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Black Powder Thread #1


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Posted
My granulated BP from grapevine charcoal..I think that is fast for lift uses.Your opinion?

Looks pretty quick, pipipi! The initial glow made me think "wow, it's just smoldering" and then WHOOMP. How much was there? And can you improve the focus at all? Looks good, though.

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Posted
it was about 1-2gr..
Posted
lol, I should have known that after looking at a munch of willow names trying to figure out if htere was any local black willow. Guess I didnt pay much attention to what I was reading.
Posted
I also have made eucalyptus BP several times. It grows crazy in CA where I am originally from and everyone in my region uses it as fire wood since it makes horrible tasting barbecue. I believe it's the "blue gum" euc, but anyways it is always a slower burning powder for me at least. I love it for charcoal stars because like AqwA said it is very bright and leaves decently long hanging embers.

I might have found a new source of charcoal for stars, in comparison to pine is it better or worse?

PS. does it make any difference if you use the pine cone, pine wood or pine bark?

Posted
PS. does it make any difference if you use the pine cone, pine wood or pine bark?

From what I understand, the wood is best to use. Strip the bark and don't bother with teh cones.

Posted

:lol: I have only ever used the pine cone and the bark, makes for nice charcoal streamers though and the meal powder is good for fuse and priming.

My next project is Pawlonia bp and blue gum charcoal streamers, will post how they go.

Posted
it was about 1-2gr..

Well, from what I could see on the video, it went off with a nice WHUMP rather than a slower burn, so it looks like you've got some good BP. Congrats!

Posted
it was about 1-2gr..

Well, from what I could see on the video, it went off with a nice WHUMP rather than a slower burn, so it looks like you've got some good BP. Congrats!

:D :D :D

Thanks Swede

Posted

Now I've never used yellow pine. But from what I've heard it is a much different type of burn. Pine is supposed to be bright, long lasting, and branching/sparking. You won't get the branching/sparking from eucalyptus (or atleast I haven't). It's more of a smoldering.

 

The reason I mention yellow pine, is because I have used lumber grade white pine which made a decently fast BP.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Here is my first ball milled bp.

This was 1g balsa charcoal bp milled for 8.25 hours. What is everyone's opinion on it? Thanks

 

Note it burned completely, its just the newspaper burning at the end there.

Posted

Looks pretty reasonable to me, certainly better than my first batch and probably pretty close to my more recent ones.

 

Was that granulated or straight out of the mill?

 

Have a look at making some blackmatch if you are after some quick and easy fuse (although you probably don't want to waste balsa powder on it).

Posted
It was straight out of the mill. Ill try granulating some other time if what I currently have is acceptable. Balsa charcoal is some fluffy stuff! A small 250ml sour cream container full only weighs about 10g.
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Hello here is my black powder

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ot-Mosy-3c

I know,it's slow,but i'm a beginner and i don't have a ball mill,and the charcoal is for barbecue.

Posted
Actually granulating it would make good enough lift. you would have to do about 1/6th of the shell weight I think.
Posted

No,for lift i use H3 powder.

But is it fast enough for a shell burst ?

Posted
Im not sure if that would be fast enough for burst, try granulating it and testing the speed again. You could try making a small shell with just burst to let off on the ground and see how it performs.
Posted

Just messing around, trying out sending a movie to Youtube...I THINK it worked... anyway-

 

2 grams of my newpaper charcoal BP, ballmilled 3 hours, pressed and corned to what I use for lift... maybe 15 mesh or so

 

 

BP Test

Posted

Woah, thats powerful BP, if you can keep making consistent batches like that using newspaper, you will save a fortune on charcoal.

 

Nice one!

Posted
Woah, thats powerful BP, if you can keep making consistent batches like that using newspaper, you will save a fortune on charcoal.

 

Nice one!

Thanks- but I would still make my own charcoal. The N.P. has been the best so far tho. I have not tried balsa, but it's faster than the willow stuff I made about a month ago

Posted
Just messing around, trying out sending a movie to Youtube...I THINK it worked... anyway-

Also was suggested by my mentor to do a 2 foot train test. This is dust left after corning, dampened and screened thru 20 mesh.

 

 

BP test..powder train

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

qwe ya bugger, get the filename right. :D

 

It's an AVI, not a WMV.

 

(Caught ya editing, lol.)

Posted

OK, the AVI filetype wasn't defined, nor was allowed to be used. It SHOULD work correctly now.

 

EDIT: It DOES work now. AVI has been added as allowed filetype so this error shouldn't occur again.

Posted (edited)

I got around to testing some of the Red Gum bound Red Alder BP I made a few weeks ago this morning. Regular 75:15:10 made with Red Alder charcoal milled ~6 hours in my mill in a 1200g batch. It's bound with 3% Red Gum (milled in), not pressed & corned, just wet with alcohol, consolidated into a patty and screened through -14 mesh screen.

 

Burn trough is the "standard" test, I suppose: 3' trough, 2.5' of BP (30g), as outlined on Danny Cregan's Charcoal Test page

 

Burn time was 14 frames at 30fps = .467 sec. :D Pretty good stuff. Picture and video attached. This is the stuff that nuked my 3in mortar lifting a heavy starmine on the 5th... Seeing as my 6in shells are lifted with 1/16 their weight in CMC bound BP, which is slower, not sure I want to use this stuff on big shells, probably just for 3" and under shells and comets.

 

Burn test video

post-747-1217184553_thumb.jpg

Edited by qwezxc12
Posted

Ok, I think I know what's happening here. Let me go make an adjustment in the Admin Panel.

 

Defined file types can be touchy, I see.

 

 

EDIT: Ok, I guess I DON'T know why it's insisting that that was an AVI File. The MIME-type was correct.

 

I'll have to research this more. Wont happen today, but it WILL get fixed.

Posted (edited)

I just finished reading this entire thread,all 41 pages, and wish to thank everyone for the knowledge that has been imparted. I guess it is now time to try and see if any of it has sunk in.

 

I have all my chems. and have for some time, so I guess its time to head off to my "Mad Scientist lab" and see if I can put the knowledge to work. I again thank all of you who have helped educate me.

Edited by nickle

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