Upscale Deuces Wild Build thread

Onebadhawk
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constevens said:
Little tip, From alot of past Experience and testing. Dont dip an igniter that has already been made or dipped and cured. In fact when I make my igniters I only dip them one time. If I need more pyrogen on the igniter wire then I fold it over so there is more wire surface as well as a u shape in the end of the bend to hold more(ive even made double bend igniters that have lit M motors this way with ease) pyrogen. By "double dipping" the igniter you will find most times they dont burn but pop and can cause it not to light the motor. An igniter works better if it can burn hot and for a longer time. Same issue with dipping over the top of thermalite fuse. You are actually killing the real effectiveness of the fuse to burn long an hot. More stuff is not always better. Keeping it simple with a proven formula that again burns Hot and long is the real trick. Having and igniter with TO much stuff on it can cause an over-pressure spike and blow the nozzle or fracture a grain (seen this happen more then once). Then you have real issues. Its important to sand more then just the top grain. Getting all that surface exposed is one other thing that will make lighting the motor and getting it up to actual operating pressure easier.

your talking K700 Aerotech motors? Not hard to light at all. one of my single fold igniters light them instantly. Ive flow several of them over the years.
Click to expand...

Actually, I know for a fact that the pyrogen over thermalite works beautifully - I used it on the J800's, and it lit instantly, and I've lit one on the ground to test - again, massive fireball for a decent duration. The K700's are the Aerotech White Lightnings, and they should be easy to light almost instantly.

Metalwizard: I did use a sliver of blue thunder on the second flight :)

That's what made those big flames out the nozzles :)
 
cjl said:
Actually, I know for a fact that the pyrogen over thermalite works beautifully - I used it on the J800's, and it lit instantly, and I've lit one on the ground to test - again, massive fireball for a decent duration.
Click to expand...

The J800's should light easy. Totally different fuel type then the Skids are. (thats like the difference of trying to light Gas vs trying to light dirt) Trying to cluster or air start skids or greens from AMW can be tricky but not impossible. But if your having the need to dip pyrogen over the thermalite fuse then why even bother with the thermalite fuse? Kinda not necessary. But I will say you have been "lucky" in that it hasn't just popped most of the pyrogen. BTW wich is what the flah of flame you might be seeing first is. Have worked with many chemical compounds and developed my own pyrogen and even as most commercial selling manufactures of pyrogen will say do not dip over or double dip. Come see me some time if you want to see what a MASSIVE fireball ignition looks like. Be sure to bring a welding helmet as I dont want you to go blind.
 
Actually, the fireballs were on the other flight, with different igniters.

I know that blue thunder is REALLY easy to light by comparison, but I know that the igniters I made work just fine. The problem is that they weren't hot enough, not that they pop the pyrogen off. I have plans to use easier to light motors for the next couple of flights though, so I shouldn't have any problems.
 
constevens, I was at the banquet, I was up at the LDRS EC table behind the "Mic" I was wearing a Mojave Green t-shirt

CJL Sorry i only skimmed the thread, and hadn't caught that you did use a sliver of blue thunder.

of course no ignition means is 100% perfect, maybe you just got unlucky twice.
at least you recovered it safely!! better luck next time.

Maybe the skids are just tougher to light. I know we had some tough times getting our new AT greens to light sometimes.(with some of the "experamental formulas") we adjusted the formula a few times to get it to light easier and to get the best color. we may still tweek it a little more even now... The formula I flew at LDRS was easy to light. (in other words the final Green will most likely be even more green than that).

Just another thought, I know you flew your duce earilier on the skids and had only one light, i would assume you only bought one more motor for the second flight. was it the motor that didnt light the first attempt that had a hang fire the second flight?
if so maybe the grain surface was charred and that made it tough to light. or it may have even been a "Bad" (for lack of better words) reload, and that particular batch may have been just hard to light (for any of a number of reasons) Just an idea.
 

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