Puck press mold questions?

That is the one I bought, although I have yet to use it. I have been told that you can just about get away with a 6 ton press, more is better.

I have used PVC pipe, around 2 1/2" diameter, as the cylinder, and aluminum pistons as this does. My press is 90 ton by hand and around 10 ton by power, I use the power pump as it doesn't take near that much to solidify the mix (with about a tablespoon of water) as one may think.
I run with bronze 5/8" diameter balls in one of those red tumblers for 24 hours . I had the 5/8" bronze bar left over from a job and machined them into balls in the CNC lathe.
The last pucks I made about five years ago and have sat in a plastic bag until I can find time to make a 7075 T-6 corncob crusher, but anyway, they are still hard like rock!

My theory on the PVC was that I knew it would fail at low pressure, and if/when I resume I'll make a larger 4" cylinder with heavier walls.

Simply crushing my pucks into powder with a small hammer and lighting them (10%/15%/75%) they appear to be as fast and clean as any commercial BP I've had.

I'd be interested in knowing if steel tube is universally used to compress the mix by others.

My PVC cylinders, all similar to the steel cylinder in the ad, have required hose clamps on the outside as the pipe tends to open as the pressure gets up to 5 tons or so.

My goal is to have my cake and eat it too, and not be eaten by it! (Thus the PVC) But if steel with aluminum pistons is SOP for others I may try that.

I can set the valve to the closed position with the mixture in the cylinder with the switch on but power off at the breaker, then walk over and turn the breaker on which puts me 20 feet away, and for that matter I could hang a steel plate between the breaker box and the press, Activate the breaker, listen as the motor starts to groan as it mashes bottom, then shut it off.

The $55 price seems about right, as long as you already carry liability insurance. My insurance has been withdrawn twice already because they found out about stuff like this I've done.

I hope everyone doing this is absolutely redundant about safety.

With GoEX going dark. . .
I suspect there will be a rise in home BP "incidents"....
Insurance companies will raise a stink...
The Mass Media will publish no end of emotion-grabbing "Exposés"...
Big Brother will rush in to protect us all from ourselves....
and classify BP making as terrorist activity.

Just me I guess..
But you heard it here 1st

Bibbyman said:

I see many references to a puck press die made by Fly. So far all trails leas to a dead end.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...o-sound-weird-but.878030/page-2#post-11715451

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Fly is Jim Fitzgibbon, [email protected]. I bought a puck die from him in 2016. All you need is the shop press and the puck die. I got my 6 ton press from harbor freight. You only really need a 2 ton press. More is not necessarily better.

MEHavey said:

With GoEX going dark. . .
I suspect there will be a rise in home BP "incidents"....
Insurance companies will raise a stink...
The Mass Media will publish no end of emotion-grabbing "Exposés"...
Big Brother will rush in to protect us all from ourselves....
and classify BP making as terrorist activity.

Just me I guess..
But you heard it here 1st

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Well that’s one way to look at it…

There are people, many of them, who manufacture their own bp and have done so for a long time. Safely.

I just ordered a puck die set from Woody's, the vendor the OP mentioned. I went ahead and got the $95 complete set since I don't know for sure what all I'll need yet on this new to me venture, and I didn't want to find out later that I should have bought the complete set. It's only an additional $40 which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things.

I tried to run some preliminary numbers and it looks to me like my initial investment in equipment will be around $200, but I'll produce powder for about 25% of current retail prices. If that's the case my initial investment will be fully paid off after about the first 12 lbs I produce. That seems like a very reasonable ROI to me.

I think I paid $20 for Fly's puck die, and harbor freight has the 6 ton A frame press for $80. Been making powder for a few years now with those. I break up the pucks into coffee bean sized pieces with an aluminum meat tenderizing hammer while they are still damp (easier than when they are hard as stone, and you don't have to whack them, just press hard). I let the pieces dry, then I run them through a cheap porcelain coffee bean grinder and screen for sizes. All fines go back into the next batch.

I'll try and find him. He's in several forums. Hope he's ok.


Edit:. Found this. Has Fly's contact info. Should be ok to post as this is a public website. http://theknifegroup.com/site/member-list-2/jim-fitzgibbon/

Bibbyman said:

Have you actually used it?

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I just ordered it yesterday so it hasn't even shipped yet. Looking at expected arrival dates of all the stuff I ordered to make black powder I should have everything in hand in about 10 days.

mmb617 said:

I just ordered it yesterday so it hasn't even shipped yet. Looking at expected arrival dates of all the stuff I ordered to make black powder I should have everything in hand in about 10 days.

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I'm about ready to do the same thing. Keep us up to date on how it goes....if you don't mind.

Which tree are you using to make your charcoal?

I hear dogwood is pretty good

I use willow, which grows along my creek, and have used pine (like 2x4 studs), and I have heard that cheap bags of cedar chips also make good charcoal. Pine leaves more fouling than willow, but makes a good shotgun powder. I make a powder without sulfur for shotgun shells. Four parts KNO3 and one part charcoal (by weight). Shotgun primers throw a lot of fire, so the sulfur isn't really needed.

noelf2 said:

I use willow, which grows along my creek, and have used pine (like 2x4 studs), and I have heard that cheap bags of cedar chips also make good charcoal. Pine leaves more fouling than willow, but makes a good shotgun powder. I make a powder without sulfur for shotgun shells. Four parts KNO3 and one part charcoal (by weight). Shotgun primers throw a lot of fire, so the sulfur isn't really needed.

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I very admire your skill and self reliance very much. I would love to try it myself. I tried to stock up as well as I could before all this craziness started. But I still took the time to learn skillst that would be useful in self reliance situations. This is one thing I've studied on but haven't attempted yet, honestly it may very well be one of the most necessary skills to have.
How was the learning curve? I know if your like me your a student for life and always learning

Blackpowderwarrior said:

I very admire your skill and self reliance very much. I would love to try it myself. I tried to stock up as well as I could before all this craziness started. But I still took the time to learn skillst that would be useful in self reliance situations. This is one thing I've studied on but haven't attempted yet, honestly it may very well be one of the most necessary skills to have.
How was the learning curve? I know if your like me your a student for life and always learning

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Most of what I've learned was from internet, a few old timers, and trial/error. Still, always learning...

Have you had a chance to Chrono your powder in 44 Bp revolver loads or bp cartridges?

Blackpowderwarrior said:

Have you had a chance to Chrono your powder in 44 Bo revolver loads or bo cartridges?

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No I don't have a chrono yet. Seems to be close to goex, but probably more like goex reenactor powder because the grain size isn't perfect. I don't use graphite on corned powder, or dextrin in screened powder. I should start doing some videos I guess.

noelf2 said:

I should start doing some videos I guess.

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Yes you should. I know I'd be interested in seeing them.

Got one from Fly via the castboolit forum more than 5 years ago. Powder worked ok for speed and power but was fluffier and burned dirtier than goex. So I used goex and stopped with the home made. Anyway, imho, Fly's is well made. Happy with it. Pic:

Blackpowderwarrior said:

I very admire your skill and self reliance very much. I would love to try it myself. I tried to stock up as well as I could before all this craziness started. But I still took the time to learn skillst that would be useful in self reliance situations. This is one thing I've studied on but haven't attempted yet, honestly it may very well be one of the most necessary skills to have.
How was the learning curve? I know if your like me your a student for life and always learning

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Im a student, too. Here’s an article I wrote after I got into making powder. I’m still learning!

https://survivalblog.com/2019/10/08/

Regards,
Dirty Bob