deadman

I've heard of individuals using hot glue as the endplugs themselves. But I would definitley use the tissue to isolate and insulate the powder from the heat. I'm planning on lifting some 3/4" ID salutes in the next couple of weeks. I'll update you guys soon.

I have personally never heard of an ignition via hot glue gun. I believe hot glue guns work about 120 degrees Celcius. I'm not sure of the auto ingition point of flash powder, but believe most black powders are around 600 degrees. Tissue wadding with a glob of glue should do fine for a fast powder.

You don't need an APC account to view it's contents. Well other than HE, but the tut is accessible by anyone.

Pyrostar I am sorry, but this seems to be a bit kewlish. You didn't mention anything of how you made it except for that it is a mixture of magnesium powder and blackboard chalk You didn't even try to find out what the chalk is definitley made of so that makes it very hard to duplicate for others across the net looking at this. Lastly, we already have a flashpowder thread and a salute thread and don't want pyroforum.nl to be another one of those kewl sites. Please use the threads that we already have and keep the place neat. (To the mods: If this seams out of place please delete.) Anyways. Mg is very reactive. The use of carbonate oxidizers has been proven in other compositions as well. It can also be lit and sustain a "flame" through a block of dry ice. Also, what is this way you found to powder Mg?

Definitley invest in a good respirator before buying any more chems. Obviously you are being exposed to dangerously small metal particles. In the original Wizard of Oz movie the tinman's makeup was made of aluminum powder. He died shortly after do to his lung damage. I do believe it is better to use a less efficient flash than to have to worry about the dangers of permanganate flash. You mentioned you have magnesium powder. Why not try the old 50:50 mix of KNO3:Mg? It has proven well enough for well confined salutes. You may need to get something stronger down the way if you get into crossettes or something, but for a banger you'll be fine.

Hello all. Last night I had the experience of two starmines. One was 25g of stars and 8 grams lift. The other was a 2" aeriel shell that turned into a starmine. The shell weighed 86g and was lifted with 8g. I spiked it very well (or so I had thought). I believe the problem may have been from a bit too much lift. This is the fastest powder I've ever had, as well as leaving it in meal form. I know rushing is bad, but I wanted to let it fly so bad . Well the intended star mine was more of a color test. I didn't get to see too much color because I never primed the stars and it turned out they definitley needed prim. 3 out of the whole lot was all I seen. It was bleser's organic purple. Unfortunatley, I did not like what I did see. The shell/mine was actually an amazing mine. It was just white (BP based) cut stars. Various sized. I think the burst gave a nice extra flame out of the mortar. The funniest part was when the "casing" of the shell landed in a tree. Good times.

That definitley needed to be milled for a lot longer. No experience with "super-duper fast rye charcoal". Are you talking about Cocoa Powder or BP that rye was the charcoal used? Btw, instead of putting two posts in a row within 1 hour it would be best to just edit your first post.

Where is it you are from? Carbonates can usually be find semi-locally in pottery supply places. Sometimes nitrates even. Great news that your parents are accepting this as your hobby. I'm not sure if I've replied to your situation, but I will. #1 Be honest with your parents. They won't trust you if you don't give them a reason to. #2 Don't scare them. -Show them any injuries and calmly explain the severity. -Don't do anything too big at first -Explain everything to them before it happens #3 Don't take shortcuts Those are the best things I can think of at the moment. I am 19 myself. My aunt and uncle don't mind, but I'm not mass producing flash salutes or anything like that, so things work well. There biggest grips is about my charcoal hands touching the furniture. Good luck.

The black powder thread. Post any questions or comments on black powder here. I am also wondering who likes to take what processes when making their own black powder. Here's my story: I am in the middle of processes right now. I have been using a 3lb rock tumbler style mill with 100 .50 cal lead bullets. I just recently was given (by my girlfriend) a 1/2 HP motor. It's a beast at 24.5 pounds/ 11.11 kg. It is whisper quiet right now, but will operate a loud ball mill I'm sure. Not sure on the size of drum I will be using, but it is going to be moderatley sized. I've got a design thought for my mill to support various sized drums. I'll keep you updated if it goes through. I currently make 100g batches and make pulverone with dextrin added. I use what I believe to be weeping willow charcoal.

Duvel, I believe you are using too much solvent if you are having the KNO3 recrystallizing out of the mixture. This is a big problem with stars and the process is called driving them in. Try using less water/alcohol mixture and compare them. Using 6-10 percent water and force it through a window screen helps spread the moisture evenly.

I had a nice long post all ready and I lost it. Here's the jist of what I said: Willow is good enough. How'd you make you're charcoal? What kind of mill do you have? Pulverone will slow down BP if a binder is used. Look into a BP die. Here are the charcoal tests: http://www.creagan.net/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html Sorry for the tone, just mad because I lost a nice long post and am in a hurry.

There is a magnalium post in the english section so I guess any further posts on that should be placed there. Yes your composition is defninitley going to be too slow and hot(temp) for a fountain. I tried a comp a little bit ago. KNO3--------------65 Sulfur--------------15 Al Atomized-------15 Charcoal-----------5 Well what happened was it was TOO slow. Had a nice white portfire with some sparks shooting up randomly and then it burned throught the tube wall. A loose pile burning had a strobe effect, that was cool. I think it would work well for a cake insert comp though. Remember a fountain needs thrust to expel the effects out of it. Many times effects are: metals charcoal chunks largish sulfur prills dragon eggs very small stars as well as other things. Keep on working out your plans and figure out why some things work and others don't and you'll be able to fix and modify many comps to your liking. Patience and practice are THE key.

That actually was not a glitter fountain. It was just meal with Mg chips placed randomly in it. Goes to show how simple things can be. I don't think glitters would work very well in close up. Part of the glitter is due to how far away they are. Starmines with glitters are pushing it even I think. Kind of how stars lose their characteristics of twinkling when there only a few million miles away compared to trillions. I believe D1 is a promising fountain comp but would not glitter with the adjustments needed for the thrust. You'd have to get rid of most if not all the bicarbonate and maybe up the nitrate. Meal+metal works fine in the beginnings.

Mr. S, that must be one good dinner to last this long. The american school system starts at "kindergarten". Following is 1st through 12th grade. When one enters Kindergartern they are age 5 and usually 6 upon graduation. So when 12th grade goes by they enter as 17 and graduate at 18. I made a mistake back in the 6th and am going to graduate at 19. K-6 are generally elementerary school grades. 7&8 are junior high school. Some school districts end elementerary at 5th and 6th through 8th are called middle school. 9-12 are high school. Once in high school there are also titles for whatever grade you are in. 9=freshman, 10=sophomore, 11=junior, 12=senior. The same names are given in college, but instead of 13-16 it is 1st-4th all over again. I don't know why I typed all that, as Prophet said, "It isn't THAT important."

I definitley do not take it as an attack on myself. I also definitley do not claime the saying "stay green" to be something I came up with. I was just reading a lot of back issues of PML and many people sign off with that saying. I normally don't say it myself, but it just came out. I believe it is in reference to the green man as well as the adopted slogan for the Pyrotechnics Guild International. The following is taken from the pyrotechnic glossary at pyrouniverse.com