I'm so happy, we broke up for summer today and i was left alone in a lab at school for 10 mins. There was a tray on the side with brown jars in. One was labelled "Fine Aluminium Powder" so i put it in my bag. It's really fine and grey, like custard powder and weight about a kilo. I just cant wait to make some flash powder from it as aluminium powder is, well, impossible to get here. I just wanted to know How much would you say its worth?

If it weighs about 2.2lbs, then you got a steal for it

Most pyro suppliers sell fine aluminum for ~19.99/lb, so you took about $50USD of aluminum powder.

Yeah bur remember 200 mesh aluminum powder looks find also. You will have to try it and see if it works.

Can you get a picture? Mix a small amount of potassium nitrate with it (in a 6/4 ratio), burn about 1/4 teaspoon and tell us how long it too to burn, and we can estimate the mesh.

I can't get KNO3 or KCLO4 or any other oxidizers for flash powder. I can only get NaClO3 and KMnO4 which are dangerous for flash I've heard.

quote:Originally posted by cf_2k3:

I can't get KNO3 or KCLO4 or any other oxidizers for flash powder. I can only get NaClO3 and KMnO4 which are dangerous for flash I've heard.

You could make the NaClO3 inch KClO3, but the Na works fine anyway.

Both of those oxidizers are VERY powerful, much better than KNO3, but they are also much more unstable. NaClO3 is pretty safe as long as you handle and store it in safe places, and if you dont beat it down and shake it around.

I do not have much experience with KMnO4/aluminum, but about half of the people that have experience say it is very unstable and can be just like chlorate/sulfer at times, but the other half say they have never had an ignition, but it is still unstable. Ill let you decide what oxidizer to use, but I would go with the Na chlorate.