Mario1 Posted July 31, 2009 Posted July 31, 2009 Ok so I gonna make some more charcoal! Can any one tell me what kind of wood this is and if it will make good charcoal?? Thanks! I think that it is pine. not sure.... lol I know my retort sucks. How long should I keep it on for?? wood stash piece of wood
Seymour Posted July 31, 2009 Posted July 31, 2009 It does look like it might be a soft pine (the term pine is pretty much useless for getting a particular wood, there are hundreds of pines with woods ranging from as hard as concrete to as soft as balsa, with resin contents ranging from drippingly saturated to very low indeed). If it is light weight, that is another indication that it will be ok at the least. Since you already have the wood and the retort, just cook it up and find out! I wish you the best of luck. Do you know if it is treated?
Mario1 Posted August 1, 2009 Author Posted August 1, 2009 Ok I made some pine charcoal and it looks good and then I tried to make some Willow Charcoal. It was going good until I got some water into it. I crushed it up and put it into a bag but it kind of all lumpy and dosent fly around in the air like the pine. Is this bad and will this charcoal be able to be used? Thanks.
Mario1 Posted August 1, 2009 Author Posted August 1, 2009 Ok thats good. Anyway I have been crushing this charcoal up with a piece of wood. Its getting to be a smaller size but I heard it has to be very fine to make good black powder. How do I do that if I do not have a ball mill? Thanks!
Seymour Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 You are going to have to use a mortar and pestle, and a LONG time. Expect sore wrists and not much Black powder. A ball mill is a basic 'necessity' for successful firework building, and you will struggle without one.
RUUUUUN Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 or use a blender... that is what technologically advanced persons who no longer live in the STONE AGE do....(SEYMOUR!)
Seymour Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 (edited) Stick to what you know about. It appears Mario wants GOOD Black powder. I hope you do not still lace your blender 'black powder lift' with TCAP like you used to. Now ruuuun off somewhere else and play. Edited August 1, 2009 by Seymour
RUUUUUN Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 come now, those were interesting tests. if he wants to do it the slow way do it with a ball mill, not with a mortar and pestle... the only thing I can think of slower than a mortar and pestle is having two slabs of counter-rotating granite, and no beasts of burden to help with the work!
Mario1 Posted August 1, 2009 Author Posted August 1, 2009 I got the time. I should start to get to work.
dagabu Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 Ok thats good. Anyway I have been crushing this charcoal up with a piece of wood. Its getting to be a smaller size but I heard it has to be very fine to make good black powder. How do I do that if I do not have a ball mill? Thanks! Mario, It looks like white pine though it could be yellow which is better for PB. After its cooled, I break it up by hand, throw it into a gunny sack, an old pillow case or some paper bags and pound with a short piece of 4x4. Screen it through a 16 mesh (1/4" hardware cloth) till it all passes. See what passes through window screen and pound the rest again till it all passes through a window screen. Any way you do this, it will cause a real big mess and using a blender will cause a fire if you do more than pulse the charcoal. Luckily, I have a glass blender and the fire only made a little creamora shot when it ignited. In any case, its either mortar and pedestal or ball mill to get air float. You will have to bite the bullet and get one of these http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=65838 if you are serious about making BP, CIA method, Red Gum/Denatured or conventional screening and pressing demands that the charcoal be filled with KNO3 and S before you can get powerful BP. This is not a great pic but it shows the three sizes I get from pounding alone for rocket tails, willow and Chrysanthemums. Center bowl is 40 mesh, upper pan is 100+ mesh and the left pan is 80 mesh.
RUUUUUN Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 If you use a blender and are worried about ignition, wet the charcoal so that it will still grind quickly but will be wet enough to not fly everywhere nor ignite.
seph666 Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Where would be some good sources for good charcoal wood? I hear balsa is a good wood to work with but I dont know where you can get it in a large enough quantity to make it cost effective, it dose not seem to be the type of wood you would find at a lumber yard.
dagabu Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Where would be some good sources for good charcoal wood? I hear balsa is a good wood to work with but I dont know where you can get it in a large enough quantity to make it cost effective, it dose not seem to be the type of wood you would find at a lumber yard. Most soft woods work pretty well, just split some pine and you should be good. -dag
DanielC Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) I'm currently using an old manual sausage grinder to break up the charred pieces out of the cooker. Its a lot less messy than beating it with a 2x4 in a 5 gal. bucket and not nearly as dusty (no black boogers). You may however want to run a small quanity through first to clear out any small metal particles that may be there. You can throw that away and get to cranking. After that it is fine enough to put in your mill, or if you want to you can ball mill it for an hour or two. As far as wood species go I swear by my western red cedar, red alder and white ash. There is faster stuff, but I use a ton of those woods and have a lot of scrap. Edited November 1, 2011 by DanielC
Stryker Posted April 22, 2012 Posted April 22, 2012 How suitable is Sassafras for making charcoal for lift. Or Black Cherry for that matter. I have lots of both.
bob Posted April 27, 2012 Posted April 27, 2012 is it really that bad to use a blender cause that what I use and I've made abut 10 lbs I have not had it light yet (not saying that because it has not light in 10lbs that it will not light with 20 lbs but I know I lot of people that are very wise when it comes to pyro and safety and they us blenders to grind there charcoals bob
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