Who makes thier own igniters?

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Thanks. I will give it a try. I have 100 feet of 30 awg witht he others. I will post a comparison.
 
Is it fair to say, our specific ingredient recipes can not be discussed here? I'm making my own again, and am 'adjusting' my mix, even though they worked very well before.

I make mine as small of diameter as I can, to fit through all but the smallest of 24mm nozzles.
 
I already mixed the 'white' things in with the 'clear' stuff. I added some 'black' stuff, and wondered how much 'silver' stuff I could add in proportion to the 'black' stuff?

Is that vague enough?
 
I just use an ematch taped to a sliver of Blue Thunder (bought a 3-pak of E28's for this purpose) sized for the motor. Generally speaking, I go with a 1/8" cross sectional area x the length of the propellant grain for 54mm... Maybe a tad bit more for a 75mm AT motor.... Gets 'em going everytime. Even after someone tried three or four Quikburst fat boys time and time again on the same motor....

Note: I always use a piece of 1/8" dowel from the craft department to ensure that the head of the match is as far forward as possible. The BT is taped to the pyrogen as well. Don't want to risk a chuffer.
 
I have made my own igniters for many years. They have been exceptionally reliable. My method can be found at the following web site: www.ajolleyplace.com/Igniters.html
As commercial igniters are very expensive I most likely have saved hundreds and perhaps over a thousand dollars using this method.
 
There are a variety of recipes out there. Remember if one gets a batch of "poppers" put a few cracks along the length of the pyrogen head. Allows built up gases to escape from underneath and avoids popping the igniter and breaking the
bridgewire. Could salvage a batch if one has an issue. Kurt
 
I have made my own igniters for many years. They have been exceptionally reliable. My method can be found at the following web site: www.ajolleyplace.com/Igniters.html
As commercial igniters are very expensive I most likely have saved hundreds and perhaps over a thousand dollars using this method.

I went to your site and read the following:

"The ingredients for any of these pyrogens are finely ground if necessary. The ingredients are then combined as powders and mixed well." " 10 to 20 grams"

You are using metals [Al or Mag] plus oxidizers. One should NEVER mix these two together dry. Always mix metal powders into your liquids first, then oxidizers....keeps any dust from being airborne or dry mix from possible combustion.

One of the first safety rules learned when involved with pyro's. :smile:
Not adhering to this rule can cause bad things to happen.
 
I went to your site and read the following:

"The ingredients for any of these pyrogens are finely ground if necessary. The ingredients are then combined as powders and mixed well." " 10 to 20 grams"

You are using metals [Al or Mag] plus oxidizers. One should NEVER mix these two together dry. Always mix metal powders into your liquids first, then oxidizers....keeps any dust from being airborne or dry mix from possible combustion.

One of the first safety rules learned when involved with pyro's. :smile:
Not adhering to this rule can cause bad things to happen.

+1 Not worth adding risk.
 
Do you have a source for the thin yellow red twin wire Aerotech uses for the firstfire igniters for G motors,
or any other recommendation for small igniters?
 
Last time I made my own igniter using the wire wrap method it didn't work. I don't know why but maybe the pyrogen somehow broke the connection. I soldered it after that (you can do it with those soldering paste for plumbing) and it works flawlessly. You can do both (wire wrap then solder) to make things easier.
 
The trick in not having to solder wire wrapped igniters is to wrap them, then dip them in your ping pong ball or "other" NC concoction. This coats them and keeps them from corroding. After all you are dipping them in a very corrosive mixture. I'm using igniters that are 3 years old with no issues.

Tony
 
Do you have a source for the thin yellow red twin wire Aerotech uses for the firstfire igniters for G motors,
or any other recommendation for small igniters?

The smallest I can make with my 57 year old eyes and a shake issue is using "Wip Wrapping Wire" I've made just under 100 in the last couple of evenings.

Tony
 
Wouldn't any 30awg silver-plated Kynar-wrapped wire suffice, or are there other specifications that matter as well?
 
Wouldn't any 30awg silver-plated Kynar-wrapped wire suffice, or are there other specifications that matter as well?

I have made very small igniters using Kynar wire. I strip a spot in the middle of the wire then stretch the copper at that point to reduce the diameter. I then used a "special " pyro mix that ignites easily and burns hot so a small quantity will light a motor.
Flattening the wire then reducing the width using sandpaper also worked.

M
 
I have made very small igniters using Kynar wire. I strip a spot in the middle of the wire then stretch the copper at that point to reduce the diameter. I then used a "special " pyro mix that ignites easily and burns hot so a small quantity will light a motor.
Flattening the wire then reducing the width using sandpaper also worked.

M

I once used 30 gauge Kynar with a nichrome bridge coil and a standard pyrogen with success. I still have a few left. Kurt
 
What's Kynar? Is it magnet wire?

Kynar is the insulation on the wire, Kynar is PVDF ( polyvinylidene difluoride). Typically Kynar wire is used in wire wrapping applications the insulation is tough, light, resistant to corrosion and heat resistant. Kynar wire is a trade name. Kynar plastic has lots of other uses besides wire insulation.
 
I'm not sure what type wire this is. I'm not sure you can make them any smaller (or why) I just know the sound they make when they go off!

Tony

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I'm not sure what type wire this is. I'm not sure you can make them any smaller (or why) I just know the sound they make when they go off!

Tony

This is likely Kynar Wrapped wire that is 26-30 awg.
 
Sorry if my web site post is misleading. I always mix the oxidizers and metals into a vial of nitrocellulose laquer (pingpong balls in acetone). They are never mixed dry.
 
I found this site, I'm not going to make dark flash or H3 because I'm not an expert pyrotechnician.

https://www.berfield.com/igniters.html

That is a good sight, but for my use, I don't make ematches. They are too cheap to buy commercially and very reliable. IMHO it's too much trouble to make your own and too much risk to the rocket to use them for deployment charges.

As of for regular motor igniters, I pretty much do the same thing as the site with the way I wrap the nichrome. I have my own formula that burns slow, about a second or more to finish an igniter, and has Mg shavings that fly off and embed in the propellant while burning at 5000 deg. It makes a very reliable motor igniter without the exotic materials. I bought all of mine at Wal-Mart.
 
That is a good sight, but for my use, I don't make ematches. They are too cheap to buy commercially and very reliable. IMHO it's too much trouble to make your own and too much risk to the rocket to use them for deployment charges.

As of for regular motor igniters, I pretty much do the same thing as the site with the way I wrap the nichrome. I have my own formula that burns slow, about a second or more to finish an igniter, and has Mg shavings that fly off and embed in the propellant while burning at 5000 deg. It makes a very reliable motor igniter without the exotic materials. I bought all of mine at Wal-Mart.


Folks, I've made ematches from scratch, meaning I wrapped 40 gauge nichrome around strips of double sided
printed circuit board and "silver-soldered" them. Spent 5 years to refine the technique as I had a metal shear that would "cleanly" cut double-sided PC board. Bottom line is, it's not worth it rolling your own. Yeah, it was a challenge,
I enjoyed messing with it but the APCP lawsuit was going on and it looked that possibly deployment issues might have to be resorted to "home grown" remedies. I will say the longer the matches "aged" the better the reliability!
It is easy and relatively safe to "compose" the reagents in milligram amounts to make ematches but believe me,
and I will emphasized this, "IT'S NOT WORTH THE EFFORT!!!"

Simply, attend launches, ask around and you'll figure out how to deal with dual deployment
for amateur rocketry. Kurt
 
In this day in age, I don't see the need to make motor igniters, either. Aerotech phased out the crummy Crapperheads in most motors, and the included igniter is now pretty reliable. The CTI ematch is also very good. Very rarely does the provided commercial igniter fail to ignite the motor and I need to do the walk of shame back to the pads. I keep a couple ematches, First Fires, and First Fire Jrs as backup in my pocket. These are readily purchased and homemades are not worth the effort.
 
In this day in age, I don't see the need to make motor igniters, either. Aerotech phased out the crummy Crapperheads in most motors, and the included igniter is now pretty reliable. The CTI ematch is also very good. Very rarely does the provided commercial igniter fail to ignite the motor and I need to do the walk of shame back to the pads. I keep a couple ematches, First Fires, and First Fire Jrs as backup in my pocket. These are readily purchased and homemades are not worth the effort.

Mostly true. If you make your own research motors, making igniters for them seems to be part of it. Also older motors (think 90s) can take a few tries to get going.
 
Mostly true. If you make your own research motors, making igniters for them seems to be part of it. Also older motors (think 90s) can take a few tries to get going.

Agreed. Motor igniters are a different and easier issue to deal with home rolled. A variety of options are out there and it's nowhere near as demanding as ematch construction. Some reloads don't come with them so
one must buy them from another concern or make them. For the experimenter there are differences and it's relatively safer to deal with the chems as opposed to the sensitive and possibly dangerous ones for ematches.
To each his own. Kurt
 
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