Talk:Rocket candy

Howto

I don't think a detailed recipe is appropriate here. There are plenty of web sites around, and WP links to some of them (a link to Nakka's site, or Jimmy Yawn's, might be appropriate on this page). Also, you say the text is a blatant copy, but don't cite a source or provide evidence you're allowed to post it here.

Wikipedia should have information about rocket candy, what it is, history, use, etc, but recipes and instruction manuals are not generally encyclopedic.

As such, I have reverted the howto section. Evand 20:45, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I calculate a 74%:26% stoichiometric ratio for potassium nitrate to sucrose. I used the equation found here:[] Tom H03 (talk) 23:59, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

If you are going to be that precise, then should really specify whether this is weight/weight or volume 193.39.157.76 (talk) 14:08, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Outdated links, etc.

So, some of the website links are outdated, and there are some new advances in sugar fuels that have come out, so this page needs some additional updating. -K — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.197.104.10 (talk) 02:12, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

Use of Chlorates

Hi all. Unless there is strong opposition, I would like to delete the reference to chlorates as an optional oxidizer for R-Candy formulae. Reasons:

1) It is not commonly used for this purpose. By far the most common oxidizer for R-candy is Potassium Nitrate, to the near-exclusion of just about any other. 2) It is unsuitable for use by beginners/novices (reasons follow), who are the most likely type of person to come to a Wikipedia page for information on making R-candy. 3) It has numerous chemical incompatabily issues. Examples include sulfur and ammonium salts, both of which are likely to be found where rocket motors are being made. These incompatibilities can lead to dangerous, shock/friction/temperature sensitivities which could cause a mixture to explode without warning. 4) Chlorate/fuel fixture tend to have very low ignition temperatures. For example, Potassium Chlorate and lactose (one of the R-candy fuels mentioned) will ignite at a temperature of 195C. This is below the melting point of lactose, so it is easy to imagine a novice R-candy experimenter having a container full of propellant spontaneously ignite.

Although chlorates have been used in the past, I believe the dangers make them entirely unsuitable for anyone other than experts who are well versed in the art, and who are fully informed of the dangers of, and precautions necessary when, using chlorate oxidizers. These experts do not come to Wikipedia for R-candy formulas.

Thanks, and sorry for the long-winded explanation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kejones62 (talk • contribs) 23:29, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Safe hearing pf propellant

At what temperature does the mixture ignite? 216.176.107.81 (talk) 18:38, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Safety

For all the reasons that are simmering below the surface of this entire article, as well as expressed in the talk section, there is not enough emphasis on safety in the description.

I understand that novices attracted to amateur rocketry because model rocketry is too tame, are unlikely to heed obvious emphasis on safety, simply because they crave large and dangerous rocket ships, with plenty of smoke, sound, and similarity to dramatic fireworks.

Yet, the successful practioners of amateur sugar rocket construction must surely be familiar with either the careful precautions for temperature control, fume dispersion, and fire control. Otherwise, familiarity with a property fire damage disaster might motivate controls in learnings by the hard knocks of experience.

But I don't see enough cautions expressed in this sugar rocket article to turn novice enthusiasm into effective study and motivated preparation. I have personally seen enough "basement bombing" before turning to the safety code of model rocketry and civilized experimentation, and even then enough rocket malfunctions, to imagine the injuries and damage from blindly cooking sugar oxidizer solutions over an apartment hotplate, or shaking up powders in a can before tamping them into an empty CO2 cartridge or lead pipe.

Where are the sugar rocket gurus who are still alive, adding reasonable cautions to the Wikipedia description, so that unbridled enthusiasm does not lead to unconnected body parts? SalineBrain (talk) 06:26, 29 April 2026 (UTC)