First batch of BP is in the ball mill

[zxcvbob]

Sounds like when you dry it more it'll work better

I poured the powder out of the jar and into a metal cookie tin. The powder had formed clumps in the jar (they broke apart easily) so I"m pretty sure it was still damp. I put the cookie tin (lid off) on top of a heated air duct in the basement and left it there for a day or two. Now the powder is slightly lighter in color than it was, does not clump at all, and it's a little bit dusty. If the weather cooperates I'll try it again this weekend. I expect it to work *much* better this time. I still probably should have purified the KNO3; it's easy enough to do.

I think I'm gonna use either this metal cookie tin or a 1# coffee can for storage instead of the plastic jar. It just seems safer, and I don't know why

BTW, how do you clean all the soot and powder reside out of your revolver chambers after shooting with BP? The barrel is easy enough to clean with hot soapy water followed by a bronze brush and then some oily patches. But the cylinder still looks pretty sooty inside even after washing it. (maybe I need to use an oversized brush, like maybe .480 caliber, chucked in a drill)

 

[MCgunner]

So, where'd you get sieve screens and what size would corrolate with FFFG? I just might try this as getting BP is impossible around here and if the gov'ment goes Democrat, this is good survivalist knowledge to have.

 

[mec]

Soapy water will pretty well desolve the fouling in the chambers. I take the nipples out and spray a mixture of oil soap, alcohol and hydrogen peroxide in the chambers. ( plain soap probably works as well), swab with a patch or with the .44s, use a jointed toothbrush and then rince with hot water. I then drop the cylinder in boiling water, pull it out hot and oil while the water is still evaporating off.
This works very well and prevents rust.

 

[Macmac]

Still reading and trying to absorb all this data.. I was hoping to go with a far lesser mill, at first. More like a plastic coffee can and some junk printer roller, perhaps driven with a sewwing machine motor. No looker at all I admitt, but I'ld like to go low in the dollars department at first.
I had the idea to buy very little sulfer and very little KNO3..

How do you make that small 3, on a keyboard?

My ideas now are to make a pound maybe in 1/6th pound, to maybe 1/4 pound to get the feel of things.. Murphey has a way of showing his ugly side around here at times.. Thank you, all you guys... This is most interesting.

 

[zxcvbob]

Still reading and trying to absorb all this data.. I was hoping to go with a far lesser mill, at first. More like a plastic coffee can and some junk printer roller, perhaps driven with a sewwing machine motor. No looker at all I admitt, but I'ld like to go low in the dollars department at first.
I had the idea to buy very little sulfer and very little KNO3..

I bought a $40 tumbler on sale for $30 from HarborFreight.com. I have an old Lortone tumbler with one large drum (I think they call it a 4-pound capacity) that would probably work a lot better because it turns the same speed but has a larger diameter drum. It needs a new motor, the 30-year-old motor is just worn out from tumbling endless batches of rock when I was younger.

How do you make that small 3, on a keyboard?

I knew that would puzzle somebody I went to the advanced reply page and set the text size to "1" just for that one character. (default text size is "2")

 

[66gt350]

So, where'd you get sieve screens and what size would corrolate with FFFG? I just might try this as getting BP is impossible around here and if the gov'ment goes Democrat, this is good survivalist knowledge to have.

There's several places that you can get the screens required. If you want to go the really expensive way, then you can purchase the ASTM testing seives. The cheapest I've found them new for uncertified seives is $39 each. You can try to get them used, but they still should go for about $20 each. Or you can make your own. This is an awesome website for the making of blackpowder by Dan Williams. http://www.pyrotechs.org/dwilliams/blackpowder/blackpowder.html Part of the discussion is how to make the screens. I bought the stainless steel screens for about $14 for Pyrodirect and I'll make my own. Here's a table of what screens to use:

If you want FFFg, then get a 20 mesh and 50 mesh and use was is captured between the two.

I'm going to be trying this pretty soon, I've got almost everything I need. I just need to cast a bunch of .457 balls for the mill, and make the charcoal. A neighbor's tree snapped off recently into my pasture, so for my first batch I'm going to try Eucalyptus for the charcoal, anyone have experience with this type of wood? Or should I look for willow, alder, or dogwood?

-66gt350

 

[Macmac]

Still reading: Thank you Bob. I think I have seen that add.

I understand the in theory too slow and or too fast. Too slow allows no mixing because the powders don't tumble loike in a clothes dryer, and so the components slide and cake to the walls of the clyinder.

To fast and it is more like a bucket of water being swung in wide circles over head, and not spilling water.

So either a varrable speed is desirable, and or some copper fins rivetted to the cheap cylinder to force the mix could be used.

I can see that a container can slip, more so if it is a cheap plastic coffee can. That could be over come with a belt drive, from perhaps a dead vaccuum cleaner.

I do admit I make some nasty looking stuff, from junk parts other wise that should be thrown away.

 

[zxcvbob]

A neighbor's tree snapped off recently into my pasture, so for my first batch I'm going to try Eucalyptus for the charcoal, anyone have experience with this type of wood? Or should I look for willow, alder, or dogwood?

I think the key is you want a wood with a low ash content (so remove the bark from whatever you use.)

 

[MCgunner]

There's several places that you can get the screens required. If you want to go the really expensive way, then you can purchase the ASTM testing seives. The cheapest I've found them new for uncertified seives is $39 each.

Used to run 40-200 mesh on a machine that shook and whacked the screens on top, PVC QC lab. Suppose just google lab supplies for that. Thanks. I had no idea about screen size, but figured they'd be biggish compared to what I am used to.

I reckon I'll make it in smaller sizes by mortise and pedestal rather than buy any expensive machinery, at least at first. Wondering why you can't just crush up charcoal briquets? Wrong wood? Too dense?

 

[MCgunner]

Hmm, reading that one link, they have an old meat grinder, hand crank, claim it's great for grinding the charcoal. I just happen to have one of those! They claim white pine, poplar,or fir. Don't use yellow pine or "wood with lots of knots"....like cedar???? LOL! Says you can use stump remover and agricultural sulfur, but you need premium charcoal.

 

[MCgunner]

Sieves, googled some lab supplies, 55 bucks and the sky's the limit. Hmm, might have to measure some screen at lowes. LOL

 

[zxcvbob]

Don't use yellow pine or "wood with lots of knots"....like cedar???? LOL!

The cedar I used did not have any knots. (the board had one or two knots, but I cut around them)

Bob

 

[MCgunner]

Well, cedar is a hardwood and has a lot of sap/aromatics in it (what makes it smell so good), so I'd think if cedar did well, I could just crush up store bought briquets, but then of course I have no idea, that's why I'm asking, LOL.

Walmart has some Mexican imported CHEAP charcoal that burned way fast and wasn't smushed into briquets, looked like they just fired it and packed it as was in chunks. That might be a better deal. Seemed pretty light, don't remember if it said on the bag what wood it was made out of.

Awe, heck, I'll fire my own if I have to.

 

[Macmac]

Must be cedar in one place is something else in another. In New England there is both white and red cedar. Both are ever green and lighter soft woods here. Neither of these 2 produce anything much I would call sappy resins. I use both for fire drills and boards, which in that case do not like to be resonious woods.

I am far from familar with Texas, and so all, I can say is that terms for wood and places exisit. I know of iron wood, and that can be about atleast 6 kinds of trees, all with different leaves, wood characteristics, bark textures, so I have no dubt Texas just migh have a cedar very different than a cold wet northern rain forest.

 

[zxcvbob]

In Texas, most cedar is really Ashe juniper. Up here, most cedar is either arborvitea or eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana).

 

[Steve499]

Wondering why you can't just crush up charcoal briquets? Wrong wood? Too dense?

The commercially manufactured charcoal made by Kingsford in Missouri is all hardwood and mostly only hickory and oak. I have read those woods are not the best source for gunpowder charcoal. Perhaps it would make powder but the properties of the powder might not be up to expectations.

Steve

 

[MCgunner]

Well, I can probably buy white pine around here and would be a lot cheaper. I need to get some 1x4/1x8 anyway to re-do the framing around the windows on my front porch. I'll buy an appropriate wood and save the scraps to char. I gotta do that chore pretty soon.

 

[Macmac]

Thanks Bob... I figured there was a regonial difference. I was in Ar doing some const, and they had "white wood" By the grain I knew I had never seen tha before, and no one in the lumber yard knew which tree it came from. To shut me up they told after a time it came from a White Tree.

Now there just might be a White Tree, but then I have never heard of it. This wood is not white pine, or White Spruce, or any pine or spruce I ever saw.

This white wood is brittle and was cut as 1x3 which milled was 3/4" x 2 and 1/2". I wanted strapping for sheet rock and they had no 1x4 which is common in NH where there is no such thing as 1x3.

Any idea what this white wood is?

Since I have made no BP I can't comment on what works and doesn't. My point in here is hoping to learn how.

 

[Misfire99]

I wonder how well eucks would work for BP. I do know that if you burn a lot of it in your fireplace you need to clean it much more. The resin from the wood get on the fireplace and will cause a fire if not treated properly. My guess is it will not make good charcoal and I'm sure you will be able to tell when you make the charcoal and before you make the BP.

 

[Dithsoer]

Popsicle sticks work well enough. You can get a box of 1000 from Wal-Mart in the craft section. Just put them in a large tin can, wrap the end with aluminum foil and punch a small hole or two to vent the smoke/gases and put it on a hot burner. You can light the smoke/gas coming out of the hole and it will burn for a while, lessening the amount of smoke created.