New to this website ignitor ??

[Rocketman 13]

Hey I am new here not to rocketry been doing rocketry since I was 5 now I am 13 so 8 years of somewhat experience.Well any way the biggest rockets I have ever acheived has been mid power.My Question is that today I was testing my launch controller with an Estes ignitor on the end the black stuff burned off and left a bright orange glow.So I stuck the ignitor in a motor and taped it to a brick then I pressed the launch button and it buened!!It was a B6-4.I then examined the ignitor and pressed the launch button again and it still glowed.Has anone tried this?Can some of the ignitors be resuable? Thanks Rocketman 13

 

[Rocketman248]

That sometimes happens with the Estes igniters. The nicrome wire actually melts and forms a ball at the end. You could probably get away with using it a couple times.

 

[jflis]

The way the ignitors are made is like this:

Two wires (copper with nickle plating i believe) are bent and taped in place (these are the two leads that you see).

At the tip, where they come close together, a small bridge of nichrome wire connects the two ends of the lead wires. This is a very small gauge wire (very thin).

This is then dipped in the pyrogen (igniter solution - black stuff) and you have your igniter.

The tape is provided to give the igniter some strength as the nichrom bridge will break easily if not protected.

When you hook it up to a battery, the nichrome gets hot and that is what lights the pyrogen, which starts the engine.

If you have weak batteries or low voltage, you will be providing enough current to make the nichrome *glow* (like a stove burner), but not enough to burn it though (fuse it).

This is what is happening with your ignitors. Are they reuseable, not generally. If you launched a rocket with this set up, the rocket would launch fine (though there may be a noticable delay between pushing the launch button and the rocket actually igniting), but the blast from the igniting rocket engine would most likely destroy what was left of the igniter.

Hope all of that made some sense...

jim

 

[Rocketman 13]

Thanks for that info.I better check my batterys LOL Thanks Rocketman 13

 

[Ryan S.]

I have seen that happen before. The Nichrome just doesnt break and when you put a current through it it will glow. You could use them agian but it wouldnt be very reliable. I wonder if you could recoat them, that would make them functional agian (I think)

 

[rabidsheeep]

anyone ever tried tiger stripe igniters before? i kinda like them better...

 

[Rocketman 13]

I heard it is the same thing as a toaster but it only works once.If you could find some of that black stuff you could make your own and make some extra bucks LoL Rocketman 13

 

[BlueNinja]

Actually you can make your own. There is this stuff called Magnelite, it is magnesium(i think) and will light just about anything. You can dip Estes ignitors in it, and it will make them real powerful. Alos it enhances the AT igniters a lot.

 

[Rocketman 13]

Were can you get that stuff? Rocketman 13

 

[BlueNinja]

go to

RocketFlite


I think thats it


EDIT: Yep, it's on the products page.

 

[Rocketman 13]

Thanks Rocketman 13