My homemade black powder

[zxcvbob]

Steel ball barrings are bad juju. They spark, sparks with fine bp means BOOM. Use lead/wheel weights/brass bar pieces. Not sure about zinc. Stainless 304 is suppose to be non sparking but....ANSI does not rate it as such good enough reason not to use it for me.

Zirconia M Grinding Media is good but more expensive than brass.

I just cast a bunch of .46 lead balls using WW lead and water-quenched them. They work good enough; I just think something harder (but still dense) would work better. I don't have a safe place to try anything stupid, so lead balls it is.

[superscifi12]

I just cast a bunch of .46 lead balls using WW lead and water-quenched them. They work good enough; I just think something harder (but still dense) would work better. I don't have a safe place to try anything stupid, so lead balls it is.

I think that your right with the harder would work better. That is the stuff I've heard about the zirc m. still really dense and super hard makes it work better.

[Fly]

Well stainless does work well.The balls are very $, so I bought a 3/4 stick
of 304 SS & cut it up into 1" sticks.It grinds my powder very fine.

Fly

[Longwood]

I had salvaged some lead WW or linotype ingots that someone made by only filling a small ladle about 3/8". They are about 1 1/2" in diameter and weigh about three ounces.At first I thought that the odd shape may be a problem but they worked quite well actually.
They ground up some charcoal that I had run through a course meat grinder in about 4 hours in one of the big (borrowed from a friend) rock tumbler.
The first batch I made in one of the popcorn cans they sell around Xmas but the can was one of the tapered ones and was too small. I filled it pretty full of cotton wood sticks and only got a little over a pound of finished powdered charcoal.
I am planning on making the next batch in a steel 5 gallon bucket I scrounged. Bucket, easy to find. Steel lid, a whole nuther story..
This time I am going to smash the coal a bit with a hammer and put it straight into the tumbler.

BTW.
Most people that polish rocks only use their tumblers part time.

[zxcvbob]

A pound of charcoal is a lot -- unless maybe you are feeding a good-sized cannon or making large fireworks.

[Longwood]

A pound of charcoal is a lot -- unless maybe you are feeding a good-sized cannon or making large fireworks.

Yeah,,,, you are correct,,,, but can you have too much?
Black Powder is not easily found near me.
I just got 10 lbs of sulfur.
I need charcoal to go with it.
I have made four cannons in my lifetime. I hope to make another soon.
I never had one, so I neeed a bowling ball mortar.
I have a friend who has a 4" cannon that he shoots at his property.
Way back when, I learned that if you let it be known that you will furnish the powder, more cannons, and other fun toys, suddenly start showing up at the fun spots.
The ingredients store pretty well and I don't plan on having a large quantity of finished black powder on hand at any one time.

[Yellowstoneboolitmaker]

zxcvbob, et all:
I didn't go into alot of detail in the process I use- and probably won't. Enough ppl have already. But, I have to say using alcohol is a new one on me. Isopropyl alcohol a fairly large molecule (CH3CHOHCH3) and will NOT desolve KNO3, besides it probably changes the structure of thing too much in the process. I never considered it a good candidate for the solution. Only distilled water (H2O) is the best, in my book. And, Yes, a very low heat. Enough to just evaporate the water, not set anything "off".
But to mix the ingredients dry is funny. I've done that just for the heck of it long ago and it just fizzed - sort of.
"A month to dry?" I can have mine done, dried and graded in a day and a half and it kicks just like store bought.
I know I can go buy BP anywhere = any time, but what I am doing is trying to do everything 'the old way', from making my own soap to wood stoves to planting a garden to raising chickens and on and on. (Even making KNO3.) Picture yer-self in a cabin with no stores around.
But, to each his own, right?
LBP

[zxcvbob]

zxcvbob, et all:
I didn't go into alot of detail in the process I use- and probably won't. Enough ppl have already. But, I have to say using alcohol is a new one on me. Isopropyl alcohol a fairly large molecule (CH3CHOHCH3) and will NOT desolve KNO3, besides it probably changes the structure of thing too much in the process. I never considered it a good candidate for the compound. Only distilled water (H2O) is the best, in my book. And, Yes, a very low heat. Enough to just evaporate the water, not set anything "off".
But to mix the ingredients dry is funny. I've done that just for the heck of it long ago and it just fizzed - sort of.
"A month to dry?" I can have mine done, dried and graded in a day and a half and it kicks just like store bought.
I know I can go buy BP anywhere = any time, but what I am doing is trying to do everything 'the old way', from making my own soap to wood stoves to planting a garden to raising chickens and on and on. (Even making KNO3.) Picture yer-self in a cabin with no stores around.
But, to each his own, right?
LBP

OK, you're using a different process than I am. (I think it's called the "CIA Method")

The isopropyl was just to wet the stuff to make it like clay so I could screen it, it didn't have to dissolve anything cuz the BP was already fully mixed in the ball mill. It looked dry the next day and it worked, but was kind of weak. I put it aside for a few weeks, maybe a month -- mostly because of the weather, this was in winter in Minnesota -- and when I checked it again it was a little lighter in color. I loaded some again and it was much stronger.

(I make my own soap too, mostly with a mixture of beef and turkey fat, but I use store-bought lye. It was kind of tough when lye disappeared from the stores for a couple of years, but it's back now)

[Yellowstoneboolitmaker]

Ok, but just mixing is not enough. What you want is for the KNO3 and S to not just "sit" next to the C, you want it to absorb into it. C is made of a matrix of microscopic tubes that you want to fill with the mixture of the other two.
You can try to pound them together - or you can just disolve the KNO3 mixed with S and let it "flow" into those tubes - to absorb just as much of it into the C as you can.
When it is disolved, heated and mixed it enters the C much more effectively.
It's like a compound virses a solution.
In a compound the ingredients will always seperate when dried and shaken enough.
In a solution, they will not, ever.

[Fly]

I'm not trying to put anyone down, but please don't post something thats not true.
I have made very fast powder with denatored alky many times using this recipe.

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/...ack-powder.asp
Fly

[Longwood]

I'm not trying to put anyone down, but please don't post something thats not true.
I have made very fast powder with denatored alky many times using this recipe.

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/...ack-powder.asp
Fly

Thanks for posting this.

[Yellowstoneboolitmaker]

So, you're not calling me a liar, but what I said was "not true?"
Isn't that a contradiction?
Ppl have been making quality BP for thousands of years w/out 'S-L-X Denatured Alcohol'.
Maybe they just didn't have a baseball-cannon and stopwatch to test it with at that time.

I'll just go make more boolits and see if I can get that wrong too.

[Fly]

So, you're not calling me a liar, but what I said was "not true?"
Isn't that a contradiction?
Ppl have been making quality BP for thousands of years w/out 'S-L-X Denatured Alcohol'.
Maybe they just didn't have a baseball-cannon and stopwatch to test it with at that time.

I'll just go make more boolits and see if I can get that wrong too.

No one is calling you a liar.I'm just saying there is more than one way to
make powder.I make more powder in a mounth than most black powder shooters
make in there life time for my fireworks.

I also shoot black powder & have for over 30 years.But when you make a statment
& it's not true, then thats the way it is, my friend.I mostly make my powder by
ball mill, water & use a binder.

The guy that started this thread makes his by the CIA method & reports very
good results.I suggest you read this whole thread from the start & you may
learn a thing or to.

Fly

[Fly]

Longwood I have no idea were Yucca Valley, CA is.But I do know some of
the fastest charcoal for BP is big leaf maple.It grows in north CA on up
into the great north west.If you can find some out there, you can make some really
fast powder.

Fly

[Fly]

So, you're not calling me a liar, but what I said was "not true?"
Isn't that a contradiction?
Ppl have been making quality BP for thousands of years w/out 'S-L-X Denatured Alcohol'.
Maybe they just didn't have a baseball-cannon and stopwatch to test it with at that time.

I'll just go make more boolits and see if I can get that wrong too.

"Yellowstoneboolitmaker" Buddy I'm not trying to start a fight with anyone.A
liar is some one that tell something he knows is not true.I know you meant
well, but being mistaken is a whole differant thing all together.None of us
know everything.

My friend Danny has forgot more about making BP than I will ever know.I
posted his site earlyer in this thread.It's been my passion for some time making
good BP.

This thread was started by Atom, & it's all about sharing ideas.So don't get
thin skined if some one does some thing a little differant.Like I said I have made
the Denatured alky powder & it was scary fast.I did mind a little differant
thow.

I ball milled my meal like I always do.But I disolved 2% Red Gum in the
Alky to have a harder grain for shooting.It worked very well.

But I,m a tight a$$ also, & did not want to up the cost of the powder by
adding the Denatured alky.Water free & I,m cheap (wink) & my powder
is plenty fast.
Take care for we are all friends here!
Fly

[zxcvbob]

Have you tried using shellac instead of red gum?

[Fly]

Have you tried using shellac instead of red gum?

No there are alot of binders out there, & I have used several.But no I have not
used shellac, thats a new one for me.

Fly

[Longwood]

Longwood I have no idea were Yucca Valley, CA is.But I do know some of
the fastest charcoal for BP is big leaf maple.It grows in north CA on up
into the great north west.If you can find some out there, you can make some really
fast powder.

Fly

Thanks for the tip Fly!
That is one of the many reasons this subject is so confusing.
Some say to only use soft wood, but I always thought Maple is a hard wood. I can get a maple at the local Home Depot but I will need to ask them if they know which type it is.

By the way,,,, Yucca Valley is in the southern Ca. desert.

I used some green cottonwood limbs recently because it is what I have on my place. Pain in the butt to peel because of all the small limbs I had to deal with.

I can get willow by driving a very short distance. I pass miles of it on the way back from the VA hospital.
I read here where some advise plain old cured pine or white cedar fencing which I can get at Home Depot.

The cheap studs at Home Depot here are made from some sort of very light colored junk wood but I am not sure what it is. Could be Hemlock from Oregon which is similar but inferior to fir.

The stuff I made as a kid was made the easy, non technical, way. Grind the charcoal from the wood stove, munch the stuff together, then light it.
DUH! simple actually.

[waksupi]

I wonder if that is the same as vine, or mountain maple like we have around here? It is certainly a lot lighter than silver or red maple when dry. Guess I'll have to try some!

[Fly]

Well I only use silver maple, as far as maple goes.You can't go wrong with willow.
Cotton wood is also very good, but very dirty burning.It helps to let cotton wood season
for about 6 months & the bark will be easy to remove.

Only use eastern white pine, but again very dirty burning.Yellow pine is much slower.
Cedar works well also.During the Civil War the north used Willow, the South used
Cotton wood.After the war the army continued to use Willow.

There are alot of great woods, but there are some bad ones also.If you are just
starting out , I would advise you to stick with a proven wood like willow.I have
made some really fast powder but I have made some junk also.

One thing about junk powder is I can alway find a use for it with my fireworks.
It may be used in a comet, or stars or such, for I try not to waste any.

But for guns you don't need to do that.Just stick to the wood that you know works.

Hope I helped Fly