My homemade black powder

[Vettepilot]

One more thing. If I ever decide to load up some BP 45-70 cartridges, or buy a conversion cylinder for 45 Colt for my 1858 Remington, then maybe I'll go to pucked powder. I have the die, a good press, grain mills, etc. But for the front stuffers I shoot now, I'm with Greyhawk. Screened powder works great, and I have very, very little "fines".

Just my .02 cents...

Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

Sorry for multiple posts, but I just remembered something I wanted to share about presses. If your press is groaning and/or bending with the amount of forces you want to use, try just using some 5/16" or 3/8" threaded rods to tie the top and bottom of your press together just outside the jack.

Drill through the top beam on either side of the jack. Drill corresponding holes in the press surfaces of the bottom beams. Run the 4 threaded rods through those holes, with nuts adjusted tight, to connect the 3 beams together vertically.

This will add tremendous strength to your press. You will NEVER pull the four 5/16" threaded rods apart. Each one has a tensile strength of at least 60,000 psi. (We only use four to keep everything square.)

Worth a try if your press is "tweaking" on you...

Vettepilot

[greyhawk]

got a question (asking for a friend)

chimney soot is highly flammable - yes (have seen a chimney fire or two)

we are kind of agreed that overcooking charcoal is a bad idea cuz we lose the volatiles?

what do you guess would happen if we incorporated some chimney soot/creosote into our charcoal?

thus boosting the amount of volatiles / fuel available ....................

how dumb of an idea is this (or not) ?

we have plenty soot - something the commercial people dont have access to .....................

[DoubleBuck]

greyhawk
That has been discussed on this thread a couple of times, but I don't, off the top of my head, remember if anyone has actually done it or not; or if they did, what the results were. Creosote may be creosote and it would work. And, it might be that different wood may put more 'lively' creosote out than others, too. I just don't know. Sounds like a test for you, to share the results with us. haha I'm fixing to clean my stove pipe out, to make ready for winter soon. I could probably donate a few cups of creosote....