Original Post
Amatuer rocketry is quickly becoming my new hobby. Especially in making the engines. I have been making potassium nitrate+sugar+sulphur rockets, and I have gotten a few decent engines out of it. The static tests were quite impressive, and very very loud. Today I tried to make a new fuel. I remembered for hybrid rockets they have used paraffin wax. So I thought I will try the sugar recipe, but with wax as the fuel. My hope was that it would have more energy than sugar, which I believe the wax does, it would make a non hygroscopic fuel (unlike sugar engines), and it would be easier to cast. My recipe was 63% potassium nitrate, 27% wax, 10% sulphur. I melted the ingredients togather well at 212 degrees F until it was one consistency. I then decided to try a burn test. I put a small amount of fuel on a spoon and stuck it in the dirt. I then stuck a flame uner the wax. And nothing much happened for about 5 minutes. I think regular wax is more flammable. The wax eventually turned black and crusty, and fizzled slightly once (which was probably a lucky clump of sulphur an oxidizer) So basically, what do I need to do to get this to work. It sure works with gasoline in place of sugar. I am in a college chemistry class, but we are not far enough yet for me to understand the problem at that level. I figure either the ratios need to be different, or some property of the wax prevents it from using the potassium nitrate ocidizer. Or maybe I just didnt melt the two togather long enough? Need to light it differently, with steel wool internally maybe?
