You let them dry for a day & see how hard they are then.
Fly
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You let them dry for a day & see how hard they are then.
Fly
I also get better pucks when it oozes some. Fine line indeed. Lots of oozing is a HUGE mess and lots of wastage. But not enough and my pucks fall apart into dust.
The golden state is when it oozes clear liquid. That is a supreme fine line, but that magic land is super clean and results in excellent pucks.
I been doing this for some time & zero water comes out of mine. I have a friend in Florida who is the smartest
man I know in making BP & fireworks. He makes commercial fire works for a living & taught me much, & written
a few book on top of that. He tells me he does not even wet his because of the humidity in Fla.
I don't know guys I have made countless puck dies & never had a complaint. I have not a clue what the problem is.
Wish I could help.
Fly
Pic is kinda fuzzy, but a few of those look like some I made and didnt add enough water.Originally Posted by brian1
How fine was your green mill?,
I add just enough water to get the mill to start to try and cake togetger when pressed by hand. I use a set of lee powder dippers to measure it and once I find the right amount, I stick with that. The amount may change between batches/days. Using fly's die and a 6 ton press, I want to see a VERY slight bead of water at max pressure. Doing it this way, my pressed pucks come out if the press hard as a rock. Usually the top edge of the puck is soft (around the corner), but I just scrape that off back into my green mill and repress with the next batch. Once dry (overnight in a dehydrator), they sound like a ceramic disk when tapped with something metal.
If you didnt spill a large amount of powder, something is definitly amiss! 1.5 oz converts to 650+ grains of powder (by weight). Plus, you added water which should have increased the final weight even more! You should have seen that somewhere!
Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!
Yeah, it seemed like it acted like a bit too dry, yet I still got a small amount of clear water from it; as opposed to the much larger amounts of thick black goo I got when it was wetter. I just checked them, though - even the ones that looked like they might have been a bit dry are all quite hard. When I was pressing them, I gave them extra pressure, to make up for the dryness. The dryer ones aren't as glassy smooth on the non-piston side as the wetter ones were, but they are all quite hard.
At first, when I was getting more goo from it, I used my finger to scrape up the goo and put it back into the mixture. Later on, I was getting less goo and getting tired of the process (press puck, clean up goo, press out piston, clean packed mix from piston and cylinder, go remove the galling from piston and cylinder, etc), so I just wiped off anything coming out with a paper towel and threw it in the trash. For the last couple pucks, I went back to putting a thin layer of anti-seize on the piston wall, and that seemed to help with preventing galling.
I wonder if temperatures have anything to do with all this. It's still below freezing here, especially at night. In fact, it's SNOWING right now!
One assumption I've been making is that your dies are aluminum. That's what I used. Perhaps you are using stainless steel. or are yours aluminum?
Mine I got from him is aluminum. I do set the die on a piece of PTFE on the non piston side to try and seal it. My pucks come out slick and shiny everywhere except the corners. Id be leery of using neversieze for fear of powder contamination. Never had an issue with my die trying to sieze up. Not sure what the clearances between the barrel and piston are, compared to yours, though.
How did you go about mixing the water in? The little bit of water (a couple tiny drops) that comes out when I press is almost black, but the consistancy of plain water.
Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!
I used the anti-seize sparingly and only on the piston walls, so it should not be making any contact with the puck
I just poured a small amount of distilled water in from a bottle, mixed with gloved hands until fully dispersed, then added a bit more & repeated until it seemed the moisture had gotten to all of it. I think another time it might be better to under-water, then let it sit a day or 2 covered, to let the water disperse that way, rather than trying to do it all at once.
Perhaps next time I should put the die onto a piece of plastic (I have PVC boards), too. I was using a little 4" square of sheet aluminum to set between the bottom of the die and the press base.
Every time I pressed mine I used 4% by weight distilled water and had just a slight amount of seepage of water. One could always use less say 3 or 3.5%?
I second the spritzer bottle. I use 91% alcohol in mine.
swamp
There is no problem so great, that it cannot be solved by the proper application of high explosives.
Very helpful advice there, swamp & indian joe - I will do it that way next time
Well, I made some more grinding media. I have a full tub full so I figure I now have enough, as I can fill each of the 2 tubs half-full of media:
About all I need to do now is assemble my 12-ton Harbor Freight press.
Steve
Man I love the way you roll those edges on those tubes.
Fly
Edit: went back and found his other post about how he does them. Much better than my dull cutter blade!
Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!
Last edited by fishingsetx; 04-08-2018 at 07:39 PM.
I just started a batch and to my surprise the potassium nitrate has picked up a little moisture from the air. I'm milling it as usual but am wondering what will happen with the batch, will it mix properly or not. I'm planning to giving it a longer milling and will add some dextrin tomorrow before a final milling and then corning. Think the damp potassium nitrate will cause any problems?
I would say no, but that is just an educated guess. I cant see any reason a little moisture would effect it considering you will be adding more water to corn it (im assuming you dont press it into pucks).
Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians!
The little bit of moisture didn't affect anything during the milling. Checked it and it looked good.
Eddie no need for a binder when Corning pressed powder.
Fly
Fly, I'm having trouble getting enough pressure with my press setup, the pucks are coming out soft. I'm going to try adding dextrin to get a better uniform grain size.
Ed how many ton press do you have.
Fly
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