Homemade Black Powder - Corning

[tashaner1123]

I've been making my own powder for a while now, but just recently deciding to start pressing and corning it. I use mostly willow charcoal, maple as well. It's very fast and works well. The corned that I have done, pressed to 1.7g/cc, is the most accurate and 50 grains is getting me an average of 1350 fps in my .50 Hawken.

I'm wondering about methods to corn the pucks that might give me a better yield. I currently crush them with a rolling pin then run them through a ceramic burr grinder as needed. I get about 25% 2f, 30% 3f and the rest is basically meal dust that I mix in with the next batch and press again. Time consuming to be sure but it gives me very durable grains with a weight to volume ratio that is very close to commercial.

Anyone out there that press / corns that has a better method? I was thinking of making a corning machine but haven't found a suitable drum yet.

BTW - each puck is 2 1/2" Diameter, 1/4" thick and made with 34 grams of powder (yielding 1.7g/cc)

[Fly]

That's just part of it, SORRY. As you said you are not out of any thing but your time. The fine stuff gets re used. If you find a way
that's better please let me know.

Fly

[tashaner1123]

I think making a corning machine will be better, but I need to find a suitable drum. I have a motor, etc. Finding the time to do it may also be an issue - so many projects...

[indian joe]

I've been making my own powder for a while now, but just recently deciding to start pressing and corning it. I use mostly willow charcoal, maple as well. It's very fast and works well. The corned that I have done, pressed to 1.7g/cc, is the most accurate and 50 grains is getting me an average of 1350 fps in my .50 Hawken.

I'm wondering about methods to corn the pucks that might give me a better yield. I currently crush them with a rolling pin then run them through a ceramic burr grinder as needed. I get about 25% 2f, 30% 3f and the rest is basically meal dust that I mix in with the next batch and press again. Time consuming to be sure but it gives me very durable grains with a weight to volume ratio that is very close to commercial.

Anyone out there that press / corns that has a better method? I was thinking of making a corning machine but haven't found a suitable drum yet.

BTW - each puck is 2 1/2" Diameter, 1/4" thick and made with 34 grams of powder (yielding 1.7g/cc)

I am doing better than that but its still part of the game - lots more fines from corned than screened powder .
Some of this might help some maybe not
1) I dry my pucks for months that doesnt cost anything
2) My meal so far has had 2% Dextrin - long story short - I processed a whole mess of meal with the idea of screening it, then with the encouragement of Fly and a couple others I got my puckmaking act together but here we were with Dextrin already in the meal - so I used it - dunno whether that made any difference or not but its in there
3)The roller pin is part of it I reckon - I use one too but I only part crush - as soon as the pucks start to break at all I screen it over a twelve mesh - that way you not pounding on the stuff thats already broken down. I would proly do that three or four times through the process of busting the pucks.
4) I have my ceramic grinder set kind of coarse and screen the grindings the same way, take the fine stuff out first chance you get - it sounds tedious but really dont take that long - at the end I set the grinder finer to finish up the real hard stuff.
5) I use FFFFg in 32/20 and 357mag and we run three flinters so I have a home for about half the FFFFG - I have a couple of 92's that I might try the FFFFg in - that would just about get me right - WOULD NOT DO THAT IN A 73 OR A BRASS GUN.
I have weighed several batches - believe I am getting about 75% into the useful grades, another 15% making FFFFg and the rest mill dust - my FFFFG is 40 to 100mesh so there is a lot of fine powder in there but its grains still not dust. I think I have some numbers writ on the workshop wall - will come back and correct this if I overstated my case
sorry gents - nothing on the workshop wall - we cleaned the slate

[LAGS]

I pretty much break up my pucks as Indian Joe.
I crack the pucks and screen then as soon as they show signs of any fractures in a 12 screen.
( My 10 screen has hole in it)
I take what went thru the 12 screen and run it thru the screen set before I run anything thru my ceramic grinder.
what stays in the 12 screen then gets ground on a course setting.
I get better results running the powder thru the grinder several times on the course setting , rather then trying to adjust the grinder time go from 1f down to say 3f
The cracking up the pucks takes the most time if you don't want to end up with a lot of dust right off the bat.
I am trying to get a Puck Roller crusher started on to help in that process.