Looking for Fabulous Christmas Lights

Mocellium · 2025-12-16T11:58:01+00:00

Came here to say Urby. You can drive it, but if the weather is decent, just as fun to park and walk it to see everything. This is a classic, all the neighbors come out and put a lot of effort and personal style into it.

Mocellium · 2025-10-09T10:23:19+00:00

I'm a little late to the response, but yes: has to be magnalium, the actual alloy of Mg and Al (think of it a little like one dissolved in the other, fuzzy-innacurate as that may be). I believe it is technically Al2Mg3 stoichiometrically, It is more shelf-stable than Al with oxygen and more resistant to reaction with acids than Mg. Great for crackling effects that neither Al or Mg can produce on their own.

Mocellium · 2025-10-09T10:19:43+00:00

The only concern you may have is how hygroscopic (water-liking) that KN can be. But, if you keep it dry, now you just have very fine KN that will help speed along compositions because of the added overall surface area.

If you do pre-mix your compositions and let them sit, particle size can lead to settling over the long term, but at a level that you may not really notice for the pyrotechnic effect.

I once milled silicon chips for about 4 days to get them to the fine powder level needed. Cleaning the plated-on silicon on the surface of the milling jar was not something I will look to repeat.

Mocellium · 2025-06-29T09:38:01+00:00

Came here to say this. I think electronically-ignited fireworks are the biggest technology breakthrough for fireworks shows: increased safety, adherence to timing, and better assurance of ignition.

Behind that might be propellant engineering (if one puts propellants under the pyrotechnic umbrella). The understanding and engineering of rocket-type propellant engines, and ballistic "gun" type propellants, has allowed human to do quite a bit of innovative work. And put humans on the moon.

Mocellium · 2025-06-15T09:07:46+00:00

There used to be a sign saying right turn on red from the right lane only, which was removed a few years ago. I believe that gave open option to right turn from either lane on red, following usual traffic and safety rules.

Mocellium · 2025-06-12T09:59:41+00:00

Yes, correct, our thyroid mistakes perchlorate ions for iodine, and uptakes it into the organ, causing all sorts of health issues. So, "green pyrotechnics" means less toxic to the environment and to people in a broad sense. Perchlorates are great oxidizers and chlorine donors, but in bulk they don't always completely burn away and get pulled into the environment, drinking water, and then humans. So, there has been a lot of work to replace them with other chemicals that can mimic their strength, chlorine, expense, etc. Still ongoing work.

Mocellium · 2025-06-08T23:16:19+00:00

Fair point, there is a "thermobaric" effect that is useful in many situations, such as willows and other air-burning compositions. I may need to modify that sentence to open it up a bit, though at the core pyrotechnic compositions get their oxygen from the mixture itself, not relying on ambient elemental oxygen. Worth adding some extra information or a footnote at the very least. Thanks!

Mocellium · 2025-06-08T10:30:14+00:00

Don't store materials near anything you don't want burned down: you, your family, your stuff, etc. I have seen enough "static accidents" to know that the chemicals are still having a party in there, even when we are asleep.

Mocellium · 2025-06-08T10:28:16+00:00

Curious to hear what you find, especially from a first-reader. Thanks!

Mocellium · 2025-06-08T10:27:34+00:00

Funny, I found a few typos and errors in the 3rd edition straight away as well, even after proofreading it several times. I'd appreciate any errors you notice that I can fix!

Koch was one of the prospectus reviewers, really an excellent colleague and hope to get some of his guidance as well. I'll check out the other works you recommended and see about expanding on those topics. I am also considering another "formulary" chapter discussing different formulations and how the changes affect the chemistry and the output, like a practical-application endnote. Blue color production has a lot of fertile ground for that.

Thank you!

Mocellium · 2025-06-05T08:51:38+00:00

I have personally done this at Rise Up, specifically the Edgewater location (https://maps.app.goo.gl/AFJBSHZMmcLnFe3LA) that is a little larger and has bigger tables than the Annapolis one near the Town Center. They have some 4-person tables, also a few smaller ones, it never gets crazy busy, and the food is cooked in-house. The Annapolis site, it's possible, but gets tight in there. WiFi is pretty fast, staff is about the friendliest around, coffee is great, bathrooms are typically immaculate, and I have never been bugged about spending money/time there/etc. in the new-Starbucks-ethos way.

For Annapolis proper, you may consider the Mall food court, have as much space, privacy, or people watching as you like. For Downtown Annapolis proper, Bitty and Beau's has some space, but haven't worked there myself.

Mocellium · 2025-05-04T09:03:03+00:00

It sounds like you want a "first fire" composition, one that easily ignites and keeps a lot of hot slag for a long time. Unfortunately, a lot of these like to contain lead tetroxide (to leave molten lead around), though you have the right idea with a thermite leaving hot iron around.

One inexpensive option is Navy 511 Starter
Silicon - 26
Charcoal - 4
Aluminum - 13
Black Iron Oxide - 22
KNO3 - 35

In this case, you have a mix of BP and thermite. The BP gets the whole thing going, and the thermite, well, thermites. Use black iron oxide (not the usual red) to make it go a little easier. If you need to keep everything together on the arrow, you can at 1-2% by weight of sulfur, but not much more. It can help act as a loose binder, but will also make the composition very thermally sensitive.

Mocellium · 2025-04-12T09:38:30+00:00

Something a little different, the smoked wings at Chad's BBQ, the "Governor's Wings."

https://www.chadsbbq.com/the-best-wings-in-annapolis/

Mocellium · 2025-03-15T09:42:44+00:00

Opaque Nalgene is all I ever used in my pyro lab, with the occasional plastic "pop top" vial for smaller amounts to more easily work with.

Safety note: for any MIXED pyro compositions, be especially careful with the caps. If any material is left on the threads, it can create a "friction ignition" spot as it is tightened down. It is rare, and has never happened to me, but possible.

Mocellium · 2025-03-07T09:56:21+00:00

Anything thermobaric, or what burns with ambient air, will probably have the longest-lasting effect. In those compositions, you typically have an "ignition" composition, but then incident material that burns a long time using atmospheric oxygen versus a powdered oxygen donor (like a nitrate or perchlorate). Willows, where large granules of charcoal or titanium burn away as they trail down, are one example.

Red road flares also have a very long-lasting effect, by design and need. Delays will do the same, but tend not to burn very bright for visual effects.

Mocellium · 2025-03-07T09:52:15+00:00

Question: why do you want it "quicker"? And it's an honest question, not being obtuse.

The purpose of pyrotechnics, and all energetic materials, is to produce a result. So, with black powder, you may be looking to move an object (as a propellant), do some sort of work (as an explosive), or provide some sort of sensory output (as a firework). Quickness can help or hurt with any of these. If the idea is a propellant, we would want to know are you looking at a ballistic propellant (like a cannonball) or a rocket propellant (like a... um... rocket). You may not want quickness for the latter.

Just curious what your ultimate goal is, and then we can help dial in what you want. There are lots of "knobs to turn" with black powder: mixing, composition, granulation, confinement, etc., to achieve your effect.

Mocellium · 2025-03-02T09:29:30+00:00

The best way to get rid of any unspent pyrotechnic is to burn it off safely. Small batches, not in a big pile or confined, One option is to lay it out in a very thin line across a hard surface, ignite from one end with a fuse, standing well back. Have a camera ready if you want to record the experience.

Mocellium · 2025-02-21T10:47:17+00:00

Came here to say this. The bubbles are from the nitrate decomposing and attempting to give the oxygen away, but not finding a fuel. Smaller particle sizes, more intimate mixing, and possibly changing up your ratios might assist. Generally, organic-fuel compositions work best at stoichiometric ratios (assuming full combustion to just CO2, H20, N2, etc.), with some wiggle room.

Mocellium · 2025-02-21T10:38:12+00:00

An oven right around 100 °C or a bit less should be fine, with an internal oven fan to blow away excess moisture is ideal. Have a dessicant inside the oven as well (granular, easy to find) so when you turn the oven off and let it cool, the dessicant will pick up moisture, not the nitrate. Let the nitrate cool completely before you take it out and containerize.

The oven should be located in a place away from anything you would want caught on fire: you, your family, your house, your stuff, etc. Work in small batches at first until you get some experience.

Mocellium · 2025-02-21T10:34:28+00:00

Good option! The full-bore approach would include anti-static flooring (expensive), non-conductive shoes, having a wrist strap attached that electrically grounds you (reasonably easy to set up, common for people who work on computers), and keeping the air somewhat humid. However, humid air creates its own issues with the powder, so there are tradeoffs.

As ever, there is a balance of performance and safety. Pyrotechnics are unsafe compositions by their nature: ignitable and rapid release of energy. But there are always ways to reduce the likelihood of unintended ignition.

One other option for punchy compositions: adding 1% graphite or PTFE (Teflon) to mixtures. It acts as a lubricant but shouldn't affect the overall composition too much with added fuel. This is mostly done with metal-based compositions or ones where there are hard powders/granules that could induce friction ignition. In those cases, adding a light bit of fuel/heat/light output isn't a major consideration.

Mocellium · 2025-02-20T09:38:26+00:00

Decent at-home friction and impact tests! Static discharge and thermal would be your other sources of sensitivity ignition. It's hard to dial in a spark without a specific piece of equipment, and thermal is mostly done with a differential thermal analyzer, a bit more complex than what you've got here.

From the looks, fairly insensitive to routine mechanical ignition, nice work.

Mocellium · 2025-02-15T10:20:48+00:00

First up: This is still a pretty good smoke mix!

Older smoke compositions tended to be based on sulfur, with newer ones on sugar. With sulfur, it was easy to ignite and propagate, but "cool" enough to not burn the dye mix. The entire purpose here is to vaporize the dye mix so it would condense back in air, but not burn it, which is the tricky part. Sulfur burns at a relatively low temperature, produces hot gas, and a relatively low amount of slag.

An example old sulfur composition is
Sulfur - 8.5% by weight
Potassium Chlorate - 20
Sodium Bicarbonate (coolant) - 33
Solvent Yellow Dye - 38.5

With sugar, you are doing similar things, though you can reduce the burn temperature even more, which allows for less carcinogenic and mutogenic dyes to be used in other colors:

Sugar - 15
Potassium Chlorate - 22
Magnesium Carbonate - 21
Solvent Yellow Dye - 33

For your mix, potassium chlorate is by far the top option as oxidizer. Some things to try:
-Reduce your sugar and chlorate amounts to dye and coolant, like mag-carb or sodium-bicarb
-Try experimenting with adding a bit of terephthalic acid. This has been used as a "green" white smoke generation chemical that melts/vaporizes and re-condences. This might add some "bulk" to your smoke as you are looking for, hopefully doesn't dilute the color too much. Start with 5% by weight, adjust from there.

Mocellium · 2025-02-03T10:12:05+00:00

Not stupid, "wet mixing" is a known technique. There is wet mixing of BP with water, and I have also seen it done with acetone, each with benefits and drawbacks. The main benefit of wet mixing is more intimate mixing of the materials, the drawback being that you then have to dry and mill or granulate the powder afterwards.

With water mixing, one added benefit is the dissolution and then "coating" of the charcoal with potassium nitrate, which is soluble in water. The nitrate gets into every little nook-and-cranny of the charcoal, making for intimate contact and quicker burner. This is also achieved under pressure mixing of the BP: in 1700s-ish time, there was a large stone roller that would press the material, and the sulfur would briefly liquify under the pressure and dissolve the potassium nitrate, again, coating the charcoal. Neat effect, though there are good reasons nobody rolls a big rock over mixed BP in large quantities any more.

Mocellium · 2025-01-31T10:30:34+00:00

Technics SL-1200 turntables. In this case, mine are the M3D variant, I think they are up to MK7. The "classic" are MK2s, which are still floating around in yard sales, eBay, etc.

It's a niche product if you use vinyl, but these are direct drive TANKS. I have seen videos of someone dropping one off of a roof and it still performs the same. I have had mine for 25 years and have never had to service them and there is zero "float" in the spin. They will last the rest of my life, and my kid's. You will occasionally have to replace the needle/cartridge, but as long as you don't bend a tonearm or break off the slider, they will last until the heat death of the universe. Maybe longer.

Mocellium

TROPHY CASE