I would be VERY interested in the match/primer slurry experiments. I have thousands of spent primers that I could reuse if this works.
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I would be VERY interested in the match/primer slurry experiments. I have thousands of spent primers that I could reuse if this works.
A food dehydrator might be a safer way to do it, but For now it is a toaster oven on low. I had to mix the slurry for a few min and I think It will take 2 loads of the slurry per primer. This my work better with the KCL, sulfur mix as You can control the mix better. Also the alcohol to dissolve might be better.
When you make the PC/ sulfur mix as a paste you'll find it to work much better than a slurry. For both cost and convenience it is hard to beat the PC/sulfur mix. Safer too. Over the years I've had many matchhead and toy cap primers go off. And enough when priming the case to have decided, for me, that priming would be of the simplest method available.
Alcohol or acetone are both much faster to dry out. When they are compatible to what I'm using, I use one of those I just let them sit and air dry. Water based, I use a food dehydrator as you suggest.
Getting the mix consistent with the match heads is proving hard. 1 of 5 worked. I will have to get the pc and sulfur to test. The match heads are just too unstable.
RD, I will second Perotter's recommendation. It takes me about 10 minutes to weigh out the dry ingredients and prepare the paste for loading percussion caps - within one hour, I'm finished.
As much time as you've expended, you could have tweaked a method for producing your own potassium chlorate.....
Ok, I have a question. Where do you get the PC and sulfur to do this?? I am really wanting to learn how to do this just in case things get REALLY hard to buy in the future.
I wouldn't spend too much money on it at this point. Realize that storing these chemicals and making your own primer compound has its own risks. Money now is better spent on commercial primers. Build your stash and worry about making your own and sourcing components for such when that time comes that primers have been banned.
That's the conclusion I came to anyway.
Oreo,
I agree that one should spend only a reasonable amount. At this point learning how to do the details of the process and know what to expect is, IMO, most important.
That's my point, I want to have all the knowledge well before if or when they are either too expensive, too hard to find, or worse banned.
That way I will already have the knowledge on how to rebuild my spent primers.
Back on post #78 and post #80 of this thread, you'll find some links to retail sources of the chemicals. That's the simplest way to get started.
If you want to go a few steps further, you can make an electrolysis rig which converts potassium chloride (available at most hardware stores) into potassium chlorate.
Antimony Sulfide occurs naturally as a mineral called Stibnite.
Dusting sulfur is also available at most hardware/garden stores - it's about 90% pure sulfur - I haven't tried using it for primer mixes, but it works OK for DIY blackpowder.
Oreo, If I could find primers I would just buy them. That is my problem, I shoot up to 1k rounds in a trip to the range and only finding 1 or 2 hundred primers every 2 months will not work for me. I also want to know how to make it if it is needed.
I understand. We do what we must. Drastic times call for drastic measures. I only meant to say that when primers are available they are by far the better investment.
I fully agree with that. The time it takes to make primers is not worth it when you can buy them.
This is an extremely interesting and important thread....could we make this a sticky please? Many thanks to all that have contributed to this thread. Regards Peter
Yeah, I heard that the US government banned strike anywhere matches because they were dangerous. They could light on their own during shipping!
But, I suspect the truth is that they found out that some people were going to make there own primers using them.:veryconfu
They love controlling things, especially ammo, guns and US!
I found two boxes of strike anywhere matches in my home town for $1.89. If you cant get it in the city go to a small town usa. They WILL have what a city wont. I have been experimenting with SAM compound havent shot boolits with them. But thay do go pop every time I tested them. Three matches a primer so a box of 300 will give you 100 primers. Not bad for $1.89. Im in the process of getting the chemicals for the WW1 mix I would rather use a compound that was intended to be used in a primer. But I do plan on giving the SAM compound a try in my Sharps 45-120 with black powder.
Update I got my chemicals on Friday. This morning I filed down four 22 long rifle cases for small custom measuring cups for each individual chemical and just super glued them to wooden handles.
Attachment 68712Attachment 68713
sorry about the first picture being upside down.
okay so far I have made three batches sorry I didn't take any pictures. My first batch was to get my bearings and get a feel for it. Also I wanted to try primers packed with the mix dry and with some of the mix wet. I got two primers with the mix dry packed but I accidentally dumped way too much rubbing alcohol into the batch so I dumped the rest down the sink and forgot about the wet mix test at the time. I moved on to the test of the dry mix. I seated the two primers filled with the dry mix in some old empty 30/06 and proceeded to test them with my model 1917 the first one made a very good pop!!! The second one well wen't fizzle :-* But I attribute that to it getting a little wet from the spill somehow. My other two batches were to see if wet or dry was easier to use and all around which one was better. So far I can't tell the difference between a dry mix or wet mix pop and they do go pop! Just for fun I took an earplug placed in the case neck then setup a cardboard box and shot the earplug at it. And much to my delight the earplug hit the cardboard box with authority .
I do have one question though the residues that this mix leaves behind is kind of a reddish orange looks just like rust dust do I have to be concerned with this residue being abrasive ?
I suppose one should always be concerned with anything in a barrel being abrasive, I've never been concerned with the reddish/orange residue being abrasive. It is most likely antimony chloride. or antimony pentasulfide or a combination of two. The amount of antimony sulfide in the FA-42 or FH-42 mix is about the same as is/was common in small pistol/rifle primers.
I have software that would normally tell me what all products of a mix would produce, but when I ran it tonite it failed because it didn't have a definition for antimony.