My homemade black powder

[HamGunner]

I have about 2 dozen hard alloy 12 gauge ball along with a good many 45, 38, and 32 cal. ball. Some are concerned about using soft lead because of it wearing down and mixing with the powder. If I replace anything, I will likely go to either harder lead or alternate materials. Anyway, with a mixture of sizes, I feel that I get a better mill.

[LAGS]

Congratulations HG
You are the first one to be on page 400 of this thread .
I am not that concerned about my Hard lead balls leaving too much lead in my powder.
But then I cast the balls out of Monotype lead.
But lately I just switched to using 230 gr .45 cap plated slugs in my ball mill .
They work great and you only need that one size slug in the mill .
The semi round shape seems
to not bunch up and roll in one sheet in the mill .
The odd shape helps prevent the powder from building up in a a layer on the walls of the mill.

[Graysmoke]

HG & LAGS;
I filled 9mm cases and some 45 long cases with lead. I tumbled to see if lead chips developed and sure enough even flush filled cases bumping into the ends scraped off lead. Now I will drill ends under flush and repeen the shell ends so crashing cases can't get at the lead. There was a notable amt of flakes in the clean tub I used, am glad I found it before milling.
Graysmoke

[Sandro_ventania]

I want to get brass. seems to be the ideal material.

[LAGS]

Brass balls would be great.
I don’t have my foundry any more or I would cast myself up some .
They are available. , but EXPENSIVE

[Nobade]

I was using .490" balls I cast out of some zinc contaminated lead, they are really hard and I thought they would be great. But they're considerably smaller now than they started out as. So I just switched to 40 S&W cases with bullets seated backward below the case mouth and tightly crimped over, plus I ordered some brass balls on Amazon today. They are 10mm, and cost $10 for 20. I got 40, so I'll see how the mix of the two things works.

[dondiego]

I own a Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART) and I believe that it is the smaller model. It seems that I read on this thread that it is not suitable for ball milling BP but I forgot the reason why? Can someone enlighten me please?

[Sandro_ventania]

I own a Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART) and I believe that it is the smaller model. It seems that I read on this thread that it is not suitable for ball milling BP but I forgot the reason why? Can someone enlighten me please?

Is the pot made of rubber? If so, that's why.

[indian joe]

I want to get brass. seems to be the ideal material.

picking up tomorrow 10 kg of used brass pump rod (outta old windmills) - no charge the man said (he sells a couple ton a year to the scrap guys) if I had acces to a decent guillotine the rest would be easy but dont so saw it up into little chunks with a tungsten tipped joinery saw.

[indian joe]

I was using .490" balls I cast out of some zinc contaminated lead, they are really hard and I thought they would be great. But they're considerably smaller now than they started out as. So I just switched to 40 S&W cases with bullets seated backward below the case mouth and tightly crimped over, plus I ordered some brass balls on Amazon today. They are 10mm, and cost $10 for 20. I got 40, so I'll see how the mix of the two things works.

so far I have used a mix sizes of leftover roundball (soft lead) - they have done about 40 cycles (1kg per cycle) and lookin a bit tired - most of the damage later - whilever they stayed round - not much loss (I measured some) but as soon as a few started to get out of shape I think wear accellerated a bit.

[DoubleBuck]

Shaman;
I used 69 caliber round balls of pure lead, from the beginning, to just two batches of powder ago. In my Harbor Freight two drum mill that has been enhanced, they worked great.
I found weight gain in my powder after milling and was going to do one of the many suggested options, which have been discussed at length over the last few years. I like the weight of lead, but didn't really feel like cutting copper pipe, or filling cartridge cases. I'm lazy.
So, after thinking on it for a year, I decided to go with 147 grain 9mm FMJ bullets I found on sale, if you can believe it. I bought 250 of them, and use 125 in each drum. I only use one drum at a time on my mill, because of the 'enhancements' I've made. My last two batches of powder have milled excellently and I am satisfied with my choice, out of the numerous ways to solve the problem. Good luck!
ETA: IF you do go the way I did, do NOT forget to check them for being magnetic!

[DoubleBuck]

I own a Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART) and I believe that it is the smaller model. It seems that I read on this thread that it is not suitable for ball milling BP but I forgot the reason why? Can someone enlighten me please?

Dondiego
I read about your FART and looked them up. If yours looks like the ones I looked at; I see no reason it should not work. I've heard someone say that that type of jar could unscrew the lid. I have no idea, but that could be very easily remedied, if it applied to yours. In times past, others have said the electric motor could be a problem, being below the load, and not offset. If you are aware of dust and take precautions in case a leak of powder dust does happen; load that FART up, and make you some powder!

[DoubleBuck]

Is the pot made of rubber? If so, that's why.

Sandro; why would a rubber drum matter?

[dondiego]

Is the pot made of rubber? If so, that's why.

My Thumler and Harbor Freight tumbler barrels are made of rubber. The FART is plastic.

[LAGS]

I have a RCBS rotary shell tumbler.
It doesn’t work for a powder tumbler
It just isn’t powerful enough.
But it works for tumbling brass well

[Sandro_ventania]

Sandro; why would a rubber drum matter?

Because it releases a lot of rubber dust. And that makes a very dirty BP. Have you ever burned an old tire and seen how much soot it releases? Imagine that in your barrel.

[DoubleBuck]

Because it releases a lot of rubber dust. And that makes a very dirty BP. Have you ever burned an old tire and seen how much soot it releases? Imagine that in your barrel.

I've never seen it from my rubber drums that have made 25 pounds of powder, but Ok.

[2TM101]

I actually went the other way on this. I got a National Geographic rock tumbler thats slightly larger than the small rotary tumbler most of us use. Idea was that I could make slightly larger batches of powder with it.

Instead I use it to clean brass. I come back with 100 or so BP .38 Special and I don't want to leave them around like that, or throw them in with my bin of smokeless 38 that aren't really all that dirty. The NatGeo tumbler is just about right for a 100-120 round load, and after changing the water twice the brass looks fine,even though the water is dirty even on the final run.

I did buy the full size Frankfort Arsenal tumbler - and its still in the box. I have never fired more brass in one day than will fit in the NatGeo tumbler.

[indian joe]

I want to get brass. seems to be the ideal material.

question for the crew
(my plan for scrap pump rod has imploded it turns out to be bronze pump shaft bearings - take as much as you want mate - but hard work cutting it tdon to suitable chunks - same bloke has a drum half full of stainless steel bolts )
question (dumb question) is there a danger of sparking in the mill drum using stainless steel ?????
thanks

[HWooldridge]

question for the crew
(my plan for scrap pump rod has imploded it turns out to be bronze pump shaft bearings - take as much as you want mate - but hard work cutting it tdon to suitable chunks - same bloke has a drum half full of stainless steel bolts )
question (dumb question) is there a danger of sparking in the mill drum using stainless steel ?????
thanks

Depends on what type of stainless - 400 series are martensitic so there is a chance of sparking. 300 series not so bad - might try to spark test the material on a sanding belt or grindstone and see whether you get any sparks.