The wine industry uses bentonite as a fining agent to aid haze settling. It's available in a number of forms. KWK is cheap and grey. Champagne makers use forms purified to a white color.

Estes nozzles seem to be better when the mottled grey clay is used. I've had issues with the nozzles made of the solid white clay. I've even photographed fairly severely vectored exhaust due to erosion.

Now I know how Steve Harvey felt when he awarded the crown to the wrong chick at the 2015 Miss Universe contest! :o

At any rate, if you are looking for good information on building your own motors invest in some books and avoid those YouTube videos by sandal wearing teenagers igniting things with butane cigarette lighters. And don't smoke cigarettes!

Here's a good book on pressed powder motors by David Sleeter:
https://www.amazon.com/Amateur-Rock...e/dp/093038704X

And here's a bookset by John Wickman of CP Technologies:
http://www.space-rockets.com/newbook.html

And for "rocket candy", here's two good sources:
http://www.jamesyawn.net/
http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/

And finally, here's a picture of a Largemouth Bass....

Ted-
That would have been a much better picture WITHOUT that fish.

Yes, but I'm told this is a "family friendly forum".

I'd never heard of that usage! Interesting.....
I'm going to try the contaminated stuff first, and go from there. It's about 50 cents a pound, so I can't argue with the cost of trying it.



Any suggestions where I might be able to acquire mottled clay?


Someone suggested that we try adding grog to the clay, also. We haven not been able to test this yet.

That bad? Ouch. Sorry to disappoint you. :p

Thanks for the book suggestions. Your remark about YouTube sounds pretty accurate. I certainly don't trust such "resources." I have been using the websites you mentioned also. Most recently, I got some electronic detonators working using some advice from nakka-rocketry.net It's easier to just buy the wire ones, but this is progress.

I should have asked this in my last posts, but I forgot.
I have another chemistry question, but I don't want to break any rules. Is it acceptable for me to ask simply what the functional/chemical difference is between red iron oxide and black iron oxide? Are they interchangeable in...whatever project one might be doing?

Where are the rules for this forum? I've been looking through pinned threads and FAQs, and not finding them.

Thanks!

I'm afraid not. My EX experience is limited to APCP motors with graphite nozzles and just a little bit with sugar motors where I reused old Estes motors.