My homemade black powder

[LAGS]

I did make a reasonably good charcoal out of Red Maple before.
Use the softer part of the wood.
It is way lighter and doesn't burn too dirty.

[DoubleBuck]

Doublebuck, I see you got great results with sasfarass, why not try that with a lower temperature charcoal and maybe adding a bit more potassium? I got to find out where they grow around here.

Almar;
I plan to do that next and from now on, more than likely. Ever since I started making powder, I've tried everything from coffee grounds, to Wisteria vine and just can't quit experimenting. But, I got lucky early on reading and tried Sassafras, because someone else's tests showed it excellent, and it's just out my back door. It worked very well and actually has turned out to be my fastest screened powder and my fastest pucked powder.
I think the Balsa test showed the great need of being slow charred. It was so light, the flame I judge my charcoal from went from flammable, to briskly burning, to ice blue, to orange very quickly. In maybe 30 minutes. I think I know now that the Balsa would have been the best of them all, but was over cooked. I'm leaning toward thinking they all have been. The burn rate test was .3 seconds, for four feet. My best Sassafras burned the same in .2 seconds. It went from leaves on the limbs, to debarked, to charcoal in two hours. This brown Black Willow was about .7 seconds. It was dry stored for three years. But even from the get go, I liked the wet burn residue. And, the powder is not slow. I think it's just not optimum.
The reason I used the Black Willow and not the Sassafras, is because three years ago, everyone was touting Black Willow, and it took me six months to find it. haha When I did, I cabbaged some up, and debarked it and threw it on my shop floor. It probably has seen dry temps from -10° to 130°. I decided I was going to make it work or trash it. I had a baseline, from my first batch of it, and thought if the Brown powder made a highly noticeable difference, it would be an easy way to see. I still have a block of Balsa that was given to me, that I would like to slow cook and see it optimized. But, I'm going to shortly fall back on straight Sassafras and see how good I can actually make it. With a little help from my friends.
I have lots of Sassafras and will ship it to you, in a heartbeat. Green or dry. I think I can get you about 8 or 10 pounds of wood for around $15 shipping. And that was USPS. We might could beat that with a shipper. The wood's free.

[almar]

hmmmm I wonder about open air burn tests (aside from the fun factor which is substantial)
warm middle of the day it will scare the pants off ya how quick a sample will flash - then on a cold damp night its different altogether

Yeah, that's a good point, moisture is a big factor. Could be affecting the tests...

[almar]

double buck I sent you a PM about that.

[ChrisPer]

I was saving up my charcoal cook for a windy night, and today we have a storm with 40kt winds. I want the acrid smoke to not annoy my wife and neighbours, or stink up people's washing.

I now have a BBQ lid thermometer in the lid of my retort pot and another in the lid of the Weber kettle. These should give a clue but my working temp is at the limit of their range.

The gas burner in the bottom of the kettle has a very simple tap and a collar adjuster on the burner input air hole; not a very easy control to use.

A quick Google shows that it will be a goat rodeo to do PID control of any gas burner so I need to build a kiln like almar's. If I do it right I can maybe upgrade the elements for a lost wax burnout kiln.

[Vettepilot]

Well, a "goat rodeo" it might be, but if I were to try to rig up a PID controlled propane device, I would use the control valve off either a propane water heater, or a kitchen oven. I don't think it would be too tough to do...

An electric kiln like Almar made interests me, and is very cool. I like it too because one could use it for other things. Maybe temper metal, maybe start my daughter on a ceramics hobby. However, as someone mentioned, using the oven of an old kitchen stove is probably the easiest route. 550 Farenheit is not that much above the normal operating temp for one, and it would be fairly simple to set up one for our charcoal cooking. You could get all fancy and add extra insulation, and other accoutrements, but it wouldn't be necessary.

Next:

Burn testing is fun, but a very subjective way to test powder. People smarter than me rig up a way to film a burn test, and figure out time/speed by frame rate. But basically you have only your own, previous tests, (if done and recorded), to compare it to as there are no established testing conventions and data therefrom to compare yours to.

When I burn test, I do about half a teaspoon or so. (See, it starts out scattered "data" input.) When I burn it, I expect to see an instantaneous "POOF", and one large puff of smoke. (Not smoke going up from the burn over time; just one round cloud.) I also expect to actually hear a "poof". Then I expect to see almost no evidence of burning on the surface where the powder was burnt. Just like some smoke stain, no more. (If done on paper, the paper won't even be charred.) Lastly, there should be little to no residue.

Now these are all observations subject to my own perceptions, and are anything but scientific. But if it passes this test, for me, it's good enough to go shoot. If not, it's for just burning for fun, or making palomitas. (Little folded paper fire crackers.)

Just my idea(s).

Vettepilot

[ChrisPer]

Good suggestions, and water heaters get tossed all the time with corroded tanks after the sacrificial anodes quit, and could be had for free on a day's notice by asking an installer that throws a dozen out per week. The gas part should be fine.

[Vettepilot]

Actually, I just had another thought... A kitchen oven is a large item to have around just for cooking charcoal, and it might be tough to find a propane one; depending on where you live.

But a small oven, like used in many campers and travel trailers would be great! I'm going to keep my eye out for one of those, and maybe even hit some of the many RV places we have around here looking for a used one!

Vettepilot

[ChrisPer]

Just picked up a set of under-desk drawers and a vacuum cleaner from a street rubbish collection pile that I am going to turn into a dehydrator cabinet. Darn, there was no gas water-heater on the pile!

Thinking of putting warm air suction through my deck of 30cm sieves... maybe a big permeable paper envelope for powder in each sieve. Or Goretex?

Edit to add....
Looking up PID projects on instructables.com. There are some very useful looking ones, and I might double-purpose a dehydrator and charcoal cooker.
Or a toaster oven adapted for tempering heat treated steel! Ideal size for small charcoal batches, cheap as chips, adapt improvise and overcome!

[Vettepilot]

"One man's trash is another man's treasure!" Sometimes I think that saying was written for me. I can't believe what people throw away. Often times, it's easier for me to fix the items thrown away, than bother going to the store looking for them new!!

Vettepilot

[DoubleBuck]

Was looking about grading and screens and etc., when I came on this page. It's a convenient link and some useful information for our craft.

http://embscomputerart.com/black-powder-sizes/

[almar]

You may want to try to make an electric kiln very efficient or what you save in build cost may go into paying an electrical bill. Same with propane. To get to a given temp, you need a certain amount of energy for a given amount volume heated. I tried to make mine as small as possible, it fits a gallon paint can perfectly. Those electric ovens on 220 are big consumers. Just a few thoughts.

edit: i like the idea of having options and so i make my own coils much more cheaply with a roll of 18 ga kanthal wire that i coil myself. Its about 8 bucks for 50 feet and i used 25 ft. at 25 feet i have a very long longevity and it used about 8 amps and produces about 1120 watts and costs me about 15 cents a hour. I can shorten it to 16 feet it produces 1750 watts 15 amps and costs 23 cents an hour but i can probably melt brass. At this level though, better level up the kaowool and make sure no plastic wires or electrical components are anywhere near it.

[almar]

Id like to have one of those little black powder testers they call "eprouvettes", like a liitle pistol that tests how reactive the powder is instead of pulling out the chrony, setting it up and scaring the neighbor, sold out on dixie and cant find it anywhere might build one...

[Vettepilot]

Id like to have one of those little black powder testers they call "eprouvettes", like a liitle pistol that tests how reactive the powder is instead of pulling out the chrony, setting it up and scaring the neighbor, sold out on dixie and cant find it anywhere might build one...

YES!! I've often wished for one of those! I suppose though, that really, nothing really tells the tale like shooting a bullet over a chronograph. But one of those eprouvettes would certainly be fun to play with. I want to say I'll just make one, but NO! I've got far too many projects and I'm stressing out!

Vettepilot

[almar]

haha, projects keep me alive. I have a list...from dies on the lathe to rifle and pistol builds...nothing worse to me than a weekend spent loafing around.

[Vettepilot]

So, the humidity here runs very low. Working on my last batch of powder, it was 9%. So I was puzzled at getting nasty clumping in the ball mill. Never had it before, especially with this "tubing media."

Then I thought, while half asleep in bed no less, "Wait a minute!" "I was having trouble with this particular jar walking one way, so I stuck a brick under one side of the mill." "Could that do it???"

Sure enough, next day I leveled the ball mill again, and no more clumping!!

Clumping is a pain, because you don't know exactly when it happened, and how much effective milling actually got done.

So if you're having trouble with clumping, and everything is dry, check that your mill is level!

Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

Almar;
Here's the picture that wouldn't post in the instant messenger. I don't know how to do it, or something.Attachment 290519

Oohh... that looks nice!

Vettepilot

[ChrisPer]

Last night I lit up my gas burner in the Weber kettle and cooked. Despite 40 knot gusting winds (overhead if not at ground level) and rainstorm, the smoke blew all around the house and stunk the place (and my clothes) up.
Very frustrating; the pot thermometer showed it went miles over my target temp from one visit to the next. I backed the gas off and let it go at a lower heat with the lid balanced partly open, there was some flame woofing around and burning up inside the weber, and I turned it off when the smoke had reduced but not stopped. The charcoal is silky black and snaps nicely, with a few silky brown streaks. That is likely to be usable, but is not the controlled system output I wanted for browner powder.
The BBQ thermometer on the kettle was waaay behind the inner one on the retort pot, and the inner one could not be read unless I opened the weber up completely. I think the burner is getting the bottom of the retort pot red hot, so the air temp in the kettle has little to do with the heat on the wood in the retort. I should separate the burner from the pot.
Amazon! One PID and K type thermocouple please.

[ChrisPer]

Almar;
Here's the picture that wouldn't post in the instant messenger. I don't know how to do it, or something.Attachment 290519

OK, testing a picture I tried to send Doublebuck in IM:

[almar]

Holy smokes double buck! That looks great! I think i'm set for a decade! I really appreciate it. And i think i saw sassfarass by my work...also saw a ton of willow, younglings.