Questions on BP

[zwdog922]

I was wondering how long I should Ball Mill my ingredients for Bp, and what type of charcoal i should use.

[InRainbows]

First: It'd be easiest to just separately grind them in a coffee grinder, and in general as fine as you can get them, I'd say mill 3-4 hours more or less depending on the mill.

 

Second: Most people use willow charcoal in general, but different woods do different things. Balsa and grapevine are also great I hear. Pine is for sparks, also. There's another thread that goes through specific species in detail:

 

http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=105

[zwdog922]

Thanks

[qwezxc12]

First: It'd be easiest to just separately grind them in a coffee grinder, and in general as fine as you can get them, I'd say mill 3-4 hours more or less depending on the mill.

A comment...with a proper ball mill (fully charged and running at an optimum speed), you do not have to pre-grind anything in a coffee grinder or the like. I can throw in smashed up charcoal pieces, prilled KNO3 and lumpy sulfur and get talc fine BP meal in a few hours. I wouldn't call adding the step of pre-processing your components "easiest". It's easiest to let your mill do the work for you.

 

However, if you are using a hobby tumbler, I would take InRainbows reduce the chems in advance with a grinder.

[Bonny]

I have a homemade ballmill that is a little fast for my jar size. I usually mill my charcoal first, but have added it after grinding in a meat grinder. I run the mill for at least 8hrs for lift. The powder may be good enough at an earlier time, but 've never bothered to test. Load it up, and go do something else while it works its magic.

[zwdog922]

thanks, ya ill take inrainbows advice, it is a hobby tumbler.

[cjtenny]

Or you can buy charcoal from skylighter...

[InRainbows]

I'd rather do it myself, I can pick which woods go into it, which size mesh, and it's really not that hard, I'd rather not pay another 15$ for 5 pounds when I can prune a tree and stick it in a pot with holes. I've never ordered charcoal from them, is it really that hard?

[Mumbles]

The charcoal from skylighter is quite inferior for BP, and other fast burning opperations. It is hard to beat the convenience of it when making large amounts of stars, Polverone (I refer to granulated green meal), and the like. Very messy, but in sitatuions where high preformance isn't needed, it works just fine.

[cjtenny]

FMI (for my information), how do you make your charcoal?

[lnstantkarma]

FMI (for my information), how do you make your charcoal?

You can search it, but the basics are you pick out your wood, a fifty gallon drum and a twenty gallon drum, some firebricks, and a lot of stuff to burn. I've been looking into it because the stuff I buy sucks. Anyway the fifty needs holes to let air in and the idea is you have your charcoal wood in the twenty and an extremely hot fire around it (in the fifty) and it cooks the wood. I learned that from passfire you should get a subscription the actual article is very detailed.

[Mumbles]

Yeah, or you can put it in a metal coffee can with a few layers of aluminum foil over the top and a 1/4" to 3/8" hole poked in the top. You don't have to make things unnecessarily complicated, as instantkarma has suggested, unless you really need 15-20lbs of charcoal at a time, and very few do.

[lnstantkarma]

how much charcoal can you make with the coffee can?

[Mumbles]

Depends how big of a coffee can. For a "normal" coffee can, you can probably make a few hundred grams. Unfortunatly for me, the only coffee that comes in metal cans anymore is poor quality. I can't bring myself to drink it. Looks like I am going to have to start buying ketchup by the gallon.