Over the past 40 some odd years I have discarded a lot of aluminum powder as an unwanted byproduct of metalworking. Of all of the tools I have used, I thought about those that produce fine powder while removing material.
First I tried a belt sander and was not happy with the results.
Yesterday I tried using my small benchtop bandsaw with a fine blade. Before cutting I cleaned out the inside of the bandsaw and the inside of my shop vac. I connect them up and I made lots of cuts in some 1/16" thick scrap where the cut off strip of AL was about one blade width. In less than 1 hour I had set up, made and sifted the powder and cleaned up. Yield was around:
- 40 grains of 60 - 80. This is too big based on info at MeWe. If I get a coffee grinder, I will see if I can use this stuff to make the recommended size.
- 20 grains of 80 - 150. There was not much 80 - 100 (which is still bigger than recommended) so I threw it in with the 100 - 150. The 100 - 150 is the recommended range.
- I collected some less than 150 just because it was there. This would probably be good with just a small amount mixed in with my NC for my EPH 20 type applications, but I am a little hesitant to try. It is so fine, I worry about oxidation. Since we wet the mix to activate it, this really fine AL might degrade pretty quick.
I can probably shift my yield more to the recommended mesh size by reducing the speed of my cuts. Given that I am not planning on making primers for rifle or magnum pistol use at this time, this could be more than I will ever need. I certainly have more than enough to play with for enhancing my pistol primers. Making powder this way was much less work for me than hand filing.