Rocketflite - Magnelite {Supplies}

Rocketflite Magnelite

Rocketflite - Magnelite {Supplies}

Contributed by Darwin May

Manufacturer:

(by Darwin May - 09/19/04)

Brief:
Magnelite is an igniter making kit by Rocketflite and appears to use magnesium and acetone for some HOT burning igniters.

Construction:
The Magnelite kit comes with a bottle of oxidizer and the magnesium/acetone solution. It also comes with a sheet of instructions, a paper cup for a funnel, and a nail for stirring.

To start, you stir the liquid bottle for one minute until it is uniformly thick. Then, take the paper cup, cut the tip off, insert it into the acetone bottle, and pour ALL the oxidizer bottle in it. Then stir it for another 2 minutes. It should be kind of shiny and about the consistency of chocolate syrup. Make sure you put the lid back on securely, as the acetone evaporates quickly.

Igniter dipping is very easy, though you need to stir the mix thoroughly before dipping, which can be hard due to the rapid settling of magnesium. You can use any of the following:

Rocketflite pre-made wires. These are expensive, but they are pre-made so you just dip.
Your own soldered or solderless wires. This is a much cheaper alternative.
Commercially made igniters. Dip these to augment them. Recommended for Copperheads.

Flight:
I dipped several Estes igniters and one AeroTech Copperhead. The Estes igniters don't do much even with Magnelite, but the Copperhead has more surface area so it can get a lot of pyrogen on it. I tested a Magne-Copperhead with my Estes control (which took about 5 seconds to light) and what a flash! That ought to light those stubborn white lightning motors!

Summary:
PROs: Easy to use and it makes some mean igniters.

CONs: It's expensive!

Other Reviews

Rocketflite Magnelite By Tim Burger
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I won a Magnelite kit from the EMRR 'Boink' Rocket contest . I received the 2-part pyrogen kit, and 12 each of the 12" (E-G), 24" (H-J) and 48" (K-M) igniter wires. Here's what I think of it. The pyrogen in my kit came in plastic bottle, sealed with wax, and packed in some sort of sand. The oxidizer powder was just in a plastic bottle. The kit included a set of instructions and a ...
Rocketflite Magnelite By Darrell Mobley
RocketFlite - Magnelite Ignitor Kit review is provided courtesy of: Making Igniters The Rocketflite Way I learned about the Rocketflite name years ago when those super sparky motors were all the rage. Greg Dyben has been a household name around the hobby rocketry arena for years producing great products like the Silver Streak motors and his Magnelite igniters. Recently, Greg began ...
Rocketflite Magnelite By Darwin May
(08/21/99) The Magnelite kit simply consists of two containers. The oxidizer and the pyrogen. The oxidizer must be combined with the Pyrogen in order to make the igniters. You will also need some RocketFlite ignitor wires which come in a variety of lengths (16", 32", 48", 64"). CONSTRUCTION: The instructions are on a single sheet and straight forward. These ignitors ...

Comments:

S.B. (September 1, 1999)

9/99 - Looks like they are easy to make ; with the supplied equipment.

D.W.G. (March 10, 2002)

Magnelite igniters are the best! And I like their customer service. I had a bad batch of pyrogen, the igniters would not burn after a year of storage. I contacted them, and they sent me everything I previously ordered (pyrogen and wires) for free. You are not limited to Rocketflite wires. I have used the pyrogen successfully with Firestar 22 gauge wire to instantly start the tiny composites (like D13's and C6's). I also finding that coating the copperhead igniters that come with the motors offer instant ignition of the smaller motors, like D13's. Take a look at the videos on the Dec 29th coverage on my website (www.gardei.com). All 6 D13's and D24's that flew were instantly ignited with magnelite coated crapperheads.

J.D.G. (June 30, 2002)

I like Greg's matches. I have used them all the time for single engine ignitions. But I am interested in what others have to say about clustering with magnelite ignitors (other than use a lot of amperage). I used to use the late Jim Turner's (God Bless his soul), tungstens for clustering. Also, just how many more ignitors does Greg need to sell to bring back the Silver Streaks? How old is this interview? I mean the window of opportunity was there with Aerotech's woes. But that is rapidly closing.

M.S. (December 26, 2009)

I've been using Magnelite igniter kit since 2002 with great success. I've made hundreds of my own igniters and have never had an igniter related launch failure. The pre-wound igniters (ML-12) are great, but winding your own is easy as well using 32 AWG or 36 AWG wire. I've made igniters small enough for the Aerotech 18mm composite motors all the way up to 75mm M motors with nothing but the Magnelite pyrogen. Recently I've been using the Magnefire e-match kit with a variety of e-match blanks and wire wound. I am using 52 AWG nichrome for my bridge wire and I'm getting excellent results. I've not tried them for air starting motors, but for ejection charges, they work great. I can't say enough about the Magnelite igniter kits. They are easy to make, very reliable, and inexpensive.

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