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quote:Originally posted by airmung
In spite of all precautions, black powder mills used to blow up with frightening regularity. But if you insist on playing with fire....
Once again, it comes back to the issue of learning the procedure and observing precautions.
The process of manufacturing one or two ounces at home is quite different than the process of manufacturing 100 pounds in a factory.
The foremost precaution is - do not ball mill sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate together. In fact, there's no reason to ball mill potassium nitrate at all. Learn the procedure.
Ball-milling one or two ounces of charcoal/sulfur mix is low risk; there is no oxidizer. Whatever small risk might exist can be mitigated by running the ball mill outdoors, clear of any structures.
Don't drive a car or handle firearms. They can be dangerous and can kill you and others. . . unless you follow proper safe procedures. Now substitute in "make your own black powder". If you are too ignorant to do it (drive, shoot, make powder, etc) SAFELY, don't do it. Otherwise, enjoy the experience. [:D]
Components need to be individually ground very fine and mixed very carefully and thoroughly to work at all. Many materials become active
and very sensitive to oxidation as they are ground finer.Depending upon how chemically active they are, it may take very little energy in any form to set them off in air or in the presence of an oxidizer.
Commercial black powder is mixed WET to thoroughly incorporate the
components.
The Dupont explosion in western NJ a few years back should give you some idea how dangerous it is to make black powder.
It put them out of the black powder business even though they made the stuff for 100 years and knew what they were doing.
Comments
In spite of all precautions, black powder mills used to blow up with frightening regularity. But if you insist on playing with fire....
Once again, it comes back to the issue of learning the procedure and observing precautions.
The process of manufacturing one or two ounces at home is quite different than the process of manufacturing 100 pounds in a factory.
The foremost precaution is - do not ball mill sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate together. In fact, there's no reason to ball mill potassium nitrate at all. Learn the procedure.
Ball-milling one or two ounces of charcoal/sulfur mix is low risk; there is no oxidizer. Whatever small risk might exist can be mitigated by running the ball mill outdoors, clear of any structures.
"Just the facts, Ma'am"
and very sensitive to oxidation as they are ground finer.Depending upon how chemically active they are, it may take very little energy in any form to set them off in air or in the presence of an oxidizer.
Commercial black powder is mixed WET to thoroughly incorporate the
components.
The Dupont explosion in western NJ a few years back should give you some idea how dangerous it is to make black powder.
It put them out of the black powder business even though they made the stuff for 100 years and knew what they were doing.