Made my first batch of Black Powder

[AlaskanGuy]

Woooo hooo.....

Made my first batch of BP yesterday.... I am sure it aint that great being the first time, but i placed a 1/2 cap full into one of the dry coffee filters I used to filter the mix, and it went POOOOOOOFFFFFFF..... He he... Very fun....



AG

[Texantothecore]

Well that was quick. I am going to be testing my first ball mill incorporated batch in the next day or so and I suspect it will be very fast. We'll see.

[Texantothecore]

AG,
Congratulations on first light for your powder.

If you take a small amount
and arrange it so that it is in a line you can see how fast it burns.

[AlaskanGuy]

Lol... It really wasnt that quick... I had prepared the charcoal and other chemicals in advance... I should have said i did the final steps yesterday, and dried it and it was ready to rock and roll this morning... How about that for more complete info...

AG

[Texantothecore]

It may not be fully dry so you might want let it dry for a day or so.

On the other hand, who cares? You got First Light!

[Fly]

Good to hear that.I agree some times powder takes a time to dry.One of the biggest
things I find with newbies making powder that is slow, is ball mill time or not enough
balls in the grinding drum.

That drum needs to be almost 1/2 full of lead balls.If not it will take for EVER to
grind the meal fine enough.The meal powder should be as fine as baby powder.

Hope this helped Fly

[Texantothecore]

Right now I have 3 lbs of grinding media in my tumbler and 20 oz of powder. I need to empty my melter of ww and replace it with pure pb for my pistol and I think I'll go ahead and cast another 3 lbs of 405 grn bullets and throw them in the mill. The mill's capacity is 9 lbs so it should work well.

[AlaskanGuy]

Explain to me how to test for the burn rate speed.... Make a thin line and........ Time it.....??? How long of a line, and then how to tell the speed??? And how does it compare to commercial??? I can use some pyrodex as a baseline, but dont have access to real commercial...

AG

[Whiterabbit]

hi AG.

Questions!

Where did you get your screens? What screen sizes are you using?
Did you compress the powder, or just screen it right away?
Did you buy BP in a kit? (ie skylighter) if so where?
What material are you using for charcoal? (maple? willow? balsa? whatever came in the kit?)

Can you hurry up and shoot some over a chrono (eventually equivalent volume compared to pyrodex) and tell us how the speed compares??

I think I'm 30-60 days out from putting in the order for all my stuff.

[Texantothecore]

Just a small line. Over a period of time you'll be able to tell whether you have a fast batch or one which needs more work. If you have some commercial black you can test that to see how it burns and compare it to your own stuff. This not an area in which precision is required as you'll will be able to recognize good versus bad pretty quickly.

[OverMax]

BLACK POWDER GALVANIZED SCREEN SIZE TO SCREED MEAL POWDER THRU.

Fg. 12 - 16 Mesh 1,68 - 1,19 mm
FFg. 16 - 30 Mesh 1,19 - 0,60 mm
FFFg. 20 - 50 Mesh 0,84 - 0,30 mm
FFFFg. 40 - 100 Mesh 0,42 - 0,15 mm

[Fly]

OK here is my buddy Brush Hippies video on making BP.You don't have to watch the whole
thing.But about 12 min into the thing, He does a burn test of the first stuff he did to the
later fast stuff.It will give you a very good idea to what slow is & fast.

Fly
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVo_hOadyc

[AlaskanGuy]

Well... To answer the questions, here is what I use for a screen.... Remember I dont have access to them box stores you guys do, so i just make do.....
This is a steel screen for deep frying

Willow grows like a weed around my place, this is ready to cut and burn in my dutch oven with a hold drilled in the lid...

Sulphur i got from ebay, and the potasium nitrate was also from ebay... Bought a 4lb bag... But when that is gone, i am gunna make my own, by them time i finish all my potasium, the ground should be unfrozen enough to be able to make it from dirt and decaying plant stuff.... I learned how from the old USMC improvised munitions field manual.... So really the only thing I will need to get a supply of is the sulfur.....

[starmac]

Build a bowling ball cannon, you shouldn't have any trouble getting bowling balls for ammo there. lol

How much did you get out of a batch?

[AlaskanGuy]

Well, i ended up with about 350 grams??? I diddnt weigh it, but it will about a 3rd of a old 4064 metal can.

[starmac]

350 grams?? what language is that. lol I savvy the 1/3 can though. lol

[Mike 56]

I made my first batch last week. My powder was a little slower than KIK fffg. My powder was alot lighter than KIK fffg and compressed a lot more when loading. It shot very well in 58 Remey and my 44 cal 1851 44 cal Colt Sheriff. I only tried two loads in both guns using 45 acp and 7.62x39 cases. The load using a 45 acp case (15.2 grn) shot about two inches high at 7 yd and made a crack sound when fired. The load using the 7.62x39 case (21.6 grn) shot on target both loads shot very clean and did not make a lot of smoke.

[AlaskanGuy]

Really nice Mike... Diddnt that feel good to make your own???? And have it shoot nice.... I havent tried mine yet in the muzzie, hopefully this weekend....

I want to try using my vibrating tumbler to grind charcoal... I would think if I use regular boolits instead of round balls, it should work ok I think.....

[Mike 56]

It is a lot of fun making powder and it feels real good shooting it knowing i made it yourself. I think bullets would be fine in your ball mill.

[johnson1942]

mike 56, sounds like your powder is like 4f. i used 4f in a .50 cal roundball rifle once and it really cracked and was very very clean. shot real accurate also.