My homemade black powder

[Hotfxr]

I agree 100 percent - been there - done this experiment - which is why I issued the challenge to Hotfxr - however get enough of this stuff in a pile and it does go kaboom - big time - BP plants blew up with monotonous regularity in the olde days - in those circumstances the buildings became the pressure vessel and the quantity of powder involved was likely tonnes - and everything was coated in a fine layer of powder dust - flash ignition of loose dust and or small quantities of spilled powder on benches etc needs to be seen to be believed.

The guy in the video was dumb - his fuse was way too short in that demo - if he had got ignition from a stray spark when he lit that he woulda lost eyebrows, half his hair and maybe an eye

The next time I am able to freely and without fear of arrest light of some powder, I will video the tests. I love to do this. However, in the last two years it seems that half of our state burned down. 2017 our county had over 6000 homes burned and this year the fires in the north basically destroyed the entire city of Paradise. Almost every place I used to be able to hunt, shoot, and make loud noises now looks like the surface of the moon, if the moon was covered with burned stuff and ash. As a result folks are a wee bit sensitive when they hear explosions and see smoke. So it might take a while, and by a while I mean months. Since this will be just another repeat of things that we have already done, I have to say that lighting a pound of powder just poured into a pile is a beautiful thing. From a safe distance there is a blindingly bright light followed by a muffled "whoomp" sound and an incredible perfect mushroom cloud going up and out. In a jar like the one i the video, light, very deep loud crack sound followed by a narrower mushroom cloud with smoke rings and plastic shrapnel. I will say that we have always lit anything we put a fuse into from the bottom. The weight of the powder and the sides of the jar including the restricted neck make for more pressure than you would think. Not nearly what it would be if there was a lid on the jar.
So when I can I will take videos of our "experiments" , but be patient. And Joe, with what I paid for my materials, it costs me about $2.25 a pound to make. (I have to keep the cost down since it takes 3 ounces per shot in my cannon.) When I can I am more than happy to burn it up. As long as I get lots of noise and smoke.

[Hotfxr]

This will be fun and when ya do it I want explicit details on your container and how you set it up cuz I can get some of that $2.25 powder too - do ya reckon it would work with meal powder straight out of the mill (that would save a lot of work!!!) That would be fun!!!!!
So you drill the bottom of your container and run the fieuse in there?

Yes to the fuses on the bottom. I have been having computer issues lately and have not been able to post pictures here. We always drill or burn a hole at the bottom and usually glue a fuse in. I made up a couple of 6" tall cans from 1 1/2" ABS with fuse holes in the bottom. When the kids come over I set them up with 1/4" of 2f or cannon grind powder in the bottom, cover with a tissue, then fill it to the top with powdered non-dairy creamer and light the fuse. Makes a satisfying "boom" and a huge ball of flame. Too much fun.

[swamp]

The grinder I use is adjustable. I adjusted till I got what I wanted. It now gives me mostly 3F. Too large gets reground and too fine gets repressed. I got lucky and it did not take a long time of trail and error adjusting the grind. I have not messed with it since. It is also a ceramic one.

As to the HF press. It is what I use and it is working well. I am happy with it.

swamp

[swamp]

I use a digital that has a 5 lb. limit It measures in lb. or oz. Got it at a yard sale. I think any scale that has decent accuracy will work. I decided to make 1 pound batches. Figured the % of ingredients in ounces and weigh out.
swamp

[swamp]

I use one of Flys puck dies. I press one at a time and it comes out about 1/4 to 3/8 thick. Haven't tried to do any with spacers between pucks. I moisten the meal just enough to get the powder to just hold together. Use a fine pump mister.

I usually leave it under pressure for 10-15 minutes. pump it up 1 or twice to keep the pressure up. Once dry they ring pretty good. I have been reading this thread since it started. Loads of excellent information here and people willing to share it. So far I am happy with my results and surprised how well homemade powder works. Follow the rules and take care to prepare your ingredients and mix well. Practice will make it easier.
swamp

[swamp]

Sorry, I didn't understand. A beam scale or digital one made for reloading. I have an Ohaus beam and a Pact digital. Other brands are out there. Definitely need one for reloading smokeless. Black is usually measured by volume.

swamp

[Eddie2002]

I've been using an older beam gram scale for the BP components and also for reloading smokeless. It's calibrated down to one hundredth of a gram but only goes up to 311 grams which works well for my 1/4 lb batches.

A freshly minted nickle coin weight five grams and can be used for a quick calibration check on a scale if needed.

[Hotfxr]

Can anyone recommend a good cheap gun powder scale. Preferably available on Amazon Prime. I need to do a better job of measuring my powder loads than volumetrically, at least until I get better at producing a consistent grain and dial in what's what.

Here is one on Amazon for $18. I use a similar one that cost me $11. It pays to check around on EBay too.

https://www.amazon.com/Homgeek-Milli...-1-spons&psc=1




I wound up with several cheap accurate digital scales that don't do grains. They are fine for measuring your raw ingredients keeping with the 75-15-10 mixture. Shooting loads are measured by volume (usually) not by weight. If you pour a set amount by volume of commercial then using the same container pour your homemade in until you match the weight and then pour it into a measure to see how much volume you have. It's easy to figure out the percentage you must add or subtract to match the weight of commercial. Most of all, have fun with it.

[Hotfxr]

I want to come up with an efficient way to make FFg and FFFg. I guess I'll just buy the coffee grinder that's been recommended here, and play around with it. I'm going to start my next batch this weekend, and this time I'm going to make some Mimosa charcoal.

Peruse the older posts, most everyone screens their ground powder. There are many examples of easy and cheep ways to screen. I have two of the grinders. Since I need a really large grind for the cannon I have one set for large grind and the stuff that is too big for cannon goes into the other grinder which is set much smaller.

[Hotfxr]

I agree, which is what I've been doing.

But I'm the only person I know who shoots black powder. As I said earlier, as weird as it might sound, the ONLY black powder I've ever shot, or even worked with, is the black powder that I've made and screened. So, I want to make sure that I'm loading what I think I'm loading with the volume measurement. Once I get a feel for it, I'll just use the volume measurements. The last 4 lbs has been a mix of FFFg and finer grades. My poor quality control didn't remove the finer grades, so by volume I'm probably shooting bigger loads than I think I'm shooting.

I just want to check, and continue to self-educate and check myself with a good scale. I'll get to the point where I'm confident enough with my grading, that I can put the scales away.

Does that make sense?

It absolutely makes sense. I did the same thing. I myself tend to learn things the hard way and my black powder journey was no different. Having been hanging out in this thread for a few years now the things that helped me the most were corning (for density and the grains not breaking back down into flour-like powder), screening (to separate the grain sizes), and consistency in the raw materials.

I still regularly use the grain scale to test my weight to volume ratios. About every third outing.

[Eddie2002]

I'm in total agreement that consistent kernel size makes for better accuracy even though I screen my powder instead of corning and grinding. With screening I've found that using a larger mesh size to screen with helps. I'm currently using a #8 screen and get mainly 2F with some larger kernels that I crush up then sift any fines out at the end. Since I"m shooting front stuffers instead of BP cartridge the extra volume of a screened powder isn't as much of an issue. My home made screened BP weighs around 65% of store bought so if I want to shoot a commercial load of 60 grains I load 90 grains by volume.
One thing I've noticed is that my screened BP doesn't flow very well out of the dispenser and I need to use a container with a wider mouth to pour it out of. I don't have any way to measure the bullet velocity so a lot of my load work up is by comparing recoil and drop at 100 yds.

[Boz330]

McMaster-Carr. Make your own frames. The strainer from Walmart is 16 mesh, then I use a 20 and a 30, 2F &3f.

Bob

[Vettepilot]

FLY:

Sent you a Private Message. Please let me know if ya got it.

Thanks!
Vettepilot

[Boz330]

Eddie you are a breath of fresh air (the common sense kind) Screened powder is fine for ML's and is so much less work!
also easier to get the granulation size you want

I did some chronograph tests in cartridge loads, weight for weight there was almost zero difference in velocity to corned, had to lean on the screened stuff fairly hard to get the same charge in but it takes way more compression than corned powder ---just did that to see whether we are losing energy oer grain in the screened and it dosnt seem to be the case

My numbers are similar to yours (maybe a little better) I use a 45/70 case as a reference
it takes 79 grains of Goex 5FA, 72 grains of my corned, 62 grains of screened

Also tested compression - I have a small direct action loading press and set up a scale on the handle - goex took 1/8th inch, my corned 1/4 inch, my screened 1/2 inch compression depth in the case to get the same pressure reading on the sacle handle - (a bit rough method wise but done scientifically would yield similar result)

A lot of this is "who cares" stuff but I am curious and anything that helps me understand whats going on will improve the result I think.

My experience is like yours with screen size --- 8 mesh for mostly FF
If you want mostly FFFg go to window screen - I do that pretty damp - stringy when it comes out - I spread it over a 4 foot x 2 foot window screen above a catch sheet and then gently work it through as it dries - get mostly FFF a little FF and not much fines at all - I get about half the amount of FFFF and soot fines with screening as I get crushing pucks.

Way back early in this thread I did weight to weight chrono tests of 3 different powders and came up with the same results, but did it in a ML. I can't begin to get the same weight in a cartridge case though. I tried doing several compression cycles to get more weight in the cases but accuracy went to hell in a hand basket. Just doing a single compression worked best for me and with corned powder the velocity wasn't off enough to bother worrying about. Grain for grain weight wise my HM develops more velocity than Swiss.
In a 40-65 case I get 65gr of Swiss which gives me about 1275fps, 54gr of my HM (a case full) gives me 1200fps. The deer in the picture couldn't tell the difference.

Bob

[Dieselhorses]

Way back early in this thread I did weight to weight chrono tests of 3 different powders and came up with the same results, but did it in a ML. I can't begin to get the same weight in a cartridge case though. I tried doing several compression cycles to get more weight in the cases but accuracy went to hell in a hand basket. Just doing a single compression worked best for me and with corned powder the velocity wasn't off enough to bother worrying about. Grain for grain weight wise my HM develops more velocity than Swiss.
In a 40-65 case I get 65gr of Swiss which gives me about 1275fps, 54gr of my HM (a case full) gives me 1200fps. The deer in the picture couldn't tell the difference.

Bob

"Deer"- the incredible edible chronograph!

[Eddie2002]

I'm using 2% dextrin in my mix also, forgot to mention that I add it along with the other components in the ball mill. Some people add it at the end of the mix but it's just as easy to toss it in at the beginning.

"Deer"- the incredible edible chronograph!" LOL, good one.

[Boz330]

"Deer"- the incredible edible chronograph!

That chronograph was a little on the tough side. The summer sausage was pretty tasty though.

Bob

[Dieselhorses]

That chronograph was a little on the tough side. The summer sausage was pretty tasty though.

Bob

Try adding some meat tenderizer in with the BP Seriously though, really gratifying to drop a buck like that with self-engineered munitions!

[Hotfxr]

I think I'm going to switch to a brass grinding media. Does anyone know of a source for solid brass ball bearings that's reasonably priced?

Online metals (onlinemetals.com) sells 25 each 1/2" brass balls for $13 plus shipping. They have many more sizes, I just chose 1/2" as an example. I think though you will find that they are not heavy enough to mill your powder as fine as it needs to be. Well maybe if you extended your mill time by a factor of 3 or 4. As an aside, they are very accurately milled and I have used them as patched round balls in my firearms.

[Hotfxr]

If I had to make a choic of metal I think I would choose bronze over brass. It is (depending on what alloy you choose) heavier than the brass is. I like your idea of cutting a rod into small lengths. If I could offer advice, slightly round the cut edges, I think you will get better results. I too saw the lead in the my homemade PVC tumbler although the milling balls left much less than using plain old round balls. The tumblers I use now are hardened rubber and after testing didn't seem to leave any residue in the canisters. However I use the lead in copper method as it seems to mill better than the round balls.