How to test stump remover for KNO3?

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fonzypoo
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:55 pm

Re: Makin rocket motor with Grant's stump remover

Post by fonzypoo » Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:10 pm

Hey i mixed sugar and powdered grant's stump remover and im getting very little affect. The video ive watched has a good flame and rate of burn but im getting a very weak burn.i mixed it 3 tablespoons grants stump remover ( crunched in coffee bean grinder)and 2 tablespoons sugar. I tried the same with powdered sugar.It's really hard to light and in my rocket motors that do go off they are more like 5 min smoke bomb till the pvc pipe melts. I'd like to make a rocket motor that can get off the ground with grants stump remover and sugar,can anyone help me? plz get back to me as soon as possible. fonzypoo@hotmail.com

Rocket Man
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Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:59 pm
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Re: How to test stump remover for KNO3?

Post by Rocket Man » Fri Oct 09, 2009 12:25 pm

You can buy Potassium Nitrate from any Industrial Chemical supply company. Check the phone book yellow pages or online. There are many good formulas for rocket fuel. I like the all time favorite 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur all available at any industrial chemical supply company. Potassium nitrate comes in 50 lb bags for about $50.00 bag. Charcoal is cheap very large bags weighs only about 10 lbs and sulfur comes in 20 lbs bags for about $20.00. The way I use to mix it was put the potassium nitrate, charcoal and enough warm water to make a thick paste and run it in my ball mill for 24 hours. Add the sulfur and more warm water and run it in the ball mill another 48 hours. Let it dry then run it through a screen to produce small particals. It has to be compacted in the rocket engine tubes with a lot of force a 2 ton hydraulic jack works great. You have to compact it 1/2 inch at a time with a core up the center. Pull the core out when finished and the engine is ready to fire. I only takes about 15 minutes to build an engine ready to fire. I have a book that I wrote with all the drawings and instructions for building several different size engines from 35 lbs thrust to 440 lbs thrust. The 35 lb thrust engine goes about 1/4 mile the 440 lb thrust engine goes 3.5 miles straight up. 60 degree down range the 440 engine goes about 7 miles. I use to sell this book on ebay but it never did sell very well so I don't list it on ebay anymore.

Ammonium Perchlorate, Aluminum power and Linseed oil makes a great rocket fuel too. This stuff is dangerious.

mortsotruk
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Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:15 am
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Re: How to test stump remover for KNO3?

Post by mortsotruk » Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:25 am

fonzypoo, you did a few things wrong when trying to make your smoke powder. First of all, the proportions for potassium nitrate to sugar are by mass, not volume. You will need to find a digital or triple beam scale that is somewhat precise to measure out the correct proportions. Second, simply mixing the two ingredients together real fast won't produce even a decent quality powder. Use a mortar and pestle and grind each ingredient by themselves for a while, making them VERY fine. Then, put both finely ground ingredients into the mortar and add enough isopropanol alcohol to where when mixed, it creates a dough like consistency. Grind that dough for a little while with the mortar and pestle and then lay the mix out to dry in the sun for a few hours. This should give you much better results.

Rocket Man
Posts: 144
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:59 pm
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Re: How to test stump remover for KNO3?

Post by Rocket Man » Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:26 pm

If you want pure KNO3 then why not buy some at your local industrial supply company it comes in 50 lb bags, 100 lb barrels, 250 lb barrels, and 600 lb barrels. Last time I bought 100 lbs it was 50 cents per pound. NO premit and no red tape required just give them a call and ask for a price. The more you buy the cheaper it is.

Would you like to have some Ammonium Perchlorate, Potassium Perchlorate or some other chemical you can buy it too. They manufacture both of these in Ohio. You can buy these direct from the manufacture. Last time I bought these they were both about $1.80 per lb.

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