Court Ruling

So how many years is it going to take to get APCP removed from the list of explosives ? What about things like electric matches and bp for recovery charges ? One still won't be able to legally buy them and store them. According to the BATFE unless you are using bp for muzzle loading you need a permit.

Jeff

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jeff
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It's legal to make your own e-matches, igniters, and BP (personal use only, no sales). Still have to store them properly, but it's legal. Pyrodex requires no permit at all, and can be used effectively in ejection canisters that are either (a) fairly sturdy and tightly sealed to contain the flame front until most of the powder has ignited or (b) initiates reaction from the "front" of the charge. There are issues with crossing state lines with completed devices, but not with component parts.

Aerocon sells pre-made 38 & 50gauge e-match chips and 22g shooters wire. $25 and an evening's time and you can make enough low -current e-matches to last you a lifetime. You do need to be comfortable working with some rather sensitive chemical combinations, but if you are careful and follow safety precautions it's simple. All the chemicals are legal to own and can be ordered from organizations like Firefox, or the numerous independent vendors on eBay. eBay vendors are cheaper, by and large.

I make meal BP mostly for coating igniters and a secondary coating on ematches. I've also granulated it, sifted for size, and used it for ejection charges. Works great. Far better than Pyrodex. And destroying the leftover (too big) granules makes for a nifty but short light show. FWIW, even the

*ungranulated* (meal) powder works for ejection charges, but you need to measure it by weight rather than volume -- the "1ml=~1g" conversion is NOT accurate at all for meal BP.

Also, my preliminary experimentation shows that if you "sweeten" Pyrodex with about 10% meal BP.... the combo acts much like standard BP. This is very preliminary, and is a pretty low priority experiment for me... but it does work. More than 20% BP seems to have no added benefit. Less than 5% BP does not seem to be sufficient for the desired effect (i.e. ejection without special canisters.). I've only mixed this combo in small amounts for ground testing, and have not evaluated its flight performance or long-term storage safety. NB: precentages are by weight

Wow-- I sound like Ted the Canuck--- "Make it all yourself-- it's fun!!" With that said, however-- READ the Orange Book before you start anything. Know the laws. Be sure you're on the up-and-up with your local fire marshal and police authorities, especially since testing often draws attention.

Remember-- for every law, there is an equal and opposite (and legal) circumvention Not really, but there are certainly ways to accomplish basic rocketry tasks and still be within the law, even without a LEUP.

Kevin OClassen NAR 13578 TRA 10569

Reply to
Kevin OClassen

As an experiment I once took some pyrodex and mixed it with alginate and water. It made a paste that I filled a 1/4 A motor casing with and sealed with plaster of paris. After about a month or two drying time I put it in an old rocket and sent it off. It had about half the performance of a regular 1/4 A. It didn't explode or sputter.

I wonder what other uses there are for pyrodex that we haven't heard about yet?

Reply to
Ookie Wonderslug

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