002: Message edited by: vulture ]

[Madog555]

ok, i have seen it as 1/1 thou

every text i have read on makeing firecrackers says to have the fuel lose and it should be like 3/4 full so their is room for expansion. they say that they are way louder that way.

when i make things with flash i just take a tube, plug one end with a paper towel, fill er up, put the fuse in and put a piece of paper towel to make it not leak.

[0EZ0]

In most books i have read and from experience, if you are using BP or smokeless powder then fill to the 3/4 mark. I tried filling one salute almost all the way to the brim with smokeless, but had very poor results :( All that had happened was the fuse hole gave way and spewed out most of my smokeless powder in a fountain. Very little of the powder had delflagrated and what hadn't delfagrated was spread over an area of 5 square metres :mad:.
I have had no experience with flash. But from what is said in most books, texts or articles they instruct to fill flash all the way up like a HE.

[Madog555]

yep, thats what i meant.

most flash is good enough that you don't need to make quality caseings.

BP is mutch harder to use effectively than flash.

[NoltaiR]

Well I guess it depends on how you are using it. This morning I made about 100g of Al flash just to play with and I made some 'firecrackers' with it as well as I made about 25 pounds of BP (I am getting to be quite an expert at this stuff since I use it up so fast) with which some was also used in me firecrackers.

They were both filled up completely, however these little guys didn't use fuses. They weren't even in cardboard or kraft casings. They were in 6 inch long stainless steel conduit tubes that had been filled and then the ends had been hammered very well. (I only had enough to make 2 Al crackers but I made a dozen BP crackers.)

For ignition, I set a tube in a 250g pile of my homemade BP (which I use hardwood charcoal which slows down the burn rate a bit but raises the temperature astronomically) and ignite it. It took about 3-4 seconds of the pile burning to heat the conduit up enough to ignite the BP on the inside of the tube and then a thundering explosion that resulted in my mom taking away my KNO3!!! (I will try to get it back tomorrow though).

Anyways, for power, the Al was only slightly better than the BP, although it makes for a much better visual show with all the bright white sparks everywhere. Are there any other people around here who make homemade BP often (at least once a week)?

[NoltaiR]

Another question.. this last batch of BP I made used charcoal from mesquite wood. Rather than burning with a orange/yellow flame, this stuff burns an erie white when set off in BP form. My ratio (by volume when all three ingredients are pulverized with my coffee grinder) is 2:3:15 of S:C:KNO3. Seems really strange how it makes such an odd color although the performance in amazing (so far I have used it in a couple mortar shots and my crackers).

[Energy84]

I've been making quite a few smokeless crackers lately. Took a while to perfect. I had the same problem with the SP blowing out without burning, so I came up with a solution. Basically, I just built a regular pipe bomb but used SP as a filler. Works great! verry loud too! I used a 6"x1" PVC pipe and capped the ends with 12ga shotshells(emptys of course). I tried super glueing the shells to the pipe at first, but that didn't work. So I ran a 1/4" threaded rod through the device (just pop the primers out of the shells, the rod fits perfectly). Excellent method in my opinion because you can compress the thing ALOT! just put a couple nuts on the rod and crank 'er down! pics coming soon...

[0EZ0]

Sounds like a good design Energy84. Were your rods completely threaded? Or just the ends of them? :)

[Energy84]

Yes, the rod is threaded all the way through. It doesn't have to be, but that's all I had around, so I used it :) you can see in the pictures below.
BTW, this is my first time posting pics, so I hope this works...

<img src=http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~paradis/Pictures/shotshellpipebomb2.gif>

<img src=http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~paradis/Pictures/shotshellpipebomb1.gif>

[Edit: finally got the pics working]

[ 04 March 2002: Message edited by: Energy84 ]

[0EZ0]

NICE :D I will have to try your method. Looks like this weekend i will have to take a trip to the hardware store for a few items ;)

[vulture]

Anybody ever tried making crackers with H3(KClO3/C)?
If I make BP or H3, i first put the charcoal in the coffee grinder. Then I add the other ingredients which are, in my case, already powdered.
I put the mix in the coffee grinder again.
Then i add water till its just a little runny and put it on a radiator.
The stuff gets rock hard and then it goes back into the coffee grinder.

I have some H3 that i made this way, it's almost airfloat. Even unconfined it deflagrates extremely violent.
I thinks its alot more powerful than BP. It doesn't has that nasty SO2 smell either.

[NoltaiR]

Well I got my KNO3 back and I spent all yesterday with my crackers.. the best way that I found was to also bend the flattened ends of the conduit inwards and hammer that down as well just to make extra certain that it would not blow out the sides. Also instead of using stainless steel as I did at first, I used galvenized steel.. its not as strong so it tends to rip burst open in the center more readily. I must have set off about 9 or 10 of these little BP crackers yesterday and the shockwave they put off is something you have to see to believe. (I wish I had a digital video camera to record it).

The crackers were 6-10 inches long with a 1" ID. I set the first few off in the open sitting on their little piles of BP for heating. After I was satisfied with the sound, I did some other testing. I did four shots under a 5 gallon bucket. The first blast lifted the bucket about 15-20 feet off the ground but by the time the bucket hit the ground it was blow to bits (we spent 30 minutes walking around the yard picking up pieces of plastic).

The second shot was on a newer 5 gallon bucket that had been used for paint the week before. The explosion was perfect, the cracker busted directly in the middle sending a huge jet of pressure straight up into the bucket sending it at least 60+ feet in the air. Like I said, you would have to see it to believe it.. just watching that bucket turn into a little white dot in the sky was enough to make my 'audience' smile (my cousin and my little brother).

The jet of air had put a small hole directly through the center of the top of the bucket but had deformed the shape of the whole thing. A couple more shots were done on the same bucket but they weren't as powerful... only lifting the bucket 15-20 feet and busting the hell of the bucket walls.

The last shot was under a cement block (about 1' long by 8" wide by 3" thick).. the block was blow to peices.

Although it only took about 5 minutes or less to make one of these crackers, they took a lot of physical work with hammering down the ends, so after 9 shots I called it a day.

[Yi]

Vulture i don't think grinding explosives in a coffee grinder is such a sensible idea. Its fine for seperate chemicals, but not pyrotechnic mixtures. I take it your coffee grinder is one of those high speed electric grinders, not a hand turned one?

One spark or too much friction and your going to lose your coffee grinder and possibly your hands and/or face.

You can always just crush the clumps with a rolling pin. Much safer than using a coffee grinder.

[Jack Ruby]

I have never had a problem using a coffee grinder and I have been doing this stuff for about 7 years now.

If you are concerned: Add the mix to the coffee grinder close it. Hvae one end of an extension cord not not pluged in and the other end plugged into the coffee grinder. Tape down the Switch(on off switch or modify it so you have a switch that is just flipped on and stays on) take the coffe grinder out of your lab into the middle of you back yard, etc. Retire to the other end of the extension cord and plug into the Wall. Grind for 5min total(2.5min 2x). Between the 2 grinding session walk up and shake the the coffee grinder.

This will reduce the risk considerable.

Also take into consideration when you use a coffee grinder or ball mill that particle are very fine and a dust mask should be worn.

[NoltaiR]

I think it is perfectly safe.. I always grind my flash mixtures with my coffee grinder. Sometimes it can get a little warm but that is about it. Never enough to ignite it and sparks just don't happen. He is correct about wearing a safety mask.. I never do but at the end of a working over a grinder for a few hours you begin to notice that you are exhaling charcoal or Al dust, which is never a good sign. I use a 'Krups' brand grinder simply because it says on the front of the box that it is 'designed to produce minimal heat and friction'.

[xoo1246]

A second grinder should then be used, rather than the one used for the potassium nitrate. The reason is that the seal that separate the grinding compartment from the motor compartment is not perfect. Over time, some fine powder finds its way into the motor compartment, and slowly accumulates. If the accumulated powder is solely sucrose, or solely potassium nitrate, the risk of the accumulation igniting is minimal. However, if the same grinder were used for both sucrose and oxidizer, the risk of combustion is much greater, creating an obvious hazard. taken from http://nakka-rocketry.net/
I agree with him. But if you do it outside and don't bother if your grinder burns, then it's perfectly ok.

[ 05 March 2002: Message edited by: xoo1246 ]

[RTC]

IP:80.3.211.11
Username:nbk
Password:appletango

Or: ftp://nbk:appletango@80.3.211.11

Not really a site with pics, just my little server with a few thigns on it.

Nothing really E&W related, but :)