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Author	Topic: sugar rockets
newbie1 Frequent Poster	posted March 09, 2000 06:11 PM i need to know why this is not working. i just bought some stump remover (i heard i had KNO3) sulfur fungicide, and powerded sugar. i then mixed it to a ratio of 7 teaspoons stump remover, 2 teaspoons powerded sugar, and 1 sulfur and shook it up in a plastic container. when i tried to burn a little of this mixture on my bench it only melted the sugar into little black beads. what is wrong here? the stump remover not KNO3? any suggestions would be helpfull and thx ahead of time. [This message has been edited by newbie1 (edited March 09, 2000).]
VeHeMT Frequent Poster	posted March 09, 2000 07:00 PM Way too many things are wrong. Chemicals, you used stump remover which could have contained god knows what else. The sulfur usually has some kind of soap I believe to make it water soluable. The sugar is fine though. Preparation, except for the sugar, the others are likely to be far too coarse. This is where a mortar and pestle or ball mill come in handy. Dont use volume to measure, it is done by weight for pyrotechnic compositions, of course, unless otherwise stated.
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 09, 2000 07:17 PM Does the stump remover smell like crap? if it does its very impure KNO3, i got another stump remover (only other content was potassium carbonate) and doesn't stink, i used it to make fuming nitric acid, i was surprised that it wasn't even that impure, but the yield wasn't as good as using chemical KNO3. Anyway, if the mixtures fizzle or ignite when placed under a flame, it contains KNO3. A better place to get sulfur is from your drug store "Sulfur flowers", which is suitable for experimenting purposes, you can get about 3 to 4 ounces for few $$.
newbie1 Frequent Poster	posted March 09, 2000 08:25 PM the sulfur i bought was %90 sulfur, and %10 "Other Ingredients". is this not pure enough? what are "other ingredients"? also the stump remover called "Stump-Out" did not list the ingredients and it had a very strong odor and kinda stings your nose. could i purify it?
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 10, 2000 02:11 AM The sulfur you want to get is the drug store kind because it's U.S.P. and usually USP bought chemicals have to be of high purity. There are two types of Stump removers i obtained: [.1.] Bought from hardware store, in a can (Now you can in a can...7UP yours... damn t.v.) It had a repulsive, stinging odor, in it, it contained a white powder with little yellow particles inside it. I haven't experimented with this material, and i'm not even sure if it's KNO3. [.2.] I bought another from a home-improvement store "Potassium nitrate & Stump remover", i was walking by this section and was like, hell yeah!, potassium nitrate. so the only ingrediants read Potassium nitrate and potassium carbonate, when i ground this white powder (almost no smell) and mixed it with sugar, and then i ignited it and it burned appearing to have about half of the oxidizing power of chem. grade KNO3, so then i seperated the tiny KNO3 balls from the Potassium carbonate balls, experimenting alot with combusting KNO3-mixtures, so i could distinctly and strangely tell them apart, seperation was done with tweezers, only because i wanted to experiment with small amounts, and then i ground up this mostly containing KNO3, mixed with sugar and ignited, burning fiercly. then made the red fuming nitric acid from it too. If you want to seperate these two from another, you will have to find a solvent that KNO3 and potassium carbonate are soluble or insoluble in, to either crystallize or precipitate the KNO3... And make sure you don't breathe alot of Sulfur dioxide fumes made by combusting Sulfur, as they will give long agonizing minutes of headaches, and delayed bloody noses (even weeks after), nausea (feel like crap) and can give rise to bronchitits (pot smokers experience this problem).
newbie1 Frequent Poster	posted March 10, 2000 03:03 PM what numbers mean pure pottasium nitrate?? ( you know something like 0-0-60 or something ) and could someone also tell me what the numbers for A.N. are??
Ho ju Moderator	posted March 10, 2000 03:20 PM AN is 34-0-0...that was what i was told a while ago ------------------ -Knowledge is power, power leads to corruption, corruption is a crime, crime doesn't pay. So if you know to much you will go broke!!! http://members.xoom.com/Splynncryth
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 10, 2000 07:08 PM "13-0-38" is the claimed fertilizer code for KNO3.
newbie1 Frequent Poster	posted March 12, 2000 05:04 PM is muriate of potash KN03??? What is it?
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 12, 2000 07:05 PM Muriate of potash is Potassium chloride (KCl)! Potassium nitrate is Potash of Nitrate (KNO3)!
newbie1 Frequent Poster	posted March 12, 2000 08:50 PM What can I use Potassium chloride for??? It was in a clear bag and was reddish pebbles. The numbers were 0-0-60.
VeHeMT Frequent Poster	posted March 12, 2000 10:07 PM It can be converted into chlorate through electrolytic reaction, or perchlorate.
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 13, 2000 04:59 PM reddish pebbles? You have impurities! Because potassium chloride is a colorless or white compound.
Maddoc Frequent Poster	posted March 14, 2000 05:40 PM Seeing the title of sugar rockets I had to post this link to the old moderator Andy's site. Its on the amazing 5 cent sugar rocket. http://www.calisland.com/apcg/chemistry/index.html They are magnificent, enjoy. ------------------ Whoa, where my fingers?
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 21, 2000 10:32 PM And another thing i forgot to mention is the difference between "Sulfur Flower" and "Sulfur Flour", the material i purchased could have been Sulfur flour, not flower, not sure exactly.Sulfur flower, flowers of sulfur, or sublimed sulfur as it is called, is contaminated with the hydrate oxides eg, sulfurous and sulfuric acids which make the pyrotechnic mixture unsafe, therefore shouldn't be, and isn't used in pyrotechnics. so if its flowers with the "flow" then it is bad news, "Sulfur flour" with the "flou" is used pyrotechnics, a difference is that the sulfur flour is ground and sieved crystalline material. The Sulfur flower is the kind used in agriculture, Since the acids are both good soluble in water, one can try forcing the unsoluble sulfur flower under water and washing it, once in water, and once in a aqeous sodium bicarbonate solution for a couple minutes, then leaving the sulfur to dry.
uberchlor unregistered	posted March 22, 2000 09:20 PM From the Merck index: "Washed Sulfur", made by treating sublimed sulfur (sulfur flower) with ammonia to dissolve impurities, particularily arsenic (the U.S.A. sulfur contains practically no arsenic) and to remove traces of acid.

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