Looking for PSA/Scare Information re: R-Candy

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ndzied1

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I have a friend who told me that his high-schooler showed him a video of him and his friends test burning their batch of Rocket Candy.

I'm looking for information that he can use to educate (scare) his son and friends away from this approach and toward commercially available motors.

They are a smart bunch. They have launched instrumented weather balloons to +100k ft. and were even featured during Weather Day at the White Sox Cellular Field hosted by one of the country's premier meteorologists, Tom Skilling.

Anyway, Help in getting them steered in the right direction is greatly appreciated.
 
What about inviting them to tag-along with you to a high power launch?
 
That's an education alright, but not likely to prevent anyone from making R-candy, especially teenagers, it will just give them more information to make better R-candy. That being said the site does have a few warnings on the homepage.

You can try to scare them away, but they are young and indestructible. I think education on how to do it safely might be a better bet. Sort of like teaching abstinence versus "safe" sex. Some might listen but many more will not.
 
This isn't particularly scary, but it's certainly a failure:

[video=youtube;NbvoUU-XuG0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbvoUU-XuG0[/video]
 
A couple of months ago, two "bright" students in Thousand Oaks, Ca made a candy motor that they apparently wanted to attach to a skateboard. They took it to a school yard, and it exploded. The 17 year old is in therapy, and the 18 year old honors student... He's in the grave.

Google it, and send 'em the link. Make sure they understand... These are the "smart" kids.

Just smart enough to be dangerous.
 
A couple of months ago, two "bright" students in Thousand Oaks, Ca made a candy motor that they apparently wanted to attach to a skateboard. They took it to a school yard, and it exploded. The 17 year old is in therapy, and the 18 year old honors student... He's in the grave.

Google it, and send 'em the link. Make sure they understand... These are the "smart" kids.

Just smart enough to be dangerous.

Can you please cite the source where the propellant was identified?
 
Can you please cite the source where the propellant was identified?

He can't. His argument and data are contrived to further his agenda.

Sorry cherokjeej dude, sometimes you spout off B.S. and your card gets pulled. That's life, but please don't bring your altered and skewed sense of reality to a forum full of nerds that treasure FACT over innuendo and opinion.

Unless that is, that you really can back it up? Can you????
 
[video=youtube;KIsv1YOFNys]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsv1YOFNys[/video]
 
So, what we learned was that they were poorly supervised despite the fact they announced publicly that they were (at least) working with propellant of some sort.

Let's pause and think what they could have done had they been properly supervised. There never would have been a skateboard and a rocket motor, of any type, attached to it.

Bet you can't scare them away - isn't gonna work. They may even say one thing and do another (ever read Rocket Boys by Homer Hickum??)

Instead of trying to scare them, find them a mentor who can help them stay safe and be a bit of a voice of reason.
 
Investigators were at Madroña through the night trying to piece together what had happened, said Ventura County Sheriff's Detective Tim Lohman.

The teens apparently were experimenting with chemicals that could be used to power a rocket motor.

The Sheriff's Office said it had not yet identified what chemicals were used, but that propane was not involved, as initially reported by authorities.

All they mention was it was not propane . Am i missing something cherokeej ?
 
I don't know. What are you missing? The part about the home made rocket motor, or the dead kid?
 
You are claiming it was a candy motor . Where did you get that information ? For all we know it could have been straight 4F . For the OP , The most important thing is to make sure that the kids are safe whether they are building a motor or flying a motor. We all know kids will be kids and if they want to do something they will find a way to do it. The best thing you can do is to just be an observer and make sure they don't hurt themselves.
 
All right... TIME OUT. Flag on the play! 15 yards!

The original post asked for negatives. It's in the post title. "...SCARE INFORMATION..."

I gave him one. Exactly what he asked for. 18 year old gets dead playing with a home made rocket motor.

And I get jumped.

High end forum you've got here. Real classy.
 
Last edited:
Sorry, Ramen, but I've gotta pull your card. This took all of 5 seconds. Is your Google-fu off track? Cuz I only got 351000 results.

https://www.vcstar.com/news/local/o...2fbd7ffe-8d14-76fd-e053-010000-374627201.html

Buddy, if you have issue with anything I type here, you bring it to me. Are we on the same page?


Here's my PM apologizing for my poor attitude, just incase anyone thought I did'nt feel bad about it.:

Sorry bout that. Was just being a jerk, and I am ashamed.

I just got kinda' peeved by the tone of the thread, in that it did'nt seem to express that there are safe ways to go about doing research, given the proper guidance by professionals and in the proper environment like a laboratory and not your kitchen.

Just quashing everyone's desire to experiment outright seems very counterproductive to the spirit of our hobby.

I'll even post this in the thread, as I can admit when I have chosen my words poorly and feel bad about it.

Dave
 
Apology accepted.

But I gotta do it...

Raise your hand if you think those kids in Thousand Oaks used the "CSI-Miami" formula of bentonite and calcium carbonate?
Now raise your hand if you think an 18 year old can walk into a gun shop in the greater Los Angeles, California metropolitan area and buy a can of 4f BP.

I didn't see many hands.

I think maybe we'll see more hands if we ask folks if maybe those kids saw some videos on you tube and went to Lowe's. Or they might have gone to a pharmacy and asked for food grade saltpeter. That would probably be easier than buying 4f in LA.
 
The problem that you are running into is that in your first post you stated unequivocally that "students made a candy motor". That was pure conjecture on your part. Now you are trying to offer proof in the form of more conjecture. In a high school debate class (or middle-school, for that matter) this would never pass muster...

Apology accepted.

But I gotta do it...

Raise your hand if you think those kids in Thousand Oaks used the "CSI-Miami" formula of bentonite and calcium carbonate?
Now raise your hand if you think an 18 year old can walk into a gun shop in the greater Los Angeles, California metropolitan area and buy a can of 4f BP.

I didn't see many hands.

I think maybe we'll see more hands if we ask folks if maybe those kids saw some videos on you tube and went to Lowe's. Or they might have gone to a pharmacy and asked for food grade saltpeter. That would probably be easier than buying 4f in LA.

A couple of months ago, two "bright" students in Thousand Oaks, Ca made a candy motor that they apparently wanted to attach to a skateboard. They took it to a school yard, and it exploded. The 17 year old is in therapy, and the 18 year old honors student... He's in the grave.

Google it, and send 'em the link. Make sure they understand... These are the "smart" kids.

Just smart enough to be dangerous.
 
I could be off here, but I believe the danger in rcandy is cooking it, not so much the lighting it part.....
 
OK, Dan... I stand corrected. You win.

Maybe those kids bought some 4f at their local gun shop. Maybe they used the smokeless propellant out of some old 30-06 rounds Dad had stashed in the garage. Maybe they were able to get a gallon of R45, a pint of Papi, and some AP200 at their local Walgreen's.

Exactly what difference does it make to the parents of the dead 18 year old? What difference would it make to YOU if you found out YOUR kid was playing with energetic materials without QUALIFIED supervision?

I stand by my post. The original post asked for negatives. I gave him one. What was your contribution?
 
Somehow I feel like I should have posted something in this thread. However, I am on Double Secret Probation for numerous violations of decorum and must bite my tongue until it bleeds, which is difficult without teeth. :facepalm:
 
Exactly what difference does it make to the parents of the dead 18 year old? What difference would it make to YOU if you found out YOUR kid was playing with energetic materials without QUALIFIED supervision?

I stand by my post. The original post asked for negatives. I gave him one. What was your contribution?

Invoking the sadness of the parents does not overcome the fact you failed to meet the requirement of involving R-candy.

A kid got ran over my a bus in my town. His parents are sad. That means these kids shouldn't make r candy.

If you don't connect it to r-candy, it's not what the OP is looking for.


I don't understand why you don't understand that, and why you keep getting angry when people point it out.
 
I have a friend who told me that his high-schooler showed him a video of him and his friends test burning their batch of Rocket Candy.

To try to bring this thread back around to the origin- was the friend asking you about it in a "wow- that was cool- where can I do this?" way, or more from a "Should I be stopping this?" way? If you don't have the dad on board, you may not have much luck reaching the son.
 
I have a friend who told me that his high-schooler showed him a video of him and his friends test burning their batch of Rocket Candy.

I'm looking for information that he can use to educate (scare) his son and friends away from this approach and toward commercially available motors.

They are a smart bunch. They have launched instrumented weather balloons to +100k ft. and were even featured during Weather Day at the White Sox Cellular Field hosted by one of the country's premier meteorologists, Tom Skilling.

Anyway, Help in getting them steered in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

This is from a Mythbusters episode. They had intended to make smoke bombs, but it's still sugar propellant.
It catches fire in a big way.

[video=youtube;wf-ruZF7i1w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-ruZF7i1w[/video]
 
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