Does your BP produces residues

[dangerousamateur]

I used to shoot my shells with H3, and I never bothered cleaning a mortar.

 

Now I used real BP and what a stinking mess is makes

 

After few shots out of my little 2" mortar I had to left my test field, because the remaining (rather tight fitting ) shells would not slide down anymore.

I large supply of NC would be nice to have... Dammn BP.

 

 

How often do you clean your mortars, and how many residues does it produce?

[AlexPyro66]

My granulated bp leaves almost no residue but the meal powder leaves some yellow spots.I clean my tubes every week i shoot about 5-6 shells.

[Potassiumchlorate]

The one that I used before I had willow charcoal and granulated with +1% SGRS leaves lots of residue. A 5" or 6" mortar fired with it smells for at least 12 hours after being fired. The willow charcoal BP granulated with SGRS and without pressing leaves almost no residue at all.

[pyroshell]

All BP leaves residue it should not be that bad that shells can not fit in it. For some reason some of my batches of Bp leave red,blue,yellow,purple spots on ever thing. I often times I have this happen with with skylighter's Chems. The question might e why does it not happen to my other BP batches. Also impure sulfur can smell bad when burning. I make BP with higher quality sulfur, but one time i used garden sulfur and it stunk. My other BP does not smell bad at all. If you have money to blow, time on your hands, and don't like cleaning tubes I would suggest to look into golden powder. Golden powder burns a bit slower then BP but it works well for lifting larger shells. If you just shoot 1" and 2" then I would suggest KP. KP just leaves a white residue that looks like flat matte spray paint.

[dagabu]

Yellow spots are made by remelting the sulfur on the surface and is an indication that the BP did not completely burn. A good BP will leave little residue, all of it black soot that is extremely hygroscopic.

 

-dag

[Algenco]

Yellow spots are made by remelting the sulfur on the surface and is an indication that the BP did not completely burn. A good BP will leave little residue, all of it black soot that is extremely hygroscopic.

 

-dag

 

yep, check it the next day and the residue will be slimy, stinks too

[dagabu]

Smells like roses!!

 

-dag

[WonderBoy]

Golden powder burns a bit slower then BP but it works well for lifting larger shells. If you just shoot 1" and 2" then I would suggest KP. KP just leaves a white residue that looks like flat matte spray paint.

 

Have you tried this? I have always thought of golden powder as more of a kewl endeavour; I've never used it. And it is my understanding that KP generally needs decent confinement to function properly, you get this from 1 and 2" shells?

 

I haven't ever had an issue with BP residue clogging up a mortar.

 

 

WB

[pyroshell]

Have you tried this? I have always thought of golden powder as more of a kewl endeavour; I've never used it. And it is my understanding that KP generally needs decent confinement to function properly, you get this from 1 and 2" shells?

 

I haven't ever had an issue with BP residue clogging up a mortar.

 

 

WB

Yes I have tried it it works. I generally thought about golden powder as kind of kewl, but it is not that bad. I never had any issues with it. The KP does need rather good confinement to operate at optimal performance. I like to put on a few layer of Kraft over the whole shell then attach my bag of BP or in this example KP. Then putt one the final layers of paper. It works fine and I never had a issue with the slightly weaker spot on the bottom of the shell. Then again I use pasted plastic shells. one thing I saw someone do was take a small shell either 1" or 2" then they took a 5/8" tube and capped the tube on the bottom the hot glued it on the bottom of their shell. It worked fine so there are a much of ways to do it that work. EDIT: yeah I never had my tubes clog up, i never even need to clean them and i shoot just straight bp. Edited November 15, 2012 by pyroshell

[dangerousamateur]

@Pyroshell:

How do you make your GP?

Cooking or ballmill?

 

Golden powder burns a bit slower then BP

Do you add Ironoxide?

[bob]

my black powder leaves very little and I haven't cleaned out my mortors yet. I think I've shot about 35 shots total out of two mortars and there is very little slag in them

bob

[Mumbles]

BP will always leave a little residue no matter what. Yes, it can be hygroscopic and smell badly. This is especially prominent if you leave them out on cool humid nights, or leave them in a confined space like a garage, car, or barn. This is potassium sulfides produced which attract water and hydrolyze. You do need to clean mortars out every so often.

 

I'm really not a fan of golden powder. It's hygroscopic and the traditional preparation is somewhat dangerous and isn't amenable to bulk scale production.

[spitfire]

Learn to make good BP. Make a ballmill, buy good ingredients, and use the right charcoal. It gives you the most reliable BP and no need to take extra work or unpredictable behavior. There is a good reason why professionals use BP instead of anything else...

[Potassiumchlorate]

Willow charcoal is very good, but there are other charcoals that will do too. I recommend Ian von Maltitz's book Black Powder Manufacturing, Testing & Optimizing.

 

The best composition if you have low ash charcoal is:

 

Potassium nitrate 100

Charcoal 18

Sulfur 16

[marks265]

Learn to make good BP. Make a ballmill, buy good ingredients, and use the right charcoal. It gives you the most reliable BP and no need to take extra work or unpredictable behavior. There is a good reason why professionals use BP instead of anything else...

 

This a very good point. The reason the "Pros" use BP is because of cost. Make it right and keep the cost down. Any variation of customary practices such as the aspect discussed here is thinking too far outside the box in my opinion. Messin' around with KP lift is doable and you can use less of it to do the same amount of work possibly. But you open the door to problems, and I believe BP lift is the best way to go and is even a bigger reason why it is commonly used. If anyone is shooting KP lift (or any other variant) while next to me I wanna know before you light your Pandora's Box.

 

Mark

[Potassiumchlorate]

I read in von Maltitz's book that plum charcoal is very superior. It even tops willow. Anyone who has a plum tree might test.

 

Some supposed hardwoods are also very fast, like some sorts of oak.

[Bcorso85]

I read in von Maltitz's book that plum charcoal is very superior. It even tops willow. Anyone who has a plum tree might test.

 

Some supposed hardwoods are also very fast, like some sorts of oak.

 

 

Wish I could get paulownia! Really thinking on planting a few of those.

[Peret]

About half the product of burning gunpowder is vaporized solids, some of which condenses in the mortar, but it shouldn't be much if the powder is well milled and fast burning. It doesn't have to be that energetic for lift, since you can always use a little more (or less), but it does need to be consistent, and "the fastest powder you can possibly make" most likely isn't going to be achievable every batch. Better to settle for slightly less and have it always the same, so that you can be confident your shells will always go the same height. It does stink, though. I wash my mortars out after every shoot and I'm only able to do it in the kitchen if Mrs P is out and not expected home for a few hours.

 

On alternatives, we have, like, 500 years of firearms history, during which time nobody came up with any realistic alternative to BP until nitro powders. A lot of people experimented with new propellants when new chemicals became available in the 19th century, and lost their lives in the process, but nitro is the only product that came out of it. Admittedly an HDPE mortar is not like an iron gun that might explode and blow your head off, but I figure if someone hasn't advanced in skill enough to make decent BP, they shouldn't be taking shortcuts with more energetic compounds. Not around me, anyway.

[dangerousamateur]

On alternatives, we have, like, 500 years of firearms history, during which time nobody came up with any realistic alternative to BP until nitro powders

They did not have mass produced synthetic ascorbic acid back then

 

I just started my little ball mill project, meanwhile I stick to rockets.

[Peret]

They did not have mass produced synthetic ascorbic acid back then

 

Since 1933. Golden powder was invented in the 1930s but was only on the market a few years, which by my standards means it wasn't a realistic alternative. Pyrodex, developed about the same time, is still with us.

[Potassiumchlorate]

There was actually a perchlorate gunpowder partly patented (the inventor didn't finish the patenting process) already in 1857, though it contained sulfur.