drying black powder or wet chemicals

[psymon]

I used to dry my chemicals in the air. However I found that being in the UK with not so warm days (around 15c) meant I was waiting something like 5-6 days for my compositions to dry off. I then tried warming up the oven to around 100c and then switching it off - then placing my mix in the oven for an hour or two. This worked but I used to use plenty of power to heat the oven plus sulphur mixtures made the house smell of bad eggs and the oven was sometimes unusable for a few days because of the smell.

 

I have found a quicker and safe way to dry my mixtures now. What I do is mix the chemicals and put them in a small plastic tray. I then take the whole lot and put them in my car. It is always warmer in my car even on semi cloudy days. However on sunny hot days the temperature inside the car easily gets to 40 / 50 c. In hotter countries I am sure this will be even higher. Now with a little extra heat I can use my chemicals the same day I make them.

[Mephistos Minion]

I see... Just don't get your car stolen. Generally thiugh there are 3 main factors that contribute to faster dry times; these are: Elevated temp, Low Humidity and air circulation. Great plans for a drying box are availiable on Passfire, so sign up!

[[w00t]]

I have an oven. fan forced oven.

 

i put what ever i want in it and set it to 70*c. let it running for 10minutes and my mixture is then dry. i never smelt anything associated with sulfur before when heating it in the oven.

[rocket]

I just sit was I want to dry on top of the fridge its nice and warm so I leave what ever comp there over night. The computer screen work as well.

[hashashan]

try to make a desicator. it will be much more efficient then drying in open air or in your car and safer then drying in the oven

[Spoony]

I put my wet chems/comps under a halogen light, dries in a matter of hours.

 

Im planning on making a drying box out of 2 PC fans, a halogen light, a shoe box, and alot of tin foil

[Pyrohawk]

I put chems in my handy toaster oven. I got it to make Recrystalized RCandy.... but found its useful for lots of stuff. Plus I found it in a second hand store for 7 dollars US!!

[psymon]

All these ideas seem good and probably work fine. However nothing beats doing this simply and for free. I use no power drying in car. Its very warm to hot in the daye and is a dry as a desert. My black powder comes out perfect after a few hours. Stars take a little longer but again perfect...

[Boomer]

Careful with ovens, toasters etc without thermostatic control. At least put a thermometer in with the comp. And look out, some parts may be much hotter than the air, don't spill comp on them when taking it out.

 

Lamps have the nasty habit of sometimes blowing. Happened three times already with my living room lamp. Not good if an amber from the filament hits the comp beneath!

[RUUUUUN]

If you live in a warm sunny area, then you could jsut build a solar cooker out of black paper and aluminum foil, that way if it does go up in smoke, it cost you about 4 cents and 15 minutes....

[Pyrohawk]

My Toaster Oven does have a control but its not real accurate. I set it on like 300F and I also have a thermometer in the oven to make sure where I'm at.

 

I only use this for individual chemicals anyway. I have never dried any live compositions in it. For stars and BP I just put them on a piece of foil and put them on a shelf in my room. Takes a while to dry but i'm patient.

[Karl]

I just sit was I want to dry on top of the fridge its nice and warm so I leave what ever comp there over night. The computer screen work as well.

Fan forced ovens dont leave any smell behind? I might have to give this a try as we have the same oven as you. Thanks for the tip!

[TheSidewinder]

Fan forced ovens dont leave any smell behind? I might have to give this a try as we have the same oven as you. Thanks for the tip!

YES, fan-forced ovens *DO* make a stink if you're drying anything that contains Sulfur or certain other chems. But then, so do non-forced-air dryers.

 

Take a look at the post I made for a 3" can shell entry in the competition section. In that post, there's a link to a RAR file containing the building steps. In that RAR file, there's a couple pics of my star-drying box (which I also use to dry the paste layer on shells.) It uses a plain old space heater, a Honeywell Heat Giant. When I dry anything that contains Sulfur (stars, rocket comps, etc) there is a definite odor near the unit. I *ALWAYS* use it outdoors though, so the smell doesn't seem too bad. But if I moved that indoors I'm sure it would stink to high heaven.

 

M