Meal D goex

[pyrochris732]

Since I dont have a ball mill, i was thinking of ordering some meal powder online. You can order "Meal - D" goex. Is this ok for coating rice hulls? Would it be the same meal powder as you would make? Thanks, and sorry for the million questions.

 

Chris

[dagabu]

Chris,

 

"FFFFg is about like 7FA. 7FA passes 40-mesh and is retained on 100 mesh. Meal D passes the same mesh 7FA does, but there is no smaller sieve on which it is retained - it includes all the dust. Fine meal passes 100 mesh, and extra-fine passes 140 mesh; both, like Meal D, include everything smaller."

 

The point being that this is finished BP and it has no binder to hold it to the hulls. That means that every speck of Meal will be covered by the binder you choose. It may or may not cause some issues with burn. Since there are a hundred things to do with Meal, go buy some but I would invest in the Harbor Freight rock tumbler for $30.00 before I spent my money on Meal.

 

IMHO- D

[Ralph]

How many lb of the goex can you buy before it amounts to more than a ball mill will cost 2lb ?

making your own black powder is both cheap and satisfying If I had to pay over $3 per killo for my meal I probably couldnt afford fireworks

[pyrochris732]

ok, point taken.. I have a harbor freight about 5 min away anyways. I just dont want to attract too much attention with the thing making noise outside and the neighbors and such. I already have plenty of airfloat, KNO3, and sulfur to boot. I guess I'll pick up a 3 lber tomorrow.

[Ralph]

trust me neighbours would prefer a months worth of the muffled rumble of one of those 3lb mills than one salute the 3lb ones are not particularly noisy

[pyrochris732]

trust me neighbours would prefer a months worth of the muffled rumble of one of those 3lb mills than one salute the 3lb ones are not particularly noisy

 

 

lol! Very true. I just hope the ceramic media they sell with them are ok to use for BP.

[Ventsi]

!!!!NO!!! The ceramic media they sell at their store is NOT ok! Go ahead and buy yourself some brass rod a local metal yard and cut it up into small cylinders. I went with a mixture of 5/8 and 1/2" rod. And while you're at it pick up the 6lb version, it only ten bucks more, you get a second jar which you can use later on to mill special oxidizers and such. Plus the 3lb version struggles when a 5lb jar is on top of it.

[Arthur]

There are a few big mills near me (talking 25 litre jars! ) and they use selected ceramic media for hardness (it's harder than lead) and for lightness, (you'd never lift a 25 litre jar full of lead balls) So selected ceramic is FINE.

 

Brass or lead media works in small drums -melt some roofing lead into a fishing weight mould. Or use holes in some timber or make a mould in sand or plaster using the sphere from a deodorant can as a pattern.

 

To minimise the noise I use a rubber mill drum -IMO it takes a little longer but I've never tested it, but keeping the neighbours happy is more important than another hour of quiet milling.

 

Also if you mill while your neighbourhood is busy and noisy it's less noticeable.

[swervedriver]

The 3 or 6lb tumblers are not very loud, cover them up with a plastic or rubber storage tub for sound reduction. My 1 gallon pvc jar mill is loud as hell, it is enclosed in a wood cabinet and yet can still be heard from 200 yards away, lol.

[Mumbles]

If you intend to make lift and break worthy BP, you'll need to get some good charcoal too. The normal airfloat they sell won't cut it for high performance purposes. Many woods are suitable, but you'll likely have to make your own. I can give sources for good charcoal, but they have pretty large minimum orders.

[pyrochris732]

mumbles, so my airfloat that i use from americanpyro wont be good for coating rice hulls after its milled? Right now thats my main focus, getting some meal powder made for that.

[Mumbles]

I mean, it will work, but the quality wont be the same as using a more reactive charcoal. You'd be better off going to a hardware store and picking up some hardwood lump charcoal (cowboy brand for instance).

[pyrochris732]

Gotcha, thanks a lot. I actually have one of those chimenias(sp?) on my deck. I have plenty of pine that I can burn in it too. Maybe ill give that a try. Any tips for burning it? I mean, i would assume that when its done burning, its ready?

 

Btw, I got the 6 lb rock tumbler just now. 39 bucks total. I picked up about 50 or so lead fishing 1 oz sinkers too. (about 3/4 inch long). they have a hole going through them but the lead is pretty soft and i was able to pound shut the hole with another sinker! Problem is, these things are going to take a beating in there, they wont last too long before they get disfigured, lol. I made sure that they were 100% lead.

 

Many thanks for all your replies,

 

Chris

[pyrochris732]

ok, so i decided to not make my own coal. I ordered an 8 lb box of willow coal online for 36 bucks shipped.

 

Also, pictured are 2 lead 1 oz sinkers that I picked up today for my tumbler. The one on the left shows the hole through it. I hammered the sinker down to close the hole on both sides. Also, the far right sinker is another 1 oz. I thought mixing sizes would help grind the ingrediants better with the different edges. These are quite heavy so I dont know how many i can fit in one tumbler. Any thoughts?

 

Chris

[dagabu]

Chris,

 

Go here for ceramic grinding media. It is non sparking and pretty quite in the rubber Lortone style tumblers.

 

Your lead will work... but it will leave lead in whatever you grind with it which means you have to wear a respirator whenever you are using the stuff you just ground.

 

You can also get 100 302 Stainless steel balls for about $60.00 from smallparts.com.

 

Grade 302 is considered non sparking.

 

I agree with Mumbles, Cowboy makes OK charcoal, just sift out the brown chunks. The willow you are getting is excellent stuff and I make my black match with it.

 

D

 

(EDIT: You can't use HTML. )

Edited May 10, 2010 by TheSidewinder

[jimbo]

hey pyrochris,you should mill your sinkers for 24hrs by themselves before you use them to work harden them.I have a 6lb ball mill and I milled 200g willow blackpowder for 2.5 hrs and it was good enough for lift and break.I also only mill about 100g per jar so I won't burn out my mill,in australia those mills cost about $180 my 6lb cost me 330 I wish they were 30 bucks here I'd have one for every chemical I have

[dagabu]

(EDIT: You can't use HTML. )

 

Thanks Sidewinder, I started the reply while still signed in and finished it after the forum knocked me out and so the code was all screwed up when I posted it. Thanks for fixing it, I was going to send you a PM today about it.

 

(Guess that's why they call him Sidewinder!)

[pyrochris732]

ok so i gave in because i want to be extra safe. I ordered 100 1/2" lead-antimony balls from pyrocreations. So im returning the sinkers for my money back tomorrow. Anybody use these?