My homemade black powder

[Rojelio]

I use one of these. Just leave your pucks in one of these overnight and they'll be dryer than a popcorn fart. Saves a lot of time if you're in a hurry.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOOD-DEHYDRA...W/272346085602

[Fly]

Joe if you have water coming out you have two much water. Again press ONE puck at a time. See if that helps.

Fly

[indian joe]

Yeah got the water thing figured out - too dry then too wet then almost just right - that last was just a couple of beads after over an hour under pressure - also did a couple pucks single press for comparison. Might try the dehydrator but it will be way out in the yard if I do - that looks the most potential dangerous process to me - couple kilos of pucks over an electric element? Thered be little meteorites flyin all over the place if that lot went off !

[Boz330]

I never tried lighting a puck but it would probably burn, more like rocket fuel than explode.

Bob

[fishingsetx]

I never tried lighting a puck but it would probably burn, more like rocket fuel than explode.

Bob

I've lit a pretty good chunk and it just burned fast. You would have to compress and contain it to get an explosion. If a bunch of pucks lit off in a dehydrator (which is VERY unlikely), they would just burn. It actually takes a lot of heat to get it to light!

Powder before compressing at all (freshly milled)

https://youtu.be/LSFM5Xmz-Dw

Pressed and screened powder

https://youtu.be/R_4aScYE354

A chunk of pressed cake before grinding

https://youtu.be/B1UENXA4Vs0

As you can see, it's not going to just fire off from a little heat. Takes quite a bit! And you can see how slow the chunk burned!

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. - Mark Twain

[Fly]

I have dried my pucks in my electric over when my wife was gone of coarse. Note I said Electric NOT gas. I set
it at 150 degrees. But yes I use the beef jerky dehydrator also. I have also used a ole crock pot with the lid off,
set on low. It takes about 650 degrees to set it off. But this time of year I like laying news paper down on my
porch, and lay the pucks on top & dry them in the sun.

Fly

[indian joe]

Powder in those demos looked pretty tardy to me - I have had some very interesting puffs of smoke here - much more active than that demo - sure the dryer in its normal function is safe -- always the what if factor though - the heater element in these things is right close to whatever is on the trays - an electrical malfunction makes sparks then we do got a problem - a couple kilos of dry pucks on fire ? I am not gonna bet they just burn quietly where they are - no explosion - NO - but Bob said "burn like rocket fuel" - that was my meteorite picture - cuz for sure once one lights the whole lot is gone and quick, and it wouldnt surprise me to see em take off - propelled by the fire on one side ? Dont know -- dont wanna find out. Second problem here is we already have a dehydrator - but a new one is close on two hundred bucks here - and to this point my little project has gone ahead on the basis of "what she dont know wont hurt a bit" ..... I could make a drying tunnel with a fan heater in it that would be safer, cheaper, and wouldnt draw attention from management. Maybe later. Thanks all for the feedback.
Joe

[fishingsetx]

Judging by height of impact on targets at 100 yds, it's hotter than all three smokeless equivalents I have and goex (All FFFg). If I was going to use a dehydrator to dry my pucks, if put it out in the driveway due to fire hazard, but I wouldn't have any qualms parking my truck 20' away.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. - Mark Twain

[indian joe]

how cold was it when you were lighting that powder ? - I just came through summer and only have to touch it with any kind of flame and its instant - during winter (damp and cool) could not get the same stuff to light with a match - had to go get the gas lighter - so my apology for dumping on yr powder.
I broke one puck this evening and ground it - not really happy with it - I dont think its dry enough (two days) either that or ----- its just occurred to me that mix has some dextrin in it would that mean it didnt harden properly with pressing? maximum 2% DEX - but its enough to make good hard grains of screened powder (this is meal I made last winter)

[Boz330]

I usually make my powder in the summer and just set them in the sun for a couple days and grind. Never really had any problems with excess moisture. Grain for grain by weight my powder is more energetic than Swiss.

Bob

[indian joe]

Bob
My screened powder is weight for weight as good as old GOEX 5FA - pressed powder from last year about halfway from there to Swiss so yeah a bit better velocity from the pressed but I cant get the density (weight for measure) that factory powder gets even in my pressed powder - tested some of the new batch this morning and pretty much the same ... 45-70 case full up is 66grains of mine (pressed) , 80 grains of Goex, 63 grains of screened powder, goin over the chrony in the next few days with 60 grain loads of each for comparison - (more interested in shot to shot consistency than overall velocity) - its all interesting !

[indian joe]

Bob (and all)
Shooting report
45/70 Marcheno sharps LEE 459-500-3R all powder loads 60 grains by weight - drop tubed - no wads - light to moderate compression
FFg homemade (2015 vintage powder) 1123,1100,1101fps
Fg homemade (last weeks pressed and ground) 1103,1100,1102 FPS
5FA Goex (this is Moosic pa powder from about 1995?) 1151,1130,1155,FPS
FFg homemade under a LEE 335 grain 1344,1322,1323
I shot three foul shots before I started and alternated 1 shot of each load until I finished - I think some of the variations here could be down to inconsistent use of the blow tube - am a newbie with that and need to be more careful with it - velocity levels are pleasing (if a bit under what I talked in my last post!) - 5FA goex is a pretty fine grain powder and we have tested it about 10% quicker than Goex FFFg years ago - so I would expect my homemade to be at least equal if I moved the load to FFFg.Next stge of the project is make some more willow charcoal and grind some meal with no dextrin in and see what that does.

[w5pv]

When I was a kid we made black powder using the 1/3+1/3+1/3 formula.Getting the charcoal ground fine enough was the secret.We kept doing this until this one kid lost half of his hand through a mishap in packing the powder in this steel tube he was using for a canon barrel,it was guessed that he made a spark while packing the powder or maybe a burning piece of packing from a previous shot that set it off.

[Nobade]

When I was a kid we made black powder using the 1/3+1/3+1/3 formula.Getting the charcoal ground fine enough was the secret.We kept doing this until this one kid lost half of his hand through a mishap in packing the powder in this steel tube he was using for a canon barrel,it was guessed that he made a spark while packing the powder or maybe a burning piece of packing from a previous shot that set it off.

Good thing we know better than to do that now.

-Nobade

[Fly]

Very true & we are not kids, we are grown adults, so what is your point?

Fly

[indian joe]

hmm I am confused how my shooting report gets a reply about a kid blowing his hand off????

[fishingsetx]

I just took it as one person relaying their experience making honade black powder. Not someone (like another forum im on) putting anyone down.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. - Mark Twain

[w5pv]

It was for information,this happened some where around 1953,1954.Keep it safe guys.God Bless you all.

[Fly]

w5pv believe me we all know the danger of making BP here. That's why we use no spark metals in the process.
We use ceramic burr grinders & my pressing dies are made from aluminum. But every now &then some one comes
on line & calls us crazy. Well maybe we are but crazy safe guys.

Fly

[indian joe]

w5pv you did better than us !! it was 1961 - had a mate very scientific he got the recipie from a book and we pilfered the ingredients and mixed it all up and set it off in a little pumpshed at the back of our classrooms (agricultural boarding school) --- lots of smoke as it fizzed and crackled - nobody had told us about grinding the stuff !
later the same crew - someone managed to steal some veery flare shells from the cadet cor store room - we dismantled them out in the bush and set the flares off but that left us the cases with their blackpowder charge - those things fit neat in a piece of one inch water pipe - sooooo - someone had a part can of window putty which got stuffed down the front of the pipe as a projectile and the case base is exposed at the back - the whole thing jammed through the wall of an old log hut - how to set it off ? ok lets put a nail through a piece of flat board and give that primer a whack - a couple of guys try it and nothing then our scientific dude steps up - gimme that - luckily the board was long enough it stood him to the side - and man that thing went off ! - it was an illumination flare and those have a decent charge in side - there was a gosh almighty roaring boom - our little scientific mate turns around face covered in black soot - no eybrows left - ginger hair gone from over his forehead - ears ringing - some of the boys thought this is hilarious - a couple are admiring the inside of the hut - tiny little specks of window putty blasted over the log wall at the end - your writer here being a curious kind of dude is in deep thought about the whereabouts of that brass case base - we backtracked carefully over the forest floor for a hundred yards and nary a sign of it - someone suggested that our mate was lucky he was clever enough to stand aside or he would now have a very large hole through about where his third shirt button was -- jeeez I never thought about it just had to get a decent swing at that nail head.................
We had a 50 year reunion at our old school 3 years ago - 2 out of sixty missing - one to Vietnam - one in a motor bike accident - pretty good odds I reckon -