My homemade black powder

[Fly]

What west coast wood would you recommend?
Does the wood for the charcoal need to be green?

I tell you what I would do.Here of late I have fould eastern cedar as fast
as any.Gone to the lawn & garden dept & look for cedar mulch.

Fly

[zxcvbob]

Isn't that cedar mulch mostly bark? Buy a 6" cedar fence picket and chop it up. (that's what I did to make my charcoal 2 years ago) Unless you can get some nice scraps for free

[tacklebury]

Urea == (NH2)2CO I'm not sure what urea has to do with anything.

You can convert ammonium nitrate to potassium nitrate if you have a source of potassium hydroxide or potassium carbonate. (I know the hydroxide works, I've done it. I'm pretty sure carbonate will work) It's a safe but nasty reaction that gives off lots of ammonia gas.

It has to do with the fact that it can be used to produce a gunpowder alternative type propellent that the army trains to reload ammo in a pinch. If you cannot get to a place to buy or harvest Potassium Nitrate, it might be an alternative method of making ammo go boom. I know I always urinate, but I apollogize for being off topic.

I'm kind of excited to try the black powder also.

[Longwood]

West coast soft wood could be cottonwood, I would stay away from pine cause of the pitch but maybe someone here will disagree. I use green wood cause that was recommended in a writeup I read. Make sure and strip the bark.

Thanks
Cottonwood I can get.
I have a fig tree that needs pruning. I wonder how well that would work.
BTW, I made some black powder back in 56 when I was about 14. I am looking forward to doing it again.
Yeah, I have some stories, not sure why, still have all of my fingers and thumbs, eyes and ears.

If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room.

[Boz330]

My first charcoal after grinding. You definitely can't put too much in the grinder at one time, it is much harder to grind than I would have thought.
There are some bigger pieces in there but that should be taken care of when I ball mill it. The meat grinder got it pretty fine though.
That was a one gallon paint can stuffed full of willow, yielded more than I thought it would when I first looked in the can.

Bob

[Fly]

Now your cooking my friend.I can't wait till you mill it & screen or are you going to corn it?

Fly

[Boz330]

I've read so much on this stuff in the last couple days my head is about to explode. I really want to try this in a cartridge gun and the precipitate method might not have the density I need but thought I would go that route just to get something done. Need to make up a way to press the powder before going for more weight per volume. I have some screens on the way from McMaster-Carr for grading and/or screening.
Here is a place to get Willow charcoal if you don't want to fool with making your own. They also have Alder.
http://www.customcharcoal.com/willow-lump-charcoal.html

Bob

[Boz330]

Everything is in the mill going round and round.

Bob

[Fly]

What binder are you going to use.?
Boz I just use a kitchen strainer like the one atom
use's in that early picture in this thread.It works
great.
Fly

[mold maker]

And to think that a couple months ago, most were saying, Don't, Can't, Won't. Now it's the next thing to do.
Glad to see the positive discussion, and common sense prevailing.

[Fly]

And to think that a couple months ago, most were saying, Don't, Can't, Won't. Now it's the next thing to do.
Glad to see the positive discussion, and common sense prevailing.

Thank you my friend.It really is fun to make & more fun to shoot knowing
you made quality bp.
Fly

[Boz330]

What binder are you going to use.?
Boz I just use a kitchen strainer like the one atom
use's in that early picture in this thread.It works
great.
Fly

I don't have anything for this batch just wanted to get my feet wet. I'll try it on the next batch. I'd like to try the compressed pucks as well since I'm going to try this in a cartridge gun and will eventually need the denser powder. I do have MLs as well though. My screens ought to be here tomorrow.

Bob

[Fly]

Do you have a press?If not a large vise can be used.
Fly

[perotter]

.

I'd like to try the compressed pucks as well since I'm going to try this in a cartridge gun and will eventually need the denser powder.

Some of the sulfurless powders have enough extra power in them that you don't have to compress them to dup BP vel(or close enough IMO). This is in the full sized cases.

[Boz330]

Some of the sulfurless powders have enough extra power in them that you don't have to compress them to dup BP vel(or close enough IMO). This is in the full sized cases.

Are you talking about just Charcoal and KNO3 or something else?

Bob

[Charlie Sometimes]

I didn't have the meat grinder to use- got to find Grandma's old one I've got stashed somewhere.
I hope the wife didn't give it to Salvation Army, or some such.
I just took a 2# lead hammer and mashed the pieces I took from the can in a plastic butter tub until it was broken into small pieces, then put that into the ball mill for pulverizing.
Man, the ball mill does the job- it looks like carbon black or soot.

I ran the soot, last night, through an old spring loaded flour sifter 3 times to get out any chunks- those go back into the ball mill and will run until they are soot too.
DO NOT sneeze once it is this fine!
I took the air compressor and blew out the sifter after I was through and let me tell you that it don't take but a very little bit to form a large black cloud.
Thankfully, I was just inside the door of my shop................
Looks like I've ended up with about 1/2 lb. of charcoal flour.

Also, running the last chunks with those RB's will finish rounding out the sprues, so I am killing two birds with one stone!

I need to go back and read the "destructions" posted earlier for a refresher, then this weekend, I MIGHT get around to working the sulfur into flour (my next step, before the KNO3 phase), depending on what else I have to do.
I have a larger vise that I plan on using for the compression phase, once I get to that- I want loose powder around 3Fg granulation.
I still have to figure out what I am going to compress it in and what size to make that puck.............

[Charlie Sometimes]

I guess I should be taking and posting pictures too!

[perotter]

Are you talking about just Charcoal and KNO3 or something else?

Bob

1.
KNO3,Charcoal & table sugar. A mix of 72/14/14 the yield of gas is 2.1 & solids is 0.35 per unit of weight.

2.
KNO3 & table sugar(normal white powder) the yield of gas is 2.25 & solids is 0.32 per unit of weight.

3.
BP the yield of gas is 1.57 & solids is 0.36 per unit of weight. Sulfur produces very little gas.

The 1st one I don't believe is optimized. In Europe some guys mix it 75/15/10, but it would have less power than the one I listed. Keep in mind that vel & the amount of gas/solids aren't a 1 to 1 relationship.

Neither of the 1st 2 may not work in traditional ML's. But do work in cartridge gun & cap & ball revolvers. I think they may work with inline MLs. I'm really a BP cartridge man & use the white powder. The 1st one most likely burns faster & ignites easier than number 2, because charcoal is a burn rate catalyst.

I don't have time to do more testing of the 1st one in the near future. I have a little more to do with primer compounds now & want to get back to DIY smokeless powders(my real interest). I might get some time to figure out a better ratio.

[Boz330]

Well there it is the first batch. I got some screens from McMaster-Carr but I think they might be too fine for this process. I think I'll try a sieve like Atom an Fly suggested with a little bigger openings. This was a 10X10 but the openings are really small for rubbing a damp ball of powder over.
Next batch starts tomorrow. This will definitely be a learning process. No problem though because I have a PHD from the school of hard knocks. My old man always said I didn't learn easily. He hated to admit it but the fruit didn't fall far from the tree.

Bob

[Fly]

Hey do this just for me.Tomorrow get a tea spoon & lay out a patch of your powder in
a line on a ole 2X4 & stay back & put a match to one end.If it goes poof you got some
good powder Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Fly Post back