blue aluminum

[highdesertray]

watched dave's ""blue aluminum, a safer, louder, cheaper bang for your buck"" video on youtube several times, it seemed he wanted to impress on us the benifits of substituting blue aluminum for either german or indian dark aluminum. in his video he made it sound like we could use the same mixture 70/30 potassium perchlorate and blue aluminum, subing the blue for the dark type for a safer flash powder. so i bought a single pound of blue aluminum from pyrochemsource for $12 bucks, it was cheaper than the dark aluminum, so far, so good, i mixed the two suspects together and made up 2- m80 type salutes, completely sealed tube ends and used a 3'' 3mm chinese fuse in the center of the tube, guess what?? NEITHER of the two salutes worked,the fuse burned down into the tube and that was the extent of the fireworks show, how about that??????? i need to know what i am supposed to use with the blue aluminum to make a flash powder that will work in a small salute for my personal use??????? anyone out there have any ideas???? i had one guy email me back already that i should use potassium chlorate, but you know, i am tired of spending more money (even $8 bucks more for a pound of chlorate) for any more chemicals that might or might not work, PLEASE does someone know what chemical to use with the blue aluminum and what % of each to mix for what i need??? thanks highdesertray

[Diesel1]

I watched that video also. If you find out the formula please let us know or send a personal message thanks.

[highdesertray]

yeah, i will, i hate to flush a pound of blue aluminum down the crapper but if i dont find a way to make it work right thats what i am going to do , thanks ray lowery

[PyroJoeNEPA]

We have discussed this in detail on here quite a while back. search out the older threads.
Blue will not work in a small salute without a booster [added fire]--a thick BP slurry on the fuse end inside the casing is the only way to make a small insert work, or a bp burst baggie. It does work in the 70/30 ratio--just not without a lot of fire on it. I've done quite a few tests with it. And, please---stay away from the Chlorate--it is way too unstable. Perc is much safer.

[highdesertray]

thanks pyrojoeNEPA, i appreciate the information, i think i had a couple of emails from other salute makers to my email address telling me the only way they could get the blue aluminum to work was to SPIKE the potassium perchlorate/blue aluminim mix with a small amount of dark aluminum, have you heard about doing that kind of thing, i dont want to make large fireworks just small salutes for myself and family,also i was wondering about your statement about using chlorate, does it work alot better with blue aluminum or do we still have the same issue of needing a boost to the mix?? please explain and thanks again for your coimments, ray lowery

[highdesertray]

Diesel1, read the reply from pyrojoenepa, he sent me some good information to think about, just fyi to you, ray lowery

[PyroJoeNEPA]

i was wondering about your statement about using chlorate, does it work alot better with blue aluminum or do we still have the same issue of needing a boost to the mix?? please explain and thanks again for your coimments, ray lowery

No, using Chlorate will not make any difference it the way it works--the only change is it is a much more unstable [sensitive] mixture and therefore, much more dangerous. It still needs the extra "fire" to make it work.

[displayfireworks1]

I can’t believe this highdesertray ended up on the forums, he perseverated over and over on my YouTube channel on the $12.00 he spent on Blue Aluminum blaming me for not being able to make a firecracker out of it. As he put it in referencing the $12.00 he “pissed it down the old toilet”. I suspect he is not honest about his intentions.
I should add a disclaimer to some of my videos. I do not represent Blue Aluminum, when I made that video I reported what I saw at the time and what I was told at the time. As time goes by, we now know what the pros and cons of Blue Aluminum are. One of the advantages or disadvantages are you can not make small firecrackers out of it. What if any avenue it found into the pyrotechnic market I do not know. As far as I can tell, it has become a novelty chemical to experiment with. It is not a replacement for the current flash aluminums.
If you are making fireworks composition, you need to be able to tweak the formula up or down in sensitivity, color etc. Do not get mad at everyone for not being able to trouble shoot a formula.

[smilli]

I've heard that blue aluminum causes less smoke when detonated versus regular flash mixes, can someone confirm this?

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Dave, I have to compliment you! There is always something for everyone to learn here. Today's lesson is the word "perseverated". Yeah, I had to look it up. LOL!!! People should be glad you allow the discussion of some of these topics unilke some "other" sites!

Smili--that is an interesting question. Now that the busy shooting season is over here in the US there is time once again to "experiment". I will let you know the answer to that question once I have a chance to do a side by side comparison.

[chris v]

First of all what size of aluminum is your blue aluminum that could be your problem there

[chris v]

I just went to the site described that is your problem there the aluminum you got is way to big its about 120 Micron real blue aluminum is around 3 microns I posted a video on here using 9 Micron al you got the 200-325 mesh al which would sorta flash if it was flake not atomized flash is a serious comp but as I can tell you are prenovice you shouldn't try flash without more experience under your belt ... Dave could you repost my video of copy cat blue al?

[displayfireworks1]

I do not know how I missed this. Here are parts of my video in a Blue Aluminum video from outside of United States. I do not remember giving permission for this video. I do not believe this product every found a commercial application.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7FEsqVE-L4