Hi M&D. Great video. You seem to read my mind. I promised myself to make some compositions containing metals, including copper, bronze and brass ... so I was able to find these metals of about 30 microns in size. Now I see your video that couldn't have come at a better time. I will try powders similar to yours, but increasing them slightly to reach 15%, metal content and also adding a little parlon. However in your video I seem to see that you already get a light blue green color. Cutting the electrical cable to get copper is a wonderful idea. I must say that your videos are always a great starting point! Mythical. Always waiting for your videos. Thanks and bye .... from Italy !!!
Yeah I absolutely love simple experiments with compositions, this may not be the perfect mesh size of Copper but I wanted to test it anyways. Thanks for commenting as always Alex :)
I developed a glitter composition with copper powder (about 10%), but the flashes from this comp were white. Maybe if you somehow add a chlorine donor... But I don't know which one can be stable at this temperature.
good experiment enjoyed it much. maybe if you let the copper oxidize and use some parlon for a chlorine donner the results might be better. parlon is a common ingredient in many colored star recipes. i did see a slight greenish tint in the tail of the last star. Anyone else?
Thanks, I may have to go back once and re-do this experiment, will see. I re-watched it again and not sure if I saw much green, maybe someone will pick it up also, as you did.
I have gotten good *blue* stars with Cu *powder* using KClO3, additional chlorine donor, and corn starch, plus binder. My attempts to get color from bronze and brass key filings salvaged from a locksmith produced no color.
@@firework7516On looking in my lab notebook from ~20 years ago, I see the just plain *stars* I made then were actually from KClO4, not KClO3. However, more recently I made some blue go-getters that were powerful enough that, cast into half inch diameter cylinders on a 10d nail core and given a bamboo skewer as a stick, flew from the ground: KClO3 40 parts Parlon 16 parts Cu metal, 200 mesh 19 parts The chlorate and Parlon were triple sieved together. Then the copper was diapered in and the mixture wetted with 90% dried acetone, 10% mineral spirit. Just increase those numbers by 1/3 if you want percentages. I have formulas for a regular blue star using chlorate, but copper oxychloride rather than metal, and the other using copper metal but perchlorate.
@@firework7516If you're interested in the other formulas using 200 mesh Cu powder, besides the go-getter I gave the formula for above, here's a blue star: KClO4 36 parts Cu 6 Parlon 4 S flour 3 red gum 3 shellac (-120 mesh) 8 This was diapered, sieved, and rolled with denatured alcohol. Priming was mill dust with added silicon using 33% alcohol/water. Shellac round stars rolled with alcohol take a long time to dry and come out hard. A blue lance: KClO4 36 parts corn starch 10 Cu 6 S flour 3 Saran 5 Purple stars: KClO4 66.7% Saran 9.5% SrCO3 8.7% Cu 5.6% red gum 4.8% corn starch 4.8% These must have used non-aqueous binding, because corn starch in that amount would not have held it together well. My notes don't say the solvent, but it might have been acetone to dissolve the red gum and partially dissolve the Saran; I'm not sure alcohol would've produced a hard enough product. However, it was adapted from a formula attributed to "JOBIBO" that was +5% dextrin-bound.
I tried this but my copper was alot more powder like, since i used a file on a piece of copper, and it worked! It was a very light blue though, and on camera it looked white
How to make beginner friendly stars: cutt.ly/tJVt0Ma
Hi M&D. Great video. You seem to read my mind. I promised myself to make some compositions containing metals, including copper, bronze and brass ... so I was able to find these metals of about 30 microns in size. Now I see your video that couldn't have come at a better time. I will try powders similar to yours, but increasing them slightly to reach 15%, metal content and also adding a little parlon. However in your video I seem to see that you already get a light blue green color. Cutting the electrical cable to get copper is a wonderful idea. I must say that your videos are always a great starting point! Mythical. Always waiting for your videos. Thanks and bye .... from Italy !!!
Yeah I absolutely love simple experiments with compositions, this may not be the perfect mesh size of Copper but I wanted to test it anyways. Thanks for commenting as always Alex :)
I developed a glitter composition with copper powder (about 10%), but the flashes from this comp were white. Maybe if you somehow add a chlorine donor... But I don't know which one can be stable at this temperature.
Try gathering more copper next time and ball mill it. Mix it in with some flash comp and you'll hopefully see better results.
You can get a decent blue with finer copper and some Saran or parlon.
Not a lot of compositions that use plain copper for blue, curious to see one.
@@agenttassadar7272I've given some above.
Copper burns green.
The Spaniards are using this with half the copper being pure metal:
KClO4 55
Copper(II)oxide 7
Copper 7
Parlon 9
Red gum 9
Hexamine 4
MgAl
Do you think it would work if you milled the copper to make it thinner?
Why not to try copper powder? Or as more available copper bronze powder from paint stores?
good experiment enjoyed it much. maybe if you let the copper oxidize and use some parlon for a chlorine donner the results might be better. parlon is a common
ingredient in many colored star recipes. i did see a slight greenish tint in the tail of the last star. Anyone else?
Thanks, I may have to go back once and re-do this experiment, will see. I re-watched it again and not sure if I saw much green, maybe someone will pick it up also, as you did.
Wher can I get parlon?
Used for what in industry?
Yes, I saw that too.
Hi. Is dextrin necessarily needed to make starts for these starguns?
yes
For green use copper 2 oxide.
I have gotten good *blue* stars with Cu *powder* using KClO3, additional chlorine donor, and corn starch, plus binder. My attempts to get color from bronze and brass key filings salvaged from a locksmith produced no color.
would you mind sharing the formula you created?
@@firework7516On looking in my lab notebook from ~20 years ago, I see the just plain *stars* I made then were actually from KClO4, not KClO3. However, more recently I made some blue go-getters that were powerful enough that, cast into half inch diameter cylinders on a 10d nail core and given a bamboo skewer as a stick, flew from the ground:
KClO3 40 parts
Parlon 16 parts
Cu metal, 200 mesh 19 parts
The chlorate and Parlon were triple sieved together. Then the copper was diapered in and the mixture wetted with 90% dried acetone, 10% mineral spirit.
Just increase those numbers by 1/3 if you want percentages.
I have formulas for a regular blue star using chlorate, but copper oxychloride rather than metal, and the other using copper metal but perchlorate.
@@firework7516If you're interested in the other formulas using 200 mesh Cu powder, besides the go-getter I gave the formula for above, here's a blue star:
KClO4 36 parts
Cu 6
Parlon 4
S flour 3
red gum 3
shellac (-120 mesh) 8
This was diapered, sieved, and rolled with denatured alcohol. Priming was mill dust with added silicon using 33% alcohol/water. Shellac round stars rolled with alcohol take a long time to dry and come out hard.
A blue lance:
KClO4 36 parts
corn starch 10
Cu 6
S flour 3
Saran 5
Purple stars:
KClO4 66.7%
Saran 9.5%
SrCO3 8.7%
Cu 5.6%
red gum 4.8%
corn starch 4.8%
These must have used non-aqueous binding, because corn starch in that amount would not have held it together well. My notes don't say the solvent, but it might have been acetone to dissolve the red gum and partially dissolve the Saran; I'm not sure alcohol would've produced a hard enough product. However, it was adapted from a formula attributed to "JOBIBO" that was +5% dextrin-bound.
Are your mortar tubes just hot glued to the base?
No, always wood-glued.
Need a clorine donor, try;-- 60% kclo4- 18% Copper power - 13 % Parlon - 8 % sulfur - 6% ted gum- bind with acetone. Really close to AP blues m8
I wish you had weighed your lift. I know 10% is rule of thumb but I find in the smaller ones that it takes around 2 grams to get good lift. Cheers
Yeah, if you don't have a "lift cup" for smaller stars, you may need to put a bit more lift charge, cheers pyro!
I tried this but my copper was alot more powder like, since i used a file on a piece of copper, and it worked! It was a very light blue though, and on camera it looked white
Great!
I burned copper like that, and it was green. I made blue stars using copper oxide red.
I did something similar with a fountain but also no notisable results
Same here using key filings from a locksmith.
Why don't the stars seem to explode
They burn, they don't make explosions. In some cases yes, actually :)
Copper was way too big