fishingsetx
Well-Known
- Feb 15, 2015
- 1,610
- 66
Ok, I was asked to start a seperate thread on this, so here it is. Please understand, I am a complete novice when it comes to making black powder!! I have made one successful batch in my life and a couple more that didnt work out. All the info I have accumulated has come from research on the net. I claim no credit for any of it. I am not a prepper, but black powder can be used in most any cartridge. It wont be nearly as powerful, and it wont normally cycle a semiauto. It is highly corrosive to fire arms, and the velocities are pitiful compared to modern smokless. All the negatives aside, if you are in a life or death situation and have access to the raw materials, its a good skill to know!
Also, If you choose to try and make your own black powder, you do so at your own risk!!!! You will be milling, crushing, and mixing an explosive! Treat it as such!! If you blow your hand off, burn your house down, or otherwise do any kind of damage to yourself, your stuff, or others, its on you. I dont recommend anyone try any info on this thread!!!
Now that that is out of the way, lets get started!!! For black powder, you will need at least 3 ingredients. Salt Peter, charcoal, and sulfur. The traditional ratio is 75% salt peter, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur all measured by WEIGHT!!!!. Here is where to find the ingredients:
Salt peter - Spectracide stump remover is actually granulated salt peter. Check the MSDS of a stump remover before purchasing. It should say salt peter, Potasium Nitrate, or KNO3.
Charcoal- you can either make your own or order it. Air float charcoal is popular. Softwood is best, and willow or balsa are touted as the best charcoal to use. You can also order it from several different sources. Ill talk about making it later on, once I make a batch.
Sulfur - This one is tricky. There are tons of places to order it online, but I get it from work. Garden centers also carry it as an acidifier for garden soil, but I have heard it isnt as pure. Again, verify with the MSDS, ingredients list, manufacturer, etc.
Another ingredient that makes things work better is Dextrin. If you dont have a press to press cakes (explained later), you will need some type of binder. Dextrin is easy to make. Just pick up some corn starch from the grocery store, pour some in and old pan and bake at 400, stirring every 15-20 mins till light brown (about the color of a manilla folder). Takes about 2 hours in my oven.
The only other items you will need are a ball mill, a set of screens, a scale and plenty of time.
For the ball mill, I use a rock tumbler from harbor freight and some really hard lead balls that were given to me. You MUST use NON SPARKING media!!!!!! Place your ball mill FAR away from any structure or people when running!!! These things can and have caused explosions, fires, etc!
for screens, I used a window screen and a sieve I bought at the dollar store. the screens are to get a uniform grain size. The window screen is about 16 mesh, and the sieve is about 32 mesh. This should give about a FFFg size grain.
This is not the optimum way of doing it, but I just used what I had on hand. The best way to do it would be to order a set of screens, but I just used what I had on hand.
For a scale, I purchased a kitchen scale from walmart:
Now that we have the raw material, lets begin the process:
I was given the correct mixtures of raw materials from a buddy. Next batch I will be making my own from scratch. Ill post updates as that progresses.
Understand, the ingredients were already milled. If they are solid, you will need to mill each ingredient seperatly before weighing and mixing!!!!
I placed the correct ratio of salt peter, charcoal and sulfur in the mill, dropped the balls in and let it run for about 4 hrs. here is the mix I came up with:
Understand, at this point, once mixed, this IS and EXPLOSIVE! keep away from heat, sparks, etc.
after milling, I seperated out the mill powder from the balls and weighed it (9.8 oz). I then added 1% (0.1 oz) dextrin to the mix, tossed the balls back in, and ran it for another 2 hrs to mix and mill.
Once that was complete, I seperated the balls from the powder (spilled quite a bit on the process due to clumsiness). dumped the mill powder into a bowl and added a tiny amount of DISTILLED water and mixed. I continued adding tiny amounts of water and mixing till I had a nice ball of powder the consistency of playdough. I accidentally added too much, so I broke the ball up into pieces and spread them out to dry a little. They reminded me of shiny little meteorites!
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit....what a ride!"
Also, If you choose to try and make your own black powder, you do so at your own risk!!!! You will be milling, crushing, and mixing an explosive! Treat it as such!! If you blow your hand off, burn your house down, or otherwise do any kind of damage to yourself, your stuff, or others, its on you. I dont recommend anyone try any info on this thread!!!
Now that that is out of the way, lets get started!!! For black powder, you will need at least 3 ingredients. Salt Peter, charcoal, and sulfur. The traditional ratio is 75% salt peter, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur all measured by WEIGHT!!!!. Here is where to find the ingredients:
Salt peter - Spectracide stump remover is actually granulated salt peter. Check the MSDS of a stump remover before purchasing. It should say salt peter, Potasium Nitrate, or KNO3.
Charcoal- you can either make your own or order it. Air float charcoal is popular. Softwood is best, and willow or balsa are touted as the best charcoal to use. You can also order it from several different sources. Ill talk about making it later on, once I make a batch.
Sulfur - This one is tricky. There are tons of places to order it online, but I get it from work. Garden centers also carry it as an acidifier for garden soil, but I have heard it isnt as pure. Again, verify with the MSDS, ingredients list, manufacturer, etc.
Another ingredient that makes things work better is Dextrin. If you dont have a press to press cakes (explained later), you will need some type of binder. Dextrin is easy to make. Just pick up some corn starch from the grocery store, pour some in and old pan and bake at 400, stirring every 15-20 mins till light brown (about the color of a manilla folder). Takes about 2 hours in my oven.
The only other items you will need are a ball mill, a set of screens, a scale and plenty of time.
For the ball mill, I use a rock tumbler from harbor freight and some really hard lead balls that were given to me. You MUST use NON SPARKING media!!!!!! Place your ball mill FAR away from any structure or people when running!!! These things can and have caused explosions, fires, etc!
for screens, I used a window screen and a sieve I bought at the dollar store. the screens are to get a uniform grain size. The window screen is about 16 mesh, and the sieve is about 32 mesh. This should give about a FFFg size grain.
This is not the optimum way of doing it, but I just used what I had on hand. The best way to do it would be to order a set of screens, but I just used what I had on hand.
For a scale, I purchased a kitchen scale from walmart:
Now that we have the raw material, lets begin the process:
I was given the correct mixtures of raw materials from a buddy. Next batch I will be making my own from scratch. Ill post updates as that progresses.
Understand, the ingredients were already milled. If they are solid, you will need to mill each ingredient seperatly before weighing and mixing!!!!
I placed the correct ratio of salt peter, charcoal and sulfur in the mill, dropped the balls in and let it run for about 4 hrs. here is the mix I came up with:
Understand, at this point, once mixed, this IS and EXPLOSIVE! keep away from heat, sparks, etc.
after milling, I seperated out the mill powder from the balls and weighed it (9.8 oz). I then added 1% (0.1 oz) dextrin to the mix, tossed the balls back in, and ran it for another 2 hrs to mix and mill.
Once that was complete, I seperated the balls from the powder (spilled quite a bit on the process due to clumsiness). dumped the mill powder into a bowl and added a tiny amount of DISTILLED water and mixed. I continued adding tiny amounts of water and mixing till I had a nice ball of powder the consistency of playdough. I accidentally added too much, so I broke the ball up into pieces and spread them out to dry a little. They reminded me of shiny little meteorites!
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit....what a ride!"
