Moving out of BP and into reloads. Igniter insertion question.

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blackwing94

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I'm moving out of BP and into the the world of AT reloads. My first reload in a 29/40-120 never ignited. I tried several igniters. A post mortem showed that I was pushing the igniter in to hard and had pushed past the piece of masking tape at the top of the propellent. So all my igniters were going off in the space between the propellent and the delay change. OK, don't push the igniter in to hard.

On my second reload, the igniter would not fit into the slot in the propellent. The pyro end was to big. I've read that you can shave the pyro on the igniter until it fits in the slot. But my experience with my first reload not lighting kinda makes me think I need all the pyro I can get on my igniters. So, I removed the propellent from the casing and inserted the igniter, wire end first into the top of the propellent and pulled it through. Now the pyro end was pulled into the slot and fit very snuggly into the top of the propellent, then I put the propellent into the casing. The motor ignited on command, the rocket flew. Whoohoo! Success.

My question is, is there a down side to pulling the igniter through the propellent from the top side down as apposed to pushing into the propellent from he bottom side up? (other than I'm doing a couple of steps in the instructions out of order. Inserting the igniter before inserting propellent into the casing)
 
Before putting the motor into the model, lay the igniter alongside it (at the right depth) and then bend the igniter so you know how far it needs to be inserted.

Installing the igniter during assembly of low power motors is often called out in the AeroTech instructions.

Pre-installing high power motor igniters is disallowed at most sites and is not an option. Although it is sometimes done at a prearranged safe location for upper stage motors.
 
No, there's no down side. Also, for Mojave Green propellant, you will often need to cut grooves into the propellant to get it to ignite.
 
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