Making You Own Rocket Engines in Australia

So you can a permit to manufacture explosives? That's what you need to legaly make your own motors. Sounds like fun, but give me a commercial motor any day.

I am the web master for the Perth Advanced Rocket Club. I would not go around telling people where to buy chemicals to make their own motors. It's bad for the hobby unless you have the permits to do so and most people dont. You can get in SERIOUS trouble for doing so.

Sounds good. But since I don't have the required permits and since I've nearly blown myself up one too many times as it is, I think I'll stick to commercial motors - they are heaps better even if they are expensive and a bit hard to get at the moment.

Paul.

the only id you need is you need to give them your name and address. you don't need any special permits to obtain any of the chemicals sold there. if i could afford commercial motors i would, but they're too expensive - and a little boring :)

actually, they do check your age for some reason.

Too bad they don't have Ba or St nitrate though...

if you see the nitrates anywhere, let me know ok :) the carbonates are good, but not nearly as versatile.

well that's something at least. People who fly rockets as part of a club get a bit touchy when this kind of talk starts because we fear 'basement bombers' which is what we call folks who engage in this sort of activity (with the exception of folks with level 2 or 3 permits). It will only take one idiot to kill the hobby in this country, so I beg anyone who reads this and has thoughts about making motors - don't do it unless you are skilled and have the required permits!

I know that. It's the manufacture of explosives that bothers us guys. The hobby is self policed, and if we hear of basement bombers, we call the police. But if you are doing the right thing, there's no problem. In fact, experimental rocketry is quite popular and can be very rewarding, but it can cost you some $$$ in airframes and electronics.

You've got that right :-(

And I reckon you've got that wrong. What sort of motors have you seen being flown? Anything you make with black powder is going to suck (maybe less so than commercial bp motors, but they will still suck because bp is not a good fuel to use).

Paul.

Designing your own rockets from scratch can be an incredibly difficult but satisfying thing to do, and one of the most technical and rewarding things you can do is engine design. Different fuels/compositions require different nozzling, different powder core depth, different casing because of varying temperatures/pressures, the list goes on :) For some people, simply launching or just designing the rocket casing isn't enough of a real experience. These are the people you know who always create the elaborate multiple engine, multistage rockets. Engine design is simply the next step.

Black powder is a great fuel. In fact, your estes engines all use it. For those of you who are interested, the estes c-class engine formula is:

Source: rec.pyrotechnics, Composition from 1994 US Dept. of Labour Material Safety Data Sheet.

Potassium nitrate.................................71.79 Sulfur............................................13.45 Charcoal..........................................13.81 Dextrin...........................................0.95

This formula is parts by weight. The standard BP formula is:

Potassium nitrate.................................75 Charcoal..........................................15 Sulfur............................................10

These formulas will only work correctly if ball milled for at least 2 hours. 3 if possible.

Because of the constant media-hyped events over the last couple of years, making your own black powder can draw a frown of two. In fact, if I go out and tell someone I meet that I make black powder, they give me the strangest look - right until I tell them it's for my model rocketry - then it's all smiles. Seriously though, it's not real wise to go out and and make a whole batch of black powder just to "experiment". For those who would like to begin making their own engines, the first thing they should do is get started reading about basic rocket engine. Believe it or not, some of the best material I've ever read has come from pyrotechnics websites. They usually have a small section about basic rocket engine design so that those wishing to make skyrockets can first begin by learning how to make the rocket part :)

This guy has a brilliant site:

His BP rocket section is here: After learning basic rocket design, I recommend going out and becoming a member of a local hunting club and obtaining a category A firearms licence (Australia). After you have the licence, you are then free to purchase commercial grade FFFFg black powder which you can begin packing your own engines with perfectly legally. If you wish to go a little further and make your own powder, you should obtain an unsupervised handling licence, followed by a permit to manufacture from workcover. As far as making BP with only a firearms licence, well, ask at your local police station if it's allowed in your state or territory.

Safe Rocketry Guys!

-Adam

FYI the Estes C-class or any other class formula is:

Commercial black powder, and not FFFFG.....................100%

They don't make their own black powder. The standard formula you quote is not the standard commercial BP formula, it is a "standard" homebrew rounded-off number BP formula.

Milling BP on your own >without a thorough understanding of what you are doing< is very hazardous. While it is a poor propellant for anything other than small pressed powder motors, it has the singular virtue of buring at a ferocious rate at atmospheric pressure, unlike composite propellants. It also auto-ignites at a far lower temperature than composite propellants and has markedly higher static sensitivity. Other than that it's perfectly safe to make your own.

As to commercial grade black powder, the smaller the particle size, as in FFFFG, the worse it is for pressed powder applications for one specific reason about which I will not elaborate. Unless you're tamping it in in which case it just doesn't matter.

Have fun!