georgeduz
Member
does anyone make there own black powder,it doesnt seem that hard.and very cheep to do.no one carries BP here,if i order it they charge a 20 dollar hazmat fee.
making black powder
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P95Carry
Moderator Emeritus
George - it is easy to make - at least regarding ingredients.
That said - the main problem is achieving a good homogenious mix and then - the dangerous part - the milling!! To have uniform and predictable function it needs converted into smallish granules - most folks are familiar with F, FFg, FFFg etc.
That process is where the accidents usually occur - even occasionally in a professional factory.
So - yes - can be made but - from a safety POV I would personally advise against doing so. I hear ya tho - re the darned Hazmat cost!
That said - the main problem is achieving a good homogenious mix and then - the dangerous part - the milling!! To have uniform and predictable function it needs converted into smallish granules - most folks are familiar with F, FFg, FFFg etc.
That process is where the accidents usually occur - even occasionally in a professional factory.
So - yes - can be made but - from a safety POV I would personally advise against doing so. I hear ya tho - re the darned Hazmat cost!
georgeduz
Member
there 2 types of mixing,1 type mixing in a small plastic jar with lead balls,it turns and mix.2 is mixing by adding water.
George,
First you have to micro pulverize the ingredients, then you mix them, then you wet them, then you press them as dry as possible. The finer the pulverization, the better the mix. Most factories, I think, use steel balls for the ball mill.
It will still contain about 2 % water after complete drying. Then you have to break the cake, then granulate it, then sieve it for the granulation you want, most likely 3F.
If you wind up with too many fines, wet 'em, press 'em, remill. Wet, then dried powder, will shoot as well..
Possible, if you go a little higher on the percenages, you can make a hotter [powder than you casn buy.There are tumblers that will work and have a 40 pond capacity. You just might be able to make 20 pound batches..
Bear in mind, if you get a glitch, 20 pound blast would be pretty bad. Not much worse, to you, than a 1 pound blast in your face .
Cheers,
George
First you have to micro pulverize the ingredients, then you mix them, then you wet them, then you press them as dry as possible. The finer the pulverization, the better the mix. Most factories, I think, use steel balls for the ball mill.
It will still contain about 2 % water after complete drying. Then you have to break the cake, then granulate it, then sieve it for the granulation you want, most likely 3F.
If you wind up with too many fines, wet 'em, press 'em, remill. Wet, then dried powder, will shoot as well..
Possible, if you go a little higher on the percenages, you can make a hotter [powder than you casn buy.There are tumblers that will work and have a 40 pond capacity. You just might be able to make 20 pound batches..
Bear in mind, if you get a glitch, 20 pound blast would be pretty bad. Not much worse, to you, than a 1 pound blast in your face .
Cheers,
George
Old Dragoon
Member
Georgeduz,
I don't think I'd use a plastic jar...Blackpowder doesn't like static electricity.
Goes BOOM! in plastic. I had a bunch of Crystal Light plastic jars that I thought about storing BP in...then I quickly remembered the static electricity thing and will use the jars for parts only.
I don't think I'd use a plastic jar...Blackpowder doesn't like static electricity.
Goes BOOM! in plastic. I had a bunch of Crystal Light plastic jars that I thought about storing BP in...then I quickly remembered the static electricity thing and will use the jars for parts only.
Car Knocker
Member
Duncaninfrance
Member
Very Interesting!
Duncan
Duncan
Steve499
Member
I modified the cap on a can of black powder by installing a spout on it several years ago. I replace the cap on a new can with that one and refill my horns and flasks by inserting that spout into the spout on the horn or flask and turning the can upside down. If you hold the horn up to your good 
ear, you can hear the powder filling and can tell the horn is full when the sound stops. I have done that for years and have been a little uncomfortable with the whole thing for years also. I could see a static spark setting the whole pound off right beside my head. Thank you, car knocker, you have given me peace!
Steve
ear, you can hear the powder filling and can tell the horn is full when the sound stops. I have done that for years and have been a little uncomfortable with the whole thing for years also. I could see a static spark setting the whole pound off right beside my head. Thank you, car knocker, you have given me peace!Steve
shermacman
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Car Knocker!
Nice!
Nice!
georgeduz
Member
i read all that stuff weeks ago,my questoin was does anyone here make there own blackpowder,if u dont them please dont respond.reading about its fine there many different sites giving great detail.but i like to talk to someone who makes and uses his own bp.
georgeduz
Member
you do not use steel ,its lead balls in a plastic jar some companies sell the kit.and the percenages are 75saltpete15charcoal(made from wood)10sulfurgmatov said:
Boogyman
Member
This is interesting. Let me try some specific questions.
75% Saltpeter... exactly what is it and where do you get it? Is there different grades?
15% Charcoal... Can you use charcoal briquettes? Otherwise same question as #1.
10% Sulphur... Again, where can you get good sulpher and does quality matter?
Answers to these questions would help greatly...
75% Saltpeter... exactly what is it and where do you get it? Is there different grades?
15% Charcoal... Can you use charcoal briquettes? Otherwise same question as #1.
10% Sulphur... Again, where can you get good sulpher and does quality matter?
Answers to these questions would help greatly...
likesblackpowder
Member
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- Jan 9, 2006
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- 11
Google is your friend
Quick google for "making black powder"
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/gunpowder.htm
http://www.fortliberty.org/military-library/how-to-make-black-powder-and-other-explosives.shtml
http://www.wfvisser.dds.nl/EN/bp_making_EN.html
Quick google for "making black powder"
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/gunpowder.htm
http://www.fortliberty.org/military-library/how-to-make-black-powder-and-other-explosives.shtml
http://www.wfvisser.dds.nl/EN/bp_making_EN.html
georgeduz
Member
saltpeter is potassium nitrate,which u can make.a good sulfur is flowers of sulfur you can get in a garden store its 90percent sulfur.this is one site out of many. http://www.cavemanchemistry.com Saltpeter, the chemical that produces the oxygen for the other ingredients when lit off, can he made by putting urine and manure of any kind in a big cement tank mixed with water until you have about three hundred gallons mixed up. Then you put on a tight lid and let it sit for about ten months. You have to have a drain pipe and valve at the bottom, and a stainless steel filter screen installed beforehand or you'll have one big mess on your hands. At the end of that time, you run the liquid that drains off through ashes into shallow wooden trays lined with plastic sheeting and let them stand for evaporation in the sun. When the water evaporates, potassium nitrate crystals (saltpeter) will form in the bottom of the trays."
The charcoal should never be made from hardwood as hardwood has too much ash. Such woods as chinaberry, willow, cottonwood, soft pine with no knots, or redwood and Western cedar make the best grade charcoal. A fifty-five-gallon drum with a snap-on lid and a match-stem-sized hole in the lid set over a fire Pit is a good charcoal maker. Take the wood and chip it or cut it into inch chunks and put a bucketful in the drum. Then build a hardwood fire under the drum and when smoke begins to spurt from the vent, light the wood with a match. When the flame goes out, your charcoal is made. Rake the fire out from under the drum, plug the vent with a bit of asbestos fiber or a nail that fits in tight, and let the drum sit overnight to cook. You can then crush and powder the charcoal with a mortar and pestle, or run it through a hand-cranked grain grinder to a flourlike fineness. "
The charcoal should never be made from hardwood as hardwood has too much ash. Such woods as chinaberry, willow, cottonwood, soft pine with no knots, or redwood and Western cedar make the best grade charcoal. A fifty-five-gallon drum with a snap-on lid and a match-stem-sized hole in the lid set over a fire Pit is a good charcoal maker. Take the wood and chip it or cut it into inch chunks and put a bucketful in the drum. Then build a hardwood fire under the drum and when smoke begins to spurt from the vent, light the wood with a match. When the flame goes out, your charcoal is made. Rake the fire out from under the drum, plug the vent with a bit of asbestos fiber or a nail that fits in tight, and let the drum sit overnight to cook. You can then crush and powder the charcoal with a mortar and pestle, or run it through a hand-cranked grain grinder to a flourlike fineness. "
m0ntels
Member
Saltpeter is potassium nitrate which you can make.
You're right. When they first made gunpowder, they dug up the manure piles to find the "white stuff", which was the KNO3. Not very pure.
If there are any chlorates in it, you will get rust, quickly. Today's KNO3 is 99.9% pure.
Here's a link to a good site, by the founder of Kniight Rifles.
http://thunder-ridge-muzzleloading.com/Bill Knight.htm
Read him and see if you can make a decent powder. Elsewhere, I read if you make a powder that burns at more than 14 cm3/s, you can go to jail.
If you can make that powder, you can either keep quiet and shoot lower weight/volume loads, or shoot the same weight/volume, and get a bigger blast.
I stand corrected, they don't use a ball mill, they use a wheel mill to mix the slurry, and get intimate contact, and get rid of the air bubbles that try to cling to the sulfur and charcoal.
Cheers,
George
You're right. When they first made gunpowder, they dug up the manure piles to find the "white stuff", which was the KNO3. Not very pure.
If there are any chlorates in it, you will get rust, quickly. Today's KNO3 is 99.9% pure.
Here's a link to a good site, by the founder of Kniight Rifles.
http://thunder-ridge-muzzleloading.com/Bill Knight.htm
Read him and see if you can make a decent powder. Elsewhere, I read if you make a powder that burns at more than 14 cm3/s, you can go to jail.
If you can make that powder, you can either keep quiet and shoot lower weight/volume loads, or shoot the same weight/volume, and get a bigger blast.
I stand corrected, they don't use a ball mill, they use a wheel mill to mix the slurry, and get intimate contact, and get rid of the air bubbles that try to cling to the sulfur and charcoal.
Cheers,
George
Smokin_Gun
Member
ESD elctrostatic discharge accompanied by heat generated by, friction, high temperatures, machinery operating temperature can set a magazine off I have witnessed it. Lab test tech at a electronic detination facility, mixing magazines blew up every couple a months or so. What a blast blew things up all day got paid. LoL! For what ever that's worth jus' my 2 cents.
Steam dragon
Member
Just remember that the percentages are by weight not volume.
It is important to have a good accurate scale.
This link might help.
In depth coverage here.
Make sure you follow the links for ball mills and screening method.
In fact, googling for fireworks making or home pyrotechnics will get a lot more links than for shooting BP...
Those fireworks guys and gals got it down to a science.
Rocket science!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
It is important to have a good accurate scale.
This link might help.
In depth coverage here.
Make sure you follow the links for ball mills and screening method.
In fact, googling for fireworks making or home pyrotechnics will get a lot more links than for shooting BP...
Those fireworks guys and gals got it down to a science.
Rocket science!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
Ah, well.
Yeah, BP is a specific mixture, has to be this much of this, that much of that, mixed just this way, prayed over with just this particular prayer, to this Deity, only.
Nonsense!
They been making this stuff over a 1000 years. They weren't measuring to the microgram at the time. More like your Grandma saying it takes a "pinch" of this for this reciope. How nuch is a pinch? I don't know, I just do this.
BS, Static has been disproven, so much carbon, a pure conductor that it can't heat to ignition temp.
Whether you will get to the right mix, I don't know , it is on the web, however.
If you have a press to make the cake, and a breaker and a corner, and a sieve to segregate the fineness, you can make a saleable product.You can't sell it without a license, but it might be good enough to shoot
A useable product? Sure you will. It is going to ignite, and will push a ball out the barrel. If it's good enough, make more.
Cheers,
George
Yeah, BP is a specific mixture, has to be this much of this, that much of that, mixed just this way, prayed over with just this particular prayer, to this Deity, only.
Nonsense!
They been making this stuff over a 1000 years. They weren't measuring to the microgram at the time. More like your Grandma saying it takes a "pinch" of this for this reciope. How nuch is a pinch? I don't know, I just do this.
BS, Static has been disproven, so much carbon, a pure conductor that it can't heat to ignition temp.
Whether you will get to the right mix, I don't know , it is on the web, however.
If you have a press to make the cake, and a breaker and a corner, and a sieve to segregate the fineness, you can make a saleable product.You can't sell it without a license, but it might be good enough to shoot
A useable product? Sure you will. It is going to ignite, and will push a ball out the barrel. If it's good enough, make more.
Cheers,
George
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