Vildez Posted August 30, 2016 Posted August 30, 2016 Hey guys and gals.... So I am bran new to the hobby and my children and I are getting started using rockets. So I have a ball mill and am using my child's glass marbles as the crushing median. I have done this several times before and the only thing I have ever gotten is Air float style BP. Now for the strange thing that occurred to me today. I have been running the ball mill roughly for 24 hours with a few off times when sleeping etc... I just walked outside to check the powder and get it jarred up and my first surprise is when I lifted the lid I didn't see any dust escape. When I fully opened the ball mill container I noticed what I thought at first all my marbles had been covered in black powder. However, some how some way it just made a bunch of black powder marbles if you will. They are roughly the same size as the small marbles that I use as the median and are perfectly round just like the marble. The container's are from my understanding air tight and there hasn't been any chance for it to be exposed to moisture. So my question is how and why would this occur???
NeighborJ Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 It is from moisture, but not from humidity or gremlins taking a leak in your drum. The moisture is retained inside the kno3 crystals. Kno3 is hydroscopic and will pull moisture from the air. To fix this problem the kno3 must first be baked for an hour or so at 150f in order to dry it out before milling and separate from all other ingredients. It is also a good idea to do the same for the charcoal and sulfer. Now comes the important part. Remove all marbles from the mill and never use them for this purpose ever again. It may seem like an ideal milling media but they will eventually crack and spread crushed glass all thru your bp which has caused accidents. The glass will sensitize the bp and any number of things can happen and none of them good. If you need media I suggest buying some which is for that purpose. In a pinch I have used hand fulls of nickels and felt safe doing so but it has limitations and will not work well for all circumstances. No price is too high when it comes to safety. I don't mean to scold you I have your best interest in mind and I want you to succeed.
gregh Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 He is right. There was a very bad accident a few years back with gentleman on here involving marbles in a mill. They are very dangerous. Please only use non sparking material like lead or brass. Also, the charcoal will hold more water than the nitrate.
dagabu Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) English Nazi here, hydroscope is an optical device for viewing objects below the surface of water. Hygroscopic is (of a substance) tending to absorb moisture from the air. Edited August 31, 2016 by dagabu
NeighborJ Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 OK that's not the first time that has happened so I made sure I spelled it right when I typed it but my phone wants it to say hydroscopic I keep forgetting to check what my phone wrote. higrowskauwpick.
dagabu Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) English Nazi here, hydroscope is an optical device for viewing objects below the surface of water. Hygroscopic higrowskauwpick is (of a substance) tending to absorb moisture from the air. Um, there is a D there Edited August 31, 2016 by dagabu
OldMarine Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) I don't see no "D"....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygroscopy Edited August 31, 2016 by OldMarine
dagabu Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Old Marines, bad eyes, too much lookin at squids I guess....
OldMarine Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Old Marines, bad eyes, too much lookin at squids I guess.... I thought you meant the hydroscope post......
dagabu Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Indeed, that and the other thing too. Old geezer!
Arthur Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Two things. 1/ marbles are dangerous, there is report on here of a significant injury-causing accident blamed on glass marbles.2/ if mill powder blocks up, there IS water in there. Charcoal and nitre will absorb water sufficiently to cause a mill to block up. Simply dry the ingredients separately in a tray in a warm place before weighing out. If you weighed wet ingredients your mix ratio could be wrong because of the uncounted water in there.
starxplor Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Don't forget that whatever media is used, it could have been wet from a previous cleaning. I ran into this once milling some charcoal, I washed and air dried the media, but it still had some little amount of water, that I could not tell by touching with bare fingers, that caused the charcoal to cake up.
Vildez Posted August 31, 2016 Author Posted August 31, 2016 Can someone please suggest a good media that I can use. This is the ball mill that I am using. Any links to amazon or where I might find locally would be great thanks!!
NeighborJ Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 I think calebkessenger can help you out with that. He is one of our own members,he has a site Woodysrocs.com
OldMarine Posted August 31, 2016 Posted August 31, 2016 Can someone please suggest a good media that I can use. This is the ball mill that I am using. Any links to amazon or where I might find locally would be great thanks!! You'll find that with media you'll only be able to run one jar at a time with that mill. I had the exact same one as my first mill. As NeighborJ said, Caleb has the media and the small amount needed for those jars won't break the bank. I'd get enough for both jars so you can dedicate one jar to BP only and the other for milling individual chems. It's a pain waiting for your balls to dry before beginning a powder run!
Vildez Posted September 1, 2016 Author Posted September 1, 2016 I tried going to that website and it doesn't work. Can someone give me the correct web link or a way to contact Caleb please.
OldMarine Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 I tried going to that website and it doesn't work. Can someone give me the correct web link or a way to contact Caleb please.woodysrocks.com
OldMarine Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 http://www.woodysrocks.com/Jesus, I assumed he could copy and paste but I could be wrong! ;-)
dagabu Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 I think calebkessenger can help you out with that. He is one of our own members,he has a site Woodysrocs.com woodysrocks.com Naw, J got the spelling wrong, your alright OM.
NeighborJ Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 Nope never figured it out, I can't seem to post pics anywhere but at the bottom of the screen either. I'm not computer literate.
Vildez Posted September 1, 2016 Author Posted September 1, 2016 Jesus, I assumed he could copy and paste but I could be wrong! ;-) You assumed correctly I can copy and paste just needed the right URL first.
dagabu Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 I use Pyrobin.com to host my pictures when I want a high resolution pic for many forums or upload them to the gallery here and get the full size image and copy/past that address to the URL bar when posting.
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