253 replies to this topic

[marble]

Thats why the rock is there (dodgy but it works), once made the mistake of lighting a fountain in my hand with a sparkler. My brain must have been disabled or overpowered by the thoughts of pretty red sparks. Was lucky i didn't get hurt

Would use visco if i could find someone who would sell me some but alas

Fellow Australian i see

Edited by marble, 12 May 2007 - 12:55 PM.

[rocket]

Yes I saw that but you can never be too safe, just make some black match or order some visco from pyroplanet. You can get cannon fuse I’ve found it for $20 for 5m IIRC.

Yeah its good to see some more Aussie pyro’s out there

[marble]

Yes I saw that but you can never be too safe, just make some black match or order some visco from pyroplanet. You can get cannon fuse I’ve found it for $20 for 5m IIRC.

Yeah its good to see some more Aussie pyro’s out there

you mean this place:

http://www.pyroplane...?main_page=home


Does it get through customs ok (Ive got a few threatening letters)

I did find a place that sells cannon fuse but its Thermalite not visco

[portfire]

Isn't Thermalite a building material

http://www.thermaliteforms.com/

I would find a safer source of ignition for doing powder tests,black match is easy and alot safer than sparklers

http://www.pyrosocie...;hl=black match

Also try granulating your BP,you'll be pleasantly surprised


regards
dean

[digger]

Now then chaps, I have just completed building my ball mill.

I have made some bp which was milled for 3 hours with the following ingredients.

KNO3 from mate who runs a local market garden 75%
Activated carbon (industrial powder that can only be described as air float) 15%
Sulphur chips from GD 10%

I know it is said that activated carbon is no good for bp, so have a look at the video and tell me what you think. Would it be greatly improved by using willow etc?

My First Milled BP

I look forward to some constructive criticism.

G

[johndee]

Looks good to me, willow should still be faster than activated carbon, have you tried granulating it.

[digger]

I have granulated bp when i used the cia method some time ago.

I will try granulating and grading this stuff over the weekend at some point, to see what the difference is.

I used activated carbon mainly because I got a 20Kg bag for free. Before the mill this made the cia method a breaze (no blister from the pestle and mortar on the palm of my hand from grinding charcoal).

I will post a vid of the granulated stuff over the weekend for comparison.

[marble]

Ive been told activated charcoal is no good just like using pure carbon is, but that BP looks perfectly fine to me (nice and fast)

[Andrew]

nice and fast digger.


On the "activated" note, all this means is that it has been treated (usually with a supercritical fluid or super-heated steam), to make it full of holes and very porus. Activated charcoal is fine, because it's charcoal, the problem comes when you try using activated Carbon (the stuffed used to filter our drinking water), it is crap for BP, not quite as crap as graphite though.

Edited by Andrew, 01 June 2007 - 09:54 AM.

[digger]

Yep I am familiar with activated carbon manufacture (Norit). We use it for the removal of Heavy Poly aromatic hydrocarbons from vegetable oils destined for the infant food industry in our refinery.

I have granulated some of the ball milled powder in the last video. I used +3.5% dextrin, mixed in the mill for about 10mins and then wetted with 25% alcohol and granulated. Once dry +0.15% graphite was added as a free flow agent.

The particle size is around 1mm down to 0.1mm.

So here is the video

Granulated BP

It looks to be a very similar speed as the first, but much easier to handle (pours very nicely).

What do you think?

[clash-bang]

Where can you get the alchahol needed to activate the dextrin or can you just use water? i have decided to make some granulated bp as i hope for better results. is the graphite neccesary?

many thanks

[karlfoxman]

Dextrin's solvent is water, you can add 25% Alcohol to break the tension of the water and help it mix better. Dont add too much or too little, you will get the hang of it when you make it. Leave some powder aside incase you doo add too much water/alc mix.

[digger]

Nope the graphite is not really necessary, the alcohol as explained is just to make it easier to mix in (use a spray bottle to add the liquid). The alcohol that I use is just methylated spirit.

[paul]

Hey digger, nice results you got from your ball milled black powder! What I do to test my black powder in the first place is: building a polumna with it This may sound odd but the cheaper (slower) your black powder is, the less harm it´ll do to the firecracker casing...

These are incredible cheap and fast to make, I do use only a tiny bit of tape to fix the polumna after it´s finished, not a whole "round" of duck tape. My first very crude and cheap powder just popped the polumna open at one side. Ball milled black powder will tear the polumna completely up...

This is no real test for your black powders power, but after all a first clue...

Edited by paul, 21 June 2007 - 09:57 AM.

[Caramanos2000]

http://s104.photobuc...rrent=OakBp.flv
Oak Charcoal Bp