Bought a little antique coffee grinder

[MCgunner]

Now, as you might imagine...ME...first thought was willow charcoal....

Anyone that makes BP ever tried a coffee grinder? Sooner or latter I'm gonna dabble in this. I don't have sieve screens, but might Ebay some. I wanna make something go boom first. I have a small mortar and pestle I bought a few years back with this in mind, so I'll still mess with it eventually and just grind coffee if it don't work for the charcoal. Besides, it'll make for a great conversation piece in the kitchen. It's a wood body. What ain't plastic anymore?

 

[YumaKid]

I don't know you from Adam, Guns; but somehow I just KNEW where you were going when I saw the title of your post. Presently watching the sale ads for Harbor Freight; looking for their "rock tumbler/polisher" to go on sale. That and a bag full of clear marbles, and I've got me a ball mill.

 

[MCgunner]

Damn, never thought of that! I already have one of those for polishing brass, rolls two tubs. THANKS!..

 

[YumaKid]

Don't thank me! I got the idea from brushippie's videos on rolling your own BP.

 

[MCgunner]

I just bookmarked one of his vids from links in another thread. I hadn't seen 'em. On my PC (using a lap top in my travel trailer) I have all sorts of making BP bookmarks and notes. I've never been where I wanted to mess with it, but once we get moved to the sticks (waiting to close on the property) I'll have my own range and can mess with stuff like that conveniently.

 

[MCgunner]

I watched the brushhippy vid. Very interesting, doesn't seem to be a specific mesh on his screen. Not sure what granulation he's making. guess, hell, if it works, it works.

With My coffee grinder, I'd envisioned grinding charcoal made from willow with that. Brushhippy just bought his. I have a site marked on my PC to order the chemicals or I might try the feed store stuff. The ball mill is interesting. He has the same as mine, only the single tub version. I can make twice the volume or roll some brass in the other tub at the same time. I think using lead balls would be better than marbles, more weight.

There seems to be multiple methods to come up with the same result just viewing a few other vids, but heck, Brushhippy's seems pretty simple if it works. I'll have to buy me some screen wire at Lowes when the time comes. I'll have 2x4 scraps around, got projects on the house when we move in none the least of which is my reloading/shooting room, but that's another subject.

 

[brushhippie]

The screen I use is a 16 mesh, (16 gaps per inch) that is equivalent to fff. I have yet to make charcoal, I bought a pound and "the professor" gave me better than a pound so I have not had to as of yet. Ive seen people use coffee grinders as well as meat grinders, heck whatever gets it done, Id use a rock if I had to! The recipe I use was handed down from a 75 year old feller who tells me between himself and his buddy they have tried it all over the years and this is the method he uses. He rags at me if I suggest trying something..." Damnit I told you guys!" edit: You mentioned Black Willow, it is among the fastest of the charcoals, here is a cool link on charcoal speeds check it out.
http://www.wichitabuggywhip.com/fireworks/charcoal_tests.html

 

[MCgunner]

AH, thank you very much for the comments, the link, and the vid. This'll get me goin' on my own BP. I've had visions of loading shotguns with BP, too. And, heck, I have a meat grinder, too, that's easy to clean up. It's stuffed a lot of pork and venison in its day and still goin'. Be a lot quicker.

 

[Busyhands94]

I got one of those antique coffee grinders, the kind where you put the beans in the top and there's a crank sticking out. And of course the little drawer for the ground coffee!
Still use it, all the time actually. Last week the power went out, my dad wanted coffee. He was saying "But it's so much work to make coffee like that, and the espresso machine isn't going to work without power. Let's drive into town for Starbucks!"
So I made him sit down, brewed a fine pot of coffee. Made him drink it too! He said it was better than Bucks' coffee!

Of course for grinding charcoal, get the cheap electric kind. Got mine for $2 at a garage sale, it's made plenty of charcoal that has been made into a lot of great BP. Burned a little of it last week! Use willow or fir to make the charcoal, measure by weight, and the powder usually tuns out pretty nice and toasty.

 

[MCgunner]

I got one of those antique coffee grinders, the kind where you put the beans in the top and there's a crank sticking out. And of course the little drawer for the ground coffee!

Dat's da one.

We have willow in the creeks and river banks, but fir is a fur piece....like New Mexico?

 

[YumaKid]

RE-reading this thread; I finally remembered that a friend of mine 25+ years ago had a hand-crank grinder bolted to the counter-top of his kitchen island. It was enamel over brass, and he kept the un-painted parts polished.

(I must digress, the guy was very interesting -used to run "point" for the other 4 guys in his squad when they'd take long walks in the woods in SE Asia. His luck ran out, came back with ZERO sight and an extra joint in his right upper arm where the bone never fused back together. Was still a scary-good shot; as long as he was shooting beer cans with pebbles in them, which he could HEAR when they landed in the dirt.)

Anyway, Gerry had this coffee grinder on his countertop, which everybody would "fiddle with". He finally decided to keep it loaded with coffee beans, so that "fiddlers" (like me) would keep him in freshly-ground coffee.