Questions about Homemade BP

[badboyparamedic]

Ok, I have read just about everything I could on making BP, including the sticky, and I still have a couple questions.

If you are using a tumbler(ball mill) can the meal that comes out of the tumbler be used without wetting it and screening it?

Why do you have to wet it and screen it?

How long does it need to dry before you can use the screened BP?

Ordered my first flintlock, going to make my own BP.

[wyofool]

I have made two batches with my ball mill and both worked great. When it comes out of the ball mill it is still very fine powder, much too fine to use as is. Wet it and then screen it the size of the screen will help determine the size of the final granules. I screen onto a sheet of old newspaper then covered with another sheet and held the corners down with a few ingots. It was warm but out of the sun and only took a few hours. Then I screened again with a finer screen to get the "fine" powder out then again with a courser screen to get off the really course granules. I saved the fine and course, separately, to mix with my next batch. I have used this with both my .44 Remy and the .54 Hawkins with excellent results.

[badboyparamedic]

Would the fine powder out of the ball mill work to prime the flash pan or will it be to fine for that too?

[Boz330]

Even after milling you have individual components lying next to each other and it will burn slow. When you wet it and screen or corn it you have all of the components in each grain of powder if that makes sense to you. I don't think that the green meal will make very good prime but give it a try. I corn my powder and then grade it with screens. The fines are what I use for prime and it works very well. To screen it that fine you will need a pretty tight screen. I would be inclined to just see if your regular powder will work.

Bob

[Nobade]

The stuff out of the ball mill is called "pulverone" and can be useful for making slow fuse and time delays, but if you want to use it as gun powder it needs to be wet and either kneaded into dough and run through a screen, or pressed into pucks and later granulated. Otherwise it kind of fizzes instead of burning all at once. The KNO3 needs to get adsorbed into the surface of the charcoal, not just lay next to it.

-Nobade