Ball mill question

[MrCATO]

I just re upped on the necessity chems. Kno3, charcoal and sulfur. 

To save a few bucks I bought the kno3 in prilled form and the charcoal in ground. If I'm sticking it all in a mill together anyway does it really matter if I don't mill the potassium and charcoal separately first? 

If the difference means maybe an extra hour of milling time I don't mind, but is it more than that or will it simply not work?

[Arthur]

If the mill is big enough just throw everything in there and guess an end time (from similar experience), When you think it's done take a sample, press and corn it to 2FA ish and loft  cricket ball with it. (or a baseball!) Put the mill together again and try another hour's milling, try another sample, another hour and try another test. A reasonable ball should give hundreds of tests (though not pass umpire or referee inspection for sport again!)

Keep the tests standardised and plot the mill time against the flight time of the ball. The mill time that's best is the time that keeps the ball in flight for longest. Keep milling til there is no gain of flight time. 

Having good reliable, repeatable powder is the first step to good reliable fireworks.

[cmjlab]

Short answer is I agree with Aurthur, just try it.  

Long answer - Milling the prills allows you to sort out the chunks that inevitably don't break down, and depending on percent the chunks amount to, possibly throw off the B.P. percentages and negatively affect consistency, power, etc.  (more or less what Aurthur is saying as well). 

I've used the prilled KN03 from Duda diesel and I believe I used a blender on the first 29 lb bag, then got irritated and dissolved the other 2 bags and recrystallized them in crystal form which breaks down much easier once dried back out. 

To each their own though.

[MrCATO]

You make a good point. I misspoke though, I got it in granular form, I might have been drunk when I made the post. Whatever fireworks cookbook sells.

Trial and error is always there when it boils down as you suggest. I can't corn anything but I usually do a small burn test. The last batch I made with my homemade ERC was awesome and it was cooked unevenly so I have no doubt theirs will be even better. Very expensive to buy it premade but it's so much work doing it myself it might be worth it in the end.