Homemade black powder

[jrbfishn]

Thanks.

sent from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[fishingsetx]

To press out the pucks, I use a small plastic bowl a sprayer, a spoon, press, die, and a rubber handle screwdriver (dead blow hammer woukd be better)

first, I fill the bowl a layer at a time giving it a very slight spritz of water between layers. then mix well. you want the powder to be VERY slightly damp. if you get it too wet, water will seep out when pressed possibly carrying some of your salt peter with it. After mixing the water in well, I place 2 heaping tea spoonfulls of powder in the die

I then place the teflon disk on top of the die

place the die in the press and press as hard as the press will go.

After letting it sit for a few mins, I give it another pump. I continue this until I cant pump it anymore. Then I remove the die from the press.

then i use the screwdriver handle to drive the center part of the die and powder puck out. A small dead blow would work much better, but I dont have one yet.

A few pucks from tonight

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 screening, I take the powder grains and place them back into the tumbler chamber by themselves, no media. I add a fer squirts of powdered graphite.

close the lid and place the chamber on the tumbler for a couple hours.

This polishes the sharp edges off the grains, breaks up the grains that are too soft, and also coats them with graphite. the graphite creates a barrier to moisture and also (an more importantly) helps the grains flow much easier in the can, powder flask, powder measure, etc.

Once that final polish is complete, I rescreen the powder and place the final product in a powder container. I inherited this can from my grandfather. It reminds me of him whenever I use it so once it was empty, it made the perfect container for my powder!

Not sure what the heck is going on with the pics so sorry about the odd orientation.

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!"

 

[TreyG-20]

Excellent info and write up. Thanks!

 

[TheDan]

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.

No concerns of sparking or generating static with the grinder? What are the internals made of?

 

[fishingsetx]

No concerns of sparking or generating static with the grinder? What are the internals made of?

The body is stainless but It doesn't move and the grinding burrs are ceramic. I lit a piece of pressed powder the other night to see what it would do, and it took quite a bit of heat to get it lit as in holding the flame (blow torch style lighter) on the powder for several seconds.

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]

I keep hearing that making black power is extremely dangerous and I'm going to end up being maimed or killed and maybe even making the 6 o'clock news, so I did a not so scientific test to see just how easily my black powder would ignite. I'm in no way saying that it is completely safe to make black powder. I take as many precautions as I can when making it due to Mr Murphy, but I do think some of the fears are a little blown out of proportion. Non sparking everything is a requirement, period, but other than a fine airborne dust, I just can't see normal potassium nitrate based powder igniting easily. I think folks get into trouble with potassium clorate/perchlorate which when mixed with sulfur, becomes highly shock sensitive. Anyway, on to the video tests.

First it freshly milled powder. It is extremely fine and took the least amount of heat/time to ignight. Even then, it took a direct flame almost 2 full seconds to ignight the powder.



Next is a small chunk of pressed powder. This took almost 6 seconds of direct flame to ignight.



And finally we come to fully processed granulated powder. This took a full 10 seconds of direct flame to ignight. I would venture that the graphite coating somewhat insulated the powder from the flame, but I would have expected a little quicker ignition.



As you can see, it takes a fair amount of heat to ignight the powder. Again, I'm not trying to say it is 100% safe, but I'm just not seeing the extreme danger that some portray. A little common sense and some basic precautions are what is 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]

Here is the reason for taking the time to polish your powder after pressing, corning and screening. Without the polishing step, as soon as the funnel neck fills up, the powder stops flowing. It sure makes transferring it to different containers, flasks, and into cylinders and bores much easier!



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!"

 

[BooCocky]

Great detailed thread. Down here buying black powder is next to impossible, and I will not use substitute. I purchased a pound of goex FFFG from bass pro in San Antonio and it was over $30 with taxes. Plus it took me an hour to get it from the gun counter as texas has some crazy storage rules. I just purchased some from powder inc, but had to buy 5 pounds. They let me mix and match so I got some goex, Swiss and OE on the way. I may attempt making my own next time. Although this order should last quite a while. Maybe I need a cannon or mortar .

 

[jrbfishn]

Or shoot more.

from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[BooCocky]

Or shoot more.

from an idgit coffeeholic

Hehe. I'm trying.

 

[fishingsetx]

Great detailed thread. Down here buying black powder is next to impossible, and I will not use substitute. I purchased a pound of goex FFFG from bass pro in San Antonio and it was over $30 with taxes. Plus it took me an hour to get it from the gun counter as texas has some crazy storage rules. I just purchased some from powder inc, but had to buy 5 pounds. They let me mix and match so I got some goex, Swiss and OE on the way. I may attempt making my own next time. Although this order should last quite a while. Maybe I need a cannon or mortar .

This is what prompted me to get into making it. I don't shoot nearly enough to justify buying 5+ lbs and haven't ever found it in a store. I also just like doing things for myself. The rate it's going, I may tinker with making some fireworks as well!

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]

Pressed out some more cakes this evening.

Im going to have to revise my press in the near future. Harbor freight has a 6 ton bench top press for fairly cheap (about $60). My homemade press just can't seem to handle the pressure.

Got another batch of sulfur in the mill and plenty of salt peter for another couple lbs of powder. Gordon's stump remover from tractor supply is 99% KNO3 with 1% drying agent and works fine for making black powder. Just an FYI, it is with the chain saws, not the lawn chemicals!

I can't recommend the press die I bought enough! For $20 plus shipping ($7 to my door), it's a steal!

Im hoping to get a chance to test the muzzle velocities over my chrono against some factory black powder substitutes sometime soon I have pyrodex and some American pioneer to try along side my homemade powder. I may have some triple 7 as well. I just have to find the time to get to the range. Kinda hard with the new baby in the house!

Grrrr, I just can't seem to figure out the pic orientation!!

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!"

 

[motorcarman]

Got another batch of sulfur in the mill and plenty of salt peter for another couple lbs of powder. Gordon's stump remover from tractor supply is 99% KNO3 with 1% drying agent and works fine for making black powder. Just an FYI, it is with the chain saws, not the lawn chemicals!

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!"

The Gordon's is $7.99 and the Spectracide is $6.97 (each are a pound).
Decatur has BOTH a Lowes and a Tractor Supply. I have an AG TAX EXEMPTION so I would not have to pay sales tax IF I claim it as an Agricultural need.
What I could do is Buy a few? pounds, claim Tax Exempt, turn it into Black Powder and just BLOW UP some stumps in my wooded area to clear out some areas. I guess that would be an Agricultural Use????? I could use the rest as gunpowder??

bob

 

[jrbfishn]

There ya go. Multi purpose.

Many years ago in Central Texas rock, that was one way to get post holes. I won"t tell you how I know.
from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[fishingsetx]

I'd say it's pretty consistent! 25 yds, open sights, 1858 new model army.

I also fired 3 rounds through my .50 cal inline rifle at 50 yds. 90 gr pyrodex pellets hit bullseye (sighted in for this charge). 90 gr of my homemade BP was 3" high. 90 gr of loose 777 fffg hit 6" high.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[motorcarman]

Months later........................
I just mixed up a batch with a HF rock tumbler and pressed some cakes for corning.
I used a PVC pipe case (W/hose clamps to reinforce) with a steel piston to press a cake.

I broke up the cake and screened/sorted some FFFF and FFF. I need to add the 'g' (graphite) and polish some.

I need one of those die sets from FLY. I joined castboolits years ago but when I tried to login, I was deleted. I guess I let a few years pass and had to re-register.

I sent a message to FLY so I hope I get a response.

Always wanted to try this and thank you for the inspiration.

I found and downloaded a .pdf
Black Powder Manufacturing, Testing & Optimizing
by Ian von Maltitz

Lots of good info.

bob

 

[orbitup]

Got a link?

 

[motorcarman]

I just did an internet search....

Black Powder Manufacturing, Testing & Optimizing by Ian von Maltitz

and found the .pdf

Looks like a Russian copy of the book in .pdf form (has .ru in the HTML). Several hundred pages.

Available at AMAZON.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Powder-Manufacturing-Testing-Optimizing/dp/B000Q9UELA

bob

 

[TheDan]

Got a link?

http://bfy.tw/JPIq