My homemade black powder

[Fly]

If you want 3FFFG powder just use hardware screen from the hardware store.For 2FFG I use the handstranders
from walmart kitchen supplys.I make a pressing piston & sleave for pressing pucks.I looked up Hobby to see what charcoal
there sending in there kits.It is just air float & not black willow.

Air float is OK but you will never get the performance as with Black Willow.I think I have a post with pic's here on the
thread some where on corning.For get corning for now & work on the screen powder for now.It's like cooking, not
hard, just takes a little learning curve.
Fly

[Fly]

• Corning Black powder

Corning black powder is nothing more than pressing it into pucks letting it dry, breaking up the pucks, grinding into
grains & then sorting the grains by size threw screens.






Questions anyone,Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Whiterabbit]

sure, how messy is breaking up the pucks?

I'm using dextrin, and it works just fine. Letting it dry for 2 weeks solved the pouring problem. Meters fine, it grades fine, and it works fine. But where 75 grains of 2F gets me 1500 fps, I need 120 grains of homemade to get to 1300 fps, give or take, and the fouling (on 120 grains of powder) is crazy. I can live with the fouling and using 120+ grains per shot if I can get to 1500 fps and the same accuracy I get with commercial. But I think I will need to skip dextrin and go to compression to get me there. I suspect. I'm worried that loss from breakup will be too great, and a royal pain to boot.

not so? or is it?

[nicholst55]

Steve your not reading the whole thread.First yes you must use a binder or corn (press) your powder
or it turns back in to dust.Number two is if you just use a binder & don't corn it, forget the powder measure
& weigh it instead.

This has been addressed more than once on this thread.But I will go over it again.Screened powder with a binder
it much lighter than corned (pressed powder.So when you load it by volume in a powder measure your not
putting in as much.Lets say you measure 100 grains of screened powder, you are most likely only using about 65
grains.

Nothing wrong with screend powder, you just use more by volume.Corned powder is pressed with out binder
but is much more dense.So it is almost as heavy as store bought.

I hope I cleared this up some for you my friend.
Fly (one other thing)
Remember the guys at Hobby are fireworks guys
as I,m also.But making powder for guns is a little
differant.The kit they sent you may or may not have
black willow charcoal in it.The right charcoal makes a
big difference in performance.PM me if you need black
willow charcoal.But use what you have for now.

Taking the time to look completely through Hobby Chemical's website, they do offer Black Willow charcoal, but it's over twice as expensive as the airfloat charcoal that's included in their kit. They also offer Gum Arabic separately.

[Fly]

My black willow charcoal is $6 a LB.Hobby I think is $8.50.My black willow is ground as fine
as air float.I break my pucks with a baseball bat inside a ss pot.Then I grind the broken
up pucks in the hand grinder & screen into the size grains I want.The grains that are
too small go right back into the ball mill when I mill my next batch.I lose no powder
this way.

WR what kind of charcoal you using?The charcoal you use can make a big difference
to how much fouling you get.
Fly

[jimwill48]

Well made my 1st batch of BP. Made it last week before a week stay in the hospital so it had a good long time to dry.But I think the screen I used was a little to small, grains seem to be more 4f than 3f. I used a dollar tree skillet cover. I tested it this AM and it burns very fast. I loaded 30gr (weighted) and 1/2 oz of shot in a handmade medieval handgonne, I used this so I could use a fuse to fire with it strapped down. It was very energetic to say the least. Now I'm wondering if the grain size is to small. I really do not want to re-batch, so I guess the question is would this fine powder be safe to use in my .36cal, .45cal?

[mold maker]

All the splatter screens I've seen are awfully fine mesh.
I to have encountered too many sizes of screen in the sifters. Even within those found at the dollar stores can differ from time to time. Some of them vary with different areas in the same sifter.
I use black willow and after grinding in a sausage grinder, it is ball milled for 24+ hrs. At this point it is much less flyaway dusty. It seems almost compressed although extremely fine.
The total ingredients are again milled dry for 24+ hr. 3-5% Dextrin is added, followed by 1/2 hr final milling
I use discs of plastic between small amounts of very lightly dampened meal to make several thin pucks at one time. These dry faster and break/crush much easier.
A drink can covering the end of a ball bat makes a better pestle that cleans easier than end grain wood. (I'm old enough to have quiet a few wooden bats) Like most of you it's used in a deep Goodwill SS pot, to crush the pucks into graded powder. Just keep looking and you'll find an assortment of screens to grade your powder. Of course the fines are just reprocessed the next time you press pucks , or meal your powder.
My results have improved from a long whoosh, to an instant PFT with the courser powder using the above.
Fired in a Springfield Trapdoor, I'm well pleased with the results. I can get up to 63 grains and a card wad behind a 405 grain Boolit. The sound when fired is almost a rifle crack, and it is consistent.
The quality of charcoal, how fine its ground, and how well its milled, with pure KNO3 an sulfur, make more difference than the compression, although higher density allows more weight of powder per volume in your brass. I have yet to use it in a front stuffier, but expect it to preform close to commercial.

[CTI1USNRET]

Fly, What hydraulic press do you use? How much pressure do I need? And, are molds available to form the pucks? I'm not equipped to machine stuff. (But I've got a feeling that over the years I'll accumulate stuff and come to realize I have a shop.)

[Fly]

The press I use I made myself years back.But it is just a bottle jack type like
Harbor Freight sells.Now I use a 12 ton, but I have made it with a 4 ton with
good results.

Fly. Here is a little 6 ton press HF sells, it's small
but works great for this. http://www.harborfreight.com/6-ton-a...ress-1666.html

[CTI1USNRET]

I'll remember your offer. Thanks.

I'm curious, what else is such a press used for? I'd have a hard time selling the idea to my wife just to make my own BP.

[Fly]

(I'd have a hard time selling the idea to my wife just to make my own BP.)Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Cracking peacans (wink)

Fly

[Nobade]

I'll remember your offer. Thanks.

I'm curious, what else is such a press used for? I'd have a hard time selling the idea to my wife just to make my own BP.

Pressing bearings and bushings for working on the car. Pays for itself the first time you use it!

-Nobade

[1874Sharps]

I do not know if this website has been cited before or not, as the pages of this sticky are lengthy, but I found it most helpful in the pursuit of homemade BP: www.musketeer.ch. This is Ulrich Bretscher's website and it is quite interesting, especially if you have a love for chemistry and vintage time pieces as well as BP.

[Boz330]

I do not know if this website has been cited before or not, as the pages of this sticky are lengthy, but I found it most helpful in the pursuit of homemade BP: www.musketeer.ch. This is Ulrich Bretscher's website and it is quite interesting, especially if you have a love for chemistry and vintage time pieces as well as BP.

It has been mentioned. The sticky has gotten long but there is some tremendous info here.

Bob

[Fly]

Can anyone ever thought we could have Views: 140,229 on this topic???? That has to be a record.

Fly

[Nobade]

Yep, just look at what you started!

FWIW I shot up some homemade powder today in my 50 cal. TC Hawkin. One ragged hole at 50 yds, and less than 1.5 inches vertical at 100 yds. Gotta like it! I shot for half a day and spent maybe $1 - $1.50. (free lead picked up off the ground, homemade powder and shotgun primers.)

-Nobade

[Fly]

Dam cool!
Fly

[18Z4X]

This is definitely the best thread on Black Powder that I have found. I started shooting BP back in 1972.

While 100% absolute purity is an admirable goal, I think that with Garden Store Sulfur and Potassium Nitrate, your end product might be better than the fellows had back at Valley Forge.

[Desertbuck]

For those of you that don't have the ability to press their powder into pucks like I do because of lack of space. I have found the key to getting screened powder to work in a cartridge is compression. I am getting 26 grains by weight of sceened powder to fit in the 45 Colt case with enough room for a small greas cookie and round ball boolit or 23gr of screened powder with a small greased cookie and a 200 grain boolit. It behaves like a normal load not under powered at all.
My powder uses 3% of the total batch weight of dextrin as a binder.

[Fly]

Thanks Desrtbuck for that advice. have not yet got into cartridge loading.Reason I don't
have a gun, YET to shoot brass cases.But I will, (wink).

Fly