homebrew motor question

Does smokeless gun powder work as rocket propellant (Specificly accurate 4350 powder) I am using a 5/32nd inch nozzle if that makes any difference

I wouldn't try it.

This isn't the kind of thing we discuss in the open forum.

Also: that's a fairly dangerous plan. Please don't.

Please do: apply for the restricted forum if you meet the qualifications!

Authorities will consider it a pipe bomb. So would I. Very bad plan!

Gerald

thank you everyone for the advise. i relay appreciate it

Keep the “home brew” to the beer making realm. This is a terrible and perhaps very illegal idea. Do yourself a favor and buy certified rocket motors.

Just a general note- gunpowder/blackpowder related motors like Estes motors are made by pressing the powder into it's final shape. This is a good way to hurt yourself if you do it on your own. Note- someone died at Estes a while back from one of their machines that did this.

If you are in the US, there is a route to making your own motors. If you want to do this, join Tripoli, and get your L2 certification. Please DO NOT make your own motors without the direct oversight of someone more experienced from Tripoli. Pretty much everyone who makes their own motors has a story about a close call or an accident.

final note- Youtube is a bad idea for using as a "mentor" on this.

kenneth ayers said:

Does smokeless gun powder work as rocket propellant (Specificly accurate 4350 powder) I am using a 5/32nd inch nozzle if that makes any difference

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The process for making double-base propellant grains (which is what you're describing) is extremely complicated when compared to other types of propellant such as BP and APCP. "Propellants Manufacture, Hazards, and Testing" by the American Chemical Society gives *some* details; it's far, far more involved than simply pressing the mixture into a case.

Using the web in general, and YouTube in particular, for information on making dangerous things is rather like buying lottery scratch-offs. Much of what you get is useless, and there's no way to tell beforehand what will work. And the penalty for losing is much greater than just losing a few dollars on lottery tickets...

Books are usually superior for such information. See www.compositepropellantbook.com.

We have some double based rocket motor with 360 Ns in Germany, I would like to tell you more about the construction, but you are not German.

kenneth ayers said:

Does smokeless gun powder work as rocket propellant (Specificly accurate 4350 powder) I am using a 5/32nd inch nozzle if that makes any difference

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I’m going to take a slightly different approach to answering your question. You asked about the use of smokeless powder and most people responded based on the material itself (double base propellant which is a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin). I would like to mention the fact that you’re specifically asking about a powder. 4350 is actually an engineered solid which has been extruded and then cut into tiny sticks to achieve a specific burn characteristic. As a powder that characteristic is completely incompatible with use as a rocket propellant. Gunpowder is engineered to produce very high pressure very quickly when contained within a pressure vessel. That’s totally undesirable and dangerous in a rocket motor.
There are no “powder filled” rocket motors*. So called “black powder” rocket motors are chemically similar to the material used in black powder but are really not filled with powder. Their propellant has been compressed or molded into a solid shape which burns predictably from one end so that the surface area which burns is relatively small. To try to make a rocket motor using any kind of powder without fully knowing how to reconstitute that chemical material into a solid shape appropriate to it burn characteristics is a very dangerous undertaking.
*Note: I’m always wrong whenever I make such an absolute statement. There’s one exception to what I wrote above. There is something called a micrograin motor which is strictly outlawed by the Tripoli Research Safety Code which does consist of a mixture of powders. Thanks to FredA for reminding me of that.

Steve Shannon said:

*Note: I’m always wrong whenever I make such an absolute statement. There’s one exception to what I wrote above. There is something called a micrograin motor which is strictly outlawed by the Tripoli Research Safety Code which does consist of a mixture of powders. Thanks to FredA for reminding me of that.

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Good explanation, Steve. Anyone who has read the account of Brandy Bruce-Sharpe's (I think that's who it was) experience will never consider trying micrograin.

And then there's reaction research society which loves micrograin propellant and lawn darts!