Well, i think our currency is on the rise and the economy is getting better, especially with christmas on the way. If i lived in another country I would consider exchanging some of my money for the dollar, then when its value increases change back.

"If i lived in another country I would consider exchanging some of my money for the dollar, then when its value increases change back."

 

I thought about that too. I have on the other hand, bought several products from America recently (Two games, DVD's, my lanthanide collection...). I hope dollar doesn't suddenly and dramatically increase in value because of the Geiger-counter I'm going to buy soon from the US of A.

I got my magnesium ribbon on ebay and it was dirt cheap.

 

By the way, electronic ignition for fireworks normally consists of nichrome AND a fuse. The nichrome is used to light the fuse.

 

Grrrrr, I’m out of town for thanksgiving but my aluminum powder I ordered from United Nuclear should have been delivered today. Too bad I'm not there.

which al powder?

"which al powder?"

 

Probably German, dark pyrograde Al... >:/ Lucky bastard.

yeah, figures. i have a bit of it meself:)

i call it dust tho, not powder

"i call it dust tho, not powder"

 

I call my powdered metals Jiminy Billy-Bob.

 

...

 

Not that I'd actually have any powdered metals.

want a cookie?

:\

the german dark is called dust actually

Well OK, it's dust. Have you tried making flash powder or a thermite mix with it?

sadly i have yet to. usually i just marvel at it. i used a piece of paper to funnel it into a 60mL bottle and the paper actually caught a bunch of the dust. when i tapped the paper to get the dust out, it flew up into the air...i love the stuff. seriously, if you looked at the bottle you would think it were a liquid. it even flows like a liquid when you move the bottle

nice

why nopt just buy a roll of MG ribon? its £9' date=' thats better then looking high and low for other things,

 

If need be buy some I'll go halfs on a roll.[/quote']

Mg ribbons ok(ish) it only has a 40% 1`st time success rate on some thermits though

 

Sparklers are well up in the high 90s

hmm, i just thought of a wonderful exotic thermite; silver fluoride and lithium, done in a helium atmosphere (hey, you never know, even, say, neon may be oxidized by the fluorine otherwise). who wants to make bets that you wouldnt even have to heat your components to get them to react? takers, anyone?

Mg ribbons ok(ish) it only has a 40% 1`st time success rate on some thermits though

 

Sparklers are well up in the high 90s

 

lol. so you need to put in 3 fuses, giving 120% chance,

 

lol.

heheheheh, I`m not sure it works that way, although we have done 3 Mg ribbon tests, but not at the same time. often if it doesn`t work on the second time, it certainly won`t on the 3`rd, maybe the Mg oxide gets in the way or its just not hot enough or wont get deeper than the surface layer?

I suspect the latter with a touch of the 1`st one.

 

eitherway, it`s not a good ignition method, and with things like this you NEED Reliability!

I lit some with Mg shavings and Ammonium nitrate mixed together. I'm sure you could use any oxidizer, though.

Ammonium Nitrate`s not all that good an oxidiser for pyro, try a Chlorate next time, you`ll be pleasantly surprised at the difference

"Ammonium Nitrate`s not all that good an oxidiser for pyro"

 

I agree. It's good for "other stuff" though.

yes if your intention is to shake the earth:))))

Magnesium ribbon is actually the method reccomended for igniting a thermite reaction in just about every single place I've looked. The burning magnesium gets VERY hot so heat is definitely not a problem, and the UV radiation given off will also help overcome the activation energy barrier. The reason why if it doesn't work the first time it won't work the second time, etc. etc. is most likely because of the thermite mixture itself, not the magnesium ribbon. I've discovered that with a thermite, the ingredients need to be VERY intimately mixed. If they are not, there's a chance that your ignition source will hit an area that isn't mixed properly and therefore the whole thing won't ignite. I've found that the best way to mix the ingredients is to put them into a volatile liquid and mix them up thoroughly in the liquid. The ingredients won't dissolve in the liquid, but the will mix together very, very well. You can also form shapes as the mixture begins to dry out and turns into a sort of paste. You then just let it sit overnight and allow all the acetone or whatnot to evaporate into a dry mixture. Then you have a nice, easy to ignite thermite.

I had several kilo of track welding thermit, Mg ribon was virtualy useless, the sparklers worked every time though, and this was factory made thermit as used by the pros.

I'm back, I'm back!

 

I bought the atomized aluminum because the size of the aluminum is not as critical as the iron oxide. Probably because the aluminum melts before it reacts.

 

 

You would not believe how hard it is to get a picture of the reaction. The background is actually pretty well lit I just had to turn down the exposure to keep it from washing out.

I had several kilo of track welding thermit, Mg ribon was virtualy useless, the sparklers worked every time though, and this was factory made thermit as used by the pros.

where can you buy that from and in my opinion sparklers are the best source of inition for things like these that remindes me what are sparklers made out of

 

Edit: also that thermite seems to be quite tame just guessing from the picture because one's which i have made burnt quite violently and spat molten iron alot

this stuff was quite violent too, and the exotic thermits can be quite explosive! (think Dragon Eggs).

 

any pyrotechnics shop or fireworks shop will sell sparklers )

thats because he has taken the pic with a lower exposure time due to how bright it really is, just like the moon landing, lol.