My homemade black powder

[maillemaker]

My pucks that I ran through the dehydrator and have sat for a week or so I measured and weight today to get a density. I measured a couple of pucks. It's hard to get a precise thickness because they tend to curl slightly during drying and also during pressing a thin rim extrudes between the piston and cylinder wall, which masks the true thickness of the puck. I try to let the caliper blades bite through this thin crispy rim to bottom out on the actual puck surface. The two pucks gave me a calculated density of 1.8 and 1.6 g/cm^3. So, I'm right at the 1.7 value I was my first batch. The first time, I let the puck sit under pressure for 5 minutes before releasing the pressure. This time I did not deliberately allow any dwell time, though sometimes I was busy for an extra minute mixing meal or whatever before I released the pressure. My press is the 12-ton Harbor Freight model.

My takeaway from this is that it is not necessary to let the pucks dwell under pressure.

I also broke my heart and ordered the $100 grain mill today. Busting pucks is such a chore and I hope this device makes it easier. I'm all about 2 seconds per puck like someone above said. I'm a little leery of the stainless steel rollers but since they don't touch hopefully it will be OK. I will make a point to do 1 puck at a time and remove the previous puck's remains from the area prior to grinding the next puck. Would be nice to take the rollers to a machine shop and have brass replacements made but I'm sure that would be at least another hundred bucks.

I've also run out of Potassium Nitrate so I ordered some more from Duda Energy and it has arrived. Now I have to grind it up as it is currently in prills.

[Vettepilot]

Vettepilot;
Me too. haha

@DoubleBuck:

;~)

If ya get a chance, please e-mail or PM me that link for better belts. Do not post it here for God's sake.

Someone posed a question about Aspen here recently. I think I know why. I was cruising through Tractor Supply earlier today, and noticed they have giant bags of Aspenwood pet bedding for sale. Wonder if it's any good? I'm way too busy for any more testing myself...

Vettepilot

[DoubleBuck]

maillemaker;
I think your problem with the edge ridge on the pucks is nearly universal. I know I have them. And, others have mentioned them, as well. I also have the not exactly perfect contours. I measure mine at least 8 places, and the thick places twice and the thin places twice, when averaging the measurements. It is not, or has not been, probably the most exact means. I use spacers and before placing all but the bottom ones, I 'smear' the powder with the piston, to even it out. All most all of the pucks come out not perfect. I trim the edges with a knife, if the ridge is too tall. I did notice that when I made 20 gram pucks, they did come out shaped better than one ounce pucks.
Since using Almar's low temperature charcoal, I found no need to let the pucks dwell under pressure, either. I was amazed at the difference it made, actually. I pressed one puck to 1.8 density easier than I used to press one to 1.6. My thought is, it was definitely the charcoal.
Good luck with your powder and let us know the results!
I was going to try to shoot some today, before it rained, but couldn't get 'er done. Now, we have at least five days of rain, ice, sleet, snow, sleet again, and more snow, in the forecast. So, it's gonna be a minute.

[DoubleBuck]

Vettepilot;
I sent you an email with the link. The 'belts' look like the right size of a 'O' ring, for hydraulics, etc. I bet they are better. There are several lists for them. I just picked the first. Scroll way down, to get the description.

[mmb617]

The belts I ordered are suppose to arrive today so I'll see if they work or not. I have a load of pucks in the dehydrator that will be ready for processing tomorrow so I'll get to try out the new grain mill then.

All kinds of fun stuff going on here. I even got to shoot yesterday. I do not like cold weather at all so I don't usually go to the range if it's too cold, and since we're in the middle of a cold snap I hadn't shot in about 4 weeks. Yesterday was 32*, which I still consider cold, but there was very little wind and I had the heebie-jeebies to go shooting so I did. As expected I was the only one there so I spent an hour or so getting more familiar with my newest flinter (a Traditions mountain rifle). It felt so good I'll probably go again today since it's predicted to be even a little warmer. It's so peaceful and relaxing to me. The light was so bright I had a little difficulty seeing the sights though.

[Vettepilot]

Vettepilot;
I sent you an email with the link. The 'belts' look like the right size of a 'O' ring, for hydraulics, etc. I bet they are better. There are several lists for them. I just picked the first. Scroll way down, to get the description.

Whoa! Did you happen to catch the shipping on those? 28 bucks! Wow!

Thanks for taking the time to send the link Buck. Now we just need to find out where he's sourcing them, and get a fair price!

Take care,
Vettepilot

[DoubleBuck]

From the description of the belts, I bet you can go to a hydraulic repair shop, and buy all the nitrile O-Rings you want, of that size. When the weather clears a little, I'll take one to the repair shop I use, and see. I bet he has a stack of them.

[Trapper-Jack]

I played around with the blend of the KNO3 and the charcoal. I am using home charcoal from a hybrid willow from a wind break. These were all the same measured amounts to compare to Goex 2F. The Goex was harder to light, I'm assuming from the graphite, and was dirtier and left embers that burned holes in the paper. The 70/20/10 blend flashed faster but left about the same amount of residue. The 72/18/10 blend appeared to be the most energetic and the cleanest. Then the 75/15/10 blend appeared to be lesser in energy and left more residue than the 72/18/10. What are you guy's thought on this or is it just a curiosity? All the blends were milled in a HF mill about 24 hours and it was then pressed through a screen, dried and screened through a #16 sieve for about a 2F grain size.

[DoubleBuck]

Trapper-Jack;
Nice tests! One question. Were all the amounts equal? If they were, I myself like the 75-15-10 of all of them. The reason is the white 'circle' just outside the center. It was blowing the powder away, as it was lighting. If you measured the energy of all the tests, and concluded different, then I could be mistaken. On my burn tests and especially when tested as you did, and then running a burn rate test, I've noticed the hot powders usually leave the little ring of white. I've come to look for that.
My second choice would be yours, the 72-18-10.
You should try one the other way, on the Nitrate. Like 76 to 78 and just see. That will give you an indication of the strength of your charcoal, if it needs more Oxygen, because it is rich. I would be interested to see the difference. You done good!

[Trapper-Jack]

The powder amounts were equally measured. They were measured with the cap from an old style steel powder can. I was curious about type of charcoal and matching the amount of KNO3 with it. What I've shot of the 75 and the 73 blends, the 75 was blowing my patches when using measured charges above 60 grains in a .50 GPR. The 72 blend doesn't start to blow the patches until after 80 grains.

[DoubleBuck]

As they say on Forged In Fire, "Congratulations, sir. Your powder will shoot." ha

[almar]

I played around with the blend of the KNO3 and the charcoal. I am using home charcoal from a hybrid willow from a wind break. These were all the same measured amounts to compare to Goex 2F. The Goex was harder to light, I'm assuming from the graphite, and was dirtier and left embers that burned holes in the paper. The 70/20/10 blend flashed faster but left about the same amount of residue. The 72/18/10 blend appeared to be the most energetic and the cleanest. Then the 75/15/10 blend appeared to be lesser in energy and left more residue than the 72/18/10. What are you guy's thought on this or is it just a curiosity? All the blends were milled in a HF mill about 24 hours and it was then pressed through a screen, dried and screened through a #16 sieve for about a 2F grain size.

trapper i like how you did that. You used a benchmark commercial powder and you put them all side by side and used the same milling time and measure. Do you have a chrony to measure the velocity? The spread like that is a good indicator of burn speed i would guess but the proof is in the shooting because maybe it acts differently under high compression. If the burn predicts velocity then i think you might have found your apex at 72-18-10 because it goes up from 70% kno3 then down at 75%...just a guess

[Trapper-Jack]

Almar, I don't have a chrony yet. A friend is supposed to bring one up in March that he doesn't use any more. I'll be able to test the velocity then. Until then all I can do is estimate. The round ball hits about six inches low from point of aim at 100 yards. The rifle is sighted for 50 yards.

[DoubleBuck]

Trapper-Jack;
That was a really stupid question I asked, on were the amounts equal. You stated so in your third sentence. Sorry about that. I was just thinking different weights would make a difference.

[Trapper-Jack]

Trapper-Jack;
That was a really stupid question I asked, on were the amounts equal. You stated so in your third sentence. Sorry about that. I was just thinking different weights would make a difference.

That's not a problem. The same thing happens with my wife. I'll ask her a question and her reply will be "We have already had this conversation". I'll say "Oh, what did we decide?"

[Nobade]

As they say on Forged In Fire, "Congratulations, sir. Your powder will shoot." ha

That's pretty funny. The girls have been watching that show recently and I can hear the guy saying that.

[DoubleBuck]

No doubt!

[HWooldridge]

I have wondered for a while whether a couple of parts less of sulphur would be better for cartridge powder - like 77-15-8…or 76-16-8?

If 80-20-0 works in cannons, might it benefit us to reduce the sulfur a bit, assuming the powder is corned and ignited with a primer?

[almar]

I tried it twice in cartridges. So did double buck but in a muzzleloader. Low sulfur gives poor results.

[HWooldridge]

I tried it twice in cartridges. So did double buck but in a muzzleloader. Low sulfur gives poor results.

Good to know - thanks for the reply.