I give credit to those who came before. I'm trying to take the torch and go further with it. I've had a lot of failure in my testing. Hopefully others can take this knowledge and improve it still. Thanks for stopping by!
Smashing your pucks will result in powder. We produce great corned powder but we grind it to FFFg in a powder grinder with limited fines. We press it until we get a density of 1.7-1.8g per cc. We also use 1% dextrin in the mix to hold the granules together.
I’d like to pickup a little grinder too but something proven to work and last awhile. So many coffee grinders. Hard to choose without a good bp review.
Hi John, NEVER EVER use a grinder, PERIOD. You will be harmed physically as in BOOM, HOSPITAL. Always use a ball mill like the one from Harbor Freight, the double barrel one for under a 100 bucks, use lead balls ONLY NO STELL OR ALUMINUM OR CERAMIC. Make small batches until you understand the ratios correctly especially the charcoal and burn rate. I’ve been in the hobby for years and if I could give you some hard learned experience, buy a 10 ton bench top hydraulic press and learn to press your rockets with your press. You will get much more reliable black powder rockets and not be wasting your time, frustration an energy with rocker problems. You can get a good hydraulic bench top press for around 270.00 bucks. Let me know if I can help. Good luck and stay safe, remember safety rules in this hobby not us. John Tucker, Louisiana aka Spaceflyr Pyrotechnics LLC.
@@spaceflyer Steel coffee grinder that looks like a meat grinder. Just do half pucks if it were to go off it will go woof not boom. FYI grinder comes after the ball mill
I think the comparrison of performance is no different. Put the same grain (measured weight) into each load and you will get the same power. Pucked is just denser because it's squished = less volume. If one was manufacturing it for transporing, pucked is safer and can ship more per volume saving shipping cost maybe i dunno. From what i understand, puck it too much you get fouling. Looser is better.
@@willywantoknow2563 I've tried a lot of different ones. Soluble Glutinous Rice Starch is by far the best for making rock hard granules. I use an extra 3%.
I started loading my cartridges with loose or green BP. I learned fast that you can't compress it in the shell...like you demonstrated it turns to talcum powder. It works okay for short range target shooting but that's about it. It's weak so it's possible to reuse bullets shot into a rubber bullet trap. I like the history factor as green powder is early American powder. But loose or compressed....I hate the smell! It stinks like burned hair.
Did you steel my garage, my work bench with my mess? I want my volume to match my weight. I plan on just reworking my "Fines" back into usables. but I also need pan powder. Keep your smoke trains SMOKING!
I feel like the more dense pressed powder gives more fouling. The less dense powder probably gives a more complete burn, but there are many factors to consider so I can't say for sure.
Back in the 1600's BP was pressed to a fixed density. This defined the powder volumes that we still use, Now modern BP is made to a density of 1.7g/cc any less than that and the charge loaded in the volume of a gun will be under weight and the performance will suffer. For fireworks the powder density doesn't matter too much but for firearms the density of the power matters greatly. However nothing should be "lost", as you puck and corn what isn't the size you want goes back into the process and gets repressed. Every powder factory has a market for different grades in different ratios, some corning mills make different grade ratios from other corning machines. A "grain" is a unit of weight, but usually it's measured by volume. This means that the powder density has to be right (1.7g/cc) for the volume to have the weight you want.
I was happy with the KISS method of screening and use it for a musket so adding alittle more or less was no problem BUT the you are right about being fragile and I don’t like that part. Pucking here I come. Thanks.
There's variation even among commercial powders. Swiss is wildly known to be faster than Goex. But if the ingredients and process is exactly the same pressed and corned powder will be about the same as screened by weight.
Very good video. How much of corning is more about slowing down the burn rate to prevent an exploding gun barrel? Would 5 grams, for instance, of corned powder be consumed at the same speed as the same 5 grams of powder pressed through a screen? The likely advantage is the corned powder will allow for more powder by volume but I'm just not sure if this couldn't be overcome by the burn rate of less dense powder. Cannons use very large grains because apparently smaller grains cause too big a pressure spike? If the barrel could contain any amount of pressure that black powder could deliver, then would smaller grain sizes deliver more muzzle energy? That's why I think it has more to do with the limitations of the barrel.
I've tested both types of powder over a chronograph and the screened powder is 26% slower with equal volumes. Add 26% more screened powder and you'd get the same velocity. I'm not the world's best expert and there's more to learn for sure. Be safe and let me know what your experiments show.
@@SuperSneakySteve Thanks! That is interesting. I would say it is because the corned powder contains more powder per volume (increased density) while it still allows the "flame front" to travel through the powder, unlike a compressed dense single grain. Granules burn from the outside in, so perhaps it's what causes a constant push against the projectile and thus increased velocity. With granulated (pressed through a screen) powder, the lower density causes it to expend its' energy before the bullet/ball reaches the end of the barrel so there is no continual push and diminished velocity. That's just a guess, but I don't understand why an "air gap" can cause huge problems. It seems the powder would expend its' energy and the bullet/ball would just have a lower velocity. But I'm no expert and don't even own a black powder gun. I bought a mini cannon which is like a 22 caliber handgun (not nearly as powerful), so not much experimenting there. It is a lot of fun though and puts a steel ball nearly 1/2 inch into a hard board.
Yes, it's good for indoor storage. If you take it out in the winter water will condense on the glass so put it in plastic or a horn for the field in winter.
Yes, get a ceramic coffee grinder and some screens to sort. You'll get some unusable dust, some 3F some 2F some 4F. Toss the 2F back in and tighten up the grinder a bit.
To protect against moisture, heat, sparks, and static electricity, store black powder and substitutes in their original containers with the size plainly labeled. Keep the container tightly sealed. Do not store powders in glass containers because glass can produce static electricity.
Thanks for your comment. What makes you think static electricity is a problem? There's a video on youtube of a guy using a taser on BP and it wouldn't ignite. All black powder comes in plastic and plastic generates more static electricity than glass. There's just not enough resistance in BP to cause a problem in my opinion.
@@SuperSneakySteve It takes a lot of static to touch powder off, but you are important, and your videos mean a lot, just can't risk it. Removing small pieces of clear glass from a human body is no easy task even for the most skilled surgeon. Plastic is not absorbent to the earths rotational drag and Chinese speed production makes the glass of today much different than years ago, it's just not the same as American made glass prior to 1972, it is making kids queer and raising fuel prices. The current high price of oil is the obvious main reason for higher gas prices. Global oil production, especially in the U.S. with a large and growing alternative lifestyle population. Petroleum-derived lubricating oil is a mixture produced by atmospheric and vacuum distillation of selected paraffinic and naphthenic crude oils, after which chemical changes may be required to produce the desired properties of the refined product. There is a Lube for Every Level of Freakiness Sutil Rich. $26. Babeland Astroglide Liquid. $12 $9. Maude "Shine" silicone lube. $25. If one charts the sale of these products and the price at the pump especially during pride month, the correlation is clear, we get pumped at the pump for all the pumping. Countries with traditional coitus practices pay next to nothing for gasoline, and in the old days the fuel pumps did not have a calculation above a dollar until the 1960’s and the start of the alternative that requires lubricants. So that is why you should not use a glass container, it is just that simple.
Pucked gives more power per volume. SGRS does plenty good but you need a bit more of it. Adding 25% more is easy to do in my muzzleloader. Not so easy in a cap n' ball revolver or in cartridges.
You need to put the powder back in the tumbler but without lead balls. It will take the sharp edges off. A little bit of powdered graphite can be added for extra smoothness but it will slow the burn rate a bit.
If you use 70/30 IPA you don't need a binder at all, adding a binder will slow it down no matter what. That being said in firearm use you may want to slow it down a bit to build pressure. Also using 70/30 IPA don't grind you BP roll it to 1/16 inch and push it through a 8 mesh screen. And the grains will be hard and stiff
