39 replies to this topic

[portfire]

Though the procedure interesting, you should have quality BP in 24hr after milling. Are you filling the jar correctly and is the jars RPM at optimum speed for your mill?

Hate to brag but 1/2hr in the mill and I have fast BP, 1hr and it's VERY fast

[digger]

Though the procedure interesting, you should have quality BP in 24hr after milling. Are you filling the jar correctly and is the jars RPM at optimum speed for your mill?

Hate to brag but 1/2hr in the mill and I have fast BP, 1hr and it's VERY fast

Big mill and a small charge relatively speaking?

[spanner]

Making BP for my own muzzleloaders is what brought me to pyrotechnics in the first place.

After tiring of paying for Goex, I started making my own, and ball milling dry has produced as good of a powder as commercial, better than Elephant, for that matter.

IMHO, if you got "disappointing" results, it wasn't because of dry ball milling, if it was done correctly and the chemicals were up to par.

[portfire]

Big mill and a small charge relatively speaking?

I wouldn't say big, only a 1.3lt jar and 1kg of 20mm ceramic balls. (both Inoxia) Once I got the jar turning at around 95RPM, I just "dialed in" the charge to get optimum results from my mill, which turned out to be 50g....So I suppose you could say big mill small charge

[and7barton]

Sounds like you were doing something wrong if you were dissapointed, ball-milling should produce very fast powder indeed...

And what's the deal with washing up liquid, never heard of anyone doing that before...

The single drop of washing up liquid reduces the surface tension of the water and enhances its wetting ability. This enables the dissolved KNO3 to be absorbed to a greater extent into the charcoal's micropores.

[and7barton]

Making BP for my own muzzleloaders is what brought me to pyrotechnics in the first place.

After tiring of paying for Goex, I started making my own, and ball milling dry has produced as good of a powder as commercial, better than Elephant, for that matter.

IMHO, if you got "disappointing" results, it wasn't because of dry ball milling, if it was done correctly and the chemicals were up to par.

Well, it was disappointing to ME - Colleagues reckoned it was fine, but I felt that I could enhance it a bit further.

Edited by and7barton, 20 December 2008 - 12:18 AM.

[digger]

Well, it was disappointing to ME - Colleagues reckoned it was fine, but I felt that I could enhance it a bit further.

Here you go, this was the first batch of BP that I ever milled (4 hours, straight out of the mill)Clicky Clicky. It was not even made with charcoal but activated carbon instead. This is slower than BP made with Willow or similar charcoal. How does yours compare?

Edited by digger, 20 December 2008 - 10:23 AM.

[and7barton]

Here you go, this was the first batch of BP that I ever milled (4 hours, straight out of the mill)Clicky Clicky. It was not even made with charcoal but activated carbon instead. This is slower than BP made with Willow or similar charcoal. How does yours compare?

ha ha ha ! - ;-)
Something not quite right there !

[digger]

ha ha ha ! - ;-)
Something not quite right there !

What do you mean?

That is a video of BP made with Norit activated carbon.

I have spent the weekend making charcoal (Willow, Pine and Alder), to test it I made up a 50 gram batch of BP in the mill with the Willow. I ball milled it for about 1 hour and it is far faster than the stuff in the video. If you want I will take a video of it for you to review.

[Mumbles]

I hope he's just talking about the test apparatus, because that BP is just fine. If not, I'd just consider the source of the comment.

Edited by Mumbles, 24 December 2008 - 02:56 AM.