I have made a new batch of fuel with my new ball mill, and even though it was not perfect and I could have left it running longer, the fuel resulting from this process seems to be incredibly potent
The new batch was made with a 35 / 65 Sucrose KNO3 mix, instead of the usual 40 because im not casting it and this should perform better
Here is some old fuel for reference (Larger quantity)
This was some older fuel, hence the burning, but not too much potency was lost
As you can see a lot of it did not burn cleanly, the black stuff is burnt sugar, the white stuff is molten Saltpeter (KNO3)
Now here is the new test mix (Small quantity)
As you can see it burns much faster, making crackling noises and ‘sparking’ for the lack of a better term
My guess is that the excess of gas is propelling small amounts of burning powder away
That and ‘spattering’ of the molten saltpeter
Id also say the reason there is less residue than before and in smaller pockets is because it has been mixed better, seeing as it has been turning in the ball mill for a few hours, this way more of the fuel can burn efficiently, reducing waste and increasing burn speed
Now here is a picture of the leftovers
Pictured you can see little droplets of saltpeter (White) and a relatively small amount of burned sugar, meaning most of the fuel turned to gas or fine particles (A good thing for rockets)
Even though I cant be sure why, since I changed 2 parameters at the same time (Ball Mill and New Mix), it does seem the result has improved significantly
Next thing is going to be producing a new Rocket Engine and seeing if it can propel itself against gravity