Christian

Hi there

I am going to buy this ball mill for making black powder: http://www.harborfre...temnumber=46376

I am going to buy lead media from cooperman. What size would you recommend?

If you happen to know how many balls would be efficient too, please tell. If you need to calculate a lot of things first, dont worry - I am pretty sure I know how to calculate it :-). First I find the drums diameter. Next I find out how many cm3 one ball is, and that way find out how many balls it would take to fill half the drum. Am I right, or?

Thanks :-)
Christian

Hey, I was told that I would be able to make a black powder rocket with black powder that had been mixed with a mortar and pestle.

I decided to buy some airfloat willow charcoal, sulphur.. and I already had potassium nitrate (very pure 99,7 or something and some fertilizer grade). I just got it today, and I decided to try it. I mixed 1,5 grams C, 1 gram S, 7,5 grams KNO3 (the "very pure" one.. which feel just a little dampish for some reason.. while the fert. grade feels completely dry..). I gave it about 1 minute in the mortar/pestle as I didnt feel like I was ripping it finer after that. Then I tried about 1 gram on some paper in open air - burned, but pretty slowly. I have seen videos where black powder almost looks like flash powder or something. I thought putting it on pressure would make it burn faster. I put it in a 1/4 id tube, but no nozzle since I have not yet made the tools to do that. I stamped it a little with a glowstick.. that was the only thing I could fit inthere . Then, when it was almost full I put the fuse in and stamped some black powder on top of that, too. I also put it on a stick, but wasnt expecting it to fly or anything since it had no nozzle. So I lit it, and... well it burned the whole way through, and the tube went on fire on the last few seconds(well, red glowing in the end of the tube, and it deformed a bit, at least..). Oh, and in case you misunderstood it: nope it did not fly... not the least

So will this work better if I get a nozzle in it? Or what should I do to make it work better...

Sorry if its already here on the forum somewhere, but a quick search didnt find anything, and I am off to make a tool for the tubes. But would like to know how to fix this little issue.

Thanks a lot

Hi. I was wondering if mixing chemicals etc in a room where you are a lot of time of the day is OK? The particles of example the aluminum powder I have is 2-3 micron, which is something like cigarette smoke. Now, I am just thinking.. wont it float around for a while like cigarette smoke? You can smell Cigarette-smoke for quite some time after someone smoked - isnt this particles floating around? So my concern is that maybe, it could be the same with aluminum. And since I dont sit in the room with a particle filter on all day, I would rather just do it in the garage..

Please tell me your opinions

Hi .

I have a good quality half-mask which has two organic filters on. I usually use this mask when I am spray painting (Dont worry - nothing illegal, paintings only!). I saw that having a dust mask on while working with aluminum and other fine powdered chemicals and metals would be a good idea, so I bought one of those "1-time-use" dust masks... They are horrible - I can't get them to fit tight so no air goes in from the top and bottom of the mask... or at least, it is blowing up the top (at the nose), cause my safety googles get very foggy!

So anyway, I would think organic filters would be just as good - or even better - for filtering any of these fine (>2micron) particles out of the air? The one time use masks seem too simple - isnt it just cotton trapped between two pads of some kind and then strapped on?

I also get a headache when using these dust masks, and I dont when I use my 3M 6000 mask... At least not when painting.

Please advice...