SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
Has anyone else noticed that tracking powder is not available through normal venders?
Tracking Pawder
- Thread starter SEWAR
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What do you mean by tracking powder? Coloured dye? Poster paint powder?
Have you got a supplier example for us to see so we can all be on the same page for this conversation.
Have you got a supplier example for us to see so we can all be on the same page for this conversation.
rharshberger
Well-Known Member
Tempura Paint powder or carpenters chalk line chalk are the most common tracking powders I see people use. Easy to get at Craft stores, walmart and or Lowes depending on which you are looking for.
SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
Carpenters chalk powder! Yep! Thank you!
Or you could do proper Nike Smoke tracking with Titanium Tetrachloride..........Looks like you can still get it in 44's from China...https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Titanium-Tetrachloride-Quality-Titanium-Tetrachloride-Ticl4_1600205355794.html?spm=a2700.7735675.normal_offer.d_title.4de56fcdXQXnNA&s=p
Yep, chalk powder for chalk lines available at most good hardware stores in various colours. Very puffy. Little bit in the chute produces a puff at ejection.
rharshberger
Well-Known Member
And chalk is not nearly as hazardous as TiCl4 aka Tickle Four....
I'd hate to think what the paperwork would be like. Better to do it in a French speaking part of the Pacific..........
I used some 30 years ago to do a smoking gun effect for TV. Little bit on a modelling brush painted on the end of the gun for a close up. All good. Thoroughly cleaned brush and put it in my toolbox. Next day EVERY tool in the box was rusty.... Never again.
I see you can now get gender reveal chalk powder. Going to be funny when the baby comes out in a full puff of blue or pink or a mixture......
I see you can get corn starch based colour powder. Don't use that. Any STARCH or flour mix in air can be explosive.
I see you can get corn starch based colour powder. Don't use that. Any STARCH or flour mix in air can be explosive.
erockets lists tracking powder but is currently out of stock.
I would think that it might leave a mess on your recovery gear.
eRockets Tracking Powder Burst of Orange
I would think that it might leave a mess on your recovery gear.
eRockets Tracking Powder Burst of Orange
I was kind of wondering that, too....though having the puff at ejection might help find models that go high, especially against an overcast sky, even if optical altitude tracking isn't the intent.
To that point, we had overcast skies in Colorado for NARAM-56 (which DID use optical altitude tracking) and people soon figured out that the best tracking powder under those conditions was black chalkline chalk and an enterprising competitor went the several miles from the field to the Lowe's south of Pueblo and bought out all the black chalk they had and brought it back to the field, happily reselling it to the rest of us (who were happy to buy it to avoid the dreaded "track lost" altitude scores). I had fluorescent pink tempera paint with me, but the black worked MUCH better under those conditions.
Yup, it sure does. The way I was shown how to use it was to cup it in a square of wadding and slide that carefully in above the recovery gear (streamer in my case for that event). It still makes a mess, and my winning B Cluster Altitude model from NARAM-56 is quite stained on its fluorescent yellow exterior from that black chalk.
SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
Hahaha!!!
I think you meant TEMPRA paint . . . Unless it's a "Japanese" rocket ?
LOL !
Dave F.
I'm just going to leave this here. (The color didn't come out as intense as I hoped but it still mostly worked)
SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
Very nice!
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Leak detection powder is what I have. I've done absolutely zero a/b testing.
MClark
Well-Known Member
I like DayGlo pigment
Orange spot is 35 cubic inches at 80,000 feet.
Orange spot is 35 cubic inches at 80,000 feet.
SEWAR
The Rocket Lodge
Sooner Boomer
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Just *gotta* post this...
powder helped track exact point of impact...
powder helped track exact point of impact...
I flew eggloft at NARAM-12. Back then it was just one class 0-80 N-S. I launched a D13 powered model ballasted up the to 500 gram limit with tracking powder. One of the D13s catoed and it was back on the ground in no time. A bunch of kids surrounded it as I yelled to get back. Some kids got painted that day.Just *gotta* post this...
powder helped track exact point of impact...
High Desert Rocketry
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Years ago I used dry lake dust in some of my rocket parachutes/ deployment blanket. Worked if the skies were blue. In overcast it was not visible.
