Black match

[SignalKanboom]

I ruined all my bp thinking I could re wet it. I cant ball mill anymore and I tried to make a lot of black match, but it turned out very very slow and inconsistent. I dont understand why because it was very fast bp when granulated and the string was very coated uniformly.

[SharkWhisperer]

How long has it been drying and under what conditions??? It is likely wet still, and you just can't tell. It can take awhile (days) to dry, depending upon conditions. It would be very surprising for decent BP to produce crappy BM without something major happening to it, like it getting rained on or something. If it was granulated with dextrin, it might originally, the hard granules might not have uniformly dissolved/dispersed, but you'd probably have seen small lumps in your BM batter.

 

If BP was good, your BM should be good. Hard to screw up.

 

Please describe your starting BP, match making technique, drying approach, etc...

[SignalKanboom]

I just left it outside under cover for two days (got at least 4-6 hours of sunlight). You are familiar with how I made my bp, I believe. For my black match I used mill powder (100g) and 10gs dextrin and screened it together thoroughly. I made a slurry with boiling water and made it a very thick gravy consistency. I wound my cotton 8 ply string into loops and placed that in the slurry. I then soaked my string with the slurry and used a 3 compartment Tupperware As a bm machine. The first compartment was dry string ends to handle my black match easier, in the center compartment was my looped string and slurry, in the third Tupperware compartment was a piece of aluminum with a 1/8 inch hole which I ran my string through to size and clear off any runny excess. It was like a poor mans black match machine. I then wound the string around naiLs placed on a 3 foot long board. It looked like a large 12 string 3 foot rectangle guitar when I was done. I then dried the leftover slurry and mixed it with my other granulated black powder hoping to start over with all that was left. The black powder was so hard once dry that water would not break it down, nor mechanical force. You were right about needing to ball mill it again, it was extremely hard. Is it possible for bp quality to decrease if you over, or under wet?

 

I may be making mistakes because of my situation. I have been focused on the fact that it was the only bp I was gonna have left that I made and that there is not another way to make good bp without milling which wont be an option until I move again.

Edited October 9, 2020 by SignalKanboom

[SharkWhisperer]

Ok, so your match is ok? Good. Even after 2 days with some time in the sun, depending on temperatures (and rewetting morning dew) it might take a little longer to be completely dry.

 

Your bigger batch of mixed powder....try to screen separate any loose stuff from the hard chunks--presume, but test burn the "good stuff", if any to see that it burns right. If not, add it back to the rest. You've probably got one of 3 options in my eyes... 1) Dump it into a 5 gallon bucket and beat the crap out of it with a baseball bat (with good PPE on!) like churning butter. This is how some break up their pressed pucks of BP after corning. 2) Let it soak overnight (maybe with intermittent shaking) to get it back into a uniform suspension--eventually, it should redissolve (or so we hope). This'll mean you'll have a puddle of liquified BP. This can go one of two ways: either let it evaporate to putty and re-granulate or make more Match. The slower BP dries, the larger the nitrate crystals that form, so the long-dried BP might be crappy (we don't worry so much about this with slower drying BM..). Plus its got a bunch of dextrin in it now. If the granulated had no dextrin, then it might only be a small % and not a big worry. But, probably simplest just to use the long-dissolved slurry to make more match--it's utility for making more match shouldn't be impacted. Personally, I'd probably relegate it to making more match if I couldn't mill it down. You can never have too much BM lying around, and it goes even faster when you turn it into quickmatch with a paper or other wrapper to increase burn rate to lightning speed. 10% dextrin seems like a lot for some reason--I recall usually using 5% and get sufficient stiffness, but I haven't needed to make any yet this year (benefit of making a lot at once) so would have to check my notes. Anyways, you know how much BP you added dextrin to to make match and you know how much you had left over (the stuff you poured your slurry into), so you can calculate your dextrin % in the whole mess and add whatever you need when the chunks finally dissolve.

 

No real disaster no matter how it works out. You made BM--great. Ghetto match is fine. I usually just strip a hank of BP-infiltrated string with fingers to remove excess while unwinding and leave a thick coating on--personal preference, and my way is both messy and wasteful. Don't get your BM wet now, and be sure it's completely dry before cutting/storing. You can track drying progress by cutting off one of your 3-foot guitar strands and burning an inch or two now and again. I cut mine to desired lengths (often 2 or 3 feet) and store in a cardboard mailing tube or poster tube with a few drierite dehydrating packets in there to protect it from atmospheric water absorption, and to remove any residual water from manufacture. It should be hard strands--if it gives instead of snaps when cutting then iit might be damp or you might not have worked your BP into the fibers deeply enough and it'll benefit from better incorporation (e.g., by kneading slurry into cotton by hand) in the future. If you see a white core in your cut match ends, then the BP definitely did not penetrate it deeply enough--it should be black all the way through. Oh, and if you're wrapping BM around spaced nails on a wooden board to dry, it is critical that your match is suspended so it never touches or repeatedly bumps the wood (from wind, for example). That's because if it's untreated 2x6 lumber, pallet wood, or whatever, it will get wet and absorb water from your match. And guess what comes with water? Uh huh, dissolved nitrate. That loss can permanently damage your match, for sure, by depleting it of oxidizer. So with your set up, make sure you wind or tie wet match on the ends of the nails, as far from the wood plank as possible so they don't touch, and store it standing upright to help this. Faster drying is always better so take advantage of the sun as much as possible. And pull those strands rather tight so you have straight, hard BM strands. Winding tightly will also assist in preventing water/nitrate loss to the wood plank by keeping the BM strands away from it. .

 

Call it a learning experience and salvage/repurpose what you can with your BP chunk. It's just a batch of BP, which doesn't cost much. We all make mistakes sometimes. Use this as an inexpensive but annoying reminder to always think ahead and try to predict the outcome of your actions when working pyro. You've sped up your screen-mixed BP by pre-milling individual components and wet granulating, and you've demonstrated that your dextrin isn't shit. Get the mill back up and running on your individual chems and call it a day. No worries!

Edited October 9, 2020 by SharkWhisperer

[SignalKanboom]

Thanks again shark. I threw out the bp, it was so freaking hard it took hours to break up enough to even dispose of safely. I had to shoot it with high pressure water and dump little by little a across the grass. I did let my match touch the board, also my string had a White core, so it sounds like that is the problem.

 

Im starting from scratch with the individually milled chemicals and screen them. Your right its cheap, but I was focusing to much on the time it took to make it all.

Edited October 9, 2020 by SignalKanboom

[SignalKanboom]

Should bp slurry be a little watery? Is the idea to turn string grey with bp water, or to coat the string?

[rogeryermaw]

the idea is to fully impregnate the fibers of the string with black powder. to that end, black match machines usually have a series of dowels under slurry to force the string to bend and change directions as you pull with a final dowel with various size holes to pull your strings together for one fully soaked cord with a well controlled dimension. also not sure how well dextrin will work. some have success with it but it always dries to brittle for my liking. others report great success with argo laundry starch.

[SignalKanboom]

It is laundry starch baked at 400 until tan. Im gonna try to start over making separately milled component bp. Then screen the sulfur/charcoal with the milled nitrate. Im gonna see if I can get good bp without a ball mill, then I will try to make a smaller amount of black match to fully optimize my techniques.

I will try straight laundry starch

[Mumbles]

You want you fully soak and saturate the string to the core with black powder slurry. Ideally, it will be black to the core. Getting it fully distributed is important. It will ensure the match always keeps burning and can't flake off enough to get dead spots. It also burns more consistently and will completely consume most of the string in my experience. In my opinion, there are two primary ways of achieving this

 

1. Make a BP slurry, and kneed it into your string. There are some tips and tricks for this, but it's not hard and doesn't really require any special equipment. This is the method I use. It's a little more labor intensive, but the quality is very good. It's also a bit messier.

 

2. Use a jig or "black match machine". The key here is that it works best with SEPARATE strings or strands of string. Just dragging wound string through a slurry isn't going to get good penetration. If you drag 6-12 thin strands or strings through the slurry separately, then join them together at the end and size them, you will get consistent match and have it well distributed all through the match. This is how several commercial manufacturers make match.

[SharkWhisperer]

Should bp slurry be a little watery? Is the idea to turn string grey with bp water, or to coat the string?

I like my BP slurry for match to be similar to a slightly thinned pancake batter--definitely not too soupy/fluid or enough BP won't stick. I roll a coil of string about 6"-8" diameter (depends on container size, but this is easiest for me to handle) and tie it in two places with twist-ties or plastic ties instead of string--it's easy to lose track of your tied string when it's a black wet mess. Small batches are 50 feet. I usually make around 100 feet at a time, but others make much more. BP's cheap. So's string. Put coil in container and dump BP slurry all around the top, push it in a little so it doesn't fall off, flip the coil and repeat. Then I start kneading it in by hand with various motions to get good incorporation. Pull-push, twist, compress, etc...want that BP all the way to the core. If it drinks it all up, just add more. Too much is not a problem either--toss in some extra strings, cloth strips, etc, to soak it up. I use dextrin, which results in hard sticks that don't really bend much. I've used CMC which seems to provide a little more flex but the hardness of my BM never bothered me--I coat it pretty thoroughly so it has a bit on top, so, like Mumbles said, flaking isn't a real issue. If you're going to be making tight bends in quick match for top-fused shells (then I use a 2 or 3 strands of QM inside the paper wrapper--there's enough comp in the string and in the area of the bend (if it flakes off) to continue the fire. Once your string is convincingly impregnated, then you can stretch it to dry. I've never used a roller setup, and like you found out, it's not high tech to make a ghetto one but like others said, you might want a few extra rollers in there before your stripping hole to push more BP inside. No white cores is your goal. Don't toss your homemade dextrin--it's proven itself to be functional. There's a video easily available on making BM with boiled Argo starch, but you'll need to look for it. Seemed like a lot of extra work but might be better than my way (though I have never complained about my BP/QM performance doing it my way!). Ned Gorski's got a free Fireworking 101 video on youtube specifically on making BM---suggest you take a watch--it's very similar to how I do it. Again, you'll save yourself a small headache if you coil up your string and then tie it off in two opposite places with anything but the same string, which can be hard to locate in the black wet mess when it's time to unroll it to dry. Again, your drying method will work, but use longish nails and make sure you stretch your wet BM tight to keep it from touching the wood. If the wood absorbs moisture, it's gonna absorb dissolved nitrate, too. It takes awhile to dry. On hot days in direct sun, even, if the string is good and soaked. It's not really dangerous at all when wet, but will easily ignite when dry. If it needs overnight or a few days to dry, I either bring my hanging rack (big wooden rectangle with a pivot/axle in the middle to allow rotation (designs everywhere) or my plank (if doing it your way) onto my back porch and lean it up against a window to dry. So long as you keep it away from anything sparky and smokers you should be safe enough. Some dry inside--another level of risk, but not one so scary to me if done thoughtfully.

 

Main issues seem to be getting it sufficiently incorporated, and getting enough BP on it so minor flaking won't affect performance. Easy to solve. I'd check the dextrin concentrations used by others; again, 10% might work alright but that amount seems high to me--unnecessarily so. And 10% dex will definitely slow burn rate of any BP vs 5% or less.

 

Wondering why you did't attempt a long soak with occasional mixing to get your stuff back into solution--might've worked, maybe not. But we'll never know--never tried, so would have been useful info. But I understand you were probably frustrated and a little disappointed and just decided to start over. No problem.

 

With that much crappy remaining BP mess, many keep a dump bucket for scraps of all types (making sure no incompatible chems are ever mixed). When tossed into a campfire or fused (safer) and ignited, you will generally get quite a nonspecific, unpredictable, but entertaining flammable effect watching your scraps and failures do something at least. Probably better for those making large batches of various comps regularly and generating a lot of extra scrap that a hobbyist using small comp quantities, sometimes only occasionally. If it's unwise to mill BP given your current living/working situation, it's probably not wise to start up a scraps container that'll be stored for a long time. Your hose-blasted chunks are probably safely dispersed across your lawn and not to be worried about. Good fertilizer, too.

 

Glad you've already restarted milling individual comps for a new batch. You'll get it right next time; like everything new--it's just a learning experience. I think you've learned a few important things, no? Don't sweat it. And BP components are cheap, though it's always painful to see a bunch of your lovingly homemade charcoal go to waste. Important is that you're researching, planning, doing, and troubleshooting. And maintaining a high safety standard. That's doing good pyro! You didn't do anything wrong. And you learned a lot.

 

Sometimes I'll hand braid 20-50 feet of three-strand cotton while watching tv, or cut strips of 1/2"-1" cotton cloths, to use for making alternative forms of BM--they burn a bit differently, and can be fun to experiment with. Sometimes I'll add a little MgAl flake or Ti flake to a bit of BP slurry for match, or powdered scraps of dragon egg mix leftover after screen sizing (it's NC bound, so the water in your BP slurry doesn't bother it, to make BM with unique burn characteristics. Makes fun and unique sparking fuse for lighting gerbs, for making homemade Magic Whips (crackling fuse), etc. Also, you can dip or finger rub some metals (or DEs) to the surface of wet BM scraps to your heart's content just before drying. Just screwing around experimenting a bit can be fun because BM is dirty work (for me) anyways. I've had many hours of low-key entertainment just sitting around sipping a beer and lighting off various fuse types for simple amusement.

 

You can improve your match machine for better incorporation but suggest trying the coiled BM making format once to see how it works for you. You'll get it right, I'm sure of that. You're good on safety. Stay that way please. But the key point is to have fun. The learning comes along with it. Your next batch will work like you want it to, I'm sure. Have fun!!!

 

p.s. You're probably aware, but just to clarify--there's no need or benefit to wet granulating your BP dust before using it to make BM. Just use your screen-combined green mix to start.

p.p.s. Regarding your query (maybe in the other thread) about making high-quality screen-mixed BP, there's a couple of long, detailed threads somewhere on here on the topic. It was demonstrated that screen-mixed super-milled can definitely provide pyro-quality BP applicable for all tasks. Who was the primary experimenter??? For some reason a "j, j, j" sound keeps popping up in my mind....perhaps either NeighborJ or JustVisiting??? It's worth a read and has info that would be useful to you. Plus, I'd like to read it again myself. However, having difficulty locating it in a quick search. Screen-Powder Dude--announce yourself and please provide a link to the relevant threads, hah ha!

Edited October 9, 2020 by SharkWhisperer

[kingkama]

Try to use a soft strand of cotton, the kind who seems the wool the woman use for Sweaters, not wery Twisted And abit loose, I found it in a specialized shop, is like 3 or5 mm in thickness, is easier to soak in and is it wery Hydrophilic.

[Arthur]

In the UK there are two kinds of quick match. What we call "Spanish Match" is one fat string soaked and coated in BP slurry then coated with a paper wrapper. What we call Chinese match is five strands of very fine string coated in BP slurry and pulled together into a semi rigid bar like concrete with re-bar, this is then wrapped in paper. Either way it's the layer of powder on the string that burns and the charred string is left behind.

[SignalKanboom]

Thank you to all. I will post a more substantive post here later today. Edited October 10, 2020 by SignalKanboom

[SignalKanboom]

Try to use a soft strand of cotton, the kind who seems the wool the woman use for Sweaters, not wery Twisted And abit loose, I found it in a specialized shop, is like 3 or5 mm in thickness, is easier to soak in and is it wery Hydrophilic.

Thats exactly what I used.

[SignalKanboom]

I like my BP slurry for match to be similar to a slightly thinned pancake batter--definitely not too soupy/fluid or enough BP won't stick. I roll a coil of string about 6"-8" diameter (depends on container size, but this is easiest for me to handle) and tie it in two places with twist-ties or plastic ties instead of string--it's easy to lose track of your tied string when it's a black wet mess. Small batches are 50 feet. I usually make around 100 feet at a time, but others make much more. BP's cheap. So's string. Put coil in container and dump BP slurry all around the top, push it in a little so it doesn't fall off, flip the coil and repeat. Then I start kneading it in by hand with various motions to get good incorporation. Pull-push, twist, compress, etc...want that BP all the way to the core. If it drinks it all up, just add more. Too much is not a problem either--toss in some extra strings, cloth strips, etc, to soak it up. I use dextrin, which results in hard sticks that don't really bend much. I've used CMC which seems to provide a little more flex but the hardness of my BM never bothered me--I coat it pretty thoroughly so it has a bit on top, so, like Mumbles said, flaking isn't a real issue. If you're going to be making tight bends in quick match for top-fused shells (then I use a 2 or 3 strands of QM inside the paper wrapper--there's enough comp in the string and in the area of the bend (if it flakes off) to continue the fire. Once your string is convincingly impregnated, then you can stretch it to dry. I've never used a roller setup, and like you found out, it's not high tech to make a ghetto one but like others said, you might want a few extra rollers in there before your stripping hole to push more BP inside. No white cores is your goal. Don't toss your homemade dextrin--it's proven itself to be functional. There's a video easily available on making BM with boiled Argo starch, but you'll need to look for it. Seemed like a lot of extra work but might be better than my way (though I have never complained about my BP/QM performance doing it my way!). Ned Gorski's got a free Fireworking 101 video on youtube specifically on making BM---suggest you take a watch--it's very similar to how I do it. Again, you'll save yourself a small headache if you coil up your string and then tie it off in two opposite places with anything but the same string, which can be hard to locate in the black wet mess when it's time to unroll it to dry. Again, your drying method will work, but use longish nails and make sure you stretch your wet BM tight to keep it from touching the wood. If the wood absorbs moisture, it's gonna absorb dissolved nitrate, too. It takes awhile to dry. On hot days in direct sun, even, if the string is good and soaked. It's not really dangerous at all when wet, but will easily ignite when dry. If it needs overnight or a few days to dry, I either bring my hanging rack (big wooden rectangle with a pivot/axle in the middle to allow rotation (designs everywhere) or my plank (if doing it your way) onto my back porch and lean it up against a window to dry. So long as you keep it away from anything sparky and smokers you should be safe enough. Some dry inside--another level of risk, but not one so scary to me if done thoughtfully.

 

Main issues seem to be getting it sufficiently incorporated, and getting enough BP on it so minor flaking won't affect performance. Easy to solve. I'd check the dextrin concentrations used by others; again, 10% might work alright but that amount seems high to me--unnecessarily so. And 10% dex will definitely slow burn rate of any BP vs 5% or less.

 

Wondering why you did't attempt a long soak with occasional mixing to get your stuff back into solution--might've worked, maybe not. But we'll never know--never tried, so would have been useful info. But I understand you were probably frustrated and a little disappointed and just decided to start over. No problem.

 

With that much crappy remaining BP mess, many keep a dump bucket for scraps of all types (making sure no incompatible chems are ever mixed). When tossed into a campfire or fused (safer) and ignited, you will generally get quite a nonspecific, unpredictable, but entertaining flammable effect watching your scraps and failures do something at least. Probably better for those making large batches of various comps regularly and generating a lot of extra scrap that a hobbyist using small comp quantities, sometimes only occasionally. If it's unwise to mill BP given your current living/working situation, it's probably not wise to start up a scraps container that'll be stored for a long time. Your hose-blasted chunks are probably safely dispersed across your lawn and not to be worried about. Good fertilizer, too.

 

Glad you've already restarted milling individual comps for a new batch. You'll get it right next time; like everything new--it's just a learning experience. I think you've learned a few important things, no? Don't sweat it. And BP components are cheap, though it's always painful to see a bunch of your lovingly homemade charcoal go to waste. Important is that you're researching, planning, doing, and troubleshooting. And maintaining a high safety standard. That's doing good pyro! You didn't do anything wrong. And you learned a lot.

 

Sometimes I'll hand braid 20-50 feet of three-strand cotton while watching tv, or cut strips of 1/2"-1" cotton cloths, to use for making alternative forms of BM--they burn a bit differently, and can be fun to experiment with. Sometimes I'll add a little MgAl flake or Ti flake to a bit of BP slurry for match, or powdered scraps of dragon egg mix leftover after screen sizing (it's NC bound, so the water in your BP slurry doesn't bother it, to make BM with unique burn characteristics. Makes fun and unique sparking fuse for lighting gerbs, for making homemade Magic Whips (crackling fuse), etc. Also, you can dip or finger rub some metals (or DEs) to the surface of wet BM scraps to your heart's content just before drying. Just screwing around experimenting a bit can be fun because BM is dirty work (for me) anyways. I've had many hours of low-key entertainment just sitting around sipping a beer and lighting off various fuse types for simple amusement.

 

You can improve your match machine for better incorporation but suggest trying the coiled BM making format once to see how it works for you. You'll get it right, I'm sure of that. You're good on safety. Stay that way please. But the key point is to have fun. The learning comes along with it. Your next batch will work like you want it to, I'm sure. Have fun!!!

 

p.s. You're probably aware, but just to clarify--there's no need or benefit to wet granulating your BP dust before using it to make BM. Just use your screen-combined green mix to start.

p.p.s. Regarding your query (maybe in the other thread) about making high-quality screen-mixed BP, there's a couple of long, detailed threads somewhere on here on the topic. It was demonstrated that screen-mixed super-milled can definitely provide pyro-quality BP applicable for all tasks. Who was the primary experimenter??? For some reason a "j, j, j" sound keeps popping up in my mind....perhaps either NeighborJ or JustVisiting??? It's worth a read and has info that would be useful to you. Plus, I'd like to read it again myself. However, having difficulty locating it in a quick search. Screen-Powder Dude--announce yourself and please provide a link to the relevant threads, hah ha!

I did try the coiled making method, but once it turned black, it also tangled up. I think I know what to do next time, but sadly I have watched all of neds videos and any other I can find on the subject.

I made my mistakes because I made a mess and things got tangled. I think my bp slurry was too thick and couldnt fully penetrate the string.

The reason I granulated bp was because I was making lift and I decided to make a larger grain, but then I found out I could use store bought and benzolift for the little guys, so I decided to turn it all to BM.

[SignalKanboom]

I havent started milling individually, but I will. I will be better about trying different things and reporting the results back to the forum. I realized I havent been adding to this place much.

[BetICouldMake1]

You used a very high amount of dextrin which could be the problem. Not only does dextrin slow down your powder, it's prone to sucking up moisture from the air. My first batch of BM I used +10% (same as you). The match was garbage. It would dry and burn well, then get damp and limp and barely burn. I would try another small batch using 3-5% dextrin and see how that goes.

[kingkama]

Thats exactly what I used.

strange thing, bm works well also if you use nitrate from the bag and only Charcoal and sulfur milled (yes they are slow but works omogeneous) , the problem usually is in cotton quality but you said your is good, so may be the Dextrine quality and quantity that ruined the bm performance.

[SharkWhisperer]

I did try the coiled making method, but once it turned black, it also tangled up. I think I know what to do next time, but sadly I have watched all of neds videos and any other I can find on the subject.

I made my mistakes because I made a mess and things got tangled. I think my bp slurry was too thick and couldnt fully penetrate the string.

The reason I granulated bp was because I was making lift and I decided to make a larger grain, but then I found out I could use store bought and benzolift for the little guys, so I decided to turn it all to BM.

The first time I tried the coiled method, I too had quite a mess on my hands trying to undo tangling etc. But never again since that first time, although it is way messier than a machine because you've got your hands in there. Coil it carefully, use a slurry with a viscosity somewhere between heavy cream and thinned pancake batter, try tying it off in more than one or two places for added coil retention when massaging your roll, use zipties or another easily identifiable material to tie it off--it's easy to lose/confuse the tied section vs the rest. Tie off the starting end to one of the crossties so it's simple to find the coil end in the black mess (I also tie multiple knots on both start and finish ends so there's no confusion), and take your time unrolling it when hanging it up. Stop immediately if you feel resistance to unrolling and figure out where the problem is before you make an impossible tangle. You can use multiple shorter coils if that's easier--it's easier to tangle longer coils. Drop dextrin from 10% (way, way high) down to 3 or 4% (plenty--your dextrin makes nice rocks, no?), and take your time--there's no rush and it's critical that you get complete BP impregnation to the center of your string, which requires some massaging and kneading to push it in. Before clipping ties and unrolling make sure you know where your starting end is and which way it unrolls--should be a cinch, again perhaps a bit messy, but a cinch no matter what.

 

I have nothing against match machines, and the simple ones with rollers are pretty easy to make and use, but I just never bothered. And you don't want your final outflow hole so small that it squeezes/strips too much BP of of your BM--I like it with a nice thick and uniform surface coating. 25% alcohol addition to your match slurry water might assist penetration and help it to dry faster. And if the burn sucks on the first test of your dried BM, put it away for a day or two and test again--very very possible that it's simply just not completely dry yet. If your cores are white, they need to be black, and you just need to do more to physically force your BP to the deepest layers (it's not really that deep). You can take your time massaging your BP into the string--this is not a time-critical operation.

 

You'll get it.

[justvisiting]

Lots of us use 3% dextrin, and 1% CMC. The CMC keeps the mixture from separating, very effectively. Also, a lot of times people use crochet threads. It's better if the threads are not mercerized.

[Mumbles]

Another trick is to put the coil on something when you're unraveling it. I've seen traffic or soccer cones used fairly frequently with success. Knots and hard to unravel tangles tend to happen when the string is pulled across the coil and starts wrapping around things. With something in the middle it prevents this and helps it to come off in the spiral you wrapped it.

 

I will also say that black match always seems to take an extra day or so longer than you think to dry. It will feel and look dry before it's totally done in my experience. When you have good penetration, something to look for is a lot of smouldering bits of string when you test it. This is usually a sign it's not fully dry yet. Good match will usually consume most of the string. Obviously there is still residue, but with a little experience you can tell normal residue apart from excess residue from moisture.

[SignalKanboom]

Ok guys, moisture is a huge problem. I just milled 100 g of sulfur charcoal and it is all gone. It stuck to my media and my mill jar and none is left. I need help this is getting to be a waste of resources and time. What do I do to stop this from happening. I have to wash my jar and media to do individual milling. Do I use a desiccant, Or what? Im gonna buy a toaster oven to dry the components before milling, but Im thinking this has been the problem all along. These pvc jars are holding all my comp. it gets caked on and doesnt come off. Im just making a mess at this point.

 

Also, how dangerous is the lead content after milling, using lead 50 cal balls. I wash my hands well, but this doesnt come off, I obviously wear a respirator, but is the lead only dangerous when burnt? It gets all over my hands when cleaning and any time I dont have gloves. Is this safe?

Edited October 11, 2020 by SignalKanboom

[SharkWhisperer]

Ok guys, moisture is a huge problem. I just milled 100 g of sulfur charcoal and it is all gone. It stuck to my media and my mill jar and none is left. I need help this is getting to be a waste of resources and time. What do I do to stop this from happening. I have to wash my jar and media to do individual milling. Do I use a desiccant, Or what? Im gonna buy a toaster oven to dry the components before milling, but Im thinking this has been the problem all along. These pvc jars are holding all my comp. it gets caked on and doesnt come off. Im just making a mess at this point.

 

Also, how dangerous is the lead content after milling, using lead 50 cal balls. I wash my hands well, but this doesnt come off, I obviously wear a respirator, but is the lead only dangerous when burnt? It gets all over my hands when cleaning and any time I dont have gloves. Is this safe?

Sounds like your charcoal is wet. Easy to dry off in the oven to avoid clumping. I do so religiously. And stored air-tight with dessicant packets. If there's any question whatsoever about it's moisture, it gets oven dried again. 250F for an hour works for me. There's a lot of leeway in drying conditions. Gas stoves make water, don''t forget, so if using need to crack door open to release water vapor. With electric, still good idea to crack open occasionally to let released water vapor out. Store charcoal while still warm, before it gets a chance to pick up atmospheric water, especially important if you live in high humidity. While you're at it, do yourself a favor and dry out your nitrate, too. Separate shelf in same oven with charcoal is fine so long as they don't get mixed and meet heat (would be difficult but anything's possible).

 

Unfortunately, you probably cannot try to dry your charcoal/sulfur mix because of sulfur's low melting point--that could be dangerous and ignite. Scrape it off of your jar, with a butter knife if need be (clumps can be hard!) and beat it off of your media in a collander/sieve and run/scrape chunks through some screens until it's powder again. You can still use it for blackmatch with nitrate (milling nitrate not so important because much will dissolve in slurry anyways), so long as the charcoal was reasonably powdered beforehand. Otherwise it can be used with oxidizer for gerbs/fountains probably.

 

Wouldn't worry so much about metallic lead contamination. You're wearing gloves, right, and not sticking your fingers in your mouth? If it gets all over your hands and doesn't come off, then wth aren't you using a pair of cheap nitrile gloves to prevent this in the first place??? With non-hardened lead balls (I use these sometimes) there will be a small amount of lead loss during milling. This can be demonstrated by milling white nitrate with a pristine-clean jar and lead balls and watching it come out with a grey tinge. It doesn't take a lot to change color, but It's nothing that really concerns me when taking basic precautions. Like wearing gloves when handling comp and cleaning media/mill jars. I'm comfortable with a particulate mask in lieu of a respirator. Everybody has their own comfort level. Antimony-hardened lead balls are available, are more durable, shed less lead, but are expensive. Stainless is your harmless option, but doesn't have the same mass so you'll likely increase milling times.

[Bourbon]

Do your best to be positive or you'll manifest bad results.

 

Shark is right. Don't throw your stuff out. Recover as much you can and dry it.

 

I notice you keep saying, you're constantly cleaning jars and media. Are you sure they're completely dry before using again. Visually dry is not always true. Make sure your jars, media, and chems are dry, at room temp or above. (Yes your jars and media).

 

Oh yea... Be Positive!

[Carbon796]

Is moisture the actual problem, or are you milling your BP comp too long. Have you actually tested your individual chems, to see if you even have a moisture issue. Dry chems will still clump up, if milled too long. If you don't want your comp to clump up. Stop milling it, before it does. In pyro you just can't expect stuff to work. Or, assume that it will. You have to make your chems, comp, materials, processes, and techniques. Work for you, in your environment.

 

The comment above about room temperature or above, could be misleading. Mills are more prone to clump up. The warmer or hotter they get. A mill in the sun will be more prone to clump than one in the shade. The longer a mill runs, the more heat it can generate also.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Carbon796