Blaf

Hello there! Yes, it's free of flame jumps so far. What happened to Avatars, heh? Blaf

As for those desicator granules I use...There are Calcium pills enrichened with vitamines soluble in water which come in plastic tubes topped with plastic lid containig half of a tea spoon of those granules. Those are contained in small cylinder looking like a fat pill. So, I simply glue those plastic lids with granules to bottom side of my Tupperware lid containers. Check the drug-stores - medicaments, drugs etc come delivered in larger packages which usually have moist protection in shape of small bags filled by those granules. I don't know other than that...chemical suppliers should have them in offer. And yes, you can make your own container and punch small holes through it etc.... I don't quite know what they do, soaking i the moisture for sure...but what happens with it later, don't know. Anyhow, these I use are as I told you – just in case if anything ever enters in. Containers are air and water tight, remember? There's another type of those granules, much larger that have distinctive blue colour. When they soak up enough, they change colour to pink. All you have to do is to heat-dry them until they restore their blue colour and use them again. As a matter of fact, my containers smell nice due to those tablets and I like it... Those tablets you posted could easily work....but their price is too high, though. Blaf

I remeber, when I was a kid, there was some kind of infection on my little butt....I spent lots of time sitting in warm Water/Permanganate solution as this was used to disinfect infected area. According to safety wowsers (they say "WOW" at everything...) I should have been dead long time ago. So do not worry... Blaf p.s. Could you send me an e-mail with details about your bike, I'd like to know about it...

Yesterday I made a few meters of my fuse but with BP/Aluminium mixture. It looks exactly the same with addition of sporadic glittering Al particles on outside layer. It burns at the same speed but brighter and hotter than pure BP fuse. This BP/Al mixture did not flow well through the funnel and some more attention had to be payed as well as some more agitation. Hope to find some good use for it. Test burn image will follow soon. Blaf

Pirate my Man, have you ever considered ball-milling your Permanganate? No? You can also use coffee grinder...even electric one with no danger at all. Just do not inhale that fine dust. Even if you do, you'll not drop dead immediately. It will take some time before it happens, say, some 50 to 60 years, maybe even loger. Blaf

Yes, that's pretty much the same procedure I use. And I found this idea somewhere on Net and just implemented it...what's the most important - it works. As for graphite electrodes from used batteries - if you decide to use them, take them out and first burn out any parafine content inside them... they're soaked in it somewhere in their production. Regarding your idea to use graphite sticks for pencils, I don't really know if they're pure graphite enough for this purpose...sorry. Blaf

I keep my meal and granules in airtight plastic containers...the ones regularily used for deep-freezing food. Mine are of square shape (L=10cm/W=10cm/H=7cm) but any other shape will do. I also glued a small cylinder with desicator granules inside every lid...just in case that moisture ever gets through. Safety geeks would say here "well done Blaf". And I never store great amounts of it...in fact, I'm small scale Pyro and I'm happy to be one... Blaf

So be it... Blaf

You're right, I saw the same BP sensitivity test somewhere on Net. You saw yourself what man did with it, showers of sparks from piezo gadget going through pile of BP etc...nothing happened. Why? Explanation is really logical - C (carbon) is conductive element and thus has low resistance which furtherly means it doesn't generate enough heat to light. End of story. I'm gonna try this experiment myself too... Blaf

Pirate my friend... Do not mention this any more. We should say all the best about our bosses. They pay us after all. As for me, I break my spine every day at work and really earn my money. So, no comment about this any more, please. This is Pyro forum, not the Union board session, OK? Blaf

Lucky you Pirate. On my work I do have access to PC and Net as well and I admit, I'm much more active from there than from home. Meanwhile, I thrown a hook with small bait to Exhile....we can expect him to show up and clear up your doubts about solvents and KNO3 crystallization soon. Blaf

Ah there you are! As for my fuse - it's been coated with NC lacquer already my friend. The layer of it could be too thin but it's just a matter of personal preference. The only difference between Visco and mine is colour of its coating and perhaps burning composition. Exhile, your help and advice is needed elsewhere too - Pirate from Anwerpen needs explanations on KNO3 crystallization and solvents I couldn't provide. See BP blues topic or so... Blaf

You know what? I have read an article written by well known chemists (can't remeber his name though) which says: "Black Powder is one of the safest mixes to work with ever. It's not sensitive to friction, static discharge and so on"... And you know what? I believe what he says. Wet milling sucked from very beginning. I never tried it because I thought that my media (glass marbles) would be covered with it and then what?... Scratching it off them and wasting valuable time...not to mention loss of compound. I didn't like it from the start. We should surely wait for Exhile to make further explanations... Blaf

No, I always do dry ball-milling. If star composition uses Dextrin as binder then I use 70/30 mixture of Water/Alcohol. Acetone is used when water content is not desirable...with shellack or NC as a binder for instance. I don't know what exactly chemically happens there with KNO3 crystals... Exhile, you could start an expert topic on this, don't you? Blaf

I crush it with pestle in a small ceramic mortar. You can see it in Fuse Burning picures. I have a question for you Pirate - Do you ever sleep? (ha, ha, ha...) Blaf

Mine is little less than 2mm in dia. I'm planing to implement thinner 100% cotton yarns so that it comes out of even smaller dia. But it's not necessary if you ask me. Burns nice, doesn't it? Blaf

Hello Tyneman! Glad to hear someone else has the same problem. You can use my design as much as you wish to, of course. Maybe thinner rubber membrane would do better but I used what I had at the time of making applicator. Just go on.... Blaf

Ananas you're heading the right direction, just keep on going. Exhile, tnx for keeping an eye on me. But you see, holes are not real problem here. They're of good size...guide bushings could be added to improve ballance of the working plate, though. But the real problem is how to slide it back after pressing, where springs come handy. Blaf

And finally, for you pagans, nonbelievers etc...I'm posting an image which speaks for itself. I won't say anything here as whatever I say would pale out in comparison with images extreme detail. And yes, this is The Fuse made by my Machine! Does it work? You bet it does...and it's extremely reliable. Not to mention its beauty when burning... href> I made these two shots just to prove it works nice. This one is taken with flash ON and does not reveal much...you can see traces of tiny sparks coming out... href> This is taken with flash OFF and reveals rich flame and spark burst. This is not entirely true in real life but I couldn't adjust the shutter speed on my digital camera. Anyhow, it looks cool... href> I'm open for talk... Blaf

Remember what we were talking about before? Well, this could be overleaping with some other topics (I mean mentioning Powder Die, Hydraulic Press, Corning and blah, blah....) but final outcome leads to the same old product – Black Powder. I'm attaching an image which clearly shows powder grains after my meal was mixed with 50/50 mix of Alcohol/Water, packed in my Powder Die, Pressed for some time, left to dry, corned and sieved to separate particles of different size. Image speaks enough for itself so have a look... href> On the left is little larger grained, particle sizes between 0.1 - 1.5mm. Middle is sized betweeen 0.5 - 0.1mm while small pile on the right is finelly grained leftover which perfectly works in my new Fuse. What do you say about this? Blaf

You're right, It could be Securite kind of stuff...you know that specially sandwiched glasss for windshield that shatter into small pieces when broken. A friend of mine used interesting replacement instead of coil springs to pull the plate down - he used elastic silicone rubber bands that are usually seen on spear-guns. He's a car-mechanic and sometimes need to push stubborn and rusty bearings from their nests. His press is much stronger and has those rubber hoses which do their job exceptionally well. So maybe, just maybe...who kows. Blaf

Do not rush me, please. The machine is in fact finished completely. I don't like yarns I presently have on it but these will be replaced by much better ones. But what's the most important, the Machine (see that bold capital "M") works!!! It even produces very nice looking and reliably working fuse! Oh yes, it does indeed! You'll see it very soon... I know that Exhile is sweating somewhere right now, Duvel is taking tranquilizer pills, Gamekeeper is shaking in fear (what is this crazy Croat up to now...), and the rest of you guys keep your eyes wide open in anticipation...this is really important moment as Fuse is at the beginning of every single Pyro device. You can do nothing without it. And now, all of you keeping track of my first posts on Fuse subject where I was crying over Fuse shortage, now you will be surelly convinced that it is indeed possible to make your own Fuse Machine with little skill and imagination. I used what I had lying around my flat to assemble my machine. Almost nothing was purchased here, just used what looked like fitting the purpose. If I had a machine shop everything would have been looking like a dream, though. I can feel great turmoil here...cool down guys, cool down, please! Blaf

Pirate you really keep me going, don't you? I dropped by several shops selling those drain pipes but they wouldn't cut it to your specific lenght and always but always try to sell you entire piece of some 4m in lenght!!! Not to mention constant question why someone would use such a short piece of tubing...I'm sick of that. Hope you won't have to dig as deep as I did. Blaf

Huh, the price you mentioned is too high Pirate. Do not even try to purchase it at such robberous price. The kind I use can be had at paint shops at much lower price. Here is some details on rubbing alcohol...which will reveal that I was not quite right about its contents and purity. Anyhow, I'm just quoting what I found: "Rubbing alcohol, these days, is synthetically produced isopropyl alcohol diluted with water to 70% strength. This is not fit for consumption. Denatured alcohol is ethanol (a.k.a. ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, etc.) that would otherwise be fit for mixing libations EXCEPT that it has been altered by the addition of a chemical that makes it particularly unfit for consumption. So, some, but not all, kinds of denatured alcohol can be used as rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol may also not contain any ethanol at all, which would disqualify it from being "denatured". So, some but not all kinds of rubbing alcohol are denatured alcohol, and some but not all kinds of denatured alcohol can be rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol is an alcohol intended to be rubbed on the skin. Frequently 70% iso-propyl alcohol / 30% water is used; sometimes ethanol with added iso-propyl alcohol is used". Blaf

Duvel, what happened to your stars? Did you try them? C'mon, open your heart... Blaf