saltflat Posted July 1, 2017 Posted July 1, 2017 I have been experimenting making black powder with a ball mill using skylighter kit and formula. I have found the bigger the powder the faster it burns however my powder is very fragile is crumbles with very little handling. I attempted gasoline fireballs today and had mixed results. I tried around 28 to 35 grams per gallon of gas and it was really slow and alot of the fuel came back down. tried more powder with a little better results but still doesn't seem right. what would any of you recommend?
Arthur Posted July 1, 2017 Posted July 1, 2017 First be sure that you have the BP done right. There are hundreds of posts on basic BP. Only when you have reliable and consistant BP is it worth doing things with it.
Merlin Posted July 1, 2017 Posted July 1, 2017 (edited) I would be cautious about gasoline. You can use coffee creamer. If you are making skylighter BP kit it is likely hardwood charcoal. Hardwood makes very poor BP. You will see a huge improvement with Paulionia , cedar, willow or white pine charcoal. Skylighter charcoal is good in some formulas but not BP. I went through the same thing. You must use a good charcoal. Edited July 2, 2017 by Merlin
pyroman2498 Posted July 3, 2017 Posted July 3, 2017 If you have any of the chemicals left over ,I think I have a bag of ERC that has been sitting collecting dust for the past 3 or so years. If I find it I can send it to you if you would like ?
Wiley Posted July 4, 2017 Posted July 4, 2017 I prefer the look of liquid fireballs to dry creamer-based ones. If making your own powder though, you must develop a test for it before committing to a shot with a bunch of gas. Shooting a baseball from an 18" long 3" mortar using 10g is a good way to benchmark your powder. My powder gives 4-4.5 second flight times. It's not the most powerful in the world, but I don't want that for lifting heavy cylinder shells. Once the baseball test seems to be giving you acceptable results, use it to launch a mortar full of water. Observe the droplet cloud and make a judgement as to whether or not you'd be good to shoot an equivalent volume of gas. How are you granulating your powder? What binder are you using, and how much of it?
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