StepanJ gave a link to an article he wrote for the MAKE Magazine website:
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Mode...1#.UJXnSXmVut8
I'd never made an igniter before, but was curious to try nail polish on the wire tip.
Nail polish is lacquer and should burn easily.
I bought some cheap ($3.49) nail polish from the grocery store.
I chose black.
Why black?
Because real rocket men wouldn't use pink.
Some have recommended 30 gauge for LPR black powder engine ignition.
I have a lot of Quest MicroMaxx igniters. These have no coating or pyrogen on the tip of the igniters.
I used the brush right from the nail polish bottle to apply a drop of nail polish to the bent tip.
With the launch button pressed:
This is a picture of the glowing tip of an uncoated Quest MicroMaxx igniter.
It takes a moment for the igniter tip to glow.
The launch controller is a standard 6 volt Estes style, the batteries are not new.
And this is the igniter with the nail polish on the tip of the igniter.
Quite a difference!
It still took a moment for the igniter to heat, maybe a quarter second before the lacquer flashed.
I may have to buy some 30 gauge nichrome and make up a few!
This is a great idea! I have a bunch of Estes "Solar" igniters that are so old the coating has crumbled and fallen off. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Nail polish may allow me to use some of them anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were kids, money for spare igniters was scarce so we used to take half a spent Solar igniter, bend it in half and use it like a conventional igniter with the club's 12V system. Talk about recycling :^)