Homemade black powder

[fishingsetx]

I wondered if that 'stump remover' is pure Potassium Nitrate.

I found some here and I might get 10 pounds to 'experiment'.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query="potassium+nitrate"

bob

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

Ok, got my charcoal making going. started out with a new paint can and some cedar bedding.

Punched a hole in the lid and placed it on the can.

I decided to use my smokehouse to cook it in. it hadnt been used in a long time and I figured the cedar smoke would run out any critters.

Took quite a while for the wood gas to sustain a flame, but it finally cooperated

sucess on keeping a flame!

Now the wait begins!

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

Took about 2.5 hrs to get the flame to die out. had to shake the can numerous times to stir the charcoal/wood chips up. finally got it to go out for good. cooked it another 10 mins shaking the can a few times for good measure. I didnt get a pic of the charcoal before milling, but I was able to mix up another batch. 150 grams of salt peter, 20 grams of sulfur and 30 grams of milled charcoal.

screening out the big chunks of charcoal:

The mix before milling:

Im going to run the mill with the mix overnight. Then I should end up with just over 7 oz of mill powder (200 grams). once that is done, I will either wait on my press die (and build my press in the meantime) or I may just do another wet screening like my last batch. I have a second batch of charcoal on the burner and I am going to make some more mill media so I can run 2 drums at once.

After asking around, I can build some mill media out of 1/2" copper tubing cut into 1" pieces, fill each piece with molten lead and round the ends with a hammer to retain the lead. That is tomorrow's project! Ill need to mill some more sulfur, salt peter and charcoal for my next batch!

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

A few videos for your viewing pleasure!

Here is the paint can in the process of making charcoal



Here is my newest batch of black powder after only 15 mins of milling. you can see just how weak it is by how slow it burns. This is why I say it would be VERY hard to have an explosion while milling. A fire, yes. An explosion, I highly doubt it!



Here is a test burn of the first batch I processed and actually fired. Its a nuch faster burn, but still nowhere near factory powder.



Im really curious to see just how fast pressed powder will burn!!!




Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[orbitup]

Very cool! Awesome thread!

 

[ROGER4314]

Good thread and I'm following it with interest!

Got a question...........
In making charcoal, I thought the process used was to heat the wood under pressure to drive off the impurities. By burning off the combustible gasses, aren't you losing the energy that you need in the BP burning process? It would leave nothing but inert carbon. Just wondering...............

I used ground up charcoal briquets for my charcoal source. It's messy, but it works, good.

I hope eye protection is high on your safety list. Please be careful! Some of my powder went up and burned the hair off of my right arm......up to the elbow! It was a Hell of a fireball.

Flash

 

[fishingsetx]

Good thread and I'm following it with interest!

Got a question...........
In making charcoal, I thought the process used was to heat the wood under pressure to drive off the impurities. By burning off the combustible gasses, aren't you losing the energy that you need in the BP burning process? It would leave nothing but inert carbon. Just wondering...............

I used ground up charcoal briquets for my charcoal source. It's messy, but it works, good.

I hope eye protection is high on your safety list. Please be careful! Some of my powder went up and burned the hair off of my right arm......up to the elbow! It was a Hell of a fireball.

Flash

You are wanting to carbonize the wood without actually burning it. The easiest way to do that is to exclude oxygen from the chamber and heat the wood until all the gasses are driven off and the wood has been carbonized. After the moisture is driven off, you can light the wood gas coming out of the hole. As soon as the flame goes out and cant be relit, you continue cooking the wood for 5 more mins, shut off the heat and let it cool.

Manufactured charcoal (bbq charcoal) has been overcooked to the point that it makes weak powder.

here is a decent article I found. There are tons of articles explaining it much better than I can on the net.

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/homemade-charcoal.asp

another, article that explains a little better why bbq charcoal isnt good for making black powder.

http://www.gunnersden.com/index.htm.muzzleloader-gunpowder-how-to.html

bbq charcoal mixed with salt peter and sulfur will burn, but it just makes a very weak gunpowder. The first 2 batches I ever made were made with it, and the results werent too exciting!

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[TheDan]

Garden centers also carry it as an acidifier for garden soil, but I have heard it isnt as pure.

The problem with garden center sulfur is the acidity... It makes the gunpowder unstable. As in impact unstable.

 

[fishingsetx]

The problem with garden center sulfur is the acidity... It makes the gunpowder unstable. As in impact unstable.

It would need to be impure to have acidity. elemental sulfur is not acidic until it combines with hydrogen and oxygen and is insoluable in water. This reaction is usually made by SRB (sulfur reducing bacteria) in the soil. check the msds and verify it is 100% sulfur. most soil amendments are some kind of sulfate or sulfide, but soms garden centers sell pure sulfur granuals as it lasts in the soil much longer than sulfates/sulfides because the SRB slowly break it down. They will be bright yellow.

Just like using stump remover for salt peter, you must verify what it is before using it Spectecide stump remover is salt peter, bonide is sodium metabisulfite.

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

Finally got my press built!!

Still waiting on my die, but I couldnt let the press sit idle for that long, so I put together a temporary die at work!

The wood plugs didnt last long under 8 tons of force. The teflon disks held up much better than I would have thought!
I knew it likely wouldnt last long, but it worked to test the press!

Took 3 cakes before I got the mousture in the powder right!

First batch just crumbled, second batch held together a bit better, but still not good enoug. Third batch was success! In this pic, you can see the second batch crumbled up and the third batch hard as a rock!

You can see where the teflon disk gave too much so the edges are softer than the rest.

Cant wait for my actual powder press die to come in!


Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[Younggun]

Why do you press the powder in to disks?


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[fishingsetx]

Why do you press the powder in to disks?


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Increases the burn rate and makes the powder more durable. The grains in the first batch of powder (not pressed) were soft. You could crush them with your fingers. The grains in the pressed batch are hard as rocks.

here is a burn test of unpressed granulated powder



and here is the pressed powder test from last nigh



you can see a major difference in the burn speed.

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[Sugar Land]

Sure hope we don't see you on the evening news...

 

[fishingsetx]

Sure hope we don't see you on the evening news...

For?

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

Needed some more milling media. got this idea from the guy I ordered the powder press die from. 1/2" copper tubing cut into 1" sections and filled with lead. hammer the endsto bulge the metals so they dont seperate and you are ready to go!

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

Finally got a chance to test some of my first few batches (without a good press die). Worked great! I inherited a pietta reproduction 1858 new model army .44 from my grandfather. Figured it would be a good test platform! 35 grains by volume just slightly compressed under the ball.





I didnt bring the chrono or any factory powder, but I was very pleased with the results! Good punch, good ignition, and the accuracy wasnt bad at all (for me at least).

25 yds

Just recieved my powder press die in the mail today! pressing some cakes right now. cant wait to see how they work out!

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[jrbfishn]

Where did you get the die from?


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[motorcarman]

I just went to the local Ace Hardware and all they had was BONIDE Stump-Out. I looked at the MSDS and it is Sodium Metabisulfite. The Spectracide Stump Remover was available at LOWES so I took a 12 mile drive the the big city of Decatur.

I already have about 10 pounds of Sodium Metabisulfite (AKA Campden Tablets) for sterilizing bottles and beer making equipment. I also use it in Winemaking as a sulfite to kill unwanted bacteria and wild yeasts.

Don't buy Bonide brand 'cause it won't work.

Keep posting 'fishingsetx'!!!!!! I'm getting into this!!!

bob

 

[fishingsetx]

Where did you get the die from?


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A guy out of Oklahoma makes them and sells them for $20+shipping (cost me $27 total). The only contact I have with him is on castboolits.com and his handle is "FLY". I can get more contact info if you are interested.

The die workes awesome. Only addition I did was cut a teflon disk for one end because the C-channel on my homemade press is starting to warp. With a good flat surface, the disk wouldnt even be needed.

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"

 

[fishingsetx]

after letting the pucks dry, i used a cheap disposable aluminum pan and a ball pein hammer to break them up into small pieces (say 1/4 dia or smaller). then ground them in a hand crank ceramic burr coffee grinder. took a bit of trial and error to adjust the grinder to make the right size grains. even then, Id guess 30% or more gets recycled due to being too small

I then dumped the ground powder into a set of screens I ordered off amazon. fffg will pass through 20 mesh screen but not through 30 mesh.

here you can see the stacked screens and a blue dollar store bowl they fit in perfectly. Anything that was too large to pass through 20 mesh went back into the grinder for a second run.

here is the 30 mesh screen and the correct grain sized powder.

here are the fines that Ill reprocess

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shoot....what a ride!"