i cant seem to get it to work. who here has gotten it work and point me in the right direction.
thanks

Well, tell us what you did, so we can tell you what you did wrong. And for fucks sake, I made the shit when I was fucking TWELVE years old. It's NOT that hard.

Whatever mod gets this, please don't send it to BB.

It is notoriously difficult to initially ignite - most people use magnesium ribbon or a sparkler to get it going.

It is a reliable reaction though, it is used in the UK to weld rail tracks together - they use an equivelant to a sparkler.

once the magnesium hits the powder it goes out i even tried laying it on top. iv been testing it in small amounts of a quarter but that wont effect it.

What particle sizes are you using? High mesh is easy to ignite but doesn't do the whole pool of molten iron thing.
A firstfire mix should get you what you're looking for.

iv been grinding aluminum foil then i poked holes in a plastic cup with a 23gauge needle. its a low yield but iv gotten enough for what im doing

what are some easy to get first fires? i also heard that flint can set it off if its fine enough. i can make big sparks with a flint stick for campfires

what mesh is best for a molten iron pools?

Okay, so you have shitty PTFE coated Al flakes - What about your oxide source?

Looks like this guy did the same...

http://www.rotteneggs.com/r3/show/se/157017.html

You can't beat proper Aluminum powder and it is reasonably cheap. In the UK it is on Ebay all the time, maybe in the US too, if not there are loads of chem houses or pyro places that will sell it or like one guy in the link says, he gets it from his local auto shop.

i use a 9v battery to form rust on a few railroad spikes in saltwater(then i rinse it in freshwater). i cut it up with a razorblade and mesh it the same way

will burning steel wool work too?