cool stuff (flame related)

[thecheat]

Edited by thecheat

[Ray]

well if you combine wood and Oxegen you'll get fire...careful, you can get burned.

combine charcoal brickettes, lighter fluid and atmoshperic oxegen you can get steaks...careful, you can get blocked arteries from this mixture...

Combine coffee and steamed milk, you'll get a latte'. Careful contents can burn your lips.

Are you serious??? Do you think we are just going to give you access to energetic chemistry mixtures just for the asking?

I *really* hope this thread gets locked.

[thecheat]

no, I just wanted some "safe" mixtures, like the rocket propellant, I'm not asking for C4 here! I have NO such interest in that, perhaps something that would make a pop, not something that shakes the house. Smoke bombs, things like that!

How about this, what're some SIMPLE, safe (something that'll only go off when flame is applied(fuse), not shock sensitive, ECT) The mixtures in rocketry especially are interesting me, The rest I could care less about

Basicly I'm trying to know how you guys are making some of this stuff, I probably shouldn't have asked it like I did... a little naive, sorry. I'll just accept my low level of knowlege on this stuff and try to improve, ok?

PS: I'm looking for energetic (LOW LEVEL!) but NOT unstable! if I should be worried about extremities or senses working with these chemicals (while proper, basic safety procedures are in place) I don't want anything to do with it. I edited the previous post so no one gets confused with what I'm looking for here, I don't want to get hurt, but I do want to learn.

[Ray]

Much better, read the sticky...start with Nakka's page...

All the stuff you want is there.

[thecheat]

thanks, I'll go take a look!

[Greg O'Bryant]

Let me add just a few things. I keep hearing people say that rocket propellant is low energy (rocket candy in particular). What do you mean by low energy? Rocket candy may not have enough energy to shatter steel, like a high explosive, but enough to ruin your day (or life). Rocket candy has more power than black powder. Don't forget that just a teaspoon of black powder has enough energy in it to kill a large animal like a bison or moose, when used properly! So low or high energy is pretty much irrelevant if you were to get injured.

[larry cottrill]

I once saw a world-famous British safecracker interviewed on The Tonight Show (here in the US). This has been many decades ago, of course. He was asked if he used nitroglycerine for blowing safes. His response was, "Oh, no - much too dangerous. I always just used sugar and saltpetre."

I swear I am not making this up. I was a college kid interested in small-scale rocketry at the time, which is why I thought it was interesting and why I can still remember it.

L Cottrill

[Ray]

Let me add just a few things. I keep hearing people say that rocket propellant is low energy (rocket candy in particular).

Rocket propellant *is* low energy when compared to other energetic chemistry mixtures...Burn rate is the defining factor. Rocket propellants burn at less than 1ips, while things like det cord burn at super sonic rates...someting like 22000fps...

Don't let that fool you, working with rocket propellants can be very dangerous. Its all about surface area. After cutting grains from casting sessions, the dust that I have is burns in a BIG woosh. Its still burning at the 1/4ips or so that the grains are burning, just a lot more surface area exposed.

Other dangers like the chemicals that go into the mix, risks of mixing metals and oxidizers, risks of the stuff lighting during the mix etc all add to the precautions you take.

That's why I preach so emphatically that this is energetic chemistry, that you should understand the mixtures you are working with and that you should take precautions.

In spite of all the warnings, I still find a high level of excitement in making the stuff, test firing motors, and flying rockets.

Rocket candy is considered low energy in the rocketry world because the ISP is low around ~120 S...black powder is even lower (~70 S) inspite of the fact that it burns much faster...APCP is the class of the field (~220 S) for solids...LOX mixtures (~300 S) the class of the field in liquids...and of course, nothing compares to the nuclear rocket motors (~800S) they experimented with in the 60's.