can you make priming compound?

[Mr_Sheesh]

Sulfur is used in gardening a fair bit IIRC; There are natural Sulfur deposits in places, usually associated with volcanic vents IIRC?

[n.h.schmidt]

I think most of us do this because,It pleases us to do so. That's all it takes for me. Cheap ball ammo is going away everywhere We may have to get creative to keep shooting.
n.h.schmidt

[TheDoctor]

For higher purity, recrystalizing the sulfur is pretty simple.
https://youtu.be/lmFga5kwNZg

[ofitg]

Found a bag of BONIDE Sulfur Plant Fungicide in my garage - 90% sulfur, according to the label - the remaining (10%) ingredients were not specified.
I mixed 200 grains of this product with 8 ounces of water and heated it to boiling, then filtered it through a paper coffee filter.

To make a long story short - the yellow material trapped by the filter weighed 168 grains after it was thoroughly dried.

The "milky" liquid which passed through the filter was heated overnight to evaporate the water away - it yielded 22 grains of whitish flakes (aluminum silicate, perhaps?).

Evidently, 10 grains of the original product escaped the final weigh-ins...... residue left clinging inside the assorted containers/implements.

On a positive note, I calculate that 168 grains of "relatively pure" sulfur would be sufficient for more than three thousand of the H-48 primers.

[RED BEAR]

i tried to read the whole thread but my memory is pretty shot .think i read a post mentioning a book on how to make things for ammo that included primer cups a d anvils. does anyone actually make these or do you re-use them? how many times can they be reused ? not sure i will ever try this but its got my interest.

[Mr_Sheesh]

RED BEAR, it's ONLY (snicker!) 683 posts, you're in plenty of company here! Overwhelming good info I've seen a lot of people re-using theirs a couple times, but you do need to segregate the primers (i.e. use fired small pistol primer cups for small pistol, small rifle for small rifle, etc.) I would think. Don't want cups to be pierced.

[Mr_Sheesh]

archive.org has that and no baloney about downloader malware as well as Cartridge Manufacture by Douglas Hamilton.

[n.h.schmidt]

Hi Fellow experimenters
I thought I would give the strike on box match a try. I bought a package of 10 with 32 matches in each box.Cost $1.29 for the lot. Only one test so far. Sixteen matches scraped off and both sides of the box strike surface . The heads ground up and mixed with the strike surface scrapings. Enough for about 15 percussion caps if loosely filled. Then they were hand tamped and a drop of alcohol added and hand tamped hard. Not brave enough the do the drill press tamping with these yet. After tamping
the mix filled about a third of the cup. I fired two of them today on my tester. I'm impressed they worked and had good flame and power. They would have set off black powder and probably pyrodex too. I have not sprayed them with hairspray yet. Next test will be with eight heads and the two box sides to see if more power can be had. This is the first time Any match heads have worked .Very interesting.
n.h.schmidt

[Mr_Sheesh]

Marshall, I didn't see much on that in post 219?

[Marshall]

Marshall, I didn't see much on that in post 219?

Sorry, I meant to write post 585, 219 was my post count

Marshall

[n.h.schmidt]

Yeh I read that . I want to make it work without and anything but what comes with the matches. So far it works. I have made a couple and compressed them on the drill press. They need to dry out first. I am using simply done matches red tips and green box. If there is any binder in them the alcohol and compression should work. Note I have tried out strike anywhere matches .Just the white tips. Miserable failure that was. Weak bang and no fire. Cost should be better than one cent per with what I'm doing now.
n.h.schmidt

[ofitg]

Note I have tried out strike anywhere matches .Just the white tips. Miserable failure that was. Weak bang and no fire.

Yeah, 20-some years ago those white tips were solid little hemispheres of the phosphorous compound.

Nowadays it's just a thin layer of the phosphorous compound painted on the end of the match head.

At least, that's what the situation has become here in the USA.

[Traffer]

Yeah, 20-some years ago those white tips were solid little hemispheres of the phosphorous compound.

Nowadays it's just a thin layer of the phosphorous compound painted on the end of the match head.

At least, that's what the situation has become here in the USA.

I had success with them when I was careful to ONLY get the white part. and yes, it is just a thin layer painted on top of the match. When I discovered toy caps I abandoned the matches.

[Traffer]

There is an alternative way of using match heads and the ignition strip on the box...
If you punch a dot of the side scratcher with a punch the size of the inside diameter of the priming cup you can do this:
Pack the wet primer in the cup place the disk of scratch strip on top of the primer, then insert the anvil.
At that is how I gather our friend in South America does it.
He reports 100% success rate after using thousands of these.

[n.h.schmidt]

I did read that too. That sounds like more work than scraping the stuff off the sides. I also don't want all that paper to clog the tiny hole in the nipple.I intend to see what happens when I combine all 32 heads with the two sides scraped off. Then try just eight heads with the two sides. Each head is about what is needed for a percussion cap.
n.h.schmidt

[n.h.schmidt]

Hi again
I have been doing more with the match heads. I have found if you dribble some alcohol on the strip on the box side. You can easily remove the stuff off nearly completely. This almost demands a wet mix to pack in the percussion caps. I have made a injector to help with this. Some testing has been done with good results. I think a hundred percussion caps could be made for about a $1 . These will not compare well to the FA42 formula but, would be easy to do with just a trip to the store. I hope to actually shoot using them on Sundays match.
n.h.schmidt

[rbuck351]

If you can get Canadian matches, they are the real deal like our matches used to be.

[Traffer]

If you can get Canadian matches, they are the real deal like our matches used to be.

Check this out:
https://www.chainsawjournal.com/top-...where-matches/

[n.h.schmidt]

I will give anything a try. What brand name Canadian matches are best,how to get them?
The strike on box only matches have very good power if done as I have related. The mix in the percussion cap is only about as thick as thin cardboard.I have lots of room to go thicker for more power.
Price is about one cent per cap. Not bad
n.h.schmidt

[Traffer]

As long as you are experimenting, maybe you should try book matches. They work on the same principle. I would think they would be cheaper.
Also I used some of the green part of the strike anywhere matches to mix with toy cap compound. It seemed to work. I wasn't scientific and really don't know if it was better or worse... I just know that I has some 22lr cases primed with a mix of toy cap compound and green match stuff and they worked.