Vacuuming spilled powder

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What kind of vacuum was she using? If it was a home carpet/furniture vacuum, the powder should not blow back out the exhaust like a shop vac would. Some shop vacs do not trap fine stuff like drywall dust or powder and get blown back out near the motor. If powder blows out, it could start throwing a sparking shower out the exhaust. There are bags for shop vacs to trap fine particles. I use a shop vac with bags sucking up powder that just gets scattered a little. I don`t see a major hazard in sucking up powder if you are not sucking up a whole lot at once.
 
I've been known to vacuum the small handful of powder flakes that collect around the base of my reloader after reloading several boxes of shotgun shells. But it's a very tiny quantity and I wouldn't vacuum anything larger. For a larger quantity, wet it with 409 and wipe it up with a paper towel.
 
I'ts a bagless house vac. The reason I was concearned is that I have heard of this happening on a radio talk show but I don't know what kind of vacuum they were using.
 
I think the bigger question is whether it was smokeless or black? :eek:

If smokeless and you don't smell smoke yet, then I wouldn't worry about it. Would I do it all the time? Probably not.

Ed
 
The powder is smokeless H335. I do shoot muzzleloaders but I only load them outdoors. I learned to respect black powder the hard way. And yes it involved a trip to the E.R.
 
With that kind of vacuum, the powder has already gone past the electric motor, so unless you have a fire inside the dirt collection container you won't have any problems. If it's just dirt & dust in with the powder, just empty the container out onto your lawn and the powder will fertilize your grass.
I use a shop-vac with a HEPA filter to do my clean up - this setup prevents the powder from going through the motor so there aren't any problems.
 
Personally, I would be very leery of doing that, or at least I would use a Dustbuster type of vacuum. You ought to empty out the vac now and caution her not to do it again. Dust itself can be explosive under the right circumstances, so the smokeless powder could be the spark needed to make an even bigger problem inside the vac.
 
It is not the type of vacuum that matters, but whether or not vacuuming with your particular vacuum creates static electricity (moving air at a faster than normal rate over a convoluted piece of plastic - sound like a familiar part of a vacuum cleaner?) or if your outlets are not truly grounded.

I would NOT recommend the practice.
 
For spills I put use a ladies knee-high nylon hose (comes in a small plastic egg for $.33 at WalMart in a variety of fashionable colors :D), in the wand extension of the hose to catch all the powder (and shot, since I reload mostly for shotgun) before it goes in the vacuum cleaner. I do this so just incase there's one primer that I dropped and that I didn't find/didn't see/missed/forgot about.

Primer + Vacuum cleaner + Dust + Powder = Dead Vacuum Cleaner, Big Mess, and Extremely PO'd Mrs Scout.

Don't ask me how I know.
 
For spills I put use a ladies knee-high nylon hose (comes in a small plastic egg for $.33 at WalMart in a variety of fashionable colors ), in the wand extension of the hose to catch all the powder (and shot, since I reload mostly for shotgun) before it goes in the vacuum cleaner. I do this so just incase there's one primer that I dropped and that I didn't find/didn't see/missed/forgot about.

Primer + Vacuum cleaner + Dust + Powder = Dead Vacuum Cleaner, Big Mess, and Extremely PO'd Mrs Scout.

Don't ask me how I know.
__________________
Venison, It's What's For Dinner.
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Scout, great tip.

Thought you'd enjoy knowing I read both your response and signature line to my wife. We both got a kick out the way you presented this info.
 
Hmmmm..... I have vacuumed up plenty over the years. It has always been very small amounts though. Just cleaning up tiny spills. (You know, like the ones were no case is there :uhoh: )
 
I've been using a bag-type whole house vacuum to clean up powder spills for many years, never an issue. Once, after going through the full vac bag contents (was looking for missing Lego pieces - first place to look when the kids complain)
I tried setting the mess on fire, to no avail. There was probably a tenth of a pound of Bullseye in there - the old cardboard container separated as I was trying to pull the spout out, and made a mess all over my reloading room.

So, I will continue using the whole-house vac to clean up powder spills. If you have a Rainbow or somesuch water based vacuum, you will definitely be safe. If you have a bagless vac, don't take chances.
LT
 
I had a shop vac that broke because sparks started flying out of the motor and it started smoking. If I was vaccuming gunpowder instead of sawdust I might have had a problem.
 
Not a good idea...

I'd keep the vac AWAY from the loading bench! You de-prime and resize cases on that bench, right? What about the residues containing mercury and lead? You get that stuff in your vacuum and every time you turn it on you'll be putting particles in the air that you don't want to breathe. Except now you've spread them all over your house.

Just noticed your handle is "Dustinthewind"... Ain't that a coincidence!
 
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change the bag, start sweeping your bench more so your wife doesn't accidently vaccuum up something important, like a small very hard to find part for one of your firearms.
 
Hmmmm..... I have vacuumed up plenty over the years. It has always been very small amounts though. Just cleaning up tiny spills. (You know, like the ones were no case is there ) ----

Or, there is no primer in the case, sometimes with, or without the bullet :scrutiny:
 
Primer + Vacuum cleaner + Dust + Powder = Dead Vacuum Cleaner, Big Mess, and Extremely PO'd Mrs Scout.

Don't ask me how I know.
Click to expand...
How do you know?:D
I use one of those carpet flickers.
 
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