Skylighter Fireworks Tips Newsletter
January 27, 2002 -- Issue #30

WHITE STROBE FORMULA FOR ROCKETS

By John Steinberg

I would like to begin this article by thanking and crediting my instructors. Doc Barr introduced me to strobe rockets years ago. Steve LaDuke walked me through my first attempts at this formula. Without them, this article could not have been written.

White strobe formula follows the basic formula (in parts by weight):

Ammonium Perchlorate	60%
Metal (see below)	25%
Barium Sulfate	15%
Potassium Dichromate	5% additional, by weight

Nitrocellulose as a binder

Some of the ingredients require prior preparation. The ammonium perchlorate is ball milled for 2 hours with a hard milling medium, until it is of powdered, chalk-like consistency. The magnesium-aluminum (magnalium) metal I use is -200 mesh, and I ball mill 300 grams at a time for 3 hours with steel ball bearings as the milling medium. The potassium dichromate is ball milled for 18 hours to a very fine dust.

The chemicals used pose both inhalation and toxicity hazards and appropriate safety equipment is to be used.

The formula I like best uses as the metal component a mix of 23.5% ball milled 50:50 -200-mesh magnalium metal and 1.5% 60-100-mesh magnesium flake. Steve LaDuke and I have used a formula with 25% -200-mesh magnalium without ball milling it at all. It gives a slower strobing rate. The first formula yields a rapid strobe with a loud popping sound. Fred Partin has also used many strobe formulas of this and other colors and may be consulted as well for variations on this theme. For a very slow strobe, of no use in rockets where thrust is desired, you may use 25% 30-mesh magnalium.

The binder is standard 10% nitrocellulose (NC) lacquer diluted with acetone. I use 1 part NC lacquer to 3 parts acetone. The amount used in the mix is not critical. Doc Barr has even made rockets with this formula using no NC binder.

Start by sifting the ammonium perchlorate, metal, and potassium dichromate twice through a 40-mesh sieve. Then add the barium sulfate and sieve the entire mix through a 20-mesh sieve twice. To avoid corrosion, use stainless steel sieves.

Take the composition and add enough diluted NC lacquer to just barely moisten it. You should be able to squeeze it and have it hold its shape. One kilo utilizes approximately 4 to 5 ounces of diluted NC lacquer.

Granulate the moistened composition through a kitchen sieve of about 20 mesh or coarser using a 1.5-inch dowel section as a pestle. Dry the mixture thoroughly, at least 12 hours. It is now ready for use in making rockets.

The mixture has a long shelf life. I have used batches that have been stored for over three years. As with any pyrotechnic enterprise, use caution at all times, and be safe above all else.

Future articles will discuss other formulas and actual rocket motor assembly.

Here's the future: No clay nozzle is needed. For a two-pound strobe, press whistle comp for the first 1 3/8 inches and finish with strobe mix to 1/8th to 1/4 inch above the spindle top. Do not exceed ¼ inch above the top of the spindle. Strobe burns very slowly; if you press too much comp above the spindle, your rocket will burn all the way to the ground. Top off the rocket with about one inch of pressed whistle. Confine the tube in a sleeve when pressing.

NEVER RAM/HAMMER WHISTLE MIX! ALWAYS USE A PRESS. Pressures? If you are using a 12 ton hydraulic press, your pressures should be between 2,000 and 2,500 PSI on the gauge.

PURPLE SMOKE FORMULA

Thanks to the ever-prolific Jim Cook for this one. Recently Jim bought some of our new Disperse Red Smoke Dye from us. Playing with his own smoke formulas, he came up with this one for purple smoke. All numbers are parts by weight.

Cook’s Purple Smoke

________________________________

Disperse Red Dye	80
Potassium Chlorate	56
Sodium Bicarbonate	46
Sulfur	10

Jim says to first reduce each ingredient to very fine powder and then mix very, very well.

If you want to know more about smokes, making them, using them in different devices, take at look at "Smoke Generation: Tactical, Survival, Civilian", Gary Purrington’s totally rewritten (2001) book describing many ways to make smoke devices and what works and doesn’t. We also have "Smokes: The How and the Why" a video taped seminar by the now infamous Dr. Joe Domanico, head of the US Army pyro team at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Although I would not leave him in a room alone with any woman I cared to ever be with again, Joe does have smoke dye under his nails and may indeed be what he pretends to be.

Disperse Red Smoke Dye (#CH8264), $23.85 per pound
Smoke Generation: Tactical, Survival, Civilian (#BK0147), $29.95
Smokes: The How & The Why (#VD0157 NTSC format) $29.95 (PAL and SECAM formats available, too)

NEW VIDEOS

Hybrid Black Powder Rockets by Steve LaDuke. Black powder rockets that whistle. You probly ain’t never seen such like as that. #VD0201, $29.95 (available in all formats)

Choreography by Computer. Aaron Enzer, who choreographed that great Michigan club show in Fargo two years ago, tells how to do it. Choreographing fireworks to music is what elevates pyrotechnics to an art form. #VD0207, $29.95 (available in all formats)

How Computer Firing Systems Work. Aaron Enzer shows how the Fire One system works. #VD0204, $29.95 (available in all formats)

THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL DEALS: ALL END AT 9:00 AM, FEBRUARY 5, 2002

To take advantage of either or both of the deals below, you can order the same ways you normally would. The fastest way is to use the shopping cart on our web site to do it. Just order everything you want, then tell us in the comments block which additional items you’re taking at either 1/3 off or free. The only catch is that your shipping charges will be higher than the order showing on the shopping cart indicates. No, you can’t count the 1/3-off magnesium-aluminum as part of your total in the Divorce Sale.


This is just like last week’s sale on magnesiums, but slightly different. Please read carefully.

As you may have heard, we know of no affordable, feasible way to ship magnesium-aluminum powders using any US carriers. Nope. Not the good ole US mail, nor UPS, nor Fedex (except by air-but it’ll set you back $50-$75 minimum). Nosir. They won’t take it. Nooooo. They won’t, they won’t, they won’t. And that means we are stuck with bunches of stuff we can’t sell. It is just taking up space. So what better thing to put on sale than something you just cain’t hardly git? Huh? So, here’s the deal. Buy 5 pounds or more of it from us now at 1/3 off the one-pound price, and we will deliver it to you any of the conventions and shoots we go to during the coming year. For a list of convention and shoot dates, just go to http://www.skylighter.com/skylighter_info_pages/festvals.asp. You can also come by and pick it up or have one of your minions do it for you. We’re in Northern Virginia, west of Washington, DC, and within about hour of I-66, I-70, I-81, I-95; or an hour and a half from I-83.

***Buy 5 lbs or more of any of our magnesium-aluminums, and knock 33% off the one-pound price.***

Yes, you can mix and match: you can order 1 pound each of 5 different products or any combination you want. If you order from our web site, just ask for this special deal in the comments section of your order. Be sure and tell us which shoot you want it delivered to or if you’ll be coming by to pick it up. Also tell us when.


Another thing we cain’t ship until we get our act together is barium nitrate, in particular the granular variety. It is good stuff. It just needs to be ball milled to be used. We’ll make you the same kinda deal as with the magnesium-aluminum. Buy it at this great price now, and we’ll bring it to any of the shoots or conventions we attend this year. So here’s the deal. Buy 20 lbs. or more of CH5101 barium nitrate and you can knock 50% of the single pound price (normally $3.05). That means you can steal it from us at $1.53 per pound or until it’s gone. Or better yet, buy it by the 110 pound bag, and you can have it for a buck a pound. If you wait until next weekend to order it, and some weasel gets it all before you do, don’t come whinin’ to us. Because, as you know, all we will do is laugh at poor ole pitiful you.

This one’s just like last week’s Divorce Sale, but a little spicier, a little pricier. If it sounds like a broken record, read on. It’s BETTER’N last week’s sale-they’s more choices. ***Here’s the deal: Buy $119.19 worth of anything in our catalog or web site and take any ONE of the following for free:***

Aluminum flake, -400 mesh German, #CH0143	5 lbs., a $55 value
Aluminum flake, fine flitters, 100-325 mesh, #CH0140	5 lbs., a $45 value
Aluminum, firefly, fine, #CH0149	5 lbs., a $36 value
Copper chloride, campfire blue, #CH8091	5 lbs., a $31 value
Iron oxide, red, #CH8168	10 lbs., a $42 value
Potassium chlorate, chunky style, #CH5205	10 lbs., a $33 value
Potassium nitrate, chunky style, #CH5301	20 lbs., a $50 value
Strontium nitrate, chunky style, #CH5544	15 lbs., a $45 value
Titanium flakes, -10-100 mesh, #CH3049	5 lbs., a $72 value

Buy $238.38 worth of anything and take any two of the items above free, and so on.


Wade through it now or weep later. This fine print is different from last week's fine print. It supersedes all previous fine print.

- You have to ask for either or both of these deals when you place your order-not retroactively.

- You have to get your order into our hot little hands/email/fax/ear before 9:00 AM Eastern Time (not Kuala Lumpur time, not Central, Rocky Mt. nor Pacific time) on Tuesday, February 5, 2002. If we're not here, send an email or leave a phone message (both are automatically date and time-stamped). Postmarked before the deadline don't count. Faxed at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, the 5th don't count, neither.

- You have to ask for this/these deal(s) when you place your order-you're not allowed to forget and then remember. You cannot order yesterday and get this deal today. We will not apply it to the last order you placed, no matter how much we love you, nor how good a customer you you think you are.

- The $119.19 minimum order total cannot include anything showing as "Temporarily Unable to Ship" or unshippable on our web site unless you’re gonna pick it up or have us deliver it. In which case, simply write your order for those things in the Comments section of your order.

- We are not able to ship hazardous materials outside the US. Only non-hazardous items can be exported.

- The $119.19 total cannot include shipping charges or sales taxes.

- No funny money given or taken on either special.

- If you order $119.19 worth of stuff, you get to chose one of the items in the list above free. If you order $238.38 of goods, you can take two items free, and so on. If you order $119.18 wortha stuff, you don't get nothin' fer free! We are tough sonsabeeches.

- You have to prepay your order before the deadline, or give us your credit card number. You cain't place the order, and get us to hold it for you, until your allowance/alimony/social security check comes. Hah!

- You have to ask for this deal when you place your order-right then; at the same time; in the same email; in the comments block of yer web site order; when you're talking to us on the phone; in the fax you send; in the letter you mail; in the chicken scratchings wrapped around the yer homing pigeon's leg; in the same bottle your order washed up in; on the same flying carpet your messenger flew in on; wrapped around the same rock that crashed through our winder here; stuck in the same hole in the same tree trunk; in the exact same puff of smoke you signaled your order with.

- This/these deals cannot be combined with any other specials or special discounts. The half-priced magnesium-aluminum, nor el-cheapo barium nitrate does not count toward your total in the Broken Record Sale. Nosireebob.

- No, we won't give you this deal on the order you have already sent us, because remember? You didn't ask for the deal back then!

- Yes, we really did conspire to send out this deal right after we got your huge order at full price! You KNOW we did! Must have!


Tom W. and a host of other lazy bastids pestered us to "remember" all their name and address info on the web site shopping cart, so they wouldn’t have to re-enter it every time they ordered from Skylighter directly that way. Picky, picky, picky (I know. I shouldn’t poke fun at those of you who have pyrotechnically acquired a digital deficit, and are now forevermore sexually and keyboard impaired). So I passed those whiny requests along to the long-suffering Greg Culler, who is the person here who charged with actualizing all such fantasies. $4,563.71 later, he had done it. I, of course, was so delighted by the price of this supreme accomplishment, that I promptly went home, tossed down half a quart of some new untaxed tequila sent to me illicitly by a grateful pyro jailbird, and began approaching totally strange wimmen on various internet dating services in a giddily successful attempt to drown my sorrows in female flesh.

So the latest wrinkle in continuing our web site adventure is a new log in procedure. What you do is create a user name and password, and then give us your name, address, and the usual stuff. Write your password down somewhere (I know, I know, you need yet another password like a hole in yer haid-but think about US-now we have to remember ALL of ‘em, not just yours). The upshot is that every time you order from now on, just enter your username and password. The shopping cart will then display somebody’s name and address, hopefully yours, and you can proceed to the checkout. It will not save or remember your credit card. For security reasons, you will have to enter that every time.

If you don’t want to actually buy something, mayhaps you just want to check on prices and shipping charges to your remote location somewhere south of Tora Bora, you even skip all the rigamorole described above and get a quick order total estimate (including shipping and any sales taxes) avoiding the agonizing trauma of creating a username and password with just three fingers.

Again, I entreaty you to forgive us whatever glitches you may encounter. But do let us know of any problems, objections, hassles you may encounter as we continue to make our web site interface a moving target for those of you who are especially web site challenged.


I suggest you continue to check on the Miscellaneous Chemicals page, to which strange and wonderful oddities, often completely non-pyro related, are added from day to day. Some of these things only last a few minutes on the site before they are scarfed up by suckers who don’t know any better, but who were (like the guy who snaked your girlfriend, Sally Lou back in high school) ahead of you. Trust me on this: if you knew an item was once on the site, and now you see it is no longer on the site, it is as gone as Sally Lou from you. But go ahead and write us anyway and ask if it’s gone. We are framing all your whiny little missives and now have created a new "wailing wall" here in the back offices of Toxic Central. New stuff there soon (or gone by the time you read this, who knows?)

Gallic acid
Nitrocellulose powder
Boron
Barium peroxide
Thermit
Zirconium boride
Lithium nitrate
Hexachlorobenzene
Thermit
Copper powder
Zirconium Boride
Nitrocellulose powder
Molybdenum
Sodium
Lead powder
Resorcinol
Titanium -300 mesh


Dear suckers, I mean customers:

Irv Snerd here with some helpful tips.
Hey rocket men, havin' a little trouble gettin it up?
Hey shell makers, suffering from inadequate lift?
Hey gerb burners, too little duration on the burn time?
Hey roman candle makers, that last star comin' out a little weak?
Hey salute makers, is it all over in a flash and a bang?
Well, I just happened to notice that old Gilliam has the answer to all your problems!
Me and the missus (well the missus of the day anyway) just happened to notice Skylighter's sellin' a new catalyst: sildenafil citrate!
Improves burn time, lift and thrust, & repetitive propulsive action in all systems.
Guess he don't need it no more now that he's divorced.
Oh well, his loss = our gain!
I'm gettin' all I can before the sumbitch catches on and raises his prices.
Git you some too, quick before it becomes unobtainium.

Sildenafil citrate: antidote for potassium nitrate $10 a hit
(Prescriptions joyfully made by Drs. Barr, Vico, Steinberg, Domanico, and Kimbrough)


Keep in mind that the prices on most of our products increased last October 14th. No, the new and accurate catalog has not been printed yet. You should check our web site for the current prices on whatever you order. And don't come whinin' to us that you now want last week's special deal this week, nor this week's special applied to last week's order. Nosireebob. We are just scrooched up here around the phones, making high-quality recordings of the most laughable, whiney, requests we get.