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This instructable shows you how to make black powder for use in rocket motors and shells.
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Signing UpStep 1Ingredients and equipment.
the things you will need can be bought in supermarkets or garden stores.
And a ball mill can be constructed easily, if this goes down well, i might enter a ball mill instructable.
1.Potassium nitrate/KNO3/salt peter
2.Sulfur/flowers of sulfur/dusting sulfur
3.Charcoal
4.Ball mill
5. scales
The KNO3 is a garden fertilizer and can be bought at most gardening centers, as is the Flowers of sulfur, (its used to kill mites and acidify soil, so make sure you de-acidify it!)
Charcoal can be bought. Or if you have fireplace, or campfire the black brittle stuff is charcoal
And a ball mill can be constructed easily, if this goes down well, i might enter a ball mill instructable.
1.Potassium nitrate/KNO3/salt peter
2.Sulfur/flowers of sulfur/dusting sulfur
3.Charcoal
4.Ball mill
5. scales
The KNO3 is a garden fertilizer and can be bought at most gardening centers, as is the Flowers of sulfur, (its used to kill mites and acidify soil, so make sure you de-acidify it!)
Charcoal can be bought. Or if you have fireplace, or campfire the black brittle stuff is charcoal
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P.S. You should probably put a disclaimer, because some idiot is probably going to blow his hand off.
Oh, and for the record, if you did make some combustable material with NaO3, it technically wouldn't be Black Powder, meal powder, or gunpowder.
you can change the burn rate by mesing with the chrcol % add to make it burn faster it at less it works for me i shoot guns with it and some rockits i use this mix 75%potassium nitrate 10%sulfur 15 chrcol and thats where i start at now to get the potassium nitrate you can buy at lows spestracide stump remover and grind it in a coffe grinder till its realy fine works good and fast its 90% potassium nitrate i buy my sulfur dust ther too it on the same shelf lol o and if you flip the can over thers a biger cap on the outher end i found out after cuting the top off lol a ball mill ok but not need i use a can and a stick for i do not whant to die never use steel in a ballmill use led or coper brass never steel AND DO NOT USE THE COFFE GRINDER TO MIX IT OLNY TO GRIND THE potassium nitrate i saw a guy lose a hand so be safe win mixing
i tried both, and found that the mortar and pestle powder didnt work as well when milled, plus, in the ball mill the powder turned properly black, wheras, in a mortar and pestle, after grinding hard for an hour and a halve, i couldnt get ti to go any darker than medium grey (normal grey).
essentialy im saying yes, you can, but it will be better and easier in a ball mill, as the proccess takes time, which isnt always the best thing , when you need to put in alot of effort you cant give.
apparently the chemicals cannot properly mix unless they are mixed together in hot, steaming water and alcohol, as the nitrate is absorbed fully into the charcoal, and the sulfur undergoes some kind of reaction also to bond with hydrogen and such.
please, dont lie when you answer this, but is this actually as good as proper, homemade, black powder using the traditional, methods of mixing and disolving in water then drieing out in crystaline grains?
Thank you for your comment. Of course, you are right. This instructable aims only to teach in the mixing of black-powder like propellant for the use in rocket motors. It would be unsuitable in, for example, black powder guns. This method does not fully absorb the nitrate into the charcoal, but with proper milling some level of absorption does occur. This is a quick, easy, and reliable way of making a combustible powder that happens to be black. NB: This may in fact be more effective than SOME home-made dissolving methods, and equally as likely be worse than others. It is important to remember that some methods are unreliable.
This Instructable is an option for those who don't want to spend a lot of effort, but still want a satisfactory result (see my other instructable for demonstrations)
and im glad to say the stuff works, but not so great as i though, not even alum will bring the stuff any better :C.
however, i do see it fit for use as rocket propelant, and right now i am mixing half with steaming hot water, to mix in the nitrate, i will make another batch but i will add 5% potasium chlorate, to see if the results better. and for the other half (the first half was for two batches), i will reserve it for direct use as fuse gunpowder, which i will mix with dextrin to make a fuse, once my dextrin comes on off ebay!
im also happy to say that if compacted realy hard, and forced into granules that way, this works just as well as crushed rocket propelant, that i use in my mini pocket cannon, that is the size of a pencil, and ill let you know, only good smokey explosives like gunpowder and rocket propelant work in that, and this powder did work in it, and , fortunately, is incapable of shoting the small solder ammo very hard, so its safer to use on my tank . yay
thankyou for making this instructable, i am glad you have shown me how to make tis kind of bp
lastly ill point out, unlike bg from rocke engines or fireworks, this leaves very little odour, compared to others, so ill be able to use it in re-useable rockets, and not have them stink up any more.! :)
to make exploding black powder, you must make the mixture in the original method which is to bond the chemicals together in hot water( charcoal chemicaly bonds with kno3 in hot water, making it imposible to remove or extract later), but then you must also add the equivalent of 5% potassium chlorate, of the complete mix, prior to putting in water, so if you have 100 grams of black powder mix ready to wet, add 5gram potasium chlorate.
this will make the black powder that little bit more unstable, allowing it to explode, while not becomeing some kind of touch explosive, like chlorate charcoal mixtures, though, if put into a ball mill, it will explode. this is what is added to comercial grade black powder, to make it that much more explosive.
to make this mixture into firecracker powder, without wetiing it, you can add 5% aluminium powder, along with an equal amount of kno3, to make a hot instant explosive powder
Thanks,
coolstuff100