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Black Powder Thread #1


Givat

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For AWSOME black powder/lift

 

 

PRESS and CORN

 

Wow! Pressing makes a HUGE difference.

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In theory, pressing BP and breaking it up should give a slower BP, but be more consistent in both size, hardness, and preformance. The BP is denser, and thus has less surface area, and seems to be smoother on the surfaces. I have definatly noticed an increase in preformance from pressing it however. Perhaps it has to do with the sharper edges, and more flake-like particles I get when breaking the powder up. It has the same cross sectional area, but is less spherical than just granulated. Granulated does have a very rough surface though. Maybe the wetness and pressure more intimately incorporates the chemicals, who knows? There are a million different variables.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpVvtQjMSUU :D Let me know what you think.

It's actually a little hard to tell. It seemed like a lot of sparks flew, which isn't really a good thing in "hot" BP. Also, it seemed like there were 'pearls' of residue left on the surface where you burned it ?

 

Could you film it again, in daylight ? Burn a 1 gram pile on a piece of white typing paper and zoom in on the spot afterwards.

Yes, quite a few sparks fell.

 

Correct me if I am wrong (which I most likely will be because I read it on some BP making website), but the those pearls are residue from the BP not being homgenous.

 

This was my first homemade charcoal. When I took it out it looked like ash and has the consistency of ash. ( I thought It would be shit) lol.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lg-WxVxonhY

 

No more sparks and no more residue. :D Because I grinded it for about 5 minutes.

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  • 1 month later...

Is anyone here following Bill BP thread on Passfire? Apparently, Ned will be posting it as a Skylighter article...he tested different methods of making BP and found that granulating meal with alcohol/red gum was the indisputable winner in lifting power. The theory seems to be that a non-water based solvent prevents the KNO3 from re-crystallizing from the very fine particle sizes produced during milling while dampening, resulting in faster burning BP.

 

Sounds very interesting!

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Yah Ive been reading that one. It does sound very interesting. That and a NC binder seems to boost the power of the lift quite a bit. Im gonna have to try that red gum thing.
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... But KNO3 is still somewhat soluble in alcohol... hmm...
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I like making BP with the red-gum/alcohol method, because it produces powerful powder, and it is EASY to make.

 

But, I have also tested corned BP pucks and BP coated on rice hulls, and each was very close in performance to the redgum BP.

 

.3 oz redgum

.35 oz pucks corned and screened to 8-12 mesh

.4 oz coated on rice hulls (7/1)

 

All 3 using homemade pine charcoal, and the amounts are what it takes to shoot a baseball 300' in the air.

 

Coated on rice hulls, 15/3/2/1, KN/AF/S/dex, is the cheaper to make, and just about as easy as the redgum.

 

Commercial charcoal BP's took .45 oz pucks (8-12 mesh), and .5 oz redgum or hulls.

 

Recommendation for commercial powders is .6 - .75 oz, so any of the above homemades far outperformed that...

 

ned

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BP and NC lacquer (especially that made from smokeless powder) is *SCARY* fast. The red gum treatment will be much less abusive on your shells.
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Smokeless powder should burn fast than homemade NC right? I mean it does have NG in it also.
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Only Double-base powders contain NG (Alliant Bullseye & Red-dot, etc...) Single-base do not.
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I think Ive only seen DB, what the heck is single used for?
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Rifle and cannon powders or any other firearm which works better with a slower powder. In addition to grain size and shape, it's just another way to control the burn speed.
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To be fair, triple base powder has NG as well. I believe it also has NQ. (Nitroguanidine) Don't ask me why it's abreviated NQ. Single may also have dinitrotoluene in it as well.

 

I believe most IMR powders are single based. The last time I checked only the 7000 and 8000 series were double based. I've seen mostly the 4000 series in the stores when I've been there.

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pipip,

 

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

 

Can you re-word it please?

 

Thank you.

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Ok sorry.

If i make homemade charcoal powder,is it good to make black powder or i must buy from store charcoal powder?

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It's pretty hard to mess up charcoal, but harder to get consistent results. Most people actually make their own charcoal rather than buy it for black powder and any other use they have.
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As advocated for several times in various places on this forum, cowboy brand natural hardwood charcoal will make some fast BP. It is cheap too. $7 US for a bag 5 or 10 lbs, I cant remember.
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It's pretty hard to mess up charcoal, but harder to get consistent results. Most people actually make their own charcoal rather than buy it for black powder and any other use they have.

with ball mill it is difficult to mess up??

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pipipi,

 

The ball mill isn't used to MAKE the charcoal. That requires other equipment. And once you finish the burn process, you are left with lumps of charcoal. It's not particularly difficult, but it IS messy.

 

The ball mill is used to GRIND the charcoal after you've made it.

 

Break your lumps into small pieces by crushing it or running it through a meat grinder. Once it's small enough, put it in the mill with grinding media and start tumbling.

 

How LONG to tumble it, I can't say, but you need to get it AT LEAST as fine as Talc powder, if you want to use it for BP, and that may take some time.

 

j.a.p. is correct. Cowboy Brand charcoal eliminates the first step of cooking your own wood, and is a VERY good product. Just break up sticks in the bag and mill it as above.

 

You probably don't have that brand in your country, and I don't know how popular it is where you live to cook food over charcoal fires. It is VERY popular here, so that's partly wht we have several choices for good raw, or "lump" charcoal.

 

Look for some brand of charcoal that says it's ALL WOOD. No additives. When you examine it, it will be just like burned sticks you see in a fireplace, only no ashes and shiny black.

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Thanks TheSidewinder!!

In my country sell charcoal for cook food and comes from pine and olive tree.

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Olive Trees, you say?

 

 

Hmm..... that sounds interesting!

 

Pine is Pine, pretty much throughout the world, and makes good hot BP.

 

But we sure dont get Olive Charcoal here!

 

If you can find a bag of 100% Olive Wood, buy it and try it. And then post the results here, please, if you can.

 

Mixed woods may NOT be the best, because you never know how much of each is in there, and the next time you buy it, it may be a different ratio.

 

Anyone else here have and/or tried Olive Wood?

 

I'm guessing it will behave much the same as other Fruitwoods.

 

(And aren't Olives actually a Fruit?)

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We have olive trees in my country house :D .It is better to buy charcoal from a store or to make my own in fire??

 

Give me time to make my ball mill and i will upload the result

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If you can buy ready-made 100% Olive Wood Charcoal, it will save you a LOT of time, preparation, and cleanup.

 

That said though, yes, you can make your own. It takes a couple of metal drums, lots of plain firewood or some type of large gas burner.

 

The key is to NOT let Oxygen get to your Olive Wood as you cook of the volatile compounds.

 

I'll let someone else detail it for you. I haven't made more than a tiny batch of any charcoal. I just buy it from suppliers here.

 

If someone reading this could give a link to a good tutorial with pictures, it would help. I haven't got a link handy, but I know there's a couple around.

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i found this..http://www.clt.astate.edu/elind/charcoalinstr.htm

 

Could someone who knows to tell if this is the correct method?

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