This is a purely educational showcase of the process of making a form of rocket fuel nicknamed rocket candy. Do not try this at home. This is not a complete guide and is not meant to be a guide. I am not a professional.
Required tools: wooden spatula, portable temperature controlled stove, safety goggles, gloves, and safety face mask
Disclaimer: the images used are not mine, but I am using them as a reference.
Required ingredients: potassium nitrate (KN03), Sugar (sucrose), Dextrose (monohydrate), fructose, and water.
WARNING: Toxic fumes can be produced during this process. make sure to use a smoke hood.
the proportions are:
potassium nitrate - 64% , Sugar (sucrose) - 28% Dextrose (monohydrate) - 6% Fructose - 2%.
Firstly I put in the Potassium nitrate, sugar, dextrose and fructose. Pour in water at a 1:1 ratio with the mass of the kno3
I am using a temperature controlled stove and doing this outside in order to insure nothing ignites and if it does my house won't burn down.
I set the temperature to 300 and check the temperature to make sure it does not exceed this temperature by much.
The mixture is not fully dissolved so I use a wooden spatula in order to mix it fully with the water. When boiling, start tracking the time.
<--- This is about how it looks at boiling.
8 minutes into boiling. More bubbles and some crystallization. Keep in mind this is a larger quantity so it may vary in time depending on how big of a batch you are making. Also not everything is constant. different pans and different types of kn03 conduct heat differently.
11 minutes into boiling. at this point watch out for spatters of droplets.
33 minutes in. Start stirring at the first signs of caramelization. It starts to look a little more yellow at this point. After the first stir, stir every 2 minutes.
This is the 7th stir. It needs to be a little bit drier than this.
When it appears like this, with a more peanut butter texture, take a sample and test it.
take the small sample and place it on something that will cool it quickly such as a tile. Wait until it reaches a dryish texture and can be rolled into a rod like so
Take off a small chunk of the rod like so and mash it flat on the surface.
when cooled, bend it in half like so. if it bends with some resistance then it is close to being done but not quite so. if it bends like shown in the picture below, then you need to cook it a little bit longer. when a fully cooled sample snaps crisply, then it is done cooking. It doesn't need to snap super crisply though, if it bends a little then breaks it should be fine. keep in mind the mixture has been cooking for a minute or two while the sample has been cooling.
Immediately after confirming the propellant is done or close to done, lower the temp to 250. (If the mixture gets too brown, the sugar is degrading and you should lower the temp to 200 immediately instead.) This propellant has a strange property where if we leave it out to cool it will become super hard and annoying to work with when casting. turn the temperature down to 250 and stir. after around 10 minutes stir again. It will be hard to stir and will crack and become crumbly, but after a bit more kneading and stirring it will become more pliable and with a nicer texture. Lower the temp to 225 and repeat this process again until you are satisfied with the texture.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I am not too experienced at actually casting the fuel into a motor, nor making the motor or rockets themselves. (last time I actually made a homemade motor+body it exploded and I got some molten metal on my leg)
Required tools: wooden spatula, portable temperature controlled stove, safety goggles, gloves, and safety face mask
Disclaimer: the images used are not mine, but I am using them as a reference.
Required ingredients: potassium nitrate (KN03), Sugar (sucrose), Dextrose (monohydrate), fructose, and water.
WARNING: Toxic fumes can be produced during this process. make sure to use a smoke hood.
the proportions are:
potassium nitrate - 64% , Sugar (sucrose) - 28% Dextrose (monohydrate) - 6% Fructose - 2%.
Firstly I put in the Potassium nitrate, sugar, dextrose and fructose. Pour in water at a 1:1 ratio with the mass of the kno3
I am using a temperature controlled stove and doing this outside in order to insure nothing ignites and if it does my house won't burn down.
I set the temperature to 300 and check the temperature to make sure it does not exceed this temperature by much.
The mixture is not fully dissolved so I use a wooden spatula in order to mix it fully with the water. When boiling, start tracking the time.
8 minutes into boiling. More bubbles and some crystallization. Keep in mind this is a larger quantity so it may vary in time depending on how big of a batch you are making. Also not everything is constant. different pans and different types of kn03 conduct heat differently.
11 minutes into boiling. at this point watch out for spatters of droplets.
33 minutes in. Start stirring at the first signs of caramelization. It starts to look a little more yellow at this point. After the first stir, stir every 2 minutes.
This is the 7th stir. It needs to be a little bit drier than this.
When it appears like this, with a more peanut butter texture, take a sample and test it.
take the small sample and place it on something that will cool it quickly such as a tile. Wait until it reaches a dryish texture and can be rolled into a rod like so
Take off a small chunk of the rod like so and mash it flat on the surface.
when cooled, bend it in half like so. if it bends with some resistance then it is close to being done but not quite so. if it bends like shown in the picture below, then you need to cook it a little bit longer. when a fully cooled sample snaps crisply, then it is done cooking. It doesn't need to snap super crisply though, if it bends a little then breaks it should be fine. keep in mind the mixture has been cooking for a minute or two while the sample has been cooling.
Immediately after confirming the propellant is done or close to done, lower the temp to 250. (If the mixture gets too brown, the sugar is degrading and you should lower the temp to 200 immediately instead.) This propellant has a strange property where if we leave it out to cool it will become super hard and annoying to work with when casting. turn the temperature down to 250 and stir. after around 10 minutes stir again. It will be hard to stir and will crack and become crumbly, but after a bit more kneading and stirring it will become more pliable and with a nicer texture. Lower the temp to 225 and repeat this process again until you are satisfied with the texture.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I am not too experienced at actually casting the fuel into a motor, nor making the motor or rockets themselves. (last time I actually made a homemade motor+body it exploded and I got some molten metal on my leg)
