Thanks. I will give it a try. I have 100 feet of 30 awg witht he others. I will post a comparison.
...wire wrap tool, no solder.
I have made my own igniters for many years. They have been exceptionally reliable. My method can be found at the following web site: www.ajolleyplace.com/Igniters.html
As commercial igniters are very expensive I most likely have saved hundreds and perhaps over a thousand dollars using this method.
I went to your site and read the following:
"The ingredients for any of these pyrogens are finely ground if necessary. The ingredients are then combined as powders and mixed well." " 10 to 20 grams"
You are using metals [Al or Mag] plus oxidizers. One should NEVER mix these two together dry. Always mix metal powders into your liquids first, then oxidizers....keeps any dust from being airborne or dry mix from possible combustion.
One of the first safety rules learned when involved with pyro's. :smile:
Not adhering to this rule can cause bad things to happen.
Do you have a source for the thin yellow red twin wire Aerotech uses for the firstfire igniters for G motors,
or any other recommendation for small igniters?
Wouldn't any 30awg silver-plated Kynar-wrapped wire suffice, or are there other specifications that matter as well?
I have made very small igniters using Kynar wire. I strip a spot in the middle of the wire then stretch the copper at that point to reduce the diameter. I then used a "special " pyro mix that ignites easily and burns hot so a small quantity will light a motor.
Flattening the wire then reducing the width using sandpaper also worked.
M
What's Kynar? Is it magnet wire?
I'm not sure what type wire this is. I'm not sure you can make them any smaller (or why) I just know the sound they make when they go off!
Tony
I found this site, I'm not going to make dark flash or H3 because I'm not an expert pyrotechnician.
https://www.berfield.com/igniters.html
That is a good sight, but for my use, I don't make ematches. They are too cheap to buy commercially and very reliable. IMHO it's too much trouble to make your own and too much risk to the rocket to use them for deployment charges.
As of for regular motor igniters, I pretty much do the same thing as the site with the way I wrap the nichrome. I have my own formula that burns slow, about a second or more to finish an igniter, and has Mg shavings that fly off and embed in the propellant while burning at 5000 deg. It makes a very reliable motor igniter without the exotic materials. I bought all of mine at Wal-Mart.
In this day in age, I don't see the need to make motor igniters, either. Aerotech phased out the crummy Crapperheads in most motors, and the included igniter is now pretty reliable. The CTI ematch is also very good. Very rarely does the provided commercial igniter fail to ignite the motor and I need to do the walk of shame back to the pads. I keep a couple ematches, First Fires, and First Fire Jrs as backup in my pocket. These are readily purchased and homemades are not worth the effort.
Mostly true. If you make your own research motors, making igniters for them seems to be part of it. Also older motors (think 90s) can take a few tries to get going.
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