My homemade black powder

[LAGS]

I agree that the harder Zinc will be better for casting into the copper or brass pipes.
But why not just cast the balls out of Zinc Wheel Weights.
It is a little more work to cast balls out of Zinc.
But I have cast Boolits out of Zinc for various reasons.
Zinc is far less toxic than lead.
It could get expensive.
But you could buy some Brass Rod and cut it into short sections the same length as the width of the rod.
I am sure that tumbling those brass sections will round over the edges and eventually make them into almost a round ball.

[LAGS]

First report on how the powder coated balls are doing.
They have been tumbling for about an hour.
There are minor flakes of the powder coating that are in the jug.

I expected that.
Those are little flakes of powder coating that break off.
The flakes form where the coated balls sit against the non stick aluminum foil that I bake them on in the toaster oven.
I will let the balls tumble for another hour.
Then clean out the jug and clean off the balls before I let them tumble all night long.
But so far , it is looking good and exactly how I expected it would go.

[HighUintas]

Very interesting idea, Lags! I hope it works out for you.

I probably have enough zinc ww to cast enough balls for media, but I have no mold yet!

I'm currently facing a dilemma of whether to place an order for more Missouri bullet company bullets (not impressed with quality) or try to convince my wife I need a mold, ladle, and pot, and then not actually have enough time to cast boolits! Maybe for Christmas.


I'm going to load up some more cartridges tonight of my two different cedar powders. 10 rounds each this time... So hopefully I get some good data to share on high vs low temp velocities and cleanliness!

Also, the pucks I've made with slightly more water and less pressure have been awesome. After getting my press squared, and not completely maxing it out, I haven't had any issues with flow out the bottom of the sleeve and my pucks are just as hard or maybe harder than before.

But! In one of those links I posted, they show burn speed goes down as the puck density goes up. So I just need to make my pucks strong enough to grind and grade well with a decent yield and then polish it so it settles better into the case.

A nice hawken or Kentucky rifle would alleviate that. I spent a lot of time looking at kits today. Unfortunately, I think a flintlock half stock hawken is something of a rarity.

[LAGS]

If you want to cast Zinc slugs for your ball mill , and you don't have a mold.
You can just drill 1/2" holes 1/2" deep into a block of wood and pour the zinc into that as a mold.
They are not going to be as uniform as a mold will make.
But you will end up with slugs that will work for tumbling media.
I make wood forms to cast Zinc into things like jaw covers for my vise or jigs to hold material on my drill press.
They are not Precise hunks of metal , but work as softer jaws and jigs to hold things as I work on parts

[LAGS]

Well,
It looks like Indian Joe had a good point.
After cleaning my tumbler and the balls.
I put them in and tumbled them for an hour.
Inside the tumbler , there is a fine coating if bluish looking dust.
So , it looks like we would be making fine plastic dust in your powder.
So it shows that the powder coating is not durable as it looks.
Well we can scratch this option off our list.
But I am glad I took the time to try something different and save you the trouble.
Now I will just remelt the balls and throw the WW lead back in my center-fire slug casting stuff.
The powder coating does just burn off and float to the top if you remelt the material.
So not much loss of material for me.

[HighUintas]

Well,
It looks like Indian Joe had a good point.
After cleaning my tumbler and the balls.
I put them in and tumbled them for an hour.
Inside the tumbler , there is a fine coating if bluish looking dust.
So , it looks like we would be making fine plastic dust in your powder.
So it shows that the powder coating is not durable as it looks.
Well we can scratch this option off our list.
But I am glad I took the time to try something different and save you the trouble.
Now I will just remelt the balls and throw the WW lead back in my center-fire slug casting stuff.
The powder coating does just burn off and float to the top if you remelt the material.
So not much loss of material for me.

Now we know. It was a good idea though.

I assume if pouring zinc into a wooden mold, you'd want to soak the wood in water overnight before pouring? Or does it do ok dry?

[RoyEllis]

Now we know. It was a good idea though.

I assume if pouring zinc into a wooden mold, you'd want to soak the wood in water overnight before pouring? Or does it do ok dry?

Don't mix wet stuff with molten metal....EVER!!!!! Unless you want a "tinsel fairy" visit.

[LAGS]

The wood burns up as the Zinc cools.
Harder woods do better .
I never tried getting the wood wet.
I was always afraid there could be a steam explosion.
Zinc cools a lot slower than lead.

[HighUintas]

The wood burns up as the Zinc cools.
Harder woods do better .
I never tried getting the wood wet.
I was always afraid there could be a steam explosion.
Zinc cools a lot slower than lead.

I thought it wouldn't be a good idea either, but was reading something somewhere (can't remember now) about guys pouring their lead into their copper pieces for media and using a wood block with holes to place the copper pieces in. But, he was saying not doesn't work because the lead just runs out underneath and soaking the wood overnight prevents that due to acting as a heat sink.

I certainly wouldn't want to toss a wet piece of wood into a pot of molten zinc

[LAGS]

I haven't done it with casting Zinc yet,
But with lead casting in wood , I line the mold with aluminium foil.
Remember,
This type of casting using wood forms is just to get a hunk of metal cast into a general shape.

[Vettepilot]

For this, I would check with metal suppliers or a fab shop for a hunk of 3/8" or 1/2" thick aluminum. Wouldn't need to be very large/expensive. Then bore blind holes in it, and cast away with your zinc. A 1/2" milling bit would work better than a drill bit for boring the blind holes, but either could work.

Doctor's appt. right now; later I'll post a pic of my aluminum block.

Vettepilot

[LAGS]

I have in the past , cast melted aluminum cans and poured them into metal pans or square molds made out of sand.
But that was back when I had a forge made out of an old truck brake drum.
But In small amounts , you could probably just use a torch to melt small amounts of cans.

[Eddie2002]

I've cast silver rings using a wooden mold with no problems except a lot of smoke and flame. Since zinc has a lower melting temperature using a hard wood like oak would work fine. The mold might need to be split apart to release the slug of zinc.

[OldBearHair]

Has anyone tried Plaster of Paris molds? Years ago I used it to make molds for lead fishing sinkers. After you poured a few, little bits of the mold would come out on the lead. And, casting with zinc might be a lot worse. The molds are really cheap to make.. I used small trinket cardboard boxes, filling 1/2 of the way then pushing the sinker down into the mix half way. After it set up drill a counter sunk line up hole in opposite corners of the mold . Used a mold release then filled the box completely and let it set up. Next remove the sinker and make the pour hole. Then cook the mold hot enough to evaporate the moisture. One could round up some of those odd shaped balls mentioned here by using some sort of anvil and a hammer while rotating it. My first plaster casts were Boy Scout slide emblems for the neckerchief. We did paint them the proper color. WE were a poor troup and had to make do with what we had.

[Doughty]

Just learned a bit of information that might be of interest to others in western and northern parts of the country. Found out that Scouler's Willow is very common in the forest in these areas. Also found out that in other areas, Scouler's Willow is known as black willow.

I just finished making my first batch of black powder, using Scouler's Willow. As the man said, "It will kill." My oldest grandson has been helping me make it. Tomorrow we plan to go out so he can try it in a "Philadelphia Derringer."

And a thanks to all in this thread for the information provided.

[LAGS]

I have made molds out of Plaster of Paris.
They worked good.
But be sure you dry the mold slowly and get all the moisture out.
If you cook the molds too fast , they tend to crack.
But this type of mold is a good idea.

[HighUintas]

I have made molds out of Plaster of Paris.
They worked good.
But be sure you dry the mold slowly and get all the moisture out.
If you cook the molds too fast , they tend to crack.
But this type of mold is a good idea.

That's a great idea. My grandfather has operated a small plaster shop for probably 50 years now... He's about 90 and still goes out there every day and casts figurines from plaster, paints them, casts hollow poor concrete figurines, paint them and experiments with all kinds of mold making techniques out there. He also used to play AAA minor league baseball for the indians and was a knuckle curve pitcher. He is my idol, to say the least.

This gives me great ideas for making a bullet mold involving plaster and latex and a bullet, but it wouldn't work so it's actually not a very good idea.

But, I think you could probably utilize plaster to cast some brass hardware for your old muzzleloader. That would be a fun project.

[LAGS]

When I had my forge,
I did cast some brass objects and parts for some rifles.
It was a satisfying hobby , but lots of work.
At the time .
I worked for a Demolition contractor.
I got tons of Brass valves , copper Pipe and Lead flashing to work with.
So that kept my costs way down.
If someone had a casting furnace and made plaster of Paris molds , they could cast brass balls for our Ball Mills.
I would get back into it but , I retired and don't have access to all the scrap I use to get in construction or demolition.
I only have about 300 lbs of lead left and sold off most of my brass scrap.

[HighUintas]

Here's the results of round 2 of my high/low temp charcoal testing.

My initial results just from burning the powder on paper led me to believe the low temperature was likely slower and dirtier. After tumbling the low temp longer because of a mill problem, it sped it up to where it may have been about the same as the high temp.

Two important variables here that are skewing my results a little are:

1. Cedar #1 was pressed from meal and prepressed then ground powder. I didn't remill the stuff that was already pressed. It also wasn't dried after pressing the first time, so there was moisture already in there than cedar #2. So, I pressed a little liquid out by accident, but not much. Maybe 0.5-0.75mL from 60g powder. I don't know if that is enough to lower speed the amount that is shown in my shooting.

#2. Since it had been pressed once and not milled again, pressing it again made it more dense than cedar #2, just because I didn't alter my pressing process and the powder grounds were more dense to start. The research article shows that a denser powder burns slower. I don't know how much. My Lee measure, which is for a 30-06, consistently measured about 48.25g for cedar #1 and about 47.25g for cedar #2. Not a big difference, but it's something.

Also, it's worth noting that my grain size distribution was very close to identical on both; they're a mix of what stays on my 30 and 40 screen, this time in a 75/25 ratio.

I did not clean the bore or wipe it between shots for each 10 shot string. I only cleaned between the powders. I didn't use a blow tube either. I shot in strings of 3-4, the. Waited for the barrel to cool, with periods of 10 minutes between strings at times.

In the results, the speeds for cedar #1 were slower. Which contradicts my very initial prediction due to reading something about the leftover volatiles from a lower char process making a faster powder. It's possible this isn't true, but it's possible that the 2 variables above skewed the velocities enough to give a false conclusion and it's also possible that the temperature my charcoal was done at was too low, basically making undercooked charcoal that negated the benefits of leftover volatiles.

For cleanliness, looking at my patches , I think #1 might edge out #2, but it's close. For the cedar #2, I ended up having some fliers in the last few shots. I think my shots were well executed and shouldn't be shooter error. I checked my bore when I got home and there was extremely minimal leading, so I don't believe that is the cause either. Either it's complete coincidence, or the higher temp charcoal didn't have any of that creosote that Swiss reportedly has, allowing a shooter to shoot longer strings before fouling causes fliers due to hard fouling. Maybe the lower temp powder had more creosote left in it, leaving the fouling soft. The patches are front and back wiped.

Cedar #1



Cedar #2

[LAGS]

Hay guys.
I think I found something else to try for tumbling media that lessens exposed lead.
I am going to half fill some 9mm casings with lead.
Then I will press and roll crimp a .38/357 Copper Gas Check into the casing to cap it off and cover the exposed lead in the casing.
If it works , I may make some out of old brass .45 acp casings for larger heavier tumbling media.
Not all of you cast and load for center-fire guns.
But there are enough of us that may be able to make up and supply you with thing you want.

Hmmm.
I wonder if you can find gas checks that would fit snugly in a section of copper tubing to cap off both ends and cover up your exposed lead in your copper tumbling media.