Well lonewood there are alot of pyro's using ceramic balls instead of lead
& SS ball's.Can I say it won't spark, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm no but it works
for them.
Bud I'm for being as safe as any.Maybe some one that knows more than me
can comment?
Fly :?:
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After exhausting all of the possible sources locally, I drove 40 miles to Palm Spring and found the Spectracide stump remover at Lowe's.
I may as well be asking for a saddle for a frog when I say "Sulfer".
Would this sulfer be OK for powder or are there better and or cheaper sources.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Hi-Yield-Dusting...34670075197572
It is 90%.
Or would this type be a better choice?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=p5197.c0.m619
I wonder if this is now getting into the area where most explosions happen in the larger plants.
you are grinding and creating dust that is explosive. it is no longer a wet product that can't be ignited.
Time to be very careful, and watch all your safety habits.
I am very interested in how this works for you
I always corn my BP wet, it just seemed like too much friction etc to do it dry. I guess I don't even do that anymore since I press all mine into easy to use pellets. Seriously, I will never use loose powder again, pellets are so much more convinient and uniform in charge as well as being predictable on the chrono. Sorry guys, but I will from here on out be an advocate of the pellets only, if you are making your own bp it is THE way to go.
90% garden sulfur is good enough. Find something better to use once you get everything else worked out.
so in other words, you press it so you have ONE LARGE GRAIN of a specific size?
instead of corning it wet through a strainer, or pressing it, drying it and breaking it up, you just press it initially into the small pellets and dry them, and "Bob's yer uncle"???
I'm just trying to understand...
+1 ... Atom73, more info, please.
Got any data like relative mvs with corned vs. caked in your application? Be a lot easier to mold bp into star like pellets than cake, corn, and sieve! :)
Haven't ever had a reason to do it myself, but I understand some bp cartridge loads were/are seriously compressed (corned bp) charges. As in, you have to compress in a separate step with a ram down the case as you can't do it with just the bullet satisfactorily. That makes me wonder if there isn't an easier way for homemade powder for firearm use. Always figured these were a prefragmented grain that broke up on ignition of the cartridge.
It sounds like youre doing something like making a cylindrical bp star (as in a fireworks star pellet) by molding your damp bp?
Best regard...
You guys are fantastic.
Thanks a million for all of the information.
I spent half the night, last night, reading through over 400 posts.
I have some 3 1/2" aluminum round stock that I can use to machine a die for a small hydraulic or mechanical jack powered press. It would also be fairly simple to machine a die for making pellets with a hole through the center.
How would I know when I reach a density of 1.6 grams per centimeter?
In other words, how much should, say 1" of wet powder be compressed for pucks?
Any opinions on whether or not it would be a good idea to use pellets in a 45-70 or other straight cased cartridge or possibly a revolver?
If I did try it, would the pellets need to be hard or soft enough so the pellets would break up and fill the case so there is no airspace between the sides of the case and the powder?
I am looking forward to Monday to hear how everyone did with their projects over the weekend. I have found the materials and was going to retort some charcoal today but the wind came up this morning, it's gusting to over 25.
:groner:
It really isn't pressing into pellets as much as it is cookie cutting the wet/moist mix into cylindrical forms that dry on paper and harden into pellets. These pellets work well for muzzleloader use and loose corned powder is probably better for bp cartridges. The muzzle velocities that I posted earlier were for pellets but I ran five loads of loose powder (also 80 gr) and the performance was the same. I believe I was around 1250 fps for both loose and pellet form. I have recently moved to SD and don't have all my pics, powder, etc or I would post a how to. Give me a month.
Awesome. Yeah, the cookie cutter with the wet comp is what the pyro community would call a star. They make star pumps and plates you might find interesting... probably the most interesting approach for those here is a plate with a bunch of holes appropriate for your caliber, with matched cylinders on another plate. You pack the cavities level with the comp and then press out the resulting cylinders with the mating push plate. This way you can make a bunch, all of consistent diameter and thickness, all at once. The plates are made of non-sparking material, and really shouldn't be hard to improvise in a home workshop.
Thanks for the data.
That's not me, Fly... but new tools are suspect (heck, even old tools are suspect).
Remember that pyro killed using a standard stapler to staple quickmatch? Everyone used to do it, some still do (others have gone to a brass striker stapler). The steel striker shot a spark lighting the quickmatch and he launched a mortar into his chest. DRT. Guys must have shot tens or hundreds of thousands of staples with staple guns running quickmatch and other fuse... sometimes russian roulette has better odds than one in six.
Ceramic is hard. it's also abrasive. Folks consider lead balls safe because they 1) don't spark, and 2) they are comparatively soft so spread the impact load over a broader area (no pinpoint impacts). A wood pounder in a bowl for breaking pressed cake may be similarly relatively safe, especially with small quantities of powder.
Ceramic though... You knock two rocks together and depending on what they are/hardness you can get sparks. Might be perfectly safe, but I'm proud to be a nervous nellie (and it doesn't bother me in the least if a troll calls me one :)). You hypothetically could also get shed debris or contaminant into the ceramic burr and cause ignition. Vaguely recall thiokol blew up a solid rocket propellant mixing facility (several actually :)), but the one I'm thinking of a little sensor that was mounted on the ceiling fell into the mixing bowl, got caught between the mixing blade and side, and whoops! Time to conduct an investigation and start fab on a new mixing building.
My respectful suggestion: if you are going to be a pathfinder, plan on an ignition and make sure you're safe in the event. Think about the worst that could happen and plan for safety accordingly. And don't let your guard down... "safe" 99 times doesn't mean safe the next time.
Best regards...
Yep!
Ceramic can mean a lot of things. It is made from several different materials and I personally would not use them. Plus,,, The high quality balls (bearings) that I have seen were god-awful expensive.
Stainless means many things also. The high quality stuff is also very expensive.
Personally, I would buy or cast and use lead balls.
What you are doing is new to me too! :) By aspect ratio I just meant how long vs. wide your pellet was. Fineness ratio might be the better term.... fineness ratio would be length divided by diameter. I was wondering if you found a particular length for your pellets worked best, and you just loaded some number according to the total charge you wanted.
Eh, aluminum would look cooler anyway. :)
Not a scientific result by any means since I don't have any chrono results to go along. The creek was flooded and I couldn't get to my regular range and my truck is in the shop and I keep my targets and stuff in it. I just went out in the yard and shot this swinger from 32yd offhand. It has been awhile since I've shot this rifle or shot much offhand so I was swinging all over the place and it shows.
This swinger is 4.5 inches in diameter and supposedly is rated for 44mag. There are 9 shots in the group where the paint is missing (I missed 1 shot). The 2 dimples above the group with paint on them are from something else. The rifle was a 40 cal Ohio Squirrel rifle shooting a 90gr RB with 40gr of homemade BP (loose). As you can see the balls hit with enough energy to seriously dimple the steel. While this group isn't bench rest quality it is sure plinking and hunting quality. This is still my 1st batch of powder and I have a 2nd batch to try and have my pressed cake to process yet.
Bob