Crackling Dragon eggs

Making Dragon Eggs isn't Hard, but a lot of guys find getting them to work to be pretty difficult.

There are a few little tricks, mainly in the preparation that will have your eggs crackling every time.

WARNING - THIS COMPOSITION IS A DANGEROUS FRICTION AND SHOCK SENSITIVE COMPOSITION

THIS ARTICLE SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A HOW TO GUIDE AS SOME SAFETY PROCEDURES AND PRECAUTIONS MAY HAVE BEEN OMITTED

Step 1 - Gather your bits together

Ok, you're going to need the usual bowls, spoons, gloves, scales & screens etc if you're going to cut them (for larger eggs) you'll need a good flat blade knife, some baking paper and a rolling frame & roller. If you're after smaller eggs you can just granulate them with a screen or press them through a garlic press. The garlic press makes excellent mouse poo sized eggs with very little effort. These work really well as small star cores.

Next you'll need some raw materials, You will need one of the following: Lead Tetraoxide, Bismuth Sub Carbonate or Bismuth Trioxide. The first 2 work exceptionally well but the Lead is very toxic and Bismuth Sub Carbonate seems to be pretty hard to find. Bismuth Trioxide is a little easier to find but its very hard to get working, If you're using the Trioxide it MUST be very dry, you really need to use it on the same day you dry it, once you've stored it even for a few days it seems to only work sluggishly if at all. Also it must be milled as fine as possible. The drying and milling are critical to getting the Trioxide to work. The Lead & Sub Carb seem to work without Issues

The next thing you will need is Black Copper Oxide, this is not required in a couple of comps.

You will also need some Magnalium Powder, Ive used many sizes from -60m to 325m, All sizes work, the bigger the particle size the bigger the crackle, 6 mm Eggs made with -60m go off like 1/2 gm flash crackers while eggs made with smaller sizes have multiple smaller crackles.

Nitrocellulose Lacquer

Making NC Lacquer isn't hard, just find any source of NC and dissolve in Acetone, but what you make the Lacquer from and the consistency you end up with can make big differences. For NC you can use homemade, made by nitrating cotton balls or pads Ive also heard you can purchase NC online from Aliexpress, Smokeless Gunpowder or the most commonly available is Table Tennis balls(not the Vinyl ones). The first 2 work very well and Table Tennis balls do work but results vary, not all Table Tennis balls are created equal, i believe some contain Dyes, Plasticizes and Stabilizers, I tried lighting a couple of different brands and they varied from just burning to burning quite aggressively, the later would obviously make a better lacquer. Below are some pics of the batch of NC Lacquer I made to make the Eggs in this thread, the main requirement for the lacquer is that there's enough NC in there, the Lacquer made with homemade NC comes out a little gelatinous and about the consistency of store bought apple sauce. If your'e using Table Tennis balls aim to end up with a Honey like consistency.

Eggs made with Table Tennis ball lacquer are notoriously hard to light you will need to ensure you prime them very well with a hot Dragon Egg prime