The engine diagram is shown in Fig. 1. And immediately the first rule:
1) do nothing “by eye”.
You need a simple set of measuring and drawing tools: ruler, caliper, pencil.
The motor housing is made from 10 layers of high-quality office paper. To do this, two strips 69 mm wide are cut to length from a standard A4 sheet. Next, a mandrel is taken - an even, smooth and durable, preferably metal, rod (or tube) more than 80 mm long and 15 mm in diameter. To prevent the body from sticking to the mandrel, you can cut a piece of wide tape along the length of the mandrel and roll it onto the mandrel in the transverse direction. Then strips of paper are wound sequentially onto the mandrel, which during the winding process are generously, without gaps, coated with silicate glue. Of course, there is no need to coat the side of the first turn adjacent to the mandrel with glue.
You need to wind, or rather roll, the paper on a hard, flat surface, so that the turns lie on top of each other with virtually no shifting and very tightly, without bubbles. Place a sheet of newspaper to not only keep the surface clean, but also to remove excess glue released during the rolling process. To avoid shifting of the turns, I recommend first rolling the strip “dry” so that it goes correctly, then making a careful “rollback” to the first turn without lifting the mandrel from the table, then starting rolling again with glue applied. Be sure to coat the initial edge of the strip so that it sticks clearly on the first turn. Of course, some experience is needed for this operation to be successful. However, do not throw away substandard cases. They are useful for adjusting the diameter of the nozzle, plug, and for making various conductors and retaining rings. After the strips are glued, you can roll the body on a mandrel using a flat board to compact the turns. This should only be done in the direction of winding.
After this, it’s a good idea to drive the still raw body through an external mandrel - a metal cylinder with an internal diameter of 18 mm. The engine body must fit tightly enough through this mandrel; this must be achieved, since in the future the body will have to be filled with fuel, which cannot be done without a tightly fitting external mandrel. If such a tube cannot be found, it will be necessary to make an external mandrel by winding at least 15 layers of office paper onto a ready-made engine housing, also using silicate glue. After slightly drying the body, you need to remove it from the mandrel by first turning it against the winding. Next, until the body is completely dry, you need to insert the finished nozzle on one side. To do this, of course, it is necessary that the nozzle has already been prepared.
So, let's make a nozzle. I recommend making two nozzles at once; later it will be clear why. It is usually not difficult to find a wooden rod with a diameter of 16-18 mm, preferably from hard wood like beech or hornbeam. We carefully trim it, i.e. We make an even cut perpendicular to the axis at one end. To do this, you need to cut an even strip of whatman paper, ~100mm wide, and tightly wrap it around the rod, exactly one turn above the other. Along the edge of this winding, gradually turning the rod and holding the Whatman paper in place, we make a circular cut. By lightly sanding the cut area, we get a clear end. Here we come close to the second rule, which directly follows from the first:
2) for any operations requiring geometric accuracy, use all kinds of mandrels, templates, and jigs.
Having trimmed the piece of wood, we sawed off a cylinder 12 mm high from it using the same scheme. In this workpiece, we drill a hole with a diameter of 4.0 mm in the center along the axis. It is better to do this on a drilling machine, at least made from a drill with a special drilling stand. It is not too expensive, but allows for vertical drilling. If there is no such device, you can use any simple jig, and ultimately do the drilling by hand. Special precision in this case is not needed, since the trick is in the following technology. It will not be possible to drill the workpiece in the center even on a drilling machine. Therefore, I simply put the workpiece on an M4 stud and clamp it on both sides with nuts. 
Then, holding the drill in the chuck, I grind it to the required diameter (15 mm) with a file and sandpaper. If there are deviations from the perpendicular direction relative to the axis of the end surfaces, this can also be corrected during turning. To do this, of course, the drill must be somehow secured to the table; such devices are also available for sale. After this operation, the nozzle hole is exactly in the center. On the side surface of the nozzle, also on the drill, in the center we make a groove with a square or round needle file with a depth of 1.0-1.5 mm. The best way to adjust the diameter is to have a blank of the engine housing, possibly substandard, which you will have during the production process. Finally the nozzle is ready. It is not heat resistant and during engine operation it burns out to a diameter of 6 - 6.5 mm. Some even call such engines nozzleless. I would not entirely agree with this, since this simplest nozzle still provides a clearly directed starting thrust vector. In addition, such a nozzle “automatically” regulates the pressure in the engine, allowing you to forgive some mistakes of novice rocket scientists.
Now we need to make a plug. This is the same nozzle, but without a central hole. Here you can come up with different manufacturing technologies. The easiest way is to use another nozzle as a plug, but during assembly you will have to place, for example, a Soviet kopeck under it, its diameter is exactly 15 mm, or fill the hole with epoxy after installation in the body. In addition, it is useful for centering the main nozzle.
The first stage of engine assembly is installing the nozzle. This must be done while the body is still wet, i.e. almost immediately after winding. The nozzle is installed into the body from one end using silicate glue, flush with the edge of the body.
Now we come to the third rule:
3) strictly observe the alignment of all central channels and the axial symmetry of all rocket parts.
Of course, this rule is intuitive, but it is often forgotten.
There are no guarantees that the nozzle channel is directed strictly along the axis, so we make a simple jig. To do this, we insert another nozzle (which we prepared for the plug) on the opposite side of the engine body, without glue, of course, and connect both nozzles with a metal rod with a diameter of 4.0 mm. Alignment is ensured.
The pressure when working in such a simple engine can reach 10 atmospheres, so we won’t hope that the glue will hold the nozzle, but will do the so-called “constriction”. To do this, we make a circular line on the body, retreating 6 mm from the edge of the engine on the nozzle side, thus marking the position of the side groove of the nozzle.
Next, we take a strong nylon rope 3-4 mm thick, tie it to something firmly and motionless, for example, to a 20 kg weight that I still hold with my foot. We make one turn of the rope along the marked line and, holding the slider perpendicular to the rope, pull strongly. To avoid cutting your hand, you can tie a stick to the end of the rope. We repeat the operation several times, turning the engine relative to the axis until a clear groove-constriction is formed. We coat it with glue and wind 10 turns of cotton thread No. 10. Coat the top of the thread with glue again. It is very convenient to use a fisherman's knot to tie a thread. Now you can consider the nozzle completely installed, you just need to thoroughly dry the engine housing for at least a day.
Sometimes you want something strange. So, recently I was drawn to rocket modeling. Since I build rockets at a noob level, for me a rocket consists of two parts - the engine and the body. Yes, I know that everything is much more complicated, but even with this approach, rockets fly. Naturally, you are interested in how the engine is made.
I would like to warn you that if you decide to repeat what is written in this article, you will do so at your own peril and risk. I do not guarantee the accuracy or safety of the proposed technique.
For the motor housing I use 3/4 inch thick walled PVC pipe. Pipes of this diameter are relatively cheap and widely available. It is best to cut pipes with special scissors. I suffered a lot trying to cut such pipes with a jigsaw - it always turned out very crooked.
I mark the pipe like this:
All dimensions are in inches. Who doesn’t know, the size in inches needs to be multiplied by 2.54 and you get the size in centimeters. I found these dimensions in a wonderful book
There are a bunch of other designs there too. I don't do the top piece of the engine (which is empty). There should be a knockout charge for the parachute, I'm still far from that.
The cut piece of pipe is inserted into a special device. I’ll show you all the devices at once so that there are no questions:
A long stick plays the role of a “pestle.” It compacts clay and fuel. The second part is the conductor. It serves to drill the nozzle exactly in the center of the engine. Here are their drawings:
The drill used is long - 13 cm long. It is just enough to drill a channel through all the fuel.
Now you need to mix the fuel. I use standard “caramel” - sugar and saltpeter in a ratio of 65 saltpeter/35 sugar. I don’t want to melt caramel - it’s a risky activity, and it’s not worth the hemorrhoids. I'm not trying to get everything out of the fuel that I can. This is amateur rocket science, after all. I just mix powdered sugar and saltpeter into powders:
Hammer the powder along the markings. You need to hit pretty hard.
Plugging fuel and plugs is no different. It seems that knocking on the fuel is dangerous, but caramel is difficult to ignite even with a match. Naturally, it is worth observing basic precautions - do not lean over the engine, work in a protective mask, etc.
I leave the last 5mm plugs for hot glue. I tried several times to make a rocket without a hot-melt glue plug, but the pressure tore the top plug out. Hot-melt adhesive has excellent adhesion to plastic and does not have time to melt when the engine burns.
Drill the nozzle through the conductor:
The fuel drills very poorly - the sugar melts and sticks to the drill, so you have to often pull it out and clean off the stuck fuel. Checking the nozzle:
Fill the last 5mm of the tube and its end with hot glue
That's it, the engine is ready. This is what the engine looks like during static tests. Unfortunately, the video is not indicative - in this engine the channel was drilled in half, and the camera did not record the sound correctly. In real life, the “roar” of the engine is very loud and serious, and not as toy-like as in the recording.
Potassium nitrate can be used as rocket fuel for homemade rockets. We are talking about simple rackets that can be assembled in a couple of minutes, on your knee.
First about rockets.
The amount of gases released when saltpeter and sugar burn is enough to lift a homemade rocket or pyrotechnic projectile into the air. But if the rocket body is too heavy, it may not take off. To make the body, you can use tubes made of pressed cardboard. They can be taken from used pyrotechnic products, from the film in which sausage is wrapped in stores, you can glue a couple of layers of cardboard yourself, just use silicate (stationery) - it is not flammable and heat-resistant. Aluminum foil for baking is a good material for pyrotechnics. You can make a rocket entirely out of foil, but it is soft and to prevent it from being turned around by high pressure, it is tied with soft wire. The wire is also used to form a nozzle from which a jet of flame will appear. In order for a rocket to fly smoothly, it needs a stabilizer (tail) in the form of a long stick. The easiest way is to tear it off from a used Chinese rocket, or cut and dry a straight twig in the forest. As a fuse, I use newspaper soaked in a solution of potassium nitrate. I prepare it in advance, roll it into a tube, bend it and plug the nozzle with it so that the fuel does not spill out.
Now about fuel
Potassium nitrate burns well with sugar. Mix the proportions of 5 parts of saltpeter and four sugars for every 100 grams. saltpeter can be added 5 grams. soda All fuel is ready.
If you are concerned about improving the combustion of the mixture, I advise you to grind all the ingredients in a coffee grinder. You can grind them together, they will mix even better. This is not dangerous. Having poured the mixture into a cardboard tube, you can compact it by tapping it with something flat and close in diameter. I heard that combustion will be better if you leave a hole in the compacted mixture with a diameter of 8-10mm along the entire length of the mixture. This can be done by inserting a long cylindrical object in front of compaction. Preferably smooth so that it is easier to get out later, for example a felt-tip pen.
You can cook the mixture. Pour water into a small saucepan until it just covers the bottom. Turn on low heat and start pouring in parts, stirring constantly so that everything has time to melt. The mixture melts, then darkens, resembles caramel - you can remove it and pour it into molds. Do not overheat the mixture, otherwise it will burn in the pan, so do not leave it on the fire unattended. Let the mixture cool, it will harden. You can make long sticks and use them as a wick.
Carry out the tests on the street, otherwise the balcony or entrance can be burned.
By the way, saltpeter burns very well with ground barbecue charcoal. Perhaps even better than with sugar. After all, the composition of gunpowder is saltpeter, coal, and a little sulfur. You can also experiment with how saltpeter burns with: sorbitol, starch, dry alcohol.
Video demonstrating the combustion of saltpeter and sugar
In less than a minute I concocted a rocket or something like that, and it crawled along the ground. If the body is lightened, then it can be launched into the sky. You need to try an empty bottle with disinfectant or freshener.
Here's a video:
Standard mixed solid fuel is not available to most rocket enthusiasts. We have to look for something simpler... First, you need to decide where space begins - where, in fact, you need to go. In recent years, it has been more or less agreed that space begins at an altitude of 100 km. Although this is not entirely true - such an altitude is insufficient for orbital flight - round numbers are psychologically attractive, so the 100-kilometer limit suits most of those arguing.
Editorial PM
First amateur space launch
Steve Bennett and his brainchild - the Starchaser Nova rocket
To space on the cheap
However, the founders of the prize for cheap access to space (Cheap Access To Space, or CATS Prize for short) were more decisive - to receive the prize, you need to deliver a payload of 2 kg to an altitude of 200 km. The competition started in November 1997, and in order to receive the $250,000 prize, you had to reach this height by November 8, 2000. More than 30 attempts were made, but no one managed to rise above 25 km, and the prize remained unawarded. No one was able to claim a “consolation” prize of $25,000 for reaching an altitude of 125 km. Some of the teams continued their work even after the deadline had expired - the impetus that the CATS Prize gave to amateur rocketry cannot be overestimated. Some teams have become real commercial companies, but they don’t make rockets anymore...
Space stuntman
Only one team, CSXT, led by former Hollywood stuntman and special effects artist Kai Michelson, continued to try to achieve the original goal. Michelson, known in narrow circles as The Rocketman for his commitment to jet propulsion, even after retiring, continued to practice his favorite pyrotechnics. Having analyzed the failures of its predecessors, CSXT abandoned exotic launch schemes from a stratospheric balloon or an airplane.
Balloon launches date back to the 1950s. Attempts to save on atmospheric losses were made even before the flight of the first satellite, but, both in the 1950s and in the 1990s, the result was unsatisfactory - the seemingly simple scheme concealed a lot of “rakes”, which unlucky rocket scientists resorted to and through 40 years came with the same enthusiasm.
Kai Michelson also had to abandon the two-stage design - its reliability in amateur execution left much to be desired, as he was convinced of during an unsuccessful attempt to reach the boundary of space in 1997. The second stage simply did not start. In addition, after the unsuccessful launches of the CATS Prize competitors, obtaining permission to launch two-stage high-altitude rockets was presented with slingshots that were almost insurmountable for amateurs.
Pass to space
In fact, American laws governing amateur rocketry are the most liberal in the world. In addition to the usual model rockets launched around the world, the United States has defined the classes High Power Rockets and, for those who lack this, Experimental Rockets. The classification is based both on the total impulse of the engine (the product of thrust and the operating time) and on the launch mass and allows - with certain reservations - amateur rockets up to 16,000 N s in the High Power Rocketry class and up to 128,000 N s in the Experimental Rocketry class. Compare this to the maximum 80 N s in a rocket model competition! There is nothing like this in Europe for lovers of large rockets, so the European flight altitude record is still less than 10 km. Moreover, European amateurs are forced to take their rockets to the USA, equip and launch them in Nevada!
But even in the desert, the laws monitor security very carefully. Hobbyists are prohibited from transporting large charges from state to state—the rocket must be loaded right at the launch site. There are a lot of other restrictions that seem far-fetched at first glance, but most of them were created during the analysis of some accident and are designed to eliminate such accidents in the future.
flying nail
All Michelson could improve was the aerodynamics of the rocket and the characteristics of the fuel. CSXT has done a lot of research to achieve maximum performance. The volume of testing of engines of various calibers was unimaginable for most amateurs - more than a dozen homemade solid propellant rocket motors with a caliber of 6 and 8 inches (15-20 cm) burned out during testing while trying to achieve reliable operation at the peak of their capabilities. They say the team's expenses exceeded $130,000! But finally, in January 2002, a rocket capable of reaching space was ready. It was named Primera, in honor of the sponsoring company, a compact disc manufacturer. Only on June 1 was it possible to obtain permission to launch, but it did not take place due to weather conditions. A new attempt at the end of September required a new permit, which was received on August 27. But on September 21, 2002, this rocket, having managed to rise to 720 m and pick up a speed of 1,700 km/h in just three seconds, collapsed in the air due to the engine housing burning out near the nozzle and the rocket turning across the flow.
Improvements and production of the new rocket, called GoFast, took a year and a half. The rocket became one and a half times heavier and weighed 328 kg at launch (of which 197.5 kg was fuel). The length of the rocket was 6.4 m, and the diameter of the body was only 25.4 cm, that is, the rocket looked thin as a nail! In professional rocket science, such proportions are almost never found, but it was necessary to reduce aerodynamic drag at any cost, which at hypersonic speed is achievable only by reducing the diameter. Yes, yes, the rocket had to reach hypersonic speed while still in a dense atmosphere - at an altitude of about 8-10 km, where ordinary subsonic airliners fly. Therefore, its nose was a solid steel cone with a very small opening angle and thin at the top - the turner was able to turn this part only on the third attempt.
First record
This time fate was more favorable to the team. On May 15, 2004, with a monstrous acceleration of 21.5 g (more than a catapult to rescue fighter pilots), a thin rocket rushed to the edge of space. Attracted observers used radar to track the speed and altitude of the rocket. After 13 seconds, the fuel in the engine was completely burned out and the rocket flew by inertia at a speed 5.2 times the speed of sound. It became clear that the record would happen. After 2.5 minutes the rocket reached space. Five minutes after launch, radio beacon signals were received - the payload module was descending by parachute. Unfortunately, it’s a bit far from the estimated landing site. We managed to find him when the lighthouse’s batteries were already exhausted. And the accelerator body had to be searched for more than two weeks - it fell 40 km from the launch site. These difficulties somewhat overshadowed the success, but the altitude of 115 km was taken, which, in addition to the radar, was now evidenced by the recordings of the onboard “black box”!
Almost a shuttle
But let's get back to sugar. The fuel used in the GoFast rocket was a hobbyist's closest approximation to the Shuttle launch booster (SRB) fuel. A typical mixed solid fuel consists of ammonium perchlorate, aluminum and synthetic rubber, initially liquid, which hardens directly in the engine. But ammonium perchlorate and rubber are substances that are practically inaccessible to most rocket enthusiasts. Their sale is under very serious control. And you don’t need any kind of aluminum powder - “silver”, for example, is not suitable, the metal particles must have a spherical shape and a certain size.
Caramel
As a result, only a few engines using this fuel are available even in the USA. The rest have to use something simpler. For example, the notorious sugar. “Caramel” rocket fuel is really an alloy of sugar and potassium nitrate. Its characteristics are modest, but still it is one and a half times better than the well-known black powder, on which rockets flew for almost a thousand years before pyroxylin was invented. In addition, “caramel” is at least 10-20 times cheaper than ammonium perchlorate fuel. It is now difficult to establish who invented “caramel” fuel; it appeared in the middle of the 20th century. American sources claim that it was first used by Bill Colburn in 1943 in California. Rare books on amateur rocket science did not reproduce its recipe, but its use was put on a scientific basis only in the mid-1990s - amateurs began to study the properties of the fuel, the dependence of its characteristics on variations in composition, on the initial temperature, pressure in the chamber, etc. Of course, professionals have energetically more favorable substances at their disposal, but amateurs needed all this information for serious and safe use, and it could only be obtained experimentally.
Not sugar
It turned out that this fuel burns stably over a wide range of pressures in the chamber, which made it possible to use it to make both simple paper engines and rechargeable metal ones. Small deviations in the composition also do not interfere with its good performance, so it is safer. However, this fuel also has disadvantages, first of all, it is fragility. For example, rubber-based fuels are very soft, rocket scientists
they claim that you can pinch off crumbs from a piece of such fuel with your hands, this allows the charge to be tightly bonded to the body. The charge also serves as thermal protection - until it is all burned out, the engine housing does not heat up. You can’t do this with caramel - it can crack under working pressure reaching up to fifty atmospheres! Therefore, the caramel charge is an insert charge; there must be a narrow gap between it and the body to equalize the pressure. But at the same time, the metal case must be protected from hot gases, because their temperature reaches almost 1400˚C, so the metal will inevitably lose its strength.
Another disadvantage of “caramel” is the large amount of “condensed phase”. This is what rocket scientists call combustion products that are not gases. When caramel burns, potash, or potassium carbonate, is formed. It is liquid in the chamber, but becomes solid in the nozzle. The smallest particles of potassium carbonate create dense white smoke. This smoke is quite caustic, since potash is alkaline. Therefore, under no circumstances should you burn “caramel fuel” indoors. But for a rocket engine, the condensed phase is harmful for another reason: solid or liquid particles cannot expand in the nozzle like gases, and therefore do not create work; heat from them to the gas is transferred only by radiation, so the efficiency of the rocket engine decreases. This means that the actual specific impulse of the “caramel” is noticeably lower than the theoretical one, calculated from the heat of chemical reactions.
And one more serious drawback - for classic sugar caramel, the temperature difference between the melting of sugar and the burning of the finished mixture is too small. But this problem was successfully solved by replacing sugar with sorbitol. Sorbitol fuel burns slower than sugar fuel, but it is much safer to work with, because sorbitol melts at 125˚C, and sucrose only at 185˚. All other beneficial properties of sugar fuel are preserved in sorbitol.
On my word of honor
After the triumph of GoFast, many rocket scientists made claims to the CSXT team. They say that their rocket is “dishonest” because it cannot be reproduced by almost any amateur, and besides, due to the large deflection of their rocket, high-altitude launches are now under much tighter control: US officials have decided that their legislation is too liberal. But on the other hand, a problem once solved is much easier to solve a second time. And Canadian Richard Nacca, one of the main enthusiasts of “caramel”, decided to achieve an “honest” result from the point of view of amateur rocket science, to reach the boundary of space using sugar - or sorbitol - fuel. The project was called Sugar Shot to Space, loosely translated “On sugar into space.”
But first it was necessary to find out whether this problem was solvable in principle. If the atmosphere did not interfere, a speed of 1400 m/s would be enough to “jump” from the Earth’s surface to a height of 100 km. But at GoFast the atmosphere “ate” about 300 m/s (more than 1000 km/h!). To reduce the amount of losses, it is necessary to accelerate in thinner air, at a higher altitude, and for this it is necessary to reduce the starting overload and increase the engine operating time. But for an unguided rocket this is undesirable, since the area where the stabilizers do not work well increases. It is necessary to increase either the height of the guide or the size of the stabilizers, which increases aerodynamic losses.
Your profile
The aerodynamic analysis was carried out very carefully, as a result of which the proportions of the rocket turned out to be even more strange than those of GoFast - the length was 30 times greater than the diameter, three stabilizers instead of four, and they tried to optimize the shape of the nose. But all this did not bring us closer to the desired result. I didn’t want to make a two-stage rocket, as this would reduce reliability and increase the difficulty of obtaining permission to launch. Richard Nacca was no stranger to these issues.
It was necessary to come up with a thrust profile (thrust versus time) that could be implemented in a caramel engine and that would reduce aerodynamic losses and not increase gravitational losses too much. Anti-aircraft missiles use a fast launch stage with a thrust of up to a hundred tons and an acceleration of up to 50 g (in anti-missile systems) and a relatively “long-lasting” sustainer stage with much less thrust. But the sustainer stage was previously made using a liquid rocket engine, and now it is using special solid fuels that provide a long operating time. This is not suitable for amateurs - the volume of development tests is too large. For simple caramel engines, the operating time is closely related to the diameter.
Ballistic pause
But a solution was found - a two-stage engine. Such an engine consists of two chambers with two charges of fuel, working in turn on a common nozzle. Between the chambers there is a plug made of combustible material, which should not allow hot gases to enter the second charge while the first one is operating. After the first stage burns out, the rocket will fly upward for some time by inertia, gradually losing speed, but also getting out of the dense layers of the atmosphere, and only after the end of the ballistic pause will the second half of the fuel supply ignite. The maximum speed will be noticeably lower than that of GoFast, and it will be possible to achieve it at a higher altitude - while aerodynamic losses will be reduced.
However, with all the tricks, the launch mass and dimensions of a rocket using sugar fuel should be greater than those using perchlorate rubber. Therefore, members of the SS2S group first built a model of a two-stage engine on a scale of 1:4 (in linear dimensions; in terms of fuel mass it is 1/64). Only on the fourth attempt did they achieve success - the most difficult thing was to ensure that the chamber of the first stage did not burn out during the operation of the second, because it received a double dose of thermal load.
However, having overcome all the difficulties, the rocket scientists realized that before building a full-size rocket for an assault on space, they would first have to work out technical solutions on something cheaper, and now they are building a rocket on a scale of 1:3. Long is the journey for lovers into space! But we hope that over time they will succeed, and we wish them perseverance and success.
Fuel for rackets is made from saltpeter and newspapers.
You can use any saltpeter:
- POTASSIUM NITRATE: KNO3 - also known as potassium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium nitrate, Indian nitrate (suitable for all parameters).
- SODIUM NITRATE: NaNO3 - also known as sodium nitrate, sodium nitrate, Chilean nitrate (at high humidity it can become damp)
- AMMONIUM NITRATE: NH4NO3 - aka ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, nitrogen fertilizer (recipe with transformation)
- CALCIUM NITRATE: Ca(NO3)2 - aka calcium nitrate, calcium nitrate, lime nitrate, Norwegian nitrate (recipe with transformation)
Making a saltpeter solution for impregnating newspapers
- Take any container of a suitable size for measuring (cap, bottle, glass, jar or bucket;-) Don’t do too much the first time! If the saltpeter in granules is larger than buckwheat, before measuring, grind it to the size of table salt. Sugar is measured out in the form of sand. You need to measure as follows: Take a full heaped measure and press it to compact it (with your hand), add more and press it again. When the contents stop compacting, burn off the excess evenly along the edge of the measurement with a ruler or the body of a pencil. This will be one measurement (weight percentages are indicated in brackets).
Saltpeter recipes
For potassium nitrate:
3 volumes of saltpeter + 1 volume of sugar
Sequencing:
- Measure out: 3 saltpeter (80%), 1 sugar (20%) and 3 times more water (12 measures, 300%).
The solution is ready.
For sodium nitrate:
2 saltpeter + 1 sugar
Sequencing:
- Measure out: 2 saltpeter (70%), 1 sugar (30%) and 2 times more water (6 measures, 200%).
- Heat while stirring until completely dissolved.
The solution is ready.
For ammonium nitrate converted to sodium nitrate:
2 saltpeter + 2 baking soda (NaHCO3) or 1 washing soda (Na2CO3) + 1 sugar
Sequencing:
- Ensure good ventilation!
- Measure out: 2 saltpeter (40%), 2 baking soda (45%) or 1 washing soda and twice as much water (8 or 6 scoops, 200%).
- Boil for about an hour until the smell of ammonia almost disappears.
- Add 1 part sugar (15%).
The solution is ready.
In order not to spoil the air in the room with ammonia released as a result of the reaction with soda, cook under a hood or in the open air! If this is not possible, the jar of solution can be placed outside the window on the windowsill. You can use a small boiler for heating.
For ammonium nitrate with conversion to potassium nitrate:
3 saltpeter + 3 potassium chloride (KCl) or 1 potassium carbonate (potash) (K2CO3) or 1 potassium sulfate (K2SO4) + 1 sugar
Sequencing:
- Measure out: saltpeter, potassium and twice as much water.
- Pour into any suitable container and mark the level.
- Boil for about an hour.
- Pour again into the container with the marked level and add water to the mark.
- Add 1 part sugar.
The solution is ready.
For calcium nitrate converted to sodium or potassium:
3 saltpeter + 3 baking soda or potassium sulfate or potassium sulfate + 1 sugar
Sequencing:
- Measure out: 3 saltpeter, 3 soda or potassium and twice as much water (12 measures).
- Heat while stirring. The solution will turn cloudy white.
- Let it sit. The resulting chalk will precipitate.
- Carefully drain the saltpeter solution from the sediment.
- Discard the sediment.
- Add 1 part sugar to the solution.
The solution is ready.
Impregnation of newspapers
If you burn a 5-centimeter piece of caramel paper folded several times or rolled into a roll, it should burn actively in about 3 - 5 seconds. with neon flame. In one layer it can burn unstably and even go out.
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