My homemade black powder

[mmb617]

If you are using a HF tumbler , Then calculate or weigh out your tumbling media to weigh 2 1/2 lbs.
That with a half pound of powder too reach the designed working limit on your tumbler.
That is how I do it , and it mills good.
But if you go with the jug Half full or greater with media, it will start turning too slow and overheat.

That's what I was thinking. Half full of media is going to be well over the 3 lb limit on that tumbler. I don't expect to have all my ingredients till next week. I'll have to use the old trial and error method till I get it figured out as to how much media works best.

If you are adamant about making your own, you can order from this guy

https://www.ballmoulds.com/

He will make any sized ball mould, i ordered a 0.460 some time ago and they make good balls but these molds are not fast to mold with like modern type molds, you need to cut off the sprew afterwards.

While I think I'll want to cast my own lead balls at some point in time, for now I'll just wait and see if the molds eventually become available again. Surely at some point they will.

[Vettepilot]

When you factor in the cost of the mold, the lead, the work, etc., etc., Almar's ceramic media cost starts looking pretty good.

I made a buttload of media that's lead cast into 1/2" copper tubing, cut 1/2" long. I have a theory that the sharp, square edges of this type of media mills better, which seems to be proven out by people using it being able to sharply reduce milling time.

I think a nearly "perfect" media would be the copper tubing sections with Zinc cast into them. Very good milling efficiency, and no lead concerns.

Making the media this way is a bit labor intense, but I'm glad I made mine. If you make some, I recommend cutting the pieces with a tubing cutter, and bearing down hard on the cutter blade. This curls the cut edges in a bit, and helps trap the lead in. Cutting the tubing this way is not as easy as whacking them with a chop saw, but maybe worth it. I cut mine while watching TV in the evening.

Vettepilot

[almar]

When you factor in the cost of the mold, the lead, the work, etc., etc., Almar's ceramic media cost starts looking pretty good.

I made a buttload of media that's lead cast into 1/2" copper tubing, cut 1/2" long. I have a theory that the sharp, square edges of this type of media mills better, which seems to be proven out by people using it being able to sharply reduce milling time.

I think a nearly "perfect" media would be the copper tubing sections with Zinc cast into them. Very good milling efficiency, and no lead concerns.

Making the media this way is a bit labor intense, but I'm glad I made mine. If you make some, I recommend cutting the pieces with a tubing cutter, and bearing down hard on the cutter blade. This curls the cut edges in a bit, and helps trap the lead in. Cutting the tubing this way is not as easy as whacking them with a chop saw, but maybe worth it. I cut mine while watching TV in the evening.

Vettepilot

weight as well...ceramic weighs less so you can fill it up more. not trying to sell anything here...

[Nobade]

So, those of you using ceramic media, what size and shape are you using?

[almar]

So, those of you using ceramic media, what size and shape are you using?

I use 1/2 inch round.

[DoubleBuck]

I just checked the density of my best, most uniform puck of 'brown' Black Willow powder. It was the one I pumped up and went to bed and it set with 20 tons give or take on it, for six hours. It came out 1.722 Grams per Cubic Centimeter. Now, I can't remember what the density is to look for. Can anyone tell me if that is good bad, or indifferent?
Edit: Wichita Buggy Whip says 1.7 G/CC and that's what I was remembering as well. So, it must be OK.

[DoubleBuck]

If you are using a HF tumbler , Then calculate or weigh out your tumbling media to weigh 2 1/2 lbs.
That with a half pound of powder too reach the designed working limit on your tumbler.
That is how I do it , and it mills good.
But if you go with the jug Half full or greater with media, it will start turning too slow and overheat.

Lags, I use a HF tumbler, as well. I use 50 .60 cal. lead balls in each jar, and just use one at a time, with max 1/2 pound of powder. It has broke one belt in more than ten pounds of powder milled and some of them in the beginning were milled for 12 hours, with both jars. I probably have abused it but it still is working great. It beats it to face powder texture in four hours now. I have pondered on the weight gain I've experienced and finally chased it down to the lead. I plan to make a change shortly. I have a bunch of .575 round balls that have tin in the lead and I don't shoot them, but think they may be hard enough to knock down on some of the lead loss. It was race car lead I had laying around, and found out real quick, they weren't for shooting. At least not for mini balls.

[LAGS]

Per my calculations,
50 balls .600 dia come to 2.3 lbs.
So your mill is right in the ball park.
I cast my .600 balls for the mill out of Monotype which is a little lighter than pure lead.
But much harder.
My mill uses 60 balls

[DoubleBuck]

Thanks, LAGS. I've been thinking about the Monotype, as well. It seems to be spotty availability, in some places.

[LAGS]

I want to find time to cast up some .600 balls using Zinc Wheel Weights.
Lighter large and very hard.
Not to mention , Lead Free
I mixed my own Monotype from raw materials

[ChrisPer]

I have quite a few scrap pewter mugs for alloying tin and a little bismuth. I don't think I like the idea of casting zinc - its very volatile and potentially reactive. Anyone here tried it?

[almar]

I have not heard of zinc being reactive or volatile but it could warrant some investigation.

Per the reported results,the 78-9-13 ratio proved to be a poor performer, so Sulphur does play an important role for velocity not just to make it better for flintlocks and such. So I weighed out the remaining mix I had and did the necessary calculations to convert it to 77-10-13 added what needed to be added and put it back in the mill for 6 hours after drying out all the components. Well see what a total of 12hours or double the milling time will do.

Im also about to start a 550 deg charr on black willow to see what happens. Also looking around for some Carolina buckthorn, there is some around here apparently.

On another unrelated note, waiting on a lead shipment that USPS was supposed to deliver yesterday but somehow got lost, if those lazy buggers feel like they have to do some lifting the package gets lost...Trying to stock up now on materials because pretty soon things are going to cost a lot more..i'm going to do some looking around at some indoor ranges. I gave up on garages back in 2012, lead wheel weights are rare now or so I noticed back then.

edit, does anybody have any sources on how to identify trees other than typing it into a search engine?

[HamGunner]

Almar, there are several good apps that one can put into your phones that ID plants, flowers, trees, etc. from the flowers, leaves, fruit, and bark, depending upon what one asks the app to ID. You just take a picture of the plant and the app uses that information. If you can not get it to ID out in the woods, you can just wait until you have WiFi available.

[almar]

doublebuck: ive been getting 1.9 - 2.0 g/cc recently.

Thanks hamgunner I found one that does the trick! I am not familiar with this vegetation as I was up north.


The milled powder i make now forms into a paste when trying to screen it after milling, it could be the high humidity but it sticks to the metal spoon a lot. Im pressing it now without any water added.

[almar]

This a new batch I made today with the kiln (next to it is a dark batch I had made before with my propane setup), cooked at the lowest temperature so far between 550 and 560 for 1.45 hours once it reached the target temp. The entire batch is cooked the same, which is huge for me because I struggled with charcoal consistency, it took some strategic placement and thermocouple placement changes but its there. Now this the brownest batch so far and there is no uncooked wood at all, or none that I can see for now. I'm pretty happy with it and cant wait to give it a try.

[almar]

ok breaking new ground!

This was my first decent batch of BP made with highly charred wood.

25 grains volume fff, 220gr Johnson and dow
1-676 fps
2-669 fps
3-656 fps
4-633 fps
5-696 fps
average 666 fps, stdev 23.44 fps

This is Swiss FFFG same projectile same powder measure

1-764 fps
2-755 fps
3-755 fps
4-758 fps
5-791 fps

average 764.6 fps stdev 15.21 fps

The sample I made just today by correcting the 78-13-9 batch to 77-13-10 with 3.5 more hours of milling time, charcoal cooked at 570deg and pucks compressed at 3.5 ksi that became literally like glass in sound and feel yield a dry density at 31.56gr to 30 gr volume (higher than I would like) gave this in velocity after dried in the oven at 170 after 1 cigar smoke time:



this is not with the charcoal I just made today, I have yet to test that one. But I have officially surpassed the power of swiss powder weight for weight, I need to focus on consistency of burn. The additional milling time made a world of difference for both density and velocity. Now its import to note that this does not mean that my composition is better than swiss. My fffg ranges in granule size between 30 and 60 mesh where their fffg grains are about 40 if memory serves me right. I needed to remain consistent with my original method to measure improvement. and will continue to do so until I reach a ceiling, then I will focus on reducing the range of granule size in my fffg.

[Vettepilot]

Oh man!! I think I just had an epiphany!! (Wonder if there's a cure? ) For media! Check this out: https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=tumbler%20media

Very cheap, and I bet ya it would work great. I've got some of that here somewhere. I'll try to dig it out and post some better pics. I just have this gut feeling that something like this shape would mill more efficiently than round balls. Maybe I found us a very cheap, non-lead media! Hope so...

Now, regarding density. There's a point of diminishing returns. One of the insanely deep articles I read, done by the government, stated that denser than the 1.7g/cc lost performance and burn speed.

Vettepilot

[almar]

Oh man!! I think I just had an epiphany!! (Wonder if there's a cure? ) For media! Check this out: https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=tumbler%20media

Very cheap, and I bet ya it would work great. I've got some of that here somewhere. I'll try to dig it out and post some better pics. I just have this gut feeling that something like this shape would mill more efficiently than round balls. Maybe I found us a very cheap, non-lead media! Hope so...

Now, regarding density. There's a point of diminishing returns. One of the insanely deep articles I read, done by the government, stated that denser than the 1.7g/cc lost performance and burn speed.

Vettepilot

I think that's polishing media Vette...very small granules...not sure it can grind much, who knows.

Density: if your crushed dry reaches a 1:1 weight to powder measure volume then that's a great mark, but my batch today was denser and shot faster that I ever did with any powder. I think its best to focus on getting the finest milled powder you can get and then back off the pressure till you get a perfect 1:1. I think the struggle is to get it fine enough...

[Vettepilot]

Jeez Almar, you're work is amazing. You must be very jazzed and proud. Guess there are "New things under the sun!"

Congrats again!

Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

Jeez Almar, you're work is amazing. You must be very jazzed and proud. Guess there are "New things under the sun!"

Congrats again!

Vettepilot