How to Make Black Powder Rockets & DIY Tooling

For a long while when I first started into pyrotechnics I avoided rocketry. It was not that I found rockets less enjoyable to watch than other forms of pyrotechnics, I simply believed they required a large array of expensive tools and therefore passed them over because I was more interested in spending that money on chemicals for building big and impressive shells.

It took years of envying others who could build rockets and watching the soft lift into the sky before I realized that I preferred shells lifted in that manner to those that are blasted out of a mortar. That realization forced me to reconsider rocketry as something I would like to experiment with.

I was still unwilling to spend hundreds of dollars on commercially made tooling for something I wasn’t even sure if I would enjoy, so my only option was to make tooling myself. Black powder rockets are the safest type of rocket to make and use, and the simplest to perfect, so they proved to be the best type to start with. The tooling I designed and the method in which it is used can be seen demonstrated in the video below:



Now onto how to make the tooling...

Step 1

Comments

[nuclear12321]

I liked your explanation of the method. Could it be done using sugar and sodium nitrate and if I do, should I have a 65-35% mix, or something else?

Also, if I use black powder, will it burn more efficiently if I mess with the mixture or should I stick with the standard?

[sarge89or]

http://www.jamesyawn.net/

That web site has links to making sugar rockets which are much safer to make and use than black powder. You use potassium nitrate, a little iron oxide (rust) and sugar mixture as a fuel. They do not start grass fires like black powder can. Have fun and be safe.

[NightHawkInLight]

Sugar rockets are not safer to make than black powder. Black powder rockets are made by the millions every year in exactly the process shown in this video. Sugar rockets are not particularly dangerous, but they are certainly more dangerous than black powder considering you need to cook the sugar fuel. They also can start fires just the same as black powder rockets, your statement is totally unwarranted.

[CatfishTom]

You know you have my vote on this one! I have finally adjusted my carbon to put an end to my CATO's. I was using only airfloat with the normal recipie. I've now cooled it down by adding another 10% of 60 to 80 mesh and so far so good. Had fun last night!
Any recomendations on a nice long tail? I've tried to add aluminum flitters but just not confident I'm using enough. I'll try adding more when I finish my press. You know that pucker factor when slaming a 2 lb. sledge on those drifts??? I'll feel a lot better pressing with a sheild between me and the press.. BTW, I alos have some 80 mesh Spherical Titanium if that would add to any effects, but again, I'm an amature, so not doing anything I'm not 100% sure of.
Later, Tom.

[NightHawkInLight]

Your spherical Ti will work very nicely for a bushy tail. Try 5% or so and see how that works for you. As a rule of thumb, stick to spherical metal powders when pressing or ramming. They have less friction between particles and are therefore much safer.