KP question

[cogbarry]

From what I've read, it seems that KP is normally mixed by screening? I'm quite sure it's not safe or necessary to mill. I have fine powder forms of potassium perchlorate, sulphur, charcoal and dextrin. I plan to coat rice hulls with the resulting comp for burst.

 

While I'm at it, I am also planning to make a batch of whistle mix for testing as a burst booster. I believe diapering is the way to go with this. Is it considered OK to store small amounts of this in your mag or should it be made only for immediate use? From what I've gathered, this mix is not quite as dangerous as flash but still pretty powerfull.

[Arthur]

KP is NOT milled but the ingredients are milled separately first then mixed through a sieve, or diapered.

[Mumbles]

To avoid confusion, KP in Arthur's post is the name of the standard perchlorate based burst. It corresponds roughly to black powder ingredients with the nitrate replaced by potassium perchlorate.

 

If you materials are finely powdered, I rarely see a reason to mill them. If you plan to use commercial airfloat hardwood charcoal, it wont hurt though, as it could use a little boost in power. NEVER mill the finished composition together.

 

I personally screen my whistle components together. The benzoates or salicylates are too sticky to really combine well by diapering. For just bursting a shell, it wont matter much though. You may want to add a little charcoal or redgum, or a catalyst to the whistle mix if to only tell when it is fully mixed. It is difficult to tell when two white powders are well mixed or not.

[cogbarry]

KP is NOT milled but the ingredients are milled separately first then mixed through a sieve, or diapered.

 

Thanks Arthur!

[cogbarry]

To avoid confusion, KP in Arthur's post is the name of the standard perchlorate based burst. It corresponds roughly to black powder ingredients with the nitrate replaced by potassium perchlorate.

 

If you materials are finely powdered, I rarely see a reason to mill them. If you plan to use commercial airfloat hardwood charcoal, it wont hurt though, as it could use a little boost in power. NEVER mill the finished composition together.

 

I personally screen my whistle components together. The benzoates or salicylates are too sticky to really combine well by diapering. For just bursting a shell, it wont matter much though. You may want to add a little charcoal or redgum, or a catalyst to the whistle mix if to only tell when it is fully mixed. It is difficult to tell when two white powders are well mixed or not.

 

Great! I made some pine charcoal at home but I was thinking of using the commercial airfloat for this as I have several pounds of it and thought this should be an improvement over the regular BP meal over rice hulls. Remember I said I don't like to change too many things at once? I'm not sure why I would mill the airfloat though, it's very fine. Great tip on the whistle mix. I never would have thought of adding a dark powder for a visual aid.

[Mumbles]

If it serves no other purpose, milling the charcoal and sulfur together will yield a far more intimate mixture than you can get by screening a few times. Some will argue that it pounds sulfur into the pores of the charcoal, or that it mills the chemicals yet finer, but either way it certainly wont make the mixture any slower. I'd tend to believe the second part of that more than the first.

[cogbarry]

If it serves no other purpose, milling the charcoal and sulfur together will yield a far more intimate mixture than you can get by screening a few times. Some will argue that it pounds sulfur into the pores of the charcoal, or that it mills the chemicals yet finer, but either way it certainly wont make the mixture any slower. I'd tend to believe the second part of that more than the first.

 

Ah,

You meant to mill the charcoal and sulphur together, leaving the oxidizer out. Should have been intuitive for me. Yes, that makes more sense now . I've read over and over in ball mill safety threads in various forums that BP is basically the only comp considered somewhat safe to mill with both fuels and oxidisers. I've also read lot's of recipes that recommend milling a subset of the ingredients.

 

Thanks Mumbles