sugar rockets !!! | Cohn-zone

We had a beautifully un-programmed day.. Gabe and I took advantage to catch up on some pyrotechnic projects we’d had going . the main one was to build a set of ‘sugar rockets’ .. I used to make these when I was a kid..

The basic idea is to mix sugar (here sorbital, a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener) and potassium nitrate.. aka ‘saltpeter’ .. The recipe we’re using today calls for a pinch of Iron (III) oxide as an acceerant.. which seemed to work well

first step was to mill the chemicals.. (separately .. of course !)..

then mix them, screen them , then screen them again..

Next we pounded

in dry bentonite clay as a nozzle plug

after that came about 3 inches of the sugar/ nitrate mix.. pounded in as well (safe-ish to pound this stuff.. but most oxidizer/fuel blends I wouldn’t pound !)

then another bentonite plug.. as soon as that was done, it was time to drill the nozzle

then it was time to core the fuel, first with a guide, then free form using a 12 inch long 1/4 inch bit fitted with a stop and turned by hand.

then it was ready to go.. we then put in a 6 inch vesco fuse wrapped in tape to allow ignition near the top of the drilled core..

and here’s what happened

beautiful first shot.. we fired 3 more through the day.. all successful ! i’m guessing 400 – 500 feet ? not bad for such a heavy thing ! very satisfying slow burn and rich ‘woooooosh’ sound with great white plume

we found the first rocket buried about 3 inches in the ground.. it was coming down pretty fast !!!

a bit later, soem friends came over for an early celebration of gabes birthday.. we did soem more fire stuff. including two more successful smoke rings.. (will have to wait for folks to send me their movies of those)

Chai didnt like the sound or smell of firestuff.. we found her hiding behind the laundry.. so cute and sad.. so sorry chai baby !