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This is an instructable for how to make gunpowder from its basic chemcials. The cost is initially expensive for the scale and ballmill (a little over 100$) but once you have those parts all you need is the chemcials which are relatively cheap.
This is an instructable for how to make gunpowder from its basic chemcials. The cost is initially expensive for the scale and ballmill (a little over 100$) but once you have those parts all you need is the chemcials which are relatively cheap.
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There are three basic chemicals in gunpowder Potassium Nitrate, Charcoal powder, and Sulfur powder. Gunpowder would be a lot simpler to make if you could just mix the three chemicals together in the right ratio and have the final product, however chemistry dosent always work that way. If you look at a piece of charcoal under a microscope you can see very tiny holes called pores. Even when the charcoal is ground up into a fine powder each particle of it still contains microscopic pores. To properly make gunpowder the particles of charcoal must be ground together with the potassium nitrate and sulfur, the process of grinding them smashes the potassium nitrate and sulfur into the pores of the charcoal creating a subastance that will readily burn when ignited.
Parts list:
1. Ball mill ( Can be bought at unitednuclear.com for 70$, if you buy it someplace else or decide to make it, make sure you also buy lead grinding media (ceramic media can also be used) as it is the only metal that wont give off sparks when ground together)
2. Scale ( I prefer the electronic ones which can be bought on e-bay fairly cheap, less then 20$, make sure it has a capacity of at least 200 grams, otherwise you will be making gunpowder in very small batches)
3. Potassium nitrate, Sulfur powder, and Charcoal powder(All obtainable on e-bay) When buying try to buy as close to 5x as much potassium nitrate as charcoal powder, and 2/3 as much sulfur as charcoal ( I will explain the ratios later)
4. Wire spaghetti strainer
5. Old newspapers
6. Tupperware container
7. Calcuator ( To measure the amount of chemical to use)
Parts list:
1. Ball mill ( Can be bought at unitednuclear.com for 70$, if you buy it someplace else or decide to make it, make sure you also buy lead grinding media (ceramic media can also be used) as it is the only metal that wont give off sparks when ground together)
2. Scale ( I prefer the electronic ones which can be bought on e-bay fairly cheap, less then 20$, make sure it has a capacity of at least 200 grams, otherwise you will be making gunpowder in very small batches)
3. Potassium nitrate, Sulfur powder, and Charcoal powder(All obtainable on e-bay) When buying try to buy as close to 5x as much potassium nitrate as charcoal powder, and 2/3 as much sulfur as charcoal ( I will explain the ratios later)
4. Wire spaghetti strainer
5. Old newspapers
6. Tupperware container
7. Calcuator ( To measure the amount of chemical to use)
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You can't measure "volumetric grains" on a massing scale. You use a miniature graduated cylinder, calibrated in grains.
However, there is a "weight grain" also.
1 volumetric grain of water is 1 weight grain of water.
I found a 50AE shell casing, and it held very close to 50 grains of water by volume or by weight. So it also holds 50 grains of black powder by volume (but not by weight.)
Black powder by different manufactures and particle size has different weights for the same (or nearly same) substance.
You can buy a black powder measuring scoop (mini graduated cylinder) at a decent gun shop, or order one on-line.
Even more technically speaking, electric scales measure weight, not mass. Consider an object resting on a scale falling in an elevator. The mass of the object does not change, but the readout on the scale would, due to the lower effective gravity.
The only accurate way to measure *mass* is to use a balance, since both ends of the scale would be affected equally by whatever gravity there is, and so the reading would be the same.
Mmm... physics. =)
chlorine is a 5.1 oxidizer so could you substitute kn03 for chlorine?
ok now win you mix it do not use water that kills black powder or gun powder in the old days thay use alcohol 100% or 90% i use everclear lol you do not need to use a lot just a nuff to get it damp the reson for this is so you do not blow your hand off it keeps the powder fom exploding till it drys out makes it a bit stronger too but not a lot i ues this mix in my guns and i need 0.7cc more then the storng nonsmoking stuff you can buy in the gun shop the mix i ues is 75% potasium nitrate 10% sulffer 15% charcoal use a soff wood chracoal and the more you put in the faster it will brun i made a fast mix with this form 70% potasium nitrate 10% sulfer 20%charcoal if you look for some were to buy stuff you can get it a lows stump remover is potasium nitrate just shaks the can to make sher its dry stump remover on the same rack look for sulfer dust for killing mights o and on the buttom of the can a big cap lol now you can make the chracoal just burn some soff wood i use balsa i build r/c planes so i have a lot of scrap it works beter then pine makes it burn to slow
o and BQ charcoal not the same thing and you do not need a ball mill i have made it bouth ways and the mess of the ball mill not worth it i just mix it in a coffe can with a stick i ues this in my cannon too works grat and buy fuse form a fire works sulpier its a lot cheper you can get 50ft for under 20 bucks i got 150ft for 35 on sell just shop around thers a lot out ther you just got to look and if your in can you can still get the stuff you just got to know what to look for
Unfortunately, I don't have time to buy pure sulfur powder on the internet and have it shipped to me, so I bought Bonide Sulfur Plant Fungicide, which is 90% sulfur and 10% other unspecified ingredients.
Does anyone know how I would go about extracting the sulfur from the mixture?