Home dipped ignitors

[dasbeermeister]

I'm gonna try an ignitor formula that I found elsewhere on the net and was wondering if any of you have heard of it or tried it.

step 1) mix graphite lube, clear dope and acetone to taste to bridge your wires, dip, let dry
step 2) mix ground sparklers, clear dope and acetone to taste for the pyro mix, dip to taste, let dry.

If this works it would be much cheaper than any dip kit or pre made ignitor! An added plus for me is I can get twisted pair phone wire at work for free out of the trash every day.
Less money spent on ignitors means more for motors!

 

[Austin]

beermeister...that's a new one to me, especially the "dip to taste" part...I could never get past that taste!

j/k...good luck on the igniters.


Carl

 

[MarkABrown]

I'd be curious to hear if that would really work. All I can think of is how hard it is to get those dang sparklers to light, especially with a bunch of kids standing around with an impatient look on their faces.

 

[dasbeermeister]

Hopefully once their ground up and mixed they'll fire right up. I think when you light them with a lighter it's a matter of auto ignition temp because if you use a torch lighter they light right up.

 

[RocketboyG80]

dasbeermeister-
I've seen a similar mix, except the first ingredient is ground up ping pong balls. I hear it works pretty good if you can grind the balls to a fine enough powder. I may have to try it someday, along with the two formulas you mentioned.

 

[powderburner]

Even doing small quantities outdoors, this is dangerous.

Rule of thumb: grind chemicals separately, NOT when combined.

The components of the sparkler compound are easily enough duplicated and handled/ground separately. The ingredient that puts the 'spark' in the sparkler is iron filings. Add that to anything else and you will get a sparkler mix.

 

[dasbeermeister]

What is the "anything" I can mix with the iron filings? In my misspent youth I would grind FFFF with coloured sparklers in a porcalin mortor and pestal and mix with clear dope to make the balls that I would put in the top of homemade mortors. I never did get pretty patterns but they worked.

 

[powderburner]

I don't know if that is now considered terrorism, but even if it is not, I hate the idea of being responsible for some goofball blasting his eyeball out with a homemade batch of flash powder.

DBM, email me and we'll talk. . . [email protected]

 

[Austin]

Smart move Powderburner...thanks.

Carl

 

[MarkABrown]

Originally posted by dasbeermeister
What is the "anything" I can mix with the iron filings? In my misspent youth I would grind FFFF with coloured sparklers in a porcalin mortor and pestal and mix with clear dope to make the balls that I would put in the top of homemade mortors. I never did get pretty patterns but they worked.

For God's sake, nobody grind black powder! That stuff is impact sensitive! It could go off at any time!

 

[dasbeermeister]

Ya know I wish I knew that when I was 12..... my eyebrows and nose hair took months to grow back!!!

 

[timrocket]

pingpong balls and acitone.

 

[aksarben10]

No offense, but it does not sound as if you have much experiance in this area and you could making a mistake that could harm you or others. I believe that more research on your part is inorder before you start down this path. There are many safety issues that need to be taken into account before making even simple pyro devices as ignitors.

I would suggest that you try some of the pre-made dips and while you are trying your hand with using tested techniques and mixes. That would give you some experiance in the hardware and while doing that you can research the chemicals and there reactions.

Firefox is a great place to start. They have the several different ignitor mixes. They also have shooting wire, nichrome wire and a nice book on ignitor mixes. You might also look into some chemical safety information. Some things that are harmless along have bad reactions when mixed and others are very shock sensitive.

As it has been noted in previous posts. Do not grind these chemicals when they are mixed, very bad.

These things are not hard as long as you know what you are getting into. I got fed up with copperheads several years back and deciede to start making my own. I started with an Ignitorman kit and then started researching. I have about 4 different pyrogen mixes that I use, each for different uses. I have tried wire wrap, soldered wire, chips and conductive primers, low current and high current ignitors, ones made for motor ignition and ones made for BP charges, all made by hand. So there is alot of varity in this field and I have had a lot of fun with it. I give away most of my ignitors to people at the field and have fun with that as well.

I do not want to discourage you, just please be careful and do your homework before you get started.

Scott

 

[Neil]

OUCH... that sounds like a story, dasbeermister... I read an article on pingpong balls and acetone one time... my dad still wont let me try it... I wonder why?

 

[Ryan S.]

sounds like we are in a lot of unknowns here.....I would do more research, in my experience this always works better....luckily for me when I mix something or make something without researching it doesnt work, but sometimes it could work too good.....that would be badd

 

[rocwizard]

ok, just to clear everything up, here are two methods to make ignitors and a very reliable pyrogen mix:

https://sparksrocketry.com/igniters.htm

These suckers are very reliable.

HTH

 

[julianmb]

..when you can go to your local gun dealer and buy as much smokeless powder (i.e. nitrocellulose) as you wish for a few dollars a pound? Surplus is even cheaper. (And a pound will make i think THOUSANDS!!! of ignitors). I just did a very quick, very un-scientific test of a pinch of powder and a little acetone and it dissolves a treat, you just have to play around to get the consistency you want! Not made any ignitors yet, but then i only just found this page!

I live in Spain and used Vectan A1 powder, which is like little square flakes and is used for pistols and shotguns and is cheap, but i guess any smokeless powder will do the same.

If you want to try it, i accept no responsibility, even less if you start mixing it with things, but thats up to you!

Regards from sunny Spain,

Julian