153 replies to this topic

[Stuart]

Because I would beat you

I am tired so check out my site if you want to know how I make mine

Stuart

Edited by Stuart, 21 February 2004 - 10:55 PM.

[Yugen-biki]

A post/topic only for "fatsest BP" would be nice. Someone has to set the standard for the timeing conditions. The wheight of BP tested and so on.

Edited by Yugen-biki, 22 February 2004 - 10:47 AM.

[Matt]

This could be good, we could have a stat chart like a high score thing. Having a list of BP performance. Perhaps everyone should make a little jig for this out of some bits of wood making a small channel to fill with BP.

-Matt

[italteen3]

In a little over a month my lab will start to be built. March 27th I am going away for the weekend for some paintballing and fun. The guys house I am staying at he has 150+ acres and willows and maple trees gallore. Goex uses Maple but someone else here recomends Willow as the best lifting BP. I also need some nice gold producing, no orange, charcoal.

I have access to pine also at his land and I have his permission to chop anything down I want so thats no problem. From personal experiences what would you recomend Maple or Willow for lifting BP? Pine for nice gold sparks?

Thanks alot guys and I probably will have my own tests done between maple and willow.

[alany]

Willow is very high is salicylates as a tree, I wonder if that has something to do with its BP performance?

[Phoenix]

I believe that Geox's first aim is to give consistent results. The people using it for BP target shooting need to be able to rely on the same charge giving the same power shot every time. Therefore I think Geox blend different batches of powder to keep their overall product the same strength from one can to the next. They are not aiming for the "top end of the scale" so they do not use willow. They aim for somewhere in the middle so they can blend powders to achieve a consistent product. However, willow is the charcoal from which most people obtain best result. That is why many amateurs, using a small home made ball mill and press, are able to produce more powerful powder than Geox. What they probably can't do very easily is get identical results from two different batches. Probably the best choice for you is the willow, as small differences in power aren't such a big deal in pyro as in shooting.

Pine is good for bright sparks. Apple is too, in my experience, and I believe someone else suggested plum. Oak will produce dimmer, longer lasting sparks. As a rule of thumb, the softer the wood, the faster it will burn, and visa versa.

[PanMaster]

I suggested plum, it is softer than willow. I've seen some pretty awesome powder made from plum charcoal

[Phoenix]

I thought I saw someone suggest plum as a spark producer. You say it makes good BP? I seem to remember someone on rec.pyrotechnics say the same, which surprised me, as I have some plum logs in my shed and they are very hard and dense. If it will make good BP I will save the turnings/offcuts next time I use some. It is great for ramming nipples though. (PS, it's definately plum, it came from a black plum tree that blew down and I chopped up).

[Rhodri]

Hi Phoenix

Yes, Plum wood charcoal was a very high scorer in the 'golf ball projection test'.

It makes excellent BP!

[pyrodude]

Hiya,
I just made another batch of BP today and a couple of minutes ago took it out of the ball mill. It came out a light grey colour and about the same texture as flour. It took about 10 seconds holding a flame to it for it to ignite which is quite annoying as i will not be able to use blackmatch to light this. How can i overcome this problem.
Cheers Kyle Spooner

P.S. It was in the ball mill for about 5 hours!!!!

Why wont my BP work

[Richard H]

Hiya,
    I just made another batch of BP today and a couple of minutes ago took it out of the ball mill. It came out a light grey colour and about the same texture as flour. It took about 10 seconds holding a flame to it for it to ignite which is quite annoying as i will not be able to use blackmatch to light this. How can i overcome this problem.
Cheers Kyle Spooner

P.S. It was in the ball mill for about 5 hours!!!!

Why wont my BP work

Hello there,

It sounds like you've seriously messed up the weighing of the seperate ingrediants. Did you mill 75 parts KNO3, 15 parts charcoal, 10 parts sulphur? Black powder should be relatively black, although it depends on the charcoal you use. It should take fire instantly.

I would advise that you very carefully weigh out your materials, mill them seperately to a fine powder, and then incorperate and mill together with non-ferrous media for a few hours.

[pyrodude]

Ah i made a big mistake i obviously forgot the exact amounts. I weighed them out perfectly but i did the sulphur and the charcoal the wrong way round.
Cheers for the help Richard

[alany]

Even with charcoal and sulfur switched around it wouldn't make that much difference.

[pyrodude]

Cant think what i did wrong then because i have scales accurate to 0.1g and had all the chemicals exactly weighed out (with sulphur and charcoal the wrong way around). It just came out of the mill and i tested out a small amount and tried to light it with a piezo ignitor and it wouldnt ignite so i found my good 'ole matchs and had to hold a match to it for 10 seconds before it managed to ignite. Seriously annoying that!!!!! I've made a 200g batch of duff BP
Cheers Kyle Spooner

[alany]

Even greenmix lights easier than that, are you sure of the purity of your potassium nitrate?