Want to know why you should never prime a large KNO3/sucrose rocket with a hefty dose of FFF black powder?

'Cause it blows up in your face. My ears are still ringing, and I lit the thing off about two hours ago.

On the plus side, KNO3/sucrose mixture is an excellent way to add thickness and strength to salute tubes.

More experimentation will follow.

~Zero the Inestimable

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Originally posted by Zero the Inestimable:

'Cause it blows up in your face. My ears are still ringing, and I lit the thing off about two hours ago.

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....Well that was smart........

WHy didnt you make larger grains? IF I had that fine of powder, I would probably make larger grains, becuase FFF is pretty powerful.

Is sucrous surgar or corn surup?

CTR

Sucrose is sugar. I believe that corn syrup is fructose

Yeah sucrose is just table sugar. I can be thrown into a fire by itself and burn, it's a really good fuel. Just needs a good oxidizer. Both sucrose and fructose have the same chemical makeup(C6H1206 - just different placement of molecules)so i think both can be in granulated form. The syrup is just mixed with other things to get the thick liquid texture.

It wasn't in my face in a literal sense, you know. I was about fifteen feet away behind a camera when it went off. Even still...

I think my problem was using storebought black powder as priming material. I've used homemade FFF or smaller for ages, but I suppose my powder wasn't nearly as powerful as the storebought stuff.

I've been trying to make a KNO3/sucrose rocket for some time now that doesn't need to be primed, but I've had no luck with anything above bottle rocket sizes.

In other news, I made a working salute today (intentionally, this time) out of nothing but a pinch of black powder and some KNO3/sucrose mix melted and formed inside a roll of notebook paper...

~Zero the Inestimable

vids or pics?

I have one movie, but there's no sound and there are people in the frame who would rather that they not be posted on the internet...

~Zero the Inestimable

hehe.. I have had my fair share of exploding rockets. I had a matchead rocket that blew up pretty good because It was primed improperly.

P.S: I will be back on the 21st

Iv never primed a rocket. but my larger rockets tend to get 30 feet of the ground before exploding sending cool smoking fireballs into the trees.

I don't know if anyone ever told any of you so I'm sorry if I'm repeating anything but as the size of your rocket motor goes up, you shoud use a more aggregate mixture for your fuel.

With a few of the larger PVC pipe motors I have built I used a chunky type of oxidizer and flammable solid. This will prevent or at least cut down on your motor going ka-pow!

The extra air space between the chunks (even after packing) cuts down on the pressure build-up and makes it easier for the fuel to burn. Just a thought.

Just the end plugs exploading