Hot BP without ball milling? How?

[Merlin]

The charge weight to media ratio needs to be right. Your media needs to fill half of the jar at least. I would reduce the amount of nitrate from 300 to 150 -200g. You will then take your nitrate and add your sulfur and charcoal and mill about 200g total in each jar for 24 hours. You need willow charcoal not commercial air float. Lortone turn too slow for effective milling Hense the very long run times. If your nitrate is free flowing I would skip the preliminary milling and mill the BP. I started with the same mill you have then got a 12 lb. I can make 20 Oz BP in a twelve hour run. I wound up getting a 40 lb MJR tumbler which makes BP quickly. The 40 lb didn't cost any more than the two Lortones

Like you I only do new years and the 4th here at home plus the occasional test shell. I have spent a lot of money and wasted a lot learning what little I know. It is best in my opinion to get quality equipment. Don't give in to cheap star plates, comet pumps or rocket tooling. To make good BP you will need 55 to 60 rpm on your tumbler or be prepared for very long milling times. Milling.is safer in three hours than 24. Calebkessinger has quality equipment and so does Wolter.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Merlin

[schroedinger]

+1 on merlins post. But to add if you git a hexagon shaped mill, you will need only about 40 rpm and i thin it is a good thing to have one cheap tool for beginning (and srew it up). This way it is very easy to learn why you should buy quality tools and learn what not to do with them. I got myself a cheap pump and some wolther, ben and zmuros. I never screwed up one of the last three. Can't say that from the cheap pump. It looked nice, and was made quite good, but the sleve wall is quite small. Only a normal srew as stop pin (it rusted) and brass didn't like pumping shellac comp.

[starxplor]

Cheap tools serve a valuable purpose. They allow people to get into this hobby without the huge financial drain. Once they are in, and they decide they like not jsut the idea, but the actual doing of making fireworks, they can move on to better tools as the cheap ones break. The main issue is making sure people know they cheap ones will break so they are not pissed off and leave the hobby feeling let down by a supplier.