My homemade black powder

[DoubleBuck]

I just did a quick search and found out that Sulfur melts at 112.8° C (235.04° F) Another site said it melts at 115.21°C (239.378° F)
Sulfur boils at 444.7°C (832.46°F) I don't know when the vapor begins, but would assume it would be somewhere after melting and before boiling. I thought I may have melted or boiled the sulfur in my powder before, but after reading this, I don't think so. I don't think I've ever had it above 200° F. It's an interesting point to keep in mind, if you heat your pucks to dry them, like I do. I generally use a dehydrator to dry them. I think 146° F is as high as it goes. In the summer, as someone suggested earlier, I now dry them on the dash of my hot pickup. It works really good, up over 130°f.

[DoubleBuck]

Been re-reading from this series: http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/...powder-ii.html

Here's a quote regarding our burn testing:

[I]"If good quality black powder is ignited over a sheet of white paper,
Vettepilot

Ignited OVER a sheet of white paper? I wonder how? Maybe like a spoon above the paper?

[maillemaker]

I am impressed with the progress and quality of home made BP. It is difficult to extract data from 5600 posts to this topic. So, what is a common puck diameter and thickness, and how much pressure is applied to the slightly dampened green powder. Once the pucks are dry, what method is best used to reduce the pucks to granules for screening. I am reading grain mills, coffee grinders, etc. Working independently of this site , my pucks are 1 3/4" diameter by 1 3/4" tall, pressed 8 ton. They are difficult to break up. My powder slightly exceeds the velocity of GOEX. The density of my powder is about 83% of GOEX. My charcoal is cooked from home raised white pine. I just cooked a batch of grape vine for a test batch. Also, in researching soft, fast growing woods, Aspen, is a wood that I also will try, as I have that growing. Aspen is very weak, with branches easily broken off in a wind storm.
John.

I find pucks that are 1/8" - 3/16" work best. Thicker pucks are hard to bust up and probably take longer to dry out. I now use a grain mill, and the distance between the grinding rollers wont handle pucks much thicker than 3/16".

I used to bust my pucks up with a wooden rod in a plastic bucket. This works. Then I would grind the bits in a ceramic coffee grinder. Now I am using the stainless steel grain mill. The only problem is it tends to leave some tiny aluminum shavings/bits in my powder. I suspect the spark risk is greater with the stainless steel rollers than in the ceramic coffee grinder. But the rollers do not actually touch, and I am careful to only process a puck or two at a time and move the powder off away from the mill.

I am using a Harbor Freight 12 ton press. I basically jack on the handle until it feels maxed out without killing the jack.

This page has a chart of various kinds of wood and how suitable they are for charcoal:

https://pyrodata.com/chemicals/Charcoal

Aspen is listed as "suitable".

[DoubleBuck]

[QUOTE=jmh54738;5370480] What methods have been found to best break up the puck for granulating and screening.

There are nearly as many ways as members on here! ha. I actually break my pucks (2" diameter appx. 1/4" - 5/16" inch one ounce) up, with a mortar and pestle, pea size, and run them through a manual ceramic blade coffee grinder. I made a 2" PVC pipe with a cap on one end, inside a 3" PVC pipe with a cap on one end, and put the puck in it, insert the 2", and whack it down a couple of times to break the pucks. That also works great, for large hard pucks. But, if I cut the pucks back to 20 grams, they are thin enough that the mortar and pestle works the fastest, and best, for me.
Others are using grain mills to process the pucks and still others use a wooden hammer handle, in a stainless pot to bust them. Grinding pucks may make less fines, because shocking the broken pieces is easy to crush more of the powder, if you aren't careful. Many ways to do it, from near zero price to pretty expensive, depending on your ability or desire.

[jmh54738]

Thanks for the info, DoubleBuck, I will be making thinner pucks, for sure. My controlled crushing of the pucks in the Bridgport mill isn't so bad after all. . I cooked off Quaking Aspen charcoal today. Very light and more frangible than the wild grape that I cooked yesterday. I will also make red cedar charcoal. Will report chronographed data when I get to shooting.
Phylax

[DoubleBuck]

jmh54738;
Do let us know on the Aspen coal. Over the course of the thread, several, including myself, have raised that question.

[Vettepilot]

jmh54738: Congrats on your powder. Your results with your powder indicate you are right up their with the better results here. I just think, as mentioned before, that you might like results with other than pine wood, as it tends to be dirty.

Regarding your questions about puck die diameter. The psi needed to properly compress black powder is between 2700 and 3500 psi. The larger the diameter of your die, the more pressure is required from your hydraulics to achieve that overall pressure. Most here have found they needed to use a 12 ton or better jack to achieve proper compression. This is because many of us are using a 2-1/2" die. The fact that you are getting good compression with only an 8 ton jack is related to the fact that you are using a smaller 1-3/4" die. I thought I would dash this note off to you, hoping you happen to read it before you go to the trouble of making a larger diameter die, which may not work with your smallish 8 ton jack.

It will be interesting to hear how your grapevine and Aspen work out.

Good luck,
Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

DoubleBuck:

Nope. You put your powder right on the white paper and light it off. If it's good powder, it will go off so fast it won't burn the paper. Surprising but true! Try it!

Vettepilot

[maillemaker]

Here is the result of my burn test. The Goex actually burned the paper, while my homemade did not.

Full-sized: https://imgur.com/a/tTHZQVx





Steve

[DoubleBuck]

DoubleBuck:

Nope. You put your powder right on the white paper and light it off. If it's good powder, it will go off so fast it won't burn the paper. Surprising but true! Try it!

Vettepilot

That was my last test, with the Brown Black Willow powder. One gram.

I test all my powder ON white paper, or tin foil. The wording threw me. It said OVER white paper. And it says it won't leave a mark if it is good. I have never tested a single time, that it left no mark on the paper. I know slow powder will burn holes, or char paper, or burn holes in tinfoil, but that was worded like it would actually leave no mark.

[DoubleBuck]

maillemaker;
Were those burn tests with a measured amount of powder? And, if so, how much? Just comparing your photo to mine. If you used a gram, it looks like your powder is better than mine, for sure. It didn't burn through the paper, but 'scorched' it. But, a gram is a pretty big flash, too.

[maillemaker]

I did not measure. I just poured out a small pile about the size of a nickle. I agree I don't see how it could not leave some kind of scorch mark. This is why I compared against Goex. I figure if mine behaves as good as Goex or better, that's good.

Steve

[jmh54738]

vettepolit, my press is 45 ton, so no problem with going to a larger diameter die. From the retort, I use a hand crank burr mill on the charcoal.
The grape vine coal is hard, with particles that I could feel through the plastic bag after milling. That coal is now in the ball mill. The Aspen coal is very light and frangible, feeling like flour after milling. I cooked and milled a batch of red cedar today, and was impressed with how soft the charcoal was, again feeling like flour.. I have mixed a 1/2 pound batch of Aspen BP, which is awaiting its turn in the ball mill. I have high hopes for the Aspen as its dry density is 26 pounds per cubic foot. Willow is 27, Aspen is 28, White pine is 25. The cedar is amazingly light at 23 # per cubic foot. I shall report later.
jmh54738

[DoubleBuck]

Maillemaker;
I agree. That's why I was wondering. The powder in that picture was good. But that was left over fines, not finished powder. I felt like I didn't have enough finished powder to further test it. That was when I made Six 20 gram batches of different recipes for testing. I wanted to leave enough of Almar's charcoal, to make one or two tests of anything that looked promising. I think for my use and abilities, I will just stick with 75-15-10. But, I do plan to compare a batch of 76-14-10 3f to test it further. My rifle seemed to like that real well.

[DoubleBuck]

jmh54738;
With your 45 ton press, you could make Powder Tortillas, Burrito size and run them through one of the grain mills. ha. Where did you find those wood weights, per cubic foot? THAT is very interesting.

[jmh54738]

Not all woods are listed on one chart, and the density differs a little from chart to chart...
https://cedarstripkayak.wordpress.co...lection/162-2/
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/w...ood-d_821.html

Moderate size pucks, people, "don't want to blow my face off"...Muzzle Blasts, 2/2022, page 26
Jmh54738

[DoubleBuck]

jmh54738; thanks for the links. I saved both.

[Vettepilot]

Oh yeah, the powder will "scorch" the paper a bit, or "smoke stain" it as I call it. That's perfectly normal. But if it's a smallish amount of powder, it shouldn't literally burn the paper nor leave holes in it.

When doing a flash test, I generally do about a half tablespoon. It's fun, and I just love that mini-mushroom cloud of smoke, the smell... all of it!

I'll try to take a picture of a "flash test" paper from my cedar based powder tomorrow if I get a chance. It's about like yours Mailemaker, though maybe with less black dots.

Vettepilot

[ChrisPer]

So... GOEX is coming back. If we can get it.
I like mine better.

[Hossfly]

Watched the you tube video by mannyca, about using small pistol primers instead of non existent caps. Has anyone tried this? He showed it wont work in some reproduction revolvers tho because of the clearance issue, but should work with a Remington clone.

Uses cut pieces of vinyl tubing 1/4” od short and puts primer on top and hammer sets it off very well, and you can use many times. This would be good because I have plenty of small pistol and small rifle primers. And cant find any caps locally.