Sharing my 105++ ISP plain candy motor formula, as made in Florida.
From Grocery Store:
Scale: $8
Karo syrup (corn syrup) $3
Sugar (common granulated) $2
from the Hardware store:
bottle of "stump remover" (KNO3) $6
4' section of 3/4" PEX tubing (a type of nylon water pipe).
Stolen from the kitchen:
wooden spoon
teflon skillet.
Heavy aluminum foil
Do not do this inside the house unless you have a cool-touch type ceramic smooth top stove and a gaylord extinguisher hood like I HAVE. Otherwise, do it over an electric hot plate out-of doors and away from EVERYTHING. This is a comparatively very safe method of making this stuff, but at the end stage, you are dealing with oxidized propellant...DANGER. Wear layered cotton clothing when doing this, and wear NO PLASTIC. This means no polyester. You don't have to worry about heavy splatter etc... with this method, but be safe just for appearances sake if nothing else.
Instructions:
1. Practice making gravy....Have some with your bisquits you picked up at the grocery with your rocket fuel ingredients. If you can't make good gravy, don't try this.
2. Make coffee. It's great after gravy and bisquits, and you won't have the attention to spare to make it after this.
3. Cut the tubing (either pex, PVC, home-made cardboard motor casing or whatever) into sections 2-5 inches long. I use a table saw, but whatever floats your boat.
4. Set up the scale and zero it out with a container on it. As you measure during the following steps, bounce your cheap plastic scale a bit to make sure it is working right.
5. Add stump remover until you hit the 100 gram mark.
6. Add granulated sugar until you hit the 150 gram mark.
7. Add Karo syrup right on top of until you hit the 170 gram mark.
8. Add about 100-300 ML of water. I like using more water than most folks use. I just get better results I think. I tend to use 300 ML for a batrch this size.
9. Plop all this mess into your teflon skillet. Turn on the stove or hotplate to high. Start stirring with your wooden spoon or a nice gravy whisk until all the dry ingredients are completely dissolved.
10. Once the mixture starts to boil, continue stirring and scraping the edges of the pan with the wooden spoon. As it starts to thicken, reduce the heat to a minimum.
11. The material will start thickening into a putty. When it has stopped steaming at all, wait a bit (still kicking the lumpy mass about with the spoon to dry it as much as possible) and then pull out a small bit. Plop it on a dry countertop and roll it into a small "snake". Cool it down (do not get it wet) as quickly as you can. If you can get the thin cooled snake of propellant to break when you bend it, then you have gotten enough water out. Otherwise, pop your sample back into the pan and keep on cookin'.
12. With a successful test, pull the whole hot mess out (and take the skillet off the heat) and plop it onto a thick piece of aluminum foil. At this point, we need to temper the candy much as you would do taffy. That means kneading it. To do this, flatten the candy with your hand, or if it is too hot and you are too wimpy, use a small plate. Bend the candy in half, and smash it again. Do this a few times, kneading it until you knotice a change in it's elasticity, or it gets too cool. Then pop it back in the pan and return the pan to the low heat.
13. Get out your motor casings or grain molds or whatever you have chosen to pack this stuff into (pvc, PEX, cardboard,what have you).
14. Take your candy off the stove. There are many ways to go about the next step:
a. If you have a drill press, pack the candy into your casings, using a round impliment, such as a dowel, the end of a drill bit, or a bolt to pack the hot candy tightly into the motor.
b. Otherwise, insert a 1/4" dowel, round screwdriver, or something-another into the middle of the casing, and pack the hot candy down around it so that when you pull the dowel out, you leave a nice round hole in the center of the propellant.
Of course, the methods of building a rocket motor or rocket can vary greatly at this point. A quick way of getting a PEX or PVC motor to fire at this point may be done with this method:
Paint/glob some 5 minute epoxy around the exposed propellant on the nozzle end of the motor. This creates a bit of a nozzle. Glob more on the other end. Stand the motor upside down onto a piece of foil. This glues the foil to that end. laternate layers of epoxy and foil (three layers is enough for a 3/4" motor).
After the epoxy cures, trim off the excess foil and glue. Tape this motor onto a bamboo grilling skewer or another likely looking stick. I also make some drag fins out of tape for the end of the skewer, as it is a bit short for such a large motor.
You can make a fuse by rubbing a piece of cotton yarn with a dry mixture of KNO3 and powdered sugar (2:1). You can also use a sparkler (easily available at a grocery store at this time of year in most states.) You can also make electrical igniters following simple instructions available all over the net. Jus tmake sure your fuse or ignitor can easily exit the nozzle of your motor when it ignites.
From Grocery Store:
Scale: $8
Karo syrup (corn syrup) $3
Sugar (common granulated) $2
from the Hardware store:
bottle of "stump remover" (KNO3) $6
4' section of 3/4" PEX tubing (a type of nylon water pipe).
Stolen from the kitchen:
wooden spoon
teflon skillet.
Heavy aluminum foil
Do not do this inside the house unless you have a cool-touch type ceramic smooth top stove and a gaylord extinguisher hood like I HAVE. Otherwise, do it over an electric hot plate out-of doors and away from EVERYTHING. This is a comparatively very safe method of making this stuff, but at the end stage, you are dealing with oxidized propellant...DANGER. Wear layered cotton clothing when doing this, and wear NO PLASTIC. This means no polyester. You don't have to worry about heavy splatter etc... with this method, but be safe just for appearances sake if nothing else.
Instructions:
1. Practice making gravy....Have some with your bisquits you picked up at the grocery with your rocket fuel ingredients. If you can't make good gravy, don't try this.
2. Make coffee. It's great after gravy and bisquits, and you won't have the attention to spare to make it after this.
3. Cut the tubing (either pex, PVC, home-made cardboard motor casing or whatever) into sections 2-5 inches long. I use a table saw, but whatever floats your boat.
4. Set up the scale and zero it out with a container on it. As you measure during the following steps, bounce your cheap plastic scale a bit to make sure it is working right.
5. Add stump remover until you hit the 100 gram mark.
6. Add granulated sugar until you hit the 150 gram mark.
7. Add Karo syrup right on top of until you hit the 170 gram mark.
8. Add about 100-300 ML of water. I like using more water than most folks use. I just get better results I think. I tend to use 300 ML for a batrch this size.
9. Plop all this mess into your teflon skillet. Turn on the stove or hotplate to high. Start stirring with your wooden spoon or a nice gravy whisk until all the dry ingredients are completely dissolved.
10. Once the mixture starts to boil, continue stirring and scraping the edges of the pan with the wooden spoon. As it starts to thicken, reduce the heat to a minimum.
11. The material will start thickening into a putty. When it has stopped steaming at all, wait a bit (still kicking the lumpy mass about with the spoon to dry it as much as possible) and then pull out a small bit. Plop it on a dry countertop and roll it into a small "snake". Cool it down (do not get it wet) as quickly as you can. If you can get the thin cooled snake of propellant to break when you bend it, then you have gotten enough water out. Otherwise, pop your sample back into the pan and keep on cookin'.
12. With a successful test, pull the whole hot mess out (and take the skillet off the heat) and plop it onto a thick piece of aluminum foil. At this point, we need to temper the candy much as you would do taffy. That means kneading it. To do this, flatten the candy with your hand, or if it is too hot and you are too wimpy, use a small plate. Bend the candy in half, and smash it again. Do this a few times, kneading it until you knotice a change in it's elasticity, or it gets too cool. Then pop it back in the pan and return the pan to the low heat.
13. Get out your motor casings or grain molds or whatever you have chosen to pack this stuff into (pvc, PEX, cardboard,what have you).
14. Take your candy off the stove. There are many ways to go about the next step:
a. If you have a drill press, pack the candy into your casings, using a round impliment, such as a dowel, the end of a drill bit, or a bolt to pack the hot candy tightly into the motor.
b. Otherwise, insert a 1/4" dowel, round screwdriver, or something-another into the middle of the casing, and pack the hot candy down around it so that when you pull the dowel out, you leave a nice round hole in the center of the propellant.
Of course, the methods of building a rocket motor or rocket can vary greatly at this point. A quick way of getting a PEX or PVC motor to fire at this point may be done with this method:
Paint/glob some 5 minute epoxy around the exposed propellant on the nozzle end of the motor. This creates a bit of a nozzle. Glob more on the other end. Stand the motor upside down onto a piece of foil. This glues the foil to that end. laternate layers of epoxy and foil (three layers is enough for a 3/4" motor).
After the epoxy cures, trim off the excess foil and glue. Tape this motor onto a bamboo grilling skewer or another likely looking stick. I also make some drag fins out of tape for the end of the skewer, as it is a bit short for such a large motor.
You can make a fuse by rubbing a piece of cotton yarn with a dry mixture of KNO3 and powdered sugar (2:1). You can also use a sparkler (easily available at a grocery store at this time of year in most states.) You can also make electrical igniters following simple instructions available all over the net. Jus tmake sure your fuse or ignitor can easily exit the nozzle of your motor when it ignites.
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