KNO3+Sugar+Sulphur propellant

[Blaf]

Hello guys

I have experimented with KNO3+sugar+Sulphur mixture and I found it quite useful as a rocket propellant. It gives strong and quick thrust, sometimes too strong. As a chasis I used several tubes of differerent materials and diameters. The ones I like the most are those plastic tubes you can find in POS terminals after the ribbon is spent. OK, I admit, from this mixture you can't get any beautiful sparkling trail to go "ahhhh" over it, but it pushes this small tube really sky-high. I never tried so far but I believe that inner core and the grain should be shortened in general to supress thrust so that you can actually see the effect charge at lower attitude. Really, when this version of rocket motor lifts the charge to some 70 meters high, you can see nothing or very little.
Any experiences in this field guys?

Blaf

[grasmaaier]

Hello Blaf,

Im just beginning with rocketry so i can't tell you much.

but if there are any experienced rocketers out there; give us (me and blaf) some advice on this please.


With regards Grasmaaier.

[Exhile]

AAAh the candy proppellant, can i ask how you pressed/rammed melted the sas into the tube?
If you want some beautiful sparks after it you should try the usual meal powder+20pct raw charcoal in it, it doens't seem to affect the thrust and gives some beautiful tail sparks behind the rocket, if you want to get some small payloads up i should use this rocket:
ID of 12 mm, casing thickness of 3 mm total lenght of 80 mm with a 3mm diameter core witch goes 3 cm deep.

You'll have to do the trial and error method to get the technique, with to good blackpowder the rocket wil explode, to weak blackpowder won't give the thrust to get the rocket into to sky, my best experiences are rockets with meal powder:
C/S ballmilled for 1.5 hours,
KNO3 milled for 0.5 hours, components are mixed togheter and sprayed lightly wet, let it dry and ram it into the casings, i am trying to get my nozzleless rockets into the air now, more about that later.

The candy propellant isn't made for small rockets actually, more for huge HPR's with 24 kg of sas in it, i would use slightly adjusted blackpowder who gets to healthy hights to see the effect optimal.

[grasmaaier]

Exhile,

Thanks for the reply, im planning to build rockets with a friend of mine but he says that BP sucks in rockets; im building rockets my self now:P

I told him to start small but he wants to make big ones in stead, we both have very little experience in rockets so i let him do his own stuff.
Now and i will start small, i told the guy also to start small just like learning to ride a bike, youre not going to start on a big bike. You start on a small one, he sayd i was talking shit.

im building on my own now.
so, a small story from me:P

With regards,
Grasmaaier

[Exhile]

Blackpowder is a very good rocket propellant, but don't try to use good BP othwerise the pressure won't leave fast enought and you're rocket will explode.

If you plan on using BP then add some extra pct's of charcoal and reduce the amount of sulfur in the BP, i can upload a movie about a blackpowder rocket if there are people interested

[grasmaaier]

So exhile,

If i understand it, i have to make crappy BP and then i can use it in rockets?

Also, i would like to see your movie with the BP propellant.

With regards,
Grasmaaier.

[Exhile]

send me you're msn adress by pm

[grasmaaier]

Roger that

[Blaf]

I see someone asked how do I do this propellant, by melting or mixing...I have to confess that I forgot to add Sulphur when I started this topic. So, this is KnO3+sugar+Sulphur mixture, well known around pyro Net. I don't melt it (eventhough I melted KnO3+sugar many times but for smoke effect) but simply mix it and ball-mill it. At the end, this whitish powder packs really well and works fine as a rocket fuel. But as I said already, no sparkles could be expected from it.

Sorry guys for misleading you!

[Exhile]

I recommend modified meal powder, more charcoal and less sulphur, slightly wettened with acetone/water mix, yesterday i made a rocket who got far over 100 meters of height.

[POS]

do you mean it flew over a 100 meters high, or did you realy made one, with a height of 100 meters ? :wink:

[Exhile]

very funny,

He flew over hundred meters

That is a very healthy height for such smal rockets

[Blaf]

Any payloads taken up Exhile? Or just a bare rocket engine with a stick?

Blaf

[Exhile]

The rocket was in the experimental fase, maybe i'll try to take payloads up on friday(exams now)

But i am quiet satisfied with the result now.

[grasmaaier]

Better to do it in the weekend, so that you can learn for the exams.

[Exhile]

I am free friday afternoon, i'll do my stuff then to learn in the weekends, i think this rocket will lift about 50 grams of payload, not much but it's ok for such a small rocket

[Blaf]

Exhile, this could sound crazy to you...but I can not launch my little projects just like that. Why? Because Adriatic coast (where I live) is full of tourists during summer so I don't want to bring any bad reputations here. All my firings could be easily postponed for autumn...

Blaf

[grasmaaier]

Well, it doesnt sound crazy to me Blaf,
Ive heard crazier things in my short life.

Grasmaaier

[Exhile]

At night on the beach, big open place and allmost no danger of fire?

[grasmaaier]

Start runnin' then:P

[Blaf]

Yeah, well, that's a good one. It should be known that beaches here in my area are rather narrow and surrounded by pine trees...and when pine burns it burns vigorously.
Bottom line - no further testing until the season ends.

Hope I don't spoil the fun to all of you waiting for news...

Blaf

[Blaf]

Here we go again...

I'm playing recently with core lenght to adjust the height at which my rockets would fly one day. Well, it proved true that if you omit core the thrust is too weak and your rocket goes nowhere. I made a few static tests and really, fuel burned too long and nozzle did not give that healthy hissssss. Then I attached a stick shaped stabilizer made of pressed cardboard...you know, just to see what happens. This construction had a slight tendence to fly but in fact just tipped over and burned on the ground. Me and bystanders took cover, of course. Next two engines (engine - does this sound too proud?) to fire will have 1,5 cm / 3mm dia. cores...first one I ever made used to have 3 cm long core and gave too much power...I don't need that much indeed. At the end I should mention that fuel is KNO3+sugar+Sulphur mixture. Never tried BP so far but I promise I will.

Blaf

p.s. Any new projects on your side guys?