Von Klemmung

If you suck at making blackmatch like I do, make some anyway. Now roll touch paper onto your blackmatch (touch paper is KNO3-saturated (and dried) tissue paper). Just one or two layers in all is enough. Then roll adhesive tape onto your fuse. Bingo! Your fuse got a little thicker, but WILL burn through holes, WILL accept cross-fusing etc. It worked like a charm at New Years'. I connected groups of green-visco'ed rockets with this fuse and they went off fine from my new-fangled 5-shot fencing-wire-enhanced firing rod. (That is, fencing wire shaped into 5 loops upper and 5 loops lower). I just poked holes in the tape and stuck the fuses in. Next time it might go easier if I cut the visco to a sharp point. Firey up! VK

Happy new year! I just decided to spi... erm... SHARE a discovery about electric igniters with my fellow experimenters. I've been mulling over YT's "ignition coils", and decided that using a car battery was overkill (for me, anyway). So I've checked pages with nichrome wires and christmas bulbs yattata yattata... I even found a few rocketry sites, mentioning the need for blowing a cap with a battery contained in the nose cone of an amateur rocket (more bulbs). What I wanted was something that would fire on say, 3 volts, through 5 metres of regular mains leads. And I got it! Shamelessly adopting existing technology, I came up with a design needing only aluminum foil, cardboard, a glue stick, some adhesive tape and some crushed/sanded match heads. Cut out a piece of cardboard (say 4x4). Cut out a piece of foil (4+ x 4+). Coat one side of cardboard with glue and fix this to one end of foil. Now coat the other side of cardboard with glue and fold foil over. Next, cut the sandwich into strips WITH THE FOLDED END AT THE END OF THE STRIP, DAMMIT! Maybe 1/4 or less wide, depending on application. Now, trim the folded end with a pair of scissors, so there's a "bridgewire" of approx. 1 mm. left (cut the corners). Make a pile of flashy powder on a piece of sticky tape, lay the bridgewire in it, close the tape, and hey feckin presto! You've made something like a tigertail igniter (or whatever they're called, we can't get them in Denmark anyway). To fire it, apply positive charge to one side and negative to the other, providing your card is thick enough, so the two layers of foil don't short. I've fired these babies on a single rechargeable on short leads. Okay, 4 D recharg's at 5 metres, BUT I COULD TRIM THE BRIDGEWIRE, SO THERE, NYAH NYAH!! --------------- Still working on a BP substitute using starch and/or dextrin. For fuses and rocket motors, the results are promising. --------------- Now start talking pyro! I'm especially interested in advanced projects with simple means. Perchlorates are VERY DANGEROUS over here, but we can still buy AN in 25 kg. sacks (not so with KNO3). Maybe no Danes know how to make detonators? Or critical diameters of AN/ANFO? Hmm, I guess I must be a foreigner, then.

Rcandy! Basically, it speeds up the combustion of a mixture of KNO3 and sugar. 2-3% by weight (AFAIR)

This one is a bit fiddly, but certainly doable and dirt cheap. Run a search for "soda can stove". You should find instructions for converting 2 empty soda cans into a nifty little spirit burner.

I've been checking your posts to see what the deal was between you and YT. Skilled chemist? Maybe for your age... Not up to me to decide. But you did just describe Wouter Visser's page as VERY EXPLOSIVE ORIENTATED??? Say, how much did you actually read? I know this page intimately, and I can tell you that it definitely is NOT "explosive orientated". Do you know explosives, perchance? Primary or secondary? Wouter Visser is genuinely dedicated to fireworks, an art of beauty. Not explosives, an art of power, often misunderstood as an art of anarchy and destruction. I do suspect you will take this as an attack upon you. However, it is not. But I will not have it known, that Wouter Visser has made a "KEWL BOMZ SITE"! Read the other stuff on his page. PS. Black Powder is Saltpetre, Carbon and Sulfur. You want one with a chlorate? Never mix chlorates and Sulfur! Kaboom!

Thanks, but I forgot to mention "Cheap, easy and fast". There are TONS of descriptions on the net dealing with electrolysis. And a rather humorous one about cars... Humorous... Now, outdoors, I MIGHT try the vinegar/hypochlorite reaction, but I'm sorta put off by the idea of a chlorine generator. But if this simple substitution method DOES work, I could make a couple of kilos of nice red fe2o3 in a day or so, as long as I dry it out correctly. My initial impression of the reaction goes something like this: xFexSO3x + xNH3xOHx + xH2O --> xFe2O3 + xNH3xSO3x + xH2o Can anyone offer clarification?

Hi, I'm 38 and three days. I've had enough scathing chastisements from Budullewraaagh to have become a believer. What Bud sez' goes! And please don't think that YT goes "newbie-hunting". From what I've seen, he might zero in on a persons manners or somesuch, but NOT on the person, personally. I'd go for the easy way out. Battery acid! It's available in drugstores even here in Denmark. Otherwise, it's available at dumps or at mechanics' scrapheaps inside car batteries. Filter and boil. Don't smell!

As long as I can find a fridge labeled SMEG, I'll go for Red Dwarf for humor. Star Trek TNG/Voyager in second place for availability, and... Blake's Seven comes in third for the realistic laser shots. Cheap, but realistic. Oh yeah, anyone remember a really old british series named Survivors? Wasn't it about an outbreak of rabies in the UK?

For a while, I've been looking for ways to create fe2o3/red iron oxide/ferric oxide, other than scraping it off the bottom of my car. Then I chanced upon a page (which I, of course, can't find again) that suggested the following procedure. First, make a solution of an iron salt in water. Then, add a hydroxide to the solution. The solution should change its colour as a precipitate forms. Upon drying, the precipitate should change its colour to that of rust. So I decided to try some chemicals I have already, namely iron vitriol (sulfate AFAIK) and household ammonia/ammonium hydroxide. The solution was a greenish/milky colour, just as the powder. Upon adding the hydroxide, it turned greenish black immediately. I filtered the solution, noticing a rust coloration on the edges of the filter. The black precipitate was a bugger to dry out, but eventually turned out reddish-brown. Now, I'm not really schooled in chemistry, but this is what I suspect was happening. The addition of ammonium hydroxide caused an exchange of ions, leaving a precipitate of iron hydroxide (of a sort or two) and a solution of ammonium sulfate. Drying out the (supposedly unstable) iron hydroxide, it decomposed into iron (ferric) oxide. Can anyone verify the reaction, and/or explain the unwillingness of the hydroxide to dry out?

Google : RCANDY This tells you a neat way to make the fuel (FOR ONE TYPE OF MOTORS!). http://www.wfvisser.dds.nl/indexEN.html This page tells a lot about making rocket motors. Maybe try googling Chris Beauregard. If still unsure, mail me. I don't know much about any single subject, but I know a little about a ton of subjects.

Nitromethane is a component of "hot" model aircraft fuel.

These are the results of the Danish Jury!: Methanol is a poison and buing it requires you to get a poison certificate from your local police station. I'm not sure about "Nitro", meaning Nitromethane in model aviator circles. Considering it being a main ingredient in several (impossible to make) explosive mixtures, I guess you'd have to sign your name as O. B. Laden to get a waiver.

Bud, that's what I thought. Still the article I misquoted from, stated the opposite. It was published in a major occupational newspaper here, and I took it for Holy Writ. HOORAY! AMMONIA IS AMMONIA! AZANES ARE SOMETHING DIFFERENT! Thanks for setting me on the right track, Bud!

Over here, you now need a membership of an accepted organization just to buy the fuel. Methanol is controlled. Nitro is controlled. Flying the damn buzzers is also controlled (IMANGINE SOMEONE GETTING HIT IN THE HEAD WITH A COMBUSTION-POWERED BUZZ SAW!!!). People DID tend to remove their heads from the flying circle at those times... Also, membership is not enough. You also have to pay FAVORABLE PREMIUMS on an insurance policy, so that when you don't hit anything with your tethered plane, the insurance companies will get richer! Needless to say, model airplane flying is a pastime for the well-to-do over here

I might have committed another forehead-slap-worthy goof. The term Azane is only listed under "two or more nitrogen atoms", but still ammonia fits the req's. The funny Z' names are here, with explanations. http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/class/nNs.html As for Armstrong's in another thread... Is it really that sensitive (TCAP level)? And I thought the stuff in the caps was sensitive. Then I'd be nervous about washing matchheads out with acetone or somesuch. <#5>Need more INPUT!</#5>

Bud, I slap my forehead anew, and just for you! I DID intend the reaction description (<=>) to be false, hence the slap I have seen the compound described as ammonium triiodide, nitrogen triiodide, iodine nitrate, iodine azide etc. Just goes to show one, how important to read PROPER info. And it seems (from a closer reading) that we should not fear for our ammonia. Alas, it will now be just another azane, but ammonia it is.

I'm not sure if it's the alky itself that smells so good in STROH, it's a sort of rum-like (STROH IS rum) but strangely reminiscent of raisins. As for the smell of methanol, it reminds me of youth and model airplanes. Methanol, nitromethane and burnt castor oil... OH YEAH, and freshly mixed epoxy glue for those bumpy landings. Very chemical days, those

LOL YT2095! Mostly, I remove my distillation vessels as they fill up. Never had the fluid level reach the spout in one. Anyways, I don't think that would ruin an enameled steel pot But it WOULD be a shame to have to distill the same liquid all over again. Good point to remember!

My first rockets involved a Parker Ballpoint cartridge. These things make a dandy former for both the chamber and the nozzle of a rather shabby, but workable PEEWEE rocket motor. I wet some brown bag paper with 1:1 dilute white glue, rolled it on the cartridges, scrunched down the paper around the thin part of the cartridge and wrapped some elastic band around that. Then I removed the paper casings and put them aside to dry. When dry, I filled the casings with some quick'n easy black powder (green meal / polverone, no fancy stuff) wetted with just a wee splash of water. If the powder gets wet, it's too much. Add powder! I cored the motors with a nail while wet. Then I let them dry once more. Coring: I ran a nail into the powder from the thin end of the casing, forming a hollow space. Finally, I closed the ends with a wad of tissue paper and some glue. Just fitted with a fuse, these babies flew sorta OK. Next time I try them out, I'll be using some REAL SCHWARZENPULVER!

I've heard of a Norwegian roundabout way to get ethanol. It should go like this: You get some polish (shellac and ethanol), add kitchen salt (NaCl) and the shellac SHOULD precipitate out into some sticky blobs. It was called a "Klompetoddy" As we're only able to get a methanol-based polish here (so's we don't drink it), I've wondered if it was possible to isolate the shellac by the same method? It might have been just "The South flaming The North", however.

I remember a water driven vacuum pump from my earliest chemistry classes. It involved a water inlet, a water and air outlet - and a vacuum err... outlet? It DID create a vacuum at the side xxxlet, so it must have been a vacuum outlet. Mightn't something like that be constructed from pipes and fittings?

Ahh, Cuke Sarnies! PUKKA! Noone ever seen/tasted STROH 80? I only just discovered it's from Austria (thought it was German). Smells absolutely D-lish, tastes like a flameout. At first it cools, but later the burning begins. As for the water absorbent, I think I'd go for CaO, but... -Isn't that what's called Burned Lime? -Isn't it prepared by heating CaCO3 (chalk)? (carbonizing, I think it's called) Burnt Lime + water = slaked lime? Slaked lime + CO2 (from the air) = CaCO3? Sounds like the processes used to make cement and mortar. Anyway, I like my distillates "two-times" and infused with something (coffee, mint, raspberry etc.)

Azides... Nitrogen triiodide <=> Trinitrogen iodide, DUHHH!!! (slaps forehead). Of course. Sorry about that. This seems to be a VERY widespread misunderstanding over here. I've heard it from top guys who really should know better (as opposed to a half-studied non-individualist like me). Point well taken. I'll be on the lookout for more of the same. ------- Azane... "azanes: Saturated acyclic nitrogen hydrides having the general formula NnHn+2." (cut from IUPAC site). Set n=1. N1H1+2 = NH3 ? Ammonia is AN azane, right? Budullewraagh? Admittedly, the article I was referring from in the last post was inadequate. In fact, it stated that ammonia was to be renamed Azane, when it should have stated that ammonia was to be INCLUDED in a GROUP called Azanes. Mea Culpa!

Gilded, I stand corrected! Must we then consider The Pine Table as Sacred or An Abomination?