Another plate of boom cookies fresh off the dehydrator. You can clearly see little flecks of metal in them that were shed by the grain mill. I've got to fully disassemble the thing and clean it.
https://i.imgur.com/saU7MFFl.jpg
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Another plate of boom cookies fresh off the dehydrator. You can clearly see little flecks of metal in them that were shed by the grain mill. I've got to fully disassemble the thing and clean it.
https://i.imgur.com/saU7MFFl.jpg
Found the source of the aluminum particles from the grain grinder.
https://i.imgur.com/XGc7mfYl.jpeg
The knurled rollers can come into contact with the side plates. The stainless steel knurls bit into the aluminum, creating aluminum shavings/particles that will end up in your powder. I need to find some shim washers that I can put on either side to prevent this.
Aluminium in your powder will cause bright white sparks.
I have seen people that do Pyro stuff , add aluminium powder to BP to make a kinda flash powder for show.
I don't think it adds any power or speed to your powder.
Just more flash and sparks.
I believe the wear is only/mostly happening at the edge of the rollers where the knurling is. You can see the wear marks on the side plates. I think with a shim that is smaller in diameter than the roller most of the abrasion will be solved.Quote:
Some thin plastic for the shims is likely enough. PTFE sheet would be ideal but a piece of Mylar would be enough. Of course, you will probably get some plastic shavings in your powder - something has to wear.
This thread has gone far beyond the basics of DIY black powder and is now more about perfecting every aspect of that process. In my case I'm pretty much satisfied with the makeup of my powder so I'm not looking for better charcoal or tweaking of the ingredient proportions, but I am still working on getting more of my powder to correct granule size on the first run. To me less powder needing reprocessing is the goal.
When I first started I was using some screens stapled to wood frames and shaking them by hand, but this was giving me too many fines mixed in which caused flow problems. The 3f powder shot ok but didn't want to flow from the flask to the powder measure or even from the measure to the barrel. The 4f with fines mixed in was even worse flowing from my pan primer, it kept clogging. So I came up with a motorized vibratory shaker and invested in a set of high quality screens and that solved the problem as there are virtually no fines mixed in with my 3f and 4f granules now and both flow well.
I don't really want 2f so anything bigger than 3f is simply reground, that's easy enough. But I was getting way more 4f than I'll ever need if I only use it for priming (all my guns are flintlocks). Of course I can add that excess 4f to the fines and reprocess it but that's more involved than regrinding the stuff that's too big. By now I've got a pretty big supply of 4f and I thought I'd try just shooting it instead of reprocessing it. I shoot well below max loads so I couldn't think of a reason why 4f wouldn't work as the charge powder.
Yesterday I took two of my rifles to the range to test my theory. I took my shortest barreled one (24") as well as a longer barreled one (32") for the test. I fired 16 shots from each using 50 gr of my 4f as the charge. No problems were encountered and in fact I think the 4f gave me slightly better ignition reliability. I don't swab my barrel between shots and didn't feel the crud buildup was any different than when I use 3f, and when I cleaned the guns afterwards they weren't any dirtier either. I don't see any reason to reprocess my excess 4f. I'll just shoot it.
Has anybody else tried this, or have any valid reason why it's a bad idea?
I too only need the 3F for my shooting needs and have not tried using the smaller 4F sized granules, but did save a bit for a friend that needs some for his flintlock pan. I know you wish to keep the processing down to a minimum as do I, but I have tried different methods of grinding, etc. and have decided that I will have to grind everything at least 3 to 4 times in order to keep the fines down to the minimum and to get the most 3F for my labor.
I start out in my grinding with a coarse setting on the grinder and I screen everything catching the 3F and screening out the fines. I then go back to the grinder with the coarse granules with the grinder set at a bit finer setting and repeat. I eventually end up with about 75% 3F and the rest fines. It is a bit more work, but then I think I have reduced the amount of fines by at least 10%.
I then of course, just re-compress the fines into pucks and go through the process again until I have very little fines left. Then I take all my 3F outside over a bed sheet and slowly pour it from enough height to allow the dust to be separated from the 3F by the wind, catching the dust on another portion of the bed sheet (not really, I use a tarp). I repeat until I have little dust left in the 3F. My powder then pours perfectly through even the smallest of funnels as it has very little dust left.
Great idea for de-dusting!Quote:
I then of course, just re-compress the fines into pucks and go through the process again until I have very little fines left. Then I take all my 3F outside over a bed sheet and slowly pour it from enough height to allow the dust to be separated from the 3F by the wind, catching the dust on another portion of the bed sheet. I repeat until I have little dust left in the 3F. My powder then pours perfectly through even the smallest of funnels as it has very little dust left.
I was thinking of making some kind of rotary drum with pressurized air going in and out to remove dust. You way seems simpler.
I just use a 100 mesh screen to separate the Dust.
What stays on the 100 mesh screen is ok for using as 4f.
But with only one flinters I don't use that much 4f.
So that along with the dust gets rescreaned or repressed to make more of what I need.
mmb617;
I looked back to see if I could find this information, but don't seem to be able to locate it, at this time. Somewhere I have read that if you change from one standard size to a smaller one, it is recommended that you decrease the load size by 5%, to keep chamber pressures under control. So if you normally shoot 2ff, and switch to 3fff, you would drop the max load size by 5%. If you went to 4ffff, you would decrease the load by 5% more.
It may not be necessary in your particular application, and a chronograph should help you decide if you are getting in the danger zone, or not, as well as reading the patches, etc. Other than that, I see no reason not to shoot up your fines. They are more fun to shoot, than reprocess!
After about the second time of separating the dust from my 3F powder on some dirty bed sheets, my wife figured out what was going on. Apparently it was difficult washing out the tiny particles left in the sheets even though I beat them really good before returning to the dirty laundry, and I never smoke in bed anyway. :)
I guess I will now use a plastic tarp, which I should have been using to start with. Got to keep Momma happy. (Just joking, I use a tarp). But my clothes are covered with charcoal and BP dust and that is bad enough.
I would use plastic sheeting. Woven tarps can be somewhat porous.
Steve
A vibrator hooked to a fine screen will shake the fines out quite well if ya don't pile the powder on too thick at a time. A hair blow dryer on cool setting can speed even that up, and make it even more efficient too...
Vettepilot
If you think the wife was upset about the sheets.... :mrgreen:Quote:
A vibrator hooked to a fine screen will shake the fines out quite well if ya don't pile the powder on too thick at a time.
maillemaker;
Hahaha! "Honey, have you seen your vibrator and hair dryer?"
I understand the reasoning behind decreasing the load when moving to a finer powder which is more dense since we measure our loads by volume instead of weight. Well most of us anyways. In my case I'm using a load that is only about 50% of the listed max for 3f so I can't see any danger in using that same load in 4f. It would still be way under max.
I can only assume you are joking about using your actual bed sheets for this but it was pretty funny. I can picture trying to explain that to the wife.
When I was shaking my screens by hand I could never get the fines/dust out to an acceptable level that would flow through my flask or pan primer. I took a vibrator that was used to clean brass for reloading in my modern guns and fastened a table to it. Then I set the screen stack on that table and it does an excellent job of shaking out the various sizes with all the fines and dust going into the pan at the bottom. I'm very happy with how well this works. I got the idea by researching vibrating tables for commercial use but found those started at several hundred dollars and went way up from there. I figured I could build something a lot cheaper.
Attachment 296698
mmb617 Quote: "I can only assume you are joking about using your actual bed sheets for this but it was pretty funny. I can picture trying to explain that to the wife."
Yes, I was joking about the sheet, my wife complains enough about all the charcoal dust on my clothes even though I normally wear my casting apron. Sure would not want gunpowder dust in bed with me, although it would likely not cause any problems.
I do have an abundance of tarps and one is just the right size to collect the dust. I am always amazed in the amount of dust that I actually collect even after I thought that I had screened fairly well. Not really a whole lot by weight, but probably enough from 3 lbs. of powder with which to almost make another puck.
The thing is, we think we've screened things quite well, and anything finer than "XXX" screen size has passed through. But maybe not...
In the hurry to get it done, you might not screen as thorough as you thought. Piling the powder on, dumping it when you got tired of shaking the screen, just "wanting to get it done", etc., are all offenders and we could all be guilty at times.
If you take some powder that you think is done, and then put it on a fine, (80-100) screen and hit it with a vibrator in one fashion or another, you'll likely find enough fines to surprise you!
Blowing air through the powder helps eliminate fines and was used in times past, but that "Vapour be dangerous!", so be careful with that!
Vettepilot
My Pietta 1851 Navy (.36) is the only reproduction revolver I have that shoots to point of aim with factory sights at 25 yards.Quote:
Finally got a load worked up for my 1851 Colt Navy clone (Pietta) that shoots to point of aim with the factory sights.
Steve