Thanks, I got my hexamine from Skylighter, they sell it in pure powdered form by the pound, I got 5 pounds for about $75. It's nice because there aren't any binders or impurities in it, typically the pressed fuel tablets are about 95-ish% pure with the rest being a binder (I have no idea what that consists of), while the powdered form is more like 99.8% pure which is much better for firework comps, and especially for chemistry work (I made some Copper Hexamine Perchlorate with it too, a really good and safe primary explosive). Skylighter is a pyros dream, they have everything you could ever want.
@@TheExplosiveGuy Sadly, Skylighter doesn't ship to Europe. I guess I have to go with the fuel tablets because of these shitty regulations here in the Europe on things like hexamine.
@@PlasmaPro8 Ahh that's a bummer, at least you can you still get fuel tablets. I'm sure they would still work just fine for something like what I made here, and you can always do a recrystallization if you need purer hexamine, it's highly soluble in water at 85 grams/100ml @ 20°C, and several other polar solvents like chloroform, acetone, ethanol, methanol and benzene, though much less so than water by a factor of 10 or more. I can run you through the recrystallization process if you'd like, it sounds difficult but it's super easy in actuality.
Lol I was out there for 20 minutes lighting these things off, I was mesmerized😅. As cool as it looks in the video it's even more impressive in person! Hexamine burns pretty slow so it's not the greatest for rockets but the flames are so unique, almost no smoke with tons of little faint orange sparks, it's quite gorgeous. These make awesome little firestarters too...
@@tomspeed2000 Sorry about getting back to you so late, but yeah the formula was 70% AP, 25% hexamine and 5% Red Gum as a binder. I made them by first finely grinding the AP and hexamine separately then blended them together with the 5% red gum by shaking it inside an inflated zip lock bag, then I poured the bag into a mixing bowl (don't use plastic, use glass, glazed ceramic or stainless steel) and added about 15% of the total mixture weight worth of acetone and thoroughly stirred it (outdoors) for a few minutes. Once it dried out a bit and became the consistency of modeling clay I started ramming it into a small metal tube about 6 inches long with polished walls using a slightly smaller plastic rod, which extruded a solid rod of the composition. Once the rods were pooped out the back end of the tube I laid them down on a silicone pad and let them dry for a day, this video took place about 24 hours after making them. I haven't made them for a while but the next time I do I will probably experiment with adding flame colorants and small amounts of additional fuels like powdered aluminum, zinc or copper, I think it would be pretty cool to cast a single solid rod that changes colors, brightness and burn rate as the burn progresses down.
Yeah I really like the way this stuff burns, it's so clean and I love all the tiny sparks it emits, they make great little firestarter sticks. I have done some small-scale testing with CHP, it's pretty cool stuff. I really like the fact it is so stable and friction insensitive, a lot of primaries are pretty sketchy to work with but CHP is pretty safe stuff. I did have a bit of a problem with ammonia vapors when I made it though lol, I gased myself out of my lab when the glass stopper in my flask popped out under pressure😅.
@@TheExplosiveGuyhave you tried any of the NAP (nickel aminoguanidine perchlorate) variants? They're awesome, seriously the best primary I've ever used. Easy to make too.
Amazing! Where did you get the hexamine from. Are those solid fuel tablets 99% hexamine?
Thanks, I got my hexamine from Skylighter, they sell it in pure powdered form by the pound, I got 5 pounds for about $75. It's nice because there aren't any binders or impurities in it, typically the pressed fuel tablets are about 95-ish% pure with the rest being a binder (I have no idea what that consists of), while the powdered form is more like 99.8% pure which is much better for firework comps, and especially for chemistry work (I made some Copper Hexamine Perchlorate with it too, a really good and safe primary explosive). Skylighter is a pyros dream, they have everything you could ever want.
@@TheExplosiveGuy Sadly, Skylighter doesn't ship to Europe. I guess I have to go with the fuel tablets because of these shitty regulations here in the Europe on things like hexamine.
@@PlasmaPro8 Ahh that's a bummer, at least you can you still get fuel tablets. I'm sure they would still work just fine for something like what I made here, and you can always do a recrystallization if you need purer hexamine, it's highly soluble in water at 85 grams/100ml @ 20°C, and several other polar solvents like chloroform, acetone, ethanol, methanol and benzene, though much less so than water by a factor of 10 or more. I can run you through the recrystallization process if you'd like, it sounds difficult but it's super easy in actuality.
@@PlasmaPro8you can make it with formaldehyde and ammonia I think
@@zahariburgess3660 Yeah, but it's much harder to get those chemicals than to get fuel tablets and recrystallize the hexamine in my country.
So beautiful
Lol I was out there for 20 minutes lighting these things off, I was mesmerized😅. As cool as it looks in the video it's even more impressive in person! Hexamine burns pretty slow so it's not the greatest for rockets but the flames are so unique, almost no smoke with tons of little faint orange sparks, it's quite gorgeous. These make awesome little firestarters too...
Is that 70% perchlorate and 20% Hexamine ?
@@tomspeed2000 Sorry about getting back to you so late, but yeah the formula was 70% AP, 25% hexamine and 5% Red Gum as a binder. I made them by first finely grinding the AP and hexamine separately then blended them together with the 5% red gum by shaking it inside an inflated zip lock bag, then I poured the bag into a mixing bowl (don't use plastic, use glass, glazed ceramic or stainless steel) and added about 15% of the total mixture weight worth of acetone and thoroughly stirred it (outdoors) for a few minutes. Once it dried out a bit and became the consistency of modeling clay I started ramming it into a small metal tube about 6 inches long with polished walls using a slightly smaller plastic rod, which extruded a solid rod of the composition. Once the rods were pooped out the back end of the tube I laid them down on a silicone pad and let them dry for a day, this video took place about 24 hours after making them.
I haven't made them for a while but the next time I do I will probably experiment with adding flame colorants and small amounts of additional fuels like powdered aluminum, zinc or copper, I think it would be pretty cool to cast a single solid rod that changes colors, brightness and burn rate as the burn progresses down.
That is cool, have you made copper hexamine perchlorate or CHP ?
Yeah I really like the way this stuff burns, it's so clean and I love all the tiny sparks it emits, they make great little firestarter sticks. I have done some small-scale testing with CHP, it's pretty cool stuff. I really like the fact it is so stable and friction insensitive, a lot of primaries are pretty sketchy to work with but CHP is pretty safe stuff. I did have a bit of a problem with ammonia vapors when I made it though lol, I gased myself out of my lab when the glass stopper in my flask popped out under pressure😅.
@@TheExplosiveGuyYea the high purity ammonia is something else.
@@jordanhess2061 No kidding, it's like weapons grade CS gas lol, it hits your sinuses like a mule kick😅.
@@TheExplosiveGuyhave you tried any of the NAP (nickel aminoguanidine perchlorate) variants? They're awesome, seriously the best primary I've ever used. Easy to make too.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 No I haven't, never even heard of it. What are the starter materials?
There is an excess of fuel in that composition