(This is proof of concept - not advice). So what I think about the CIA process - I use 77/13/10 ratios. I use a minimum amt of water (the solubility at 100c (boiling) is 2.46g/ml so for 77g it’s around 40cc water. Boil, mix with the 13+10 and then use COLD denatured ethanol. Then I stick it into the freezer. It won’t freeze w ethanol in it and the remaining KNO3 will precipitate out because it’s poorly soluble at 0c (freezing). Then carry on straining, granulating etc). The alcohol/acetone business is just to chill it down quickly then evaporate quickly. Getting it cold is very important or you will lose KNO3 in solution when you strain it:
thanks for your Info,I had to.try it.out for myself that was the first time seem to work out.got a new belt for the ball mill so I been just milling a lot.
If it’s just granulated whether you use this process or a ball mill it’s about 50-70% as fast as Goex. 50% compared to Swiss. If it’s compressed into pucks to higher density then granulated and sorted by size you and equal commercial powder. I compress with a 12 ton and it’s probably 85% and for me that’s plenty close.
Wow, i was surprised with the burn rate. Well done. Forgive me if I missed it, but did you use willow charcoal? And, did you do any pre-grinding on it?
Wonder if you could have stopped before adding enough acetone to make it liquid, and skipped the whole cheese cloth step. Go directly to granulating from the pot. Id be afraid to loose nitrate in the liquid
I just did this the other day. If you get the solubility ratio really close the KNO3 will dissolve fine at a near boil and then become a paste as soon as the room temp charcoal and S are added. Ultimately I am not so impressed with the speed of my granulated bp from this. I’ll continue to test this method and see if I can make it better.
Electric Mixer Motors have Brushes and produce sparks which could ignite any dry residue, also Alcohol and Acetone are both Highly Flammable. not a Healthy combination. A wooden spoon works and you don't actually have to mix it this hard. just don't let it dry to the pan or it might ignite. The Army field manual is still out there if you can find it, I've had mine for many years.
that's just the way the directions I had said to do,this was my first time doing it,and it came out just fine,I was I bit nervous about adding water to the nitrate and discovering it,iam sure if I were to continue doing bp this way, I would master this technique down and it would come out better.i got my new belt on the ball mill and that seams to work for me,dump it and run it,takes long but it comes out just fine for fireworks
Your screen is very coarse. I've found that a piece of wire window screen is actually closer to the 16 mesh nominal size for 2F powder with 20 mesh being about right for 3F powder. There are Screen Size Charts available online if you do a little searching.
thanks for the info,do you think if I used a different size screen,it would make it any better?I do have plans on buying some real screens,this is just something I had around.
