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making black powder


PyroUK

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im wanting to make some black powder but my scales have broke, is there any way to make fast black powder by parts instead of weight?

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No you can't do it by volume, because different charcoal have different volume so it will be wrong. For example Paulownia charcoal is very voluminous while oak charcoal is dense. If you did it by volume you will get different ratios.

 

If you got a balance (basically a stick with 2 pans, suspended on a pole that is allowed to pivot like a seesaw), you can place an object of known weight on one pan(I suggest water, you can't go wrong with that. One cc of water equals exactly one gram) and then place the item you want to weight on the other pan until the balance is level. You can make this with materials lying around your house if you have to, until you can get a real scale.

 

You will also need to make or buy a ball mill. The mill should be located in a fairly remote area so should it explode, no one will be hurt.

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You could you knew the mesh and type of charcoal you are using and asking someone who knew what the density of the same charcoal is.

I wouldn't recommend ot though since the cooking time can effect the denisty of the charcoal.

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im wanting to make some black powder but my scales have broke, is there any way to make fast black powder by parts instead of weight?

 

Buy another scale.... Don't touch your chemicals until you do.

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No, and why? All you need is a normal 1 KG digital pocket scale. They cost less then 10 shippeddto your door. If you order it now and pay via paypal, you should have it monday or tuesday.
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No, and why? All you need is a normal 1 KG digital pocket scale. They cost less then 10 shippeddto your door. If you order it now and pay via paypal, you should have it monday or tuesday.

ive just fixed my scale and i am now waiting for my black powder to finish ball milling, how long do you think is a good time to ball mill black powder that i am going to granulate and use it for lift powder?

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That depends on your mill. Do you use a normal HF tumbler? --> 24 hours ; modified hf tumbler? --> 3-5 hours ; A real ball mill? --> 1,5 to 3 hours.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hmmm, I have two batches of BP.

One batch of ballmilled S+C+KNO3 ~3 hours

other batch of ballmilled S+C ~14 hours with the KNO3 screen mixed into the coal and sulphur

I can't tell these batches apart, either before or after granulating. Playing "pyrogolf" does not feel like a good idea as that will attract too much attention I think...though it would be fun.

 

I'm a complete n00b, by the way and new to the forum.

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ZaiZai you will get a feeling for that after some time. But to get an idea of how good your bp is, the easiest way is to shoot something. Just take a 25 mm mortar and leave town. Thes shouldn't arouse any suspections after 200m noone will recognize them.
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Well, I can lift a ~55 gram ballshell to about 15-20 meters with 7,5 grams of BP in a very short 2" mortar with either batch...good enough for me I guess? (I really hate mixing units by the way)

 

Hard for me to leave town too, I live in the country side but have very nosy neighbours.

Edited by ZAIZAI
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Is that internal lenght? Well you miss 20 cm. But yes your powder is good.

BTW. there are some european supplier that also sell the shells by the mm size where they just print n" × 25 mm as nominal diameter (they still are the same and a 4"shell doesn't fit inside a real 100 mm mortar but in a 102 mm).

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Yes, internal length. I thought they were a tad short when I got them but to my surprise I got enough height on my first couple of shells so I thought it was fine. Think I will make my own mortars from now on.

Funny thing is, I have made a few batches of BP and each batch have performed differently, until I started milling the sulphur and coal together. (I don't want to start a whole new BP thread) I suspect that the integration of sulphur and coal is the important step, KNO3 can be screen-mixed in with very little loss of performance of the final product.

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