totse.com | Your favorite FP composition,

Schiess · #1 2008-08-11, 20:08

I am going to be making some more Flash Powder, and there are ALOT of comps that I have heard of. My question is what are your personal experiences, What Ratios, Oxidizers, Fuels... Have proved best for yourself... I will take all of these into account when making this next batch.

I have mad some with the Standard 7:3 KCIO4, Al.
and then experimented a bit with different ratios, of KCIO4, KNO3, Mg, Al, I have heard KMnO4 is more powerful and what about S, what does that do..?

Thermal · #2 2008-08-11, 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schiess View Post

I am going to be making some more Flash Powder, and there are ALOT of comps that I have heard of. My question is what are your personal experiences, What Ratios, Oxidizers, Fuels... Have proved best for yourself... I will take all of these into account when making this next batch.

I have mad some with the Standard 7:3 KCIO4, Al.
and then experimented a bit with different ratios, of KCIO4, KNO3, Mg, Al, I have heard KMnO4 is more powerful and what about S, what does that do..?

Sulfur makes some comps more impact/friction sensitive, but generally it provides fuel for the oxidizer. I would stay away from sulfur, especially if using chlorate oxidizers.
Oh and there is no such thing as KCIO4, replace the "I" with lowercase "L" to represent potassium perchlorate.

As far as KMnO4 based FP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTMZxN1LD2A
I wonder about its ability to initiate secondary explosives, esp. while unconfined... although I suspect weaksauce in comparison to even shitty primaries

blinky04 · #3 2008-08-20, 10:56

I've only ever made KMnO4/Mg FP, but it was enough fun to bring me back down to LE's for a weeks entertainment at the time :P

I could never source any chlorates... Pity, KMnO4 is one hell of an annoyance... just when you think you've gotten rid of it all, all your equipment is clean, you see one little dot of purple getting bigger and bigger.

stupid noob · #4 2008-08-22, 18:25

I thought I already posted this in this thread, but my favorite is misch metal/KClO3.

It self confines in sub gram amounts. I love that shit. Not smart to make more than a couple hundred mg though. In fact, I really should do some tests on it and try to determine VOD, because it just may be a high explosive.

Sentinel · #5 2008-08-22, 19:14

Out of curiosity, how does one measure VOD?

As far as favorite FP comps, I've been a man of simplicity. 50/50 Mg/KNO3 works great. You're supposed to add 2-3% of something (boric acid IIRC) to inhibit moisture buildup and bad chemical reactions. Anyways, it's easy to make, works well, and is nice and bright.

reecko · #6 2008-09-18, 20:06

I liked the

Kno3-5
Sulfur-3
Dark Aluminum-2

I always liked it cause I used it for shells. It isn't that great for just salutes.

asilentbob · #7 2008-09-19, 03:30

The only way I know of to measure VoD is to have 2 fine copper wires with a very exact distance between them. You hook them up to a very exact timer that measures how long between the first and second ones break and there you go. Theres more to it like using exactly proportioned blocks of the explosive at uniform densities and exact lengths and diameters and such. The wires might be cast into a cylinder of TNT for instance with an exact distance between them.

Ish...

hydroponichronic · #8 2008-09-20, 04:28

Any combination of KClO3, sulfur and fuel (Al, sugar, etc). The only ones I find more enjoyable than that are Nitrogen trihalides. AP is a distant third. Given that only the first would be a flashpowder, still... Needless to say I don't have many fingers left.

(I know I contributed nothing to this thread but I found this post to be extremely amusing at the time)

And1129 · #9 2008-09-21, 07:40

About 40/60 : Mg/S was a really interesting mixture that i grew to like. Definitly a flash of caliber and extreamly bright, but the cool thing about this mixture was that it's essintially almost always soundless.