Today I am going to show you how I made sugar rockets for less than 50 cents each. I am using materials found around the house such as powdered sugar, stump remover(potassium nitrate), and kitty litter. I got the idea from The King of Random on youtube. I enjoy blowing stuff up so this was interesting to me.
Here are the materials that I used in this project
Yes the Lincoln Log is used it was not put there on accident. For the 100 gram batch of rocket fuel I used 65 grams of potassium nitrate, and 35 grams of powdered sugar. the kitty litter is used as the end caps.
To make the rocket fuel I put the 65 grams of potassium nitrate in a blender for about 30-40 seconds. The potassium nitrate comes in powder form but putting it in the blender makes it fluffy like the powdered sugar. Next I put the 35 grams of powdered sugar into the container with the potassium nitrate. NOTE: it is important NOT to use the blender for this mixing because the friction caused by the blade could cause it to ignite because this is very flammable.
So instead of using the blender I just shook it for about 2-3 minutes. Here is what my rocket fuel looked like after being mixed
Then I put it into a separate cup for later.
Next I put a handful of the kitty litter in the blender for a couple of minutes.(I opened this outside because after blending it will escape as a gas that isn't that good to breathe in) This 7Lb bag of kitty litter was only $1.29 at Walmart. It is non-fragranced and no dyes which is what you want for this project. here it is ground up.
To make my ram rod I took a Lincoln log and marked it at five inches. Starting at the new mark on the log I then measured 3/4 of an inch and marked it. then I went up another 3 in and put a mark, then another 3/4 in. there is a 1/2 in leftover space so if you wanted to you could put in 3 1/2 in of fuel in instead of 3.
The reason for the markings is so you know how much of each powder you need to put in. Cap , Fuel, Cap. You put in 3/4 of an inch of the kitty litter and beat it in with the ramrod and a hammer. it will look like this.
After that you dump in your 3 in of white mix. then you put on the other clay end cap. Each time you put in a new layer white mix you will want to push it down by hand before using the hammer. After you finished filling the rocket you are going to need a 7/32" drill bit. you start at the end that is perfectly flush to the pipe. you also want to do this by hand as the friction caused by the drill could ignite the rocket. How far to drill in? You want to go through the first layer of clay and the entire layer of white mix. To figure out how far that is use the ramrod and mark the drill bit however far you need to go.
This is my finished rocket motor
One of my next posts will be a video of me launching the rockets. I hope you enjoyed this post. Please upvote and follow me if you aren't following me already.
NOTE... There are dangers associated with this project and if you preform this experiment I am not liable for any injuries.