My homemade black powder

[LAGS]

Try a screen that is 8 holes per inch

[dondiego]

Try a screen that is 8 holes per inch

Thanks! Any idea where I might get one of those?

[LAGS]

Hardware stores.
Just make a frame

[KenH]

I have a 2 inch golf ball cannon that I have molded lead balls for and want to shoot real ammo in. I guess I need cannon grade powder but don't really know what size that is. Larger than 1F I am sure. I am considering making screened powder. Does any one have a recommendation as to screen size? .....powder size?

Whaling - 4 mesh - 4.750 mm. (0.187 in.) size holes in mesh
Cannon - - 6 mesh - 3.35 mm. (0.132 in.) size holes in mesh
Saluting (A-1) - 10 mesh - 2.0 mm. (0.079 in.) size holes in mesh
Fg - 12 mesh - 1.7 mm. (0.0661 in.) size holes in mesh

Note that the first 3 grades are intended for use with cannon. The A-1 grade is generally used for artillery blanks used for firing gun salutes. Item #B07MNNCGCP on Amazon is mesh 5 which should shoot pretty good in your cannon. Good luck.

[dondiego]

Thanks to both. I can't wait to shoot that cannon with other than golf balls. It is very useful for burning up old cans of substitute powders that I get sometimes.

[Vettepilot]

I'd like to make a cannon that shoots those little bitty drink cans, (8 oz.?). I would fill them with either cement or zinc.

One of these days... maybe. I did buy a hunk of steel to make anywhere from a .50 to maybe .75 cal cannon. Haven't gotten to that one yet. Lot's of fun.

Vettepilot

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I was pressing some pucks today and I tried doing one at a time and three at a time with spacers. Do you guys know if powder compresses better or harder doing it one at a time? After breaking them up I felt like when I would do one at a time it was better, but it could be all in my head.

[LAGS]

If I press thinner pucks with spacers.
I found that I have to press them longer and let them sit under pressure longer.
But that could just be my set up and the type of spacers that I was using.my single pressed pucks are about 1/4" to 3/8" thick.
The pucks done with spacers are about 3/16 to 1/4" thick.
But they are thinner and easier to break up with my sidecutters

[Brimstone]

Just time and need to apply pressure to the ram more frequently. There's a lot more air to drive out the higher you stack the column. My column is 12" tube of 3" diameter, thick wall PVC. Spacers for making 1/4" thick pucks.

It can take a while to get to the density I want. I've not noticed any significant difference in density in the pucks from top, middle or bottom.

[HWooldridge]

I made a small batch last night based on the original method that started this thread. Before anyone asks, I don't have a ball mill as of yet, so this is the next best thing for the present time. I do have a coffee mill, which is how I prepped the charcoal.

I followed the directions but the sulfur didn't blend properly, and I didn't see it until I had cooled the mix and squeezed out all the alcohol and water. In other words, the lumps showed up inside the cheesecloth. I'm planning to coffee grind it the next time to break up the pieces. With that said, this relatively ugly stuff still burned relatively fast - I shot a short video (that doesn't want to upload here) and timed the burn at about .56 second for 4" of travel. Certainly not good enough for firearm grade BP but might work for fireworks if I was into such things.

I am considering going ahead and making pucks with this under a 50 ton hydraulic press to see if the sulfur migrates at all under load - or perhaps hand grind in small amounts beforehand, just to break up the sulfur. If the consensus is that it's a waste of time, I'll just toss it out and make more - the process is pretty easy and fast.

BTW, the charcoal was derived from a red cedar fence picket. Very light and somewhat "greasy" - I think it will make good powder if I get the rest of it right. One picket cost $4 and made two, 1 gallon paint cans of float.

[LAGS]

I have to replace the pickets on my side yard gate.
I will probably use Red Cedar tor that.
So any of the new scrap wood will be used to make charcoal.
Too bad the old gate had redwood on it.
That much old wood would make a ton of charcoal.

[Vettepilot]

I made a small batch last night based on the original method that started this thread. Before anyone asks, I don't have a ball mill as of yet, so this is the next best thing for the present time. I do have a coffee mill, which is how I prepped the charcoal.

I followed the directions but the sulfur didn't blend properly, and I didn't see it until I had cooled the mix and squeezed out all the alcohol and water. In other words, the lumps showed up inside the cheesecloth. I'm planning to coffee grind it the next time to break up the pieces. With that said, this relatively ugly stuff still burned relatively fast - I shot a short video (that doesn't want to upload here) and timed the burn at about .56 second for 4" of travel. Certainly not good enough for firearm grade BP but might work for fireworks if I was into such things.

I am considering going ahead and making pucks with this under a 50 ton hydraulic press to see if the sulfur migrates at all under load - or perhaps hand grind in small amounts beforehand, just to break up the sulfur. If the consensus is that it's a waste of time, I'll just toss it out and make more - the process is pretty easy and fast.

BTW, the charcoal was derived from a red cedar fence picket. Very light and somewhat "greasy" - I think it will make good powder if I get the rest of it right. One picket cost $4 and made two, 1 gallon paint cans of float.

I don't think I would bother pressing your test mix. Without ball milling, you're not likely to ever get really decent powder, no matter what wood you use nor how careful your other procedures. The quickest, easiest option for a ball mill is probably the little Harbor Freight unit. It's good enough for small, (200 gram?) batches. Resist the urge to overload it, as the motor is not very stout. And buy extra belts for it too.

I think the common consensus here is that the various "wet methods" are not really optimal, for various reasons. I've seen good powder made that way, but don't personally think there's any particular advantage to it...

Good luck,
Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

A better option for a ball mill, in my opinion, is perhaps one of those sold for wet tumble cleaning reloading brass.

There's really good tumblers, like the "Thumblers Tumbler", but they're dam pricey.

Then, of course, there's scads of ways of building your own, which is what many of us do. YouTube is your friend for DIY vids...

Vettepilot

[LAGS]

I say.
Just save that first batch of BP until you get a ball mill.
Then you can regrind it , moisten it then re screen it.
If the weights on all three chemicals was correct , then the powder should improve.
If I ever screwed up on the weights of the chemicals.
I just gave the powder to friends that built rockets.
They were happy , and it worked for them.

[HWooldridge]

I say.
Just save that first batch of BP until you get a ball mill.
Then you can regrind it , moisten it then re screen it.
If the weights on all three chemicals was correct , then the powder should improve.
If I ever screwed up on the weights of the chemicals.
I just gave the powder to friends that built rockets.
They were happy , and it worked for them.

I don’t think I lost any of the chemicals - nothing precipitated out. The whole process was pretty straightforward except for the sulfur clumping. I do agree that further blending/grinding/milling would improve the consistency.

Aside from prepping the charcoal, I made the batch in about 45 minutes. I would have called it a success if the sulfur had cooperated.

[Vettepilot]

Getting the powder well "incorporated", or intimately mixed, is paramount to really good, usable powder. By "incorporated", we mean that the chemicals are very nearly mixed at the molecular level. When viewed under a microscope, the charcoal has a honeycomb like structure. The chemicals need to be intimately mixed at this level. If not, it's going to be subpar powder.

It takes a ball mill. And some practice maybe even at that to equal factory power and performance.

Just being honest here, so you know the deal and don't get disillusioned.

Vettepilot

[HWooldridge]

Getting the powder well "incorporated", or intimately mixed, is paramount to really good, usable powder. By "incorporated", we mean that the chemicals are very nearly mixed at the molecular level. When viewed under a microscope, the charcoal has a honeycomb like structure. The chemicals need to be intimately mixed at this level. If not, it's going to be subpar powder.

It takes a ball mill. And some practice maybe even at that to equal factory power and performance.

Just being honest here, so you know the deal and don't get disillusioned.

Vettepilot

Good advice - many thanks for the info. I used to own several lapidary tumblers and even a large open-ended parts tumbler, but those were all "compromised" in one way or another over the years, and I no longer have anything that functions. It's just a matter of my devoting the time to build another one.

[HighUintas]

To avoid me going back and reading 100 pages from the past year, have you guys done any further experiments or made any improvements on making charcoal?

The last I remember is that the one guy had been making some primo charcoal with his diy built electric kiln type cooker and cooking it around 570F (I think)

[Vettepilot]

That's about it I think. Choosing a good wood, limiting the time/temperature, and grinding the result as fine as possible.

There might be something to harvesting the wood in the spring when sugar content is high, but that might be "splitting hairs"??

In case you need it, the guy with the electric kiln is the excellent experimenter "Almar".

Vettepilot

[HighUintas]

That's right! Almar. I was going to build an electric kiln based off his design, but then put my money into building a muzzleloader. That kiln may be a project for 2023.