I can't find any powdered Al in this entirelame town! But I have magnesium bars for firestarters. Is it posible to use Mg powder instead of Al?



Peace Out,

Evil_Tree

the_uber_republican

quote:Originally posted by Evil_Tree:

I can't find any powdered Al in this entire lame town!

You don't have aluminum foil? Where do you live, under a rock?

He said powder, not foil, but you can easily make it aluminum powder.

Magnesium flash powders are MUCH more powerful than any aluminum flash powder, so the answer is yeah, you can use magnesium powder instead.

Thanks ICP



Peace Out,

Evil_Tree

the_uber_republican

quote:Originally posted by IcEColdPlaYA:

He said powder, not foil, but you can easily make it aluminum powder.



How can you make the foil into powder? I tried putting mine thorugh a mortar+pestle but nothing worked

quote:Originally posted by IcEColdPlaYA:



Magnesium flash powders are MUCH more powerful than any aluminum flash powder.

just curious, what are your sources for this claim?

I like Magnesium and Nitrate based flashes for some Salutes but they are weak i find a perchlorate based flash with a high mesh Al works very well but there are lots of diffrent mixes

Although I've never actually tried it, I bet ICP is right about magnesium flash being more powerful, especially if you are using the 600-1000 mesh stuff. Magnesium is more reactive than aluminum and if it doesn't have much of an oxide coating on the particles, like dark aluminum doesn't have, then I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work better. If you are using potassium perchlorate as your oxidizer, then a ratio of 6 parts oxidizer to 4 parts fuel works out just about right. As for potassium nitrate as an oxidizer, I have no idea what chemical reaction goes on so I can't calculate it but maybe someone can fill in for me.

There shouldn't be much differance between Mg and Al, the Mg will probably ignite easier. The differance is with the oxidiser, perchlorate is the king..

quote:Originally posted by Shadow88:

How can you make the foil into powder? I tried putting mine thorugh a mortar+pestle but nothing worked

Cut the aluminum foil into 1 cm squares and ball mill it for two weeks for a powder that can be used in flash (be sure to open the ball mill every 24 hours or so to let it air out). I've also heard that putting the Al foil squares in a blender for a few minutes before ball milling saves a lot of ball milling time.

quote:Originally posted by orangejuice:

just curious, what are your sources for this claim?

What do you mean claim? If you had any experience with magnesium you would know that it is much more reactive and it burns much faster than aluminum. 1/4 teaspoon of KClO4/magnesium (400 mesh) rattles windows UNCONFINED from about 6 feet away. Never had that happen with aluminum and ANY other oxidizer.

Im not the only one who knows this.