Sugar rockets. Anyone here make them?

[DanWalker]

Been into model rocketry for a while now and am intrigued by the KNO3/sugar rocket motors. Anyone here have any experience with them?

[koehlerrk]

Well, as a kid, I made the ones where I used an old hot plate, outside, to melt sugar and potassium nitrate together.

Seems there's some new twists to doing it... watch these vids. Planning on making some of these come summer with my son.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12fR...st=WL&index=30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_L2...dex=29&list=WL

[DanWalker]

Yeah, I tried his formula and dry packed it. wound up with really weak thrust. I'm thinking maybe my kno3 is water contaminated. I have been dissolving it and the sugar in water, then boiling off the water. Got a test batch cooling now. Will let it set a couple days before firing.

[Reg]

Have to tune #1 son into this. He is always trying to either blow something up or send it vertical out of sight !!!!!!!

[rondog]

Hmm, homemade rocket fuel.....would you put me in your will, just in case? Just for some molds.....

[oldred]

Hmm, homemade rocket fuel.....would you put me in your will, just in case? Just for some molds.....

You got to be kidding!!!

That KNO3/Sugar recipe has been around for eons and is much safer than commercial fireworks (of course that's not saying much!)! Certainly there is a fire hazard just as there is with just about anything that burns in order to do what it's supposed to do but if you are insinuating this is dangerous as in getting someone blown up that's just ridiculous, this "homemade rocket fuel" has been the mainstay of the model rocket hobby for years and literally millions of hobby rockets have been flown using the stuff. I was making it when I was twelve years old, IIRC I got the recipe from a boy's life magazine in the school library (well the "book-mobile" mobile library truck that used to make the rounds to those old country schools)!

[mozeppa]

we used to just call it salt peter & sugar.

we wasn't so hoity toity with fancy names.

[koehlerrk]

Well Dan, KNO3 is known to absorb moisture. Best rockets I ever made were cooked in the morning and flown that afternoon. Good luck, keep us posted.

[jmorris]

Keep us posted on what works and what doesn't.

[rondog]

You got to be kidding!!!

That KNO3/Sugar recipe has been around for eons and is much safer than commercial fireworks (of course that's not saying much!)! Certainly there is a fire hazard just as there is with just about anything that burns in order to do what it's supposed to do but if you are insinuating this is dangerous as in getting someone blown up that's just ridiculous, this "homemade rocket fuel" has been the mainstay of the model rocket hobby for years and literally millions of hobby rockets have been flown using the stuff. I was making it when I was twelve years old, IIRC I got the recipe from a boy's life magazine in the school library (well the "book-mobile" mobile library truck that used to make the rounds to those old country schools)!

Of course I'm kidding! I also have no clue what KNO3 is.

[DanWalker]

Of course I'm kidding! I also have no clue what KNO3 is.

It's Potassium Nitrate (stump remover) also known as saltpeter.
I have been having trouble getting good thrust out of these motors. I have been trying to light them with fuse, but it doesn't seem to be igniting them properly. Lots of sputtering and smoke, but not a lot of thrust. I am making some electrical igniters today to try lighting them from the top of the core instead of the bottom.
http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/#Quick


http://www.jacobsrocketry.com/aer/ca...propellant.htm

Those are a couple of links to the information sources I am using. Next batch of fuel will be the recrystallized kno3/dextrose mix.

[richhodg66]

This is great! I'd never heard of this before, oddly.

When were were kids, my brother and I were in the Air Force JROTC which had a Rocket Club, in fact, he was the captain of it for a year or two. Really liked the Estes rockets and about 12 years ago when I was running the Cub Scout pack here, each boy made a rocket and we had a launch day, all of them got three or four launches. Great fun. This makes me wish I still had sons at home who were of an age to appreciate this. Gotta try it someday.

[303Guy]

I've never heard of this before but I did once experiment with sugar and KNOз while playing around with making black powder. What is the correct ratio by weight?

[dtknowles]

I've never heard of this before but I did once experiment with sugar and KNOз while playing around with making black powder. What is the correct ratio by weight?

I am probably going to get clobber for saying this so I am going to start with a disclaimer, don't try this at home and should only be tried by trained professionals using special equipment not generally available.

I think at least one of the newer blackpowder subs use a similar formula, in the place of dextrose they use sucralose. Isn't one of the new subs white? The formulas I have seen do not contain sulfur but some do have charcoal. As you can see from the rocket fuel, charcoal is not required to create pressure but it might moderate the pressure to keep is in a useable range.

One of the earlier posters indicated he was having trouble getting useable thrust out of his motors, It could be his nozzle is as much the problem as his fuel. The nozzle and fuel grain need to be of compatible areas or either too much or not enough pressure will be created. These things can blow up, be careful. If one blows up you might want to have some documentation that indicates you were trying to make a hobby rocket and not have pounds of propellant hanging around. They have taken people to jail and charged them with making explosives with this kind of stuff. Having a launch pad and some rockets with fins and a recovery system would be a good start. Making your own bottle rockets might be a crime under fireworks laws. The difference between hobby rockets and fireworks is usually about the intent to recover the rocket and use it again. Using fuses for the ignition is a signature of fireworks but I don't consider this definitive. Hobby rockets usually use a remote electrical initiated igniter.

Tim

[303Guy]

I've heard that when black powder was running low the gunners would sometimes bulk it up using sugar. My sugar experiments produced a fizzling effect, not a rapid burn like black powder. With rocket fuel, what is used in fireworks rockets?

[dtknowles]

I've heard that when black powder was running low the gunners would sometimes bulk it up using sugar. My sugar experiments produced a fizzling effect, not a rapid burn like black powder. With rocket fuel, what is used in fireworks rockets?

You might google fireworks and get kits and ingredients from those sites. Even the small hobby rockets use the same "black powder" that the fireworks guys use. I reloaded some Estes rocket motors and some worked and blew some up. I don't think it is the same formula as we use for firearms. I had best luck when I diluted the powder with a binder. The blow ups could have been from the nozzle plugging caused by powder chunks breaking loose so the binder may have prevented chunking but it probably suppressed the burn rate as well. There are a lot of hobby rocket sites or at least there were when I was into it.

Tim

[Idz]

an excellent resource for information and supplies is http://www.skylighter.com

[koehlerrk]

Pretty much any good fuel/oxidizer mix will burn.

Getting it to burn reliably in a controlled fashion is a touch more difficult.

Getting it to burn reliably in a controlled fashion while generating a usable thrust... now that's tough.

Dry KNO3 is one of the big hangups when making candy rockets. Get a new sealed bottle of stump remover, pour out what you need and seal the bottle back up immediately.

Process the KNO3 and your fuel and load your engines. Then seal them into tupperware or some other sealed container until launch time, and don't wait too long. I never kept any around more than a day or two. Never had any problems that way.

As for fireworks laws, well they're forbidden in NY state, but model rockets are A-OK. My advice? Join a local rocketry club. The NAR website can get you in contact with someone near you. With club credentials, you're in much better legal standing than someone building them by themselves. That said, do not violate the rules... especially the safety regs. NAR will kick you out immediately if you try building a missile or any other kind of device that breaks the safety regs. Don't worry, the rules give lots of room to play and still be legal.

If you want to kick it up past the "hobby" level, look up the LDRS. This year it's happening about 30 miles away from me... Yes, I'm going!

http://www.nar.org/

http://ldrs34.org/

[175lt2]

Soo funny for me to see this at this time of year, I usually make a few of these rockets for New Years eve every year. well , about 5 years ago I was hosting a New Years party and me and a few buddies snuck away to cook up some rocket fuel. We cooked the fuel on an old gas hot plate in a shed out back where all my reloading and casting stuff is, about ten minutes in my one friends wife came out to check on us, she really didn't know any of us yet and she wasnt sure what to think of us. Well she said hi to everyone then saw me in front of the hot plate with a pan full of a strange substance, there was a few moments of silence followed by "what the hell are you cooking" I turned and calmly said "drugs" and went back to what I was doing, she stormed out with husband in tow. When I tracked them down back in the house and explained to her it wasn't really drugs we are only making rockets she wasn't much happier, I heard something about drinking and acting like little kids but I wasn't really paying attention.
They both remind me of this story every year.������

[175lt2]

Soo funny for me to see this at this time of year, I usually make a few of these rockets for New Years eve every year. well , about 5 years ago I was hosting a New Years party and me and a few buddies snuck away to cook up some rocket fuel. We cooked the fuel on an old gas hot plate in a shed out back where all my reloading and casting stuff is, about ten minutes in my one friends wife came out to check on us, she really didn't know any of us yet and she wasnt sure what to think of us. Well she said hi to everyone then saw me in front of the hot plate with a pan full of a strange substance, there was a few moments of silence followed by "what the hell are you cooking" I turned and calmly said "drugs" and went back to what I was doing, she stormed out with husband in tow. When I tracked them down back in the house and explained to her it wasn't really drugs we are only making rockets she wasn't much happier, I heard something about drinking and acting like little kids but I wasn't really paying attention.
They both remind me of this story every year.😃😄😀