Draco_Americanus

Ok i kinda cheated as it's commercial Goex brand black powder, i now have ffg fffg and ffffg , my ballmilled powder is nothing and i need to find some new ways to make my own powder, i even have meal D on order. normal BP is next to imposible to find in my state. i found this one store by asking around at a sporting goods store near my friends place. sadly though the person i found told me the regulations are too expensive to keep BP and offered his whole stock of 28 pounds, i lack the money at the moment but i may just take him up on this.
one question though, How much BP do you guys tend to use in a year? I now have working mortors and want to make lots of stars and smaller 2.5 inch shells now that i have better lift powder

last night i was useing my ball mill (lortone QT6) and it started making a scraping sound so i checked it out and found the bolt that holds the L bracket on fell off, this bracket has the slot that holds the drum away from the frame. It was dark and to my dismay whitnessed an arc from the drum's aluminum lid to the frame. my guess is this charge is being built up on the rubber drum in the form of static electricity, this of corse could be dangerus with a flammable mix in the mill. any one else had this problem?

I made two small mines useing cut sections of flying fish fuse and it seem to work well, was wondering if others have used this type of fuse

I cant seem to get my small rockets to whistle rockets to whistle, the thrust is fine but with
76 kclo4
23 sodium salicylate
1 red iron oxide
3 pertoleum jelly
(naphtha 25millileters]
these things book! they fly well but have no whistle? any ideas why?

Can black iron oxide be subsituted for red iron oxide of the same mesh size? My thinking is rust is rust, but is the reactivity different?