SpudFiles

So, if you made this stuff, the ground it into a fine powder, would it burn faster?

No the finely ground sugar.My bad.
But that does bring up an interesting question.Why would they put corn starch in sugar?

If you wanted it to burn faster, you could probably just up the amount of saltpeter to the amount of sugar. I think that using multiple fuses works better, though. You get more smoke in a shorter time.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, regular old hobby fuse will light this. The green "safety fuse" that comes in a litttle bag. The mixture is actually really easy to ignite.

As to the corn starch question, it is there so that you don't end up with lumpy cookies or lumpy cake. It keeps the sugar from sticking together.

Well, when I say faster, I mean I don't want a constantly burning lump of really hot, well, fire. I paintball in some woods and there's a lot of flammable underbrush. I'm trying to get something that will more just poof instead of burn. You get what I'm saying? I don't want burn, I want a big puff of smoke. Can you do that with this stuff if you powdered it?

So what would be the issue with cornstarch in the mix.Toxic fumes?Or decreased smoke?

goathunter wrote:So what would be the issue with cornstarch in the mix.Toxic fumes?Or decreased smoke?

Probably just less potent, I can't imagine cornstarch being toxic, seeing as we eat it.

Paaiyan, you'll have to buy military cold smoke to be allowed to bring it on the field. I play on a scenario team and they won't allow us to use anything but commercial cold smoke.No homemades even with a spark arrestor.

I'm not worried about regulations, we play on our own. My friends live near a ver large wooded area out of town, we play there and just use the honor system. I just need to know if it'll work.

If you don't want fire, I'd not go with this. You could maybe put it in a steel can, but not an aluminum one. Makes aluminum disappear. You could maybe use a steel can with a lid with holes in it, but you would still have to worry about fire.

Nonono, fire isn't the problem, a quick flash of flame I'm not worried about, the ground and underbrush are damp enough to deal with that. I'm just not too hot on the idea of a constant flame. I also don't need a screen for ten minutes, just a few seconds. That's why I want to know if it'll just make a quick poof of smoke if you powder it.

oh ive just found something out to make millitary smoke all you have to do is use potassium chlorate instead of potassium nitrate it burns cooler and can use dyes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_grenade

Potassium chlorate should be handled with care. It reacts vigorously, and in some cases spontaneously ignites or explodes, when mixed with many combustible materials.

How bout no.

mkay anyhow my mom thinks its too dangerous to refill my own rocket engines because she looked at the kno3 msds which is always fairly fuking stupid (ever read the salt one?) so anyways now i need to convince my mom im not gonna die of chemical burns by playing with the stuff

i thnk ill buy some stump remover this weekend and try it out.

paaiyan wrote:Well, when I say faster, I mean I don't want a constantly burning lump of really hot, well, fire. I paintball in some woods and there's a lot of flammable underbrush. I'm trying to get something that will more just poof instead of burn. You get what I'm saying? I don't want burn, I want a big puff of smoke. Can you do that with this stuff if you powdered it?

Yes I think that if you decrease the size of the lump it will burn for a shorter period. But on the downside it won't emit a lot of smoke.