Black Powder Probs

[3rddegree]

Hey guys, some of you may know me from another site... I've only recently gotten into this type of scene so I'm just starting out. I've made some Black Powder with my KNO3, Charcoal and Sulphur in a 75/15/10 ratio and it's been ground up with a pestle and mortar (I dont have a ball mill since they are quite expensive and hard to find in New Zealand). I then corned it but my black powder is still quite slow burning. I've made a video of it.

PS: I used only a small amount of black powder + I will be getting fuse delivered tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/v/d0n_2CjRAhQ

[Pyrostar]

hi dude

I know your problem very well.

What you need to make good BP is:

PVC-jar
Steelballs or nuts
BP-mix
water to moisten the BP
ALL THE CHEMICALS MUST BE AIRFLOAT!!!

Close the jar and start shaking for 1-6 minutes, then add some dextrine to it and start granulating it with a spaghettistrainer.

Your BP should burn like that one here: ( it is my batch, and it is still moisten)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p120Kp5Rlaw

This blackpowder is good, isn´t it?

greets,

pyrostar

[3rddegree]

Yeah I've started to do that too.... Got a jar and added 3 large lead sinkers and I'm grind each seperatly just to make it fine, then once I have done all of I'll mix them together in the same way. What do you mean by "ALL THE CHEMICALS MUST BE AIRFLOAT!!!" ?

Also, this is a way I found on another site

make a paste with the blackpowder by mixing with water, and make the kno3 dissolve, then let it dry in a hot place, in a sunny day is good, but not in the sun light, leave it in a open tuperware with paper on top, mix the past some times (around 10 min. between), when it is almost dry leave the open container inside the house, for some days.

[nme]

Oh man 1-6 minutes is hardly enough.. especially with only 3 lead sinkers. Have you looked into making your own ball-mill? (Good going on the Lead sinkers as grinding choice though. Lead is non-sparking thus safer.) Your best best is buying about 100 1oz/2oz cannonball lead weights (spherical). The motor the drive your container can be one of many about the place. You just need to find a fairly high powered motor (preferely powered by mains electricity) that is sufficiently geared down to that it wont stall but give enough RPM to turn your container at a reasonable rate.
I recently completed my new one, using the motor and gears from an old kitchen mixer/whisker/beater. Works perfectly. Results are un-comparable to that of ground BP. Lift powder burning more like flash powder

By Air-float he means so finely powdered that a whisp of air will send fine particle of it floating into the air. Although i believe charcoal is the only chemical in BP that would actually be considered air-float when fine...

Your described method is referred to as the CIA method as it doesn't require much equipment. It works.. ok-ish. Definetly not as good as milled BP. Doing both will give even better results though One should also stir it regularly as the water is evaporating.
Edit: oops just read the end of that quote...

You can add dextrin to the mix when ballmilling but no water for moisture. Or visa versa. But never together or you'll end up with very large cored BP stars :? (All clumped and stuck to the lead media)

Even BETTER lift powder (granulated BP) can be made by pressing your milled BP (with dextrin added, and a little alcohol/water mix such that it will stick together when pressed between fingers) into pucks using either a hydraulic press or a strong vice (Or other such large pressure device). These solid pucks are then dried, in which they become rock hard (if not so already after pressing), and are subsequently grated through a cheese grater, or preferably something finer like a garlic grater, into finely granulated lift powder.

[3rddegree]

These sinkers are fairly large... maybe 3cm long (not spherical i.e they look like mini atom bombs lol) and I was shaking for atleast 15mins for each.... atm I have the wet mix slowly drying. The closest thing to Lead balls that I can find in NZ are airgun lead pellets....

[trash can man]

I think nme just sumed it up for you but about the sinkers.Mate you're talking about snapper leads, just get some round sinkers, don't tell me you can't find them in NZ.
Also I don't know about NZ but IMHO the easiest way to improvise a ball mill in OZ, go to toyworld, or some electrical store and buy a rock tumbler.
Just thought I would add my .2 cents even though BP is not my thing.