30 replies to this topic

[Pretty green flames]

so pretty green flames what do you prefer I must do now to make my Black powder better

my scale only do 2g units min

First of all got to a super market and buy a scale that is accurate to 0.5gram. Look around a bit i'm pretty sure they have them.

Then i would suggest using a different technique on making BP. Simple wet mixing is very easy and produces acceptable results.
This should keep your BP problems away until you have a proper ball mill.

Pricedure: Grind all ingridients separatly into a VERY fine powder and mix them together then add 30ml of hot water to them and mix. Then granulate through a screen to make lift.

Note: Use any soft wood charcoal or normal BBQ (just not briquets)

Edited by Pretty green flames, 29 January 2006 - 12:16 PM.

[Jacques]

Ok, I had seen if I made my Black powder standard mix in mill 1 day into fine dust and boil it in a pan with water for +-20 min and then mill it for 1 day or more it burns faster only with +- Average = 2.13 sec after in mill for only 1 day

And my 66.6/22.2/11.1 mix in the mill for 2 full days that are very fine but it seems to burn very faster @ Average = 1.87 sec so I?m confused totally

My ball mill works with a 500ml bottle 43 marbles and does 100g load on a shot its works very well if I compare it with my first I hade made

[Amleth]

Yes, my milling process is not efficient but it works well for my it?s makes the bp very fine like dust and I have seen the finer the faster.

If you're finding your BP speeds up somewhat when you add more "charcoal" over the standard 75:15:10 ratio, that's a pretty good sign of a high ash or impurity content (you're not using charcoal briquettes, by any chance?). What actually are you using for charcoal? You might want to change your source or look into your cooking process.

I think to use glass marbles is also safe. Glass doesn?t make sparks

Anecdotal evidence would seem to disagree with you there...

All my shells are very successful the only problem is it needs somebody to toss it in the air a few meters and that is very dangerous to do, because then that puppy explode it make stars almost 20 meter radius but so I need a way to projectile it high in the sky.

Okay, that's not just "very dangerous", it's completely insane. Especially since most people can't toss something more than 20 metres straight up...

Though, I don't understand how you can have no trouble getting such powerful shell breaks and yet not get a working lift powder...

The only way to do that is rockets ?but al my rockets explode with terror? or to put bp under the shell with a delay fuse but my bp burn to slow and that my biggest problem

Slower powder is great for rockets. If they're exploding still, use more charcoal in the fuel, mill it less, add 5-15% of a suitable metal powder for effects (add it after milling!), use a shorter core or wider nozzle, use a thicker-walled tube and deeper plugs... There's loads you can try to dial them in to your chemicals.

So I think I need to make safe flash powder with chemicals available near me in Cape Town

This comment has me really worried. Wait 'til you get black powder down pat before you even think of messing around with potentially lethal stuff like flash. It's not something you want to enter into without a thorough understanding, and your earlier posts and questions suggest that you have far from reached that point yet. You can and (from the sounds of things) quite likely will seriously injure yourself with the stuff. You can make perfectly good shells and rockets without using flash powder at all. If you can't yet manage this, then you're not ready to be experimenting with it.

[Damp Squib]

Jacques I cant stress how important it is for you to heed the other members advice your life literally depends on it,I never mess with flash it scares the crap out of me and I'm very wary of black powder.

In my opinion you should dump your ball mill its too dangerous wait until you have the the resources to do it properly,theres no magic fix to make your bp burn faster you just have to do everything right,in the mean time go and buy yourself a pestle and mortar,get hold of some balsa wood 'as the first choice for me',make charcoal from it 'there are many online tut's on how to make charcoal',mix it 8 parts nitrate 2 parts balsa charcoal in your pestle and mortar and grind it for 20 mins,my pestle and mortar is a beast the inside diameter is about 6 inches I find the optimal fill is only 10g before it starts spilling everywhere as the balsa charcoal has very low density

This powder should burn with a whooph! you can start making basic crackers and rockets

Depending on what resources you have to hand this road may be favourable to you and your fingers

[Jacques]

Yes guys thank 4 the comments, i'm only weekends on internet because “south Africa” you know tech lags.

Yea i’m just joking about that flash powder stuff. Its because I got fed up with my problems i’m trying now the water mix one where you ball mill the S + C and mix it with KNO3 warn water it seems to get better.

But I think it’s probably my charcoal or sulpher, I’m not using briquettes.

My standard 75:15:10 still sucks, I leave huge white bubbles then burning

I’m still styling with my 66.6/22.2/11.1 I get the results and speed out of that
I getting the idea there somewhere I hug error in one of my chemicals

And I know how dangerous are flash powder because +-6 years I opened 9mil and .303 bullets and light it all with a fuse and then it all burned I almost crapped in my pants because I makes one bright probably 10000000000 candle power flash, so guys please leave that subject

Edited by Jacques, 03 February 2006 - 05:30 PM.

[littlejohny]

And I know how dangerous are flash powder because +-6 years I opened 9mil and .303 bullets and light it all with a fuse and then it all burned I almost crapped in my pants because I makes one bright probably 10000000000 candle power flash, so guys please leave that subject

Flash powder is never used in bullets, Nitrocellulose with a mixture of Nitro Glycerin is used as a propellant nowadays.

makes one bright probably 10000000000 candle power flash

? when Nitrocellulose is burned unconfined it burns very slow with an orange flame

[Pretty green flames]

Flash powder is never used in bullets, Nitrocellulose with a mixture of Nitro Glycerin is used as a propellant nowadays.
? when Nitrocellulose is burned unconfined it burns very slow with an orange flame

NC does so NOT burns slowly. Good NC will go off in a bang. Even when unconfined.
But you are roght, most modern propellants are NC and NG based with a couple % of camphor added, these will slow the burnrate down.

[Jacques]

That stuff I I?m talking about is small bendable spaghetti sticks brown color ?I used this stuff for a fuse because it burns so slow?
And the stuff making the big flash is almost like grains made of iron flat it looks freaky but it burns quite good, I assume its flash powder because it makes a big flash

[Frozentech]

That stuff I I?m talking about is small bendable spaghetti sticks brown color ?I used this stuff for a fuse because it burns so slow?
And the stuff making the big flash is almost like grains made of iron flat it looks freaky but it burns quite good, I assume its flash powder because it makes a big flash

Flash is *never* used as a propellant. It doesn't generate enough gases, and it generates far too much shock wave.

What color was the 'flash' that this stuff you pulled out of ammo rounds made ? If it was orange, it was not flash.

Flash looks like... well, *flash*. It got it's name from being used for photographic flash. It looks like a photo strobe. Some flash comps are still known as photoflash, tho I stick to 70/30.

Small caliber pistol powders and shotgun powder looks like it was "ironed flat". It burns much faster than the "small spaghetti sticks" powder of large caliber rifles. That sounds like something from the Dupont IMR (Improved Military Rifle) line of smokeless powder. Still, it's nowhere *near* a fast as flash burns.

[littlejohny]

I think the small spaghetti sticks are cordite

[Jacques]

The spaghetti sticks I think, make an orange flame not sure +-6 years ago it hade left no impression on me so I don’t remember it so well.

The flash where bright white “very fast” it looks like a terror show it made me scared after that I never open

I’ve pulled tow tips out of the 303 bullets its that powder that makes a white flash and the spaghetti stiks that burn rate sucks it burns VERY slow

And the 9mil all contains that fast powder. I don’t know if its flash powder because then the bullet will probably explode

The spaghetti sticks its unbreakable if you bent it will not snap, that’s weird

Edited by Jacques, 05 February 2006 - 07:06 AM.

[Pretty green flames]

The spaghetti sticks I think, make an orange flame not sure +-6 years ago it hade left no impression on me so I don?t remember it so well.

The flash where bright white ?very fast? it looks like a terror show it made me scared after that I never open

I?ve pulled tow tips out of the 303 bullets its that powder that makes a white flash and the spaghetti stiks that burn rate sucks it burns VERY slow

And the 9mil all contains that fast powder. I don?t know if its flash powder because then the bullet will probably explode

The spaghetti sticks its unbreakable if you bent it will not snap that weird

Just don't take anymore bullets apart as it is a very dangerous operation. And get that flash powder out of your mind. Bullets never had and never will contain any flash as a propellant.

[Frozentech]

I think the small spaghetti sticks are cordite

I believe Cordite production was stopped 40 years ago. Cordite has since become a British generic term for smokeless powder. I have some reloading data for the .303 British round which specs several varieties of double-base smokeless powders... I've not reloaded any .303 myself, just .223, 30-06, 7mm Magnum, .300 Win. Mag, and .338 Win Mag, as well as a few pistol calibers. ( another hobby of mine).

In any case... the two hobbies are pretty well separate. Smokeless powders are about worthless in pyrotechnics, and other than black powder for the nostalgic muzzleloaders, pyro comps are little use in shooting or reloading.

[littlejohny]

I figured it may have been cordite because it burns slowly by itself, but when there is more bunched around it burns alot faster :)aw well my bad .

[Jacques]

I made Black powder using homemade pine charcoal, its very messy job.
Its burn extremely faster but is just not the same speed that real black powder you buy in gun shops , It burns to fast to time with a stop watch, its less than a second.
So my big problems were the charcoal.
So people do you think it will burn even faster if I use willow Charcoal.
I've seen the charcoal you get in bags to make fire is very hard and fine powder if you crush it. But if you make your own charcoal its air floating and the other BB charcoal not
That's weird for me can someone explain that please for me

I'm working on 75/15/10 by the way

Edited by Jacques, 10 February 2006 - 06:23 PM.