black powder manufacture

[stanfield]

All know how to make black powder ?
75 g KNO3
15 g C
10 g S ?
ok, right but when I do this stuff, it's really no sensitive... however, in the Anarchist cookbook, I saw a method using alcohol. I would like to try making BP with this method but this fucking book hasn't precise measures !!! So, anyone here tried this one and could give me the right amount and the right procedure ?

thanx...

[DarkAngel]

Don't read:
totse.com,anarchist crapbook,wierdpier.com,terrorist handbook it's useless.

And what do you mean with sensitive?
Did you expect it whas shock sensitive?
Well it's not,static electricity can
sett it of but don't expect when you
drop it on the ground it goes of

And do a search man
(Im the 10099999,,, person that said that)
When i did a search about BP i've
got 73 topic's,
There really must be one that
answered your question.


------------------
ÐarkAngel

For explosives and stuff go to Section1 http://www.section1.f2s.com And http://run.to/section1 (http://www.run.to/section1)
sendtosection1@hotmail.com

[Agent Blak]

I never use Alcohol with mine.
I mixed up my chems. Milled it in a coffee mill for 2min. then I sifted the mix. milled it for 5min. sifted it again. Then I put it in a container. I added a Spoon ful of Boiling H2O, and stired. You keep adding H2O and Stirring until you can pinch it between your fingers and it will stick together. after this is do place on waxed paper and roll it out with rolling pin. then place between 2 two boards and using C-Clamps press it. let it sit for 24hrs like this then take the clamps off and let it dry the rest of the way. I set mine stuff to dry on top of a Hot water heater. It is just a little above room temp. and works just fantastic.

------------------
A wise man once said:
"...There Will Be No
Stand Off At High Noon
... Shoot'em In The Back
And, Shoot'em In The Dark"

Agent Blak-------OUT!!

[Pyro]

Normally I wouldn't say this, but just search, I wrote extensively on this topic fairly recently and there are many other's who have done the same.-Pyro

[Jumala]

For BP manufacturing look here

http://www.elephantblackpowder.com/monk01.html

and here

http://www.ctel.net/~dwilliams/

[kingspaz]

basically all this method really involves is cooling dissolved KNO3 very, very fast so only small crystals grow. the longer it takes to cool the bigger the crystals. i use acetone instead of alcohol. the reason alcohol is used to cool it fast is because KNO3 is not soluble in alcohol so will precipitate when the cold alcohol is mixed with the hot water.

[Mr Cool]

My lovely hydraulic press recently buckled (the curiosity to see just how dense BP could get was too great, and the cross-bars couldn't take it), so I needed an alternative... I discovered that a big sache (sp?) clamp is just as good for pressing BP. It is big though - the metal bar that the jaws slide on is 0.5" thick and 3" wide, solid steel. Buying one might cost more than making a press, but if you have one lying around then you could use it.

The precipitation method is inferior to the ball milling method, and a ball mill is still needed (or prefered) to get the C and S fine enough.

[EP]

Firefox sells ball mills used for blackpowder manufacture, but they are expenisve. Making your own is possible and a lot cheaper. Heres the link to the firefox mill- http://www.firefox-fx.com/tooling.htm

[Berserker]

Al Capone: WHAT THE FUCK? That will give you a lot of noxious, black, smoke, basically shit all. Where's the oxidizer genius?

[10fingers]

I made a ball mill similar to the one on Wouter's Practical Pyrotechnics page. I don't have the exact address but if you do a search I'm sure you'll find it. It was quite easy to make and works very well.

[Berserker]

http://huizen.dds.nl/~wfvisser/EN/ballmill_EN.html

[Teck]

Not to long ago I made some black powder and wasnt very successful. I ground up sulfur in a mortar with a pestle for about 5 minutes. then did the same with charcoal, I used the filter kind that you buy through laboratory supplies catalog. then I dissolved KNO3 in some hot water and mixed Carbon and Sulfur into dissolved kno3 and stirred it. After it got homogeneous texture I poured it into cold alcohol that was cooled to -5C and put the whole mix into the freezer. Then I filtered it and dried it. And the stuff I have is hella hard to light and when it lights it burns really really slow. why is that. Could the charcoal be the wrong kind. My proportions where right I used Dan Williams proportions.

Also I got me a Coffee grinder and ground it up really fine it seem to burn a little bit faster but not enough to be used in crackers.
(I know it isn't smart to grind up BP in a coffee grinder.)

[-A-]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Agent Blak:
I never use Alcohol with mine.
I mixed up my chems. Milled it in a coffee mill for 2min. then I sifted the mix. milled it for 5min. sifted it again. Then I put it in a container. I added a Spoon ful of Boiling H2O, and stired. You keep adding H2O and Stirring until you can pinch it between your fingers and it will stick together. after this is do place on waxed paper and roll it out with rolling pin. then place between 2 two boards and using C-Clamps press it. let it sit for 24hrs like this then take the clamps off and let it dry the rest of the way. I set mine stuff to dry on top of a Hot water heater. It is just a little above room temp. and works just fantastic.
</font>

You milled ALL the ingredients together in a coffee mill???. How brave...

[BrAiNFeVeR]

It's not really that brave, as long as you don't use quantities of more then 20 grams at the time in the grinder (and not too long)
But I like to grind up the chemicals separate from each other better (safer), then mix them a bit together in the grinder, and then wet it all and let it sit till all the water has evaporated.


------------------
"Mess with me, and you'll end up with a .44 under your chin and your brains on the ceiling"

[Anthony]

It is, most probably the charcoal that is to blame, I once tried charcoal briquettes and no matter how long the BP was milled for, the result was a slow powder. Homemade charcoal makes a huge difference - nice fast powder that burns in a flash.

Lumpwood charcoal for BBQs (as opposed to briquettes) may work well.

[10fingers]

You can grind your ingredients with a mortar and pestle for a week and it will not be fine enough. Ball mill is the only way to go.
I make my own charcoal by getting a fire going in my wood stove, when there are a lot of coals I turn off the air supply so the fire goes out. Take out the charred wood and scrape off the charcoal. You could also do this by getting a fire going outside and when there are a lot of coals throw some water on the fire. Supposedley soft woods like willow make better charcoal for BP than hardwoods.
I also ball mill all my ingredients together, just do it outside and use a long extension cord. the ingredients get very intimately mixed this way. I would not try this with flash powder though.

[Agent Blak]

I reccomend Activated Charcoal/Carbon. It is what I used in my powder and its preformance was Fantastic. I powdered my charcoa and sulfur together and milled the KNO3 Seperate. Then milled them all together.

------------------
A wise man once said:
"...There Will Be No
Stand Off At High Noon
... Shoot'em In The Back
And, Shoot'em In The Dark"

Agent Blak-------OUT!!

[CodeMason]

That's because charcoal briquettes are like 40% clay.

[Anthony]

Yup. Makes a lovely mess when you have to empty the BBQ.

[Jumala]

I have made some BP a few weeks ago. I used at first a coffee grinder to grind the components. I took charcoal made from woodpeaces (not pressed).
The ratio: 75-15-10
After mixing the components I made the first burntest. The result was disappointing compared to commercial BP.
After makeing it wet with some water and press it I got the same result.

Than I took two stones with flat polished surfaces. I mixed the powder with a little alcohol and rubbed the putty spoon for spoon between the surfaces.
After drying it gave a really good burnrate.
Not as well as commercial but much better than before.

[krimmie]

I blend each ingredient separately in a common, household blender. I mix the kno3,C, and S by hand for 10 minutes with a wire whisk(for beating eggs and such). I then place all ingredients back into the blender....with a 50 ft. extension cord, I blend for 20 minutes(have not had a problem yet). I do use alcohol, 473 ml. that has been chilled in the freezer. To compress it, I use two boards and park the car on top of it! My total yield is around 1.5 lb.s.

Do not use cooking charcoal(as stated above-has high clay content), bulk charcoal is usually made of a hard wood(Oak) and does not burn as fast as softer woods. Pine boards(1"x4"x8') is what I use, I simply strip them in to 1" lengths and start a fire! When they are consumed with fire, I smother them with a large metal garbage-can lid and let them smolder.
Now, as far as WILLOW is concerned. I have a great supply near my house...it's called a golf course! I figure I am helping the golfers out by removing a few here and there( hell, they are hazards on my course). I am still letting them dry out in my shed, I will post how they perform later.

[shooter3]

A less wasteful way to make willow charcoal is to put your wood into an old burnt out paint can. Hammer the lid back on and punch a 1/4 inch hole in the top. Put this can in a fire and as the can heats it will drive all the volitile gasses off. There will be a candle like flame burning at this hole as long as there is gas in the wood. When the flame goes out give it 5 more minutes and the wood is done. It makes a nice pourous charcoal.

[CodeMason]

shooter is right. I put straw (I have a pet mouse) in a Milo tin with a small hole punched through the lid. I then place it in my fire. After a while a stream of dense, greenish smoke will come out of the rupture. Once the smoke stops, I take it out, open it up, add a little water to the charcoal to soften it up then crush it into a fine powder. Dead easy. http://theforum.virtualave.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

[BoB-]

Rye grass makes excellent charcoal, it can be collected on mass scale by collecting the trashbags full of grass clippings from anyone with a riding mower.

The charcoal is very soft.

Bonus; its 100% free.

[cutefix]

But these free charcoal will make a poor black powder...

[Tony Montana]

I watched a "subtitle" movie the other night, called [Green Firecracker Red Firecracker]. It was set in the 1800's some time, anyway it was interesting to see how they made fireworks nearly two centuries ago, without pyrex accesories http://theforum.virtualave.net/ubb/smilies/wink.gif.
They would find some "fertile" earth/soil that was nitrate rich(maybe were something had just died) and would dig it up and take it back to town. In town they would put the earth/soil into a large metal pot(cauldron), and fill the pot with water, they would then boil the water/earth.(KNO3 dissolves in boiling water, and is the about the only thing in soil that will dissolve). They then filtered the watery *mud*, and evaporated the now clean looking water, which yielded 90%+ KNO3 crystals, then adding wood ash and sulfur made the mixture complete! Could not get easier!!!!