Vrizla Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Greetings everyone, this is my second post. In my first post I was told to clean my screens with soap and water, but I don't think I can do that with a coffee grinder. I could clean the top but not the inside. In the turbo pyro pdf Ned just brushes it out. I don't know if I feel entirely safe doing that. For black powder I guess its ok but if I were to eventually make flash and I already milled sulfur in the coffee grinder I would be concerned. Also when making black powder are you suppose to use distiled water? I thought I read that somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seymour Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 (edited) The use of distilled water is only of any benefit when avoiding impurities in coloured compositions, and even then it is only going to be important when the highest quality is desired, such as in competition blue stars. I personally use tap water for all pyro uses. I am not sure if I understand what you mean about flash... If you mix flash in a coffee grinder, you are asking your family/partner/flatmates to clean up the mess left over when you die. However, I hope you are merely referring to the impurities that may be gained from milling the chemicals separately. For flash I personally weigh the Aluminium and place it on a large sheet of paper, and then screen the perchlorate through a 120 mesh screen on to the Al to break up any KP clumps, before it is mixed by diapering (rolling the powders together by lifting the corners of the paper in turn). As with screens, the issue of contamination should be only an issue of impurities affecting colours. If two chemicals are dangerously incompatible, the coffee grinder should not be used for both of them. Note also that it is considered dangerous to mill oxidisers and fuels at once in coffee grinders. I usually just wipe my coffee grinder with a damp cloth. Other methods, besides Ned's use of a brush, I have cleaned it by milling an 'inert' material such as clay lumps or Aluminium foil, which do a pretty good job of removing chemicals from the walls through abrasion. Edited July 30, 2009 by Seymour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vrizla Posted July 30, 2009 Author Share Posted July 30, 2009 Thanks for the info. I wasn't going to mix flash in a coffee grinder, just thinking ahead if i were to mill potassium perchlorate in the grinder after I have been using it to mill sulfur to make black powder. I am aware of the dangers of mixing oxidizers and fuels, thats why I was concerned about cleaning the coffee grinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbelly Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 I BELIEVE that the general rule of thumb is to have a separate grinder for oxidizers, fuels, and then another separate one for chlorates (so 3 in all). People please correct me if I'm wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceraiders Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 wash it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 I BELIEVE that the general rule of thumb is to have a separate grinder for oxidizers, fuels, and then another separate one for chlorates (so 3 in all). People please correct me if I'm wrong... That's correct. The best grinders are those that have a removable grinding cup and can be washed by hand in the sink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 By the time you've paid for 3 coffee grinders, you've spend enough to probably cobble a ball mill together. But I understand the allure of a coffee grinder. It's a way to get going relatively cheaply. The problem is that the seal between the motor and the blades is always pretty lame, and soon you have chems floating around an exposed AC motor inside the body of the device. Coffee grinders are designed to grind beans to a coarse mesh. The flour-fine stuff you want for pyro is beyond the design of the seal. Plus, they get hot quickly. Their duty cycle is low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stug161 Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Mine from wal mart gets hot pretty quick, but it seems to be a good entry level tool I can utilize to make fairly fine chems for my mixtures Just have to run it for a short while at a time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 Before you wash ANY coffee grinder, make damn sure it's water-washable. (Asketh not how I know this, hmm?) If it's a typical import, there will be a label/plastic-molding somewhere on it with the International symbols, one of which *should* tell you if it's safe to wash it with water. If in doubt, don't. Brush it out. Use compressed air and blow it out, etc, etc. You can also take it apart to expose the innards and make sure no chems have found their way down into the motor, that sort of thing. Stay safe, and all that eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbelly Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 By the time you've paid for 3 coffee grinders, you've spend enough to probably cobble a ball mill together. But I understand the allure of a coffee grinder. It's a way to get going relatively cheaply. The problem is that the seal between the motor and the blades is always pretty lame, and soon you have chems floating around an exposed AC motor inside the body of the device. Coffee grinders are designed to grind beans to a coarse mesh. The flour-fine stuff you want for pyro is beyond the design of the seal. Plus, they get hot quickly. Their duty cycle is low. Yeah thats true. But most beginners won't be using chlorates anyway ( I know I haven't/ probably won't for a long time). So that brings down the count to only two necessary. Plus, if you have any old ones in your house you can use those. I know that I commandeered a pair of coffee grinders from my pantry. They are also helpful to get your chems down to fine enough grains to then put into a ball mill. Sometimes when crushing up charcoal for example, I have huge chunks left that would take a lot of time to mill in my ball mill, so I put them in my grinder to make the grains smaller. I then put it into my mill to get it down to a usable level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEskimo Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 Hmmm, I have a coffee grinder. I have never cleaned it....It's getting rusty because of the KNO3 oxidizing the metal. Oh well, back to Wal-Mart for another 18 bucks Maybe I'll take it, and give it a good scrub, and see if the rust won't come off....Maybe I can save meself 18 bucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbelly Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 I found one at ACE hardware for 12 bucks I believe. Gave it to my friend as a gift so idk how its faring. He tells me it works really welll though and it looks better than the ones I have (one of which is broken) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 People from other countries have much easier access to chlorate, so they often do start using them relatively early unfortunately. A little steel wool should take the rust right off. I've had this problem before as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbelly Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Oh thats a shame. It seems dumb to me that a government would more heavily regulate a chemical less prone to accidents. But thats how life works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vrizla Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 I just did my first batch of black powder. The first chem that I milled in the coffee grinder was the sulfur. It stuck to the grinder so bad it was almost impossible to get all of it out. So I just took the majority of the sulfur that came out easily and put the grinder back in the box. Then I ended up just screening the rest of the items. I have to agree with Swede's post. The coffee grinder seem like a nice cheap way to start out but It's really not meant for this purpose. I know I'm still a newbie but I have to say forget about the coffee grinder and just use a fine screen. Then when you are ready to make the investment buy a ball mill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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