To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/Chemdelic/ . The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.
I checked out brilliant but they cant help you, there are no instructions on how to build a cannon. Fortunately, I know how to build a super easy cannon. Dig a round hole in the ground big enough to be your cannon barrel. Find a suitable sized tree to be the hole in said barrel and if it isn't a smooth barked tree, strip the bark off. Depending on how complex a cannon you want to make either lodge the tree in the ground for a breach loader or rig up a way to hold the tree in the center but off the ground for a muzzle loader. If this is your first cannon I advise a muzzle loader. Pour your brass around the tree, it will burn a bit and that's fine, it will even things out. I forgot to mention, a very important detail, put the thickest end if the tree where the muzzle will be. If you dont, your cannonball can get stuck if it deforms (and they often do) and turn your cannon into a bomb. Let that metal mess cool for a while, and dig it out. For finishing work if you have a decent lathe that is big enough you can shore up the inside. Otherwise you basically just scrape down any part of the inner barrel that is sticking out. Don't overdo it, remember it tapers towards the back naturally. Really the muzzle will be the worst part if the tree doesn't crack. Oh and for a muzzle loader make sure its secure of you might get the tree wanting to launch out of the barrel thanks to gas buildup. For a breach loader you need to ream out the bore very well, grind down the back and make a fancy manhole cover for the back of the cannon.
I've always wanted to know how gunpowder would perform if you used lycopodium as the carbon source, or even charred lycopodium but that probably wouldn't be necessary.
Wow that was without doubt the best BP deflagration I've ever seen. I know it's classified as a LE, but that's the closest I've ever seen an unconfined pile get to "going off with a bang".... honestly I've seen this a thousand times and can't praise it enough. I used to open up Chinese firecrackers and even their industry standard was only about, close to as good as this. But for this to be home made, I'm stunned. Kudos to you!
Store bought powder is pressed, then ground to a particular size, the only need to add dextrin is if you aren't pressing and just grating with a screen like you did. They usually coat the grains with very fine graphite, which makes it blacker like you noticed. Awesome video! If you need any lathe work done for a small cannon, hit me up, I'd be happy to help
The sulfur also serves as a plasticizer when it is compressed in a press to harden the granules. Hence the reason for no dextrin. They also toss the sized granules back into the mill for 24-48 hours to polish and round off the sharp edges to make it flow better. Graphite is usually tossed in the last couple of hours. Using the right tools you can easily make homemade powder that rivals or exceeds the best commercial brands.
@@arezhik7774 When it loses all sharp edges it might not catch and progress the fire front easily. So I would expect a rough granular powder to burn quicker, but be less consistent/stable. For a commercial powder consistency and safety are certainly key, not the highest performance.
Yes commercial BP is coated with graphite to help protect it from moisture and also makes it a little harder to ignite, thus more safe from accidental ignition from a random spark. It is also hydraulically compressed then crushed into granules to make a more dense granule, thus giving more energy in a smaller space. It’s also bound with a small percentage of dextrin to help make a harder granule. The best way to introduce dextrin into your powder, is to PRE-DISSOLVE the dextrin into warm water. A ratio of 10% dextrin to 90% water is more than enough. Then just spritz your powder with the dextrin liquor mix until thoroughly integrated into your composition enough to granulate it or just enough to integrate the dextrin then switch to your Alcohol mix to get your consistency. By pre dissolving the dextrin before adding it to your composition really makes a huge difference, than just adding dry dextrin into your dry mix. The dry dextrin really likes to hog all the water until it gets its fill and gets fully activated. And during that time, that dextrin really likes taking your nitrate and separating it from your thoroughly ball milled microscopic chemical mixture, and creating larger particles rather than keeping them small and tight together. I know I just wrote a book of a comment, but IT REALLY MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR POWDERS BURN RATE over just adding in dry dextrin, AND YOU STILL GET NICE HARD GRANULES without sacrificing burn rate.
Commercial BP (Goex, Swiss, Schuetzen, etc.) doesn't contain dextrin. Dextrin addition is used in the fireworks community to help with binding because they use screened and not pressed BP. Addition of dextrin (for any purpose, fireworks or muzzleloading) only decreases the burn rate, which is unacceptable for commercial purposes. For fireworks, the decrease in performance is very negligible and aids in manufacturing process for bulk, speed of manufacture, and ease of handling.
Yet, nitrates and aluminium are not that stable together long-term. For star formulas one has to add boric acid esp. when the powder is processed with the use of water.
If I remember correctly some recipes use dextrin mixed into the powder. This makes it a bit harder and more dense, as you noticed with the store bought powder.
It also makes it much much easier to corn without using a press. Without dextrin or using the press method, the corned chunks aren’t very durable and crumble easily.
The density also has an effect on burn rate. This is basically a polverone type powder. The powder I made from white poplar charcoal was like a sluggish flashpowder in low density form but slowed down some (but not too much) after pressing. That's ok though because it's for my pistol. Gunpowder is an art that can take a while to perfect. Yours is pretty good BTW.
This would work great in a flintlock. The quicker burn time would speed up the flash pan to main powder reaction making a better overall situation. Flintlocks are often called flinchlocks and a slow burn affects accuracy.
Wetting BP with isopropanol was a mistake, it gives very weak granules. Pure water works best. Or use at least water-ethanol mixtures, with no more than 50% of ethanol. Dry it only at room temperature without heating or potassium nitrate will recrystallize. Also for your process (without press) its a good idea to add 5% of dextrine to make granules stronger.
Great job! Shy of using a press you did everything right, if you're still interested in powder making there's a channel called "Everything Black Powder" that's really thorough.
the diffrence between your bp and commercial is that commercial stuff is pressed into pucks and then grinded to form hard pebbles which dont turn to dust when compressed in the loading process
im assuming the store bought powder uses some binder agents to help keep the granuals consistent, you can try doing this by adding 1-2% dextrin to your mixture and using a solvent which has a percentage of water in it like 70% ethanol
@@chemdelicyou would be losing a portion of the potassium nitrate using the cia method, just ballmill the black powder and granulate it like a normal human
Commercial BP is made by compressing the powder into extremely dense pucks. Then once dried thy are crushed and then screened. The grain size is determined by the screen that it will go trough. Then the power is tumbled with graphite to smooth the edges and polish the grains.
part of the reason store bought powder burns a bit slower is because they grind it to burn at specific rates so you don't over pressure (Ie: blow up) the chamber.
I've never seen the real need for the long and tedious ball mill step. Please pay attention. What occurs when you add the lethal alcohol to the step after the ball mill? It wets and rapidly increases the mixing. I simply put the three part mix in large plastic container and after a few minutes of steering with a wooden spoon, screw on the lid and lid and hand tumble it end for end and stir it around by hand until the mixture looks homologous. Then back to a 2L beaker and add enough alcohol a few ml at a time while stirring with a non-metallic device and bring it to a roughly damp state, then dump it into a plastic bowl and work it by hand with plastic gloves. As the adding of liquid into the mixture increases the product mixing, I can't see the need to add the ball mill step and waste a day or two milling it to a fine powder only to turn it back into a dense rough classified grainy powder. I've been known to add other carbon as a substitute in the process, like a small percentage of confectioners powdered sugar, a small amount of thermite powder, etc,. to increase the rapid expansion and higher temperature as blasting powder, not gun powder. Think creatively and not redundantly, it's never a good feeling to know you are wasting time in meaningless ways.
I commend you for your wisdom in deciding not to attempt to make a cannon. There’s more to making a cannon than most realize. The most common mistake most novices make is to not create an adequately robust construct. The U&C result is that one realizes that instead of making a cannon, they instead made a pipe bomb, if they aren’t killed by the shrapnel from the first firing of their homemade cannon.
Without a musket or a canon, I really don't know what you are making this for except the exercise to understand how some history to it. You are right that thee some European makers used various forms of alcohol, including regular spirits like Rum or Vodka. This also makes them a bit slower burning, nice larger hard crystals, which make different grades of gun and cannon powder. This moderation of the size of crystals, hardness and sometimes the exothermic addition of other elements and moisture moderates the total thermionic runaway as well as making a crazy high explosive. Adding things like iron oxide, ultra fine tin and magnesium powder to the mixture increase the secondary rework of the fine powder into ultra high explosive, the first base mixture as you have it here uses alcohol to form the working clump mixture, and the added oxides for higher therm rates often used urine (yes, I spelled that right) as the wetting agent and this also added ammonia and a slower drying time to make better large crystals. There are many ways to accomplish this, including adding elements like fine cotton fibers to other high thermionic elements like steel wool, which are used to moderate longer and larger barrel cannons to greater effect (more gas expansion equals greater force and not just a single fast boom.
I think part of why commercial powder looks different is its classified both large and small... a sifter will let everything smaller than its mesh fall through.... to be more like a commercial product you would need to have a finer mesh after that to separate the ultrafine powder. It also wouldn't surprise me if the comercially made stuff uses a binder to keep the grains their intended size. Might try experimenting adding a bit of dextrin when youre mixing your dry ingredients... may need to adjust your ratios a bit tho
I am here because i am going to make my own "match tape" (sticky match) for lighting multiple fireworks simultaneously. You should use some of your black powder to make a roll of match tape. It is really simple and really effective and uses the same thermal runaway principal as you demonstrate with the rubber tube.
Hey chemdelic, if you want to make a 1 time use cannon with a small amount of gunpowder, put a cap on a tube (Pvc, acryclic, anything that can concentrate a blast) and add a small amount of gunpowder (2 oz per lbs of projectile) on the cap (make sure cap isnt sealed too tighy otherwise if your projectile is too big it will explode) then once you have the gunpowder (or any explosive) add the projectile. Have an air hole at the top of the tube so you can light the gunpowder. Important notices: Make sure to have air holes on your tube or it might explode. Also, to whomever it may concern, I am not responsible for any accidents that may occur during usage of hazardous chemicals. The reason this works, was taught to me in the public school system because when things burn, they release co2 and that will propell things. The faster something burns the faster it will release the co2 making the co2 pressuirsed and going down the path of least resistance (which is towards the projectile)
Not that I think any of this matters for the mixing your are doing. I could be very wrong here but it is my understanding that the difference between a tumbler and a mill is speed*. In a tumbler the action of the grit is achieved through a sloshing motion. The bulk of the material isn't in motion, or is in a lateral motion along the bottom. In a mill the the action of the medium is achieved with a falling motion. The material is tumbling around in a more circular motion like it was in a dryer. *you can lower the required speed with geometry, many ball mills have flat sides to give the material a longer ride up the side of the barrel at lowered speeds.
Your "store bought" powder, is not black powder. It's smokeless powder, which is a completely different chemical composition than black powder. Smokeless powders are designed to burn at a consistent rate while the bullet is traveling down the barrel, adding volume to the gas expansion over time. Which is why it burns slower than your powder. Doesn't mean your powder is more or less powerful, it's just a different composition. For example, commercial black powder is pressed to a specific density of around 1.75g per cc. Where as your powder is "screened" which hasn't been done commercially since the 1700's. To get the same performance from your powder than a commercia bp in a muzzleloader, you would need to around 1.5 times as much (in terms of volumetric measuring), than a commercial bp. The powder you made, will fire a muzzleloader, but is more appropriate for fireworks hobbyists. This sort of makes your open air burn test comparisons a bit pointless.
Store bought typically has fast burning and slow burning varieties, with the main difference being a relatively high KNO3 ratio in the faster burning and more greyish powders. I doubt they coated it.
@@chemdelic You also put extra work in with the milling process. Have you considered using a larger jar? Bigger radius = more smashy. Non-sparking ceramics that are durable are hard to come by. Haven't tried it outside of alumina, but zirconia cylinders are really good.
@@jesseparrish1993 I am just too lazy to buy a larger jar haha. I really want to build a cannon and test it out. I bought steel balls too for other applications.
@@thefirstmissinglink That's a good thought. I got a lot of work done with an old child's rock tumbler, a coffee tin, and some duct tape. With a little bit of modification, you can also spheronize some of the material, in case you want to make fireworks stars. Haven't tried it with black powder, mostly with concrete, but I reckon a little damping some mild binder solution (PVA?) would be sufficient. Just need a rolling pan at an angle.
Store bought powder is formed into more cylindrical granules designed to pack together better. They burn a bit slower, but that's a good thing because you're trying to launch a projectile with it, not blow your hand off
@Chemdelic *from the depths of the GunTube…* Your homemade powder granules would rapidly disintegrate as they were carried in a modern cartridge. The powder shakes around inside a bullet and so it actually does need to be dense and hard, for safety. If the granules broke up too much, the burn rate typically increases and the cartridge develops overpressure in the firearm… NOT good. So for safety, both powders and primers are typically made with a degree of hardness to them. Old cartridges and gunpowder are often considered unsafe and disposed of for this reason. Why risk it when you can buy a new box at the store? Now for preppers, it’s ok because the ammo is sitting stationary and if properly stored, that ammo will be fine for many years.
Good that not all gunpowder/blackpowder is used for guns, so we don't always have to adhere to those standards. Letting the use of firearms dictate how we think about safety must be an american way of thinking.
It looks like you made some really nice powder! I always thought you should mill your powder slightly damp but I've seen a lot of people say they just run it dry like you did.
Experienced reloader here. To anyone who may try. Please do not attempt to use this in ammunition. His burn rate is extremely fast. You will likely detonate any firearm that you put this in.
Shouldn't ball mill all the ingredients together!! Although you are using lead balls, which is relatively safe, it's FAR safer to mill them seperately, and then mix by placing them together on a sheet of paper, and folding the mix onto itself repeatedly until fully mixed. Even better, mill and mix the sulphur and charcoal, then add to a saturate hot solution of KNO3, mix well, then cool rapidly by placing the container in an ice bath, and adding some chilled isopropanol (wear a decent respirator at this stage!).
I've been making my own black powder because it's hard and expensive to get where I live and I shoot muzzleloaders a lot, including flintlocks. My powder which is about the consistency of 3F, burns faster than Goex commercially made powder, BUT I can't get any accuracy out of it at all. I'm not sure why I can't get the guns to shoot at all with any reliable accuracy, but there it is.
You need to press your powder slightly wet into pucks..like coins and than brake it with wooden hummer into small pieces and sift it to calibrate exact size you need. Also do not make 75/15/10. Make it 70kno³/20c/10s + 3% dextrin. On 100gr bp add 3gr of dextrin and ball mill it together
Measure your loads by weight instead of volume, most black powder measures are by volume because store bought powder is consistent in grain size making grain size consistent and keeping it from crumbling into different sizes is not that easy, but weight should give more consistent results
Need to puck the powder to actually corn it. Then when its hard like a rock, grind it in a corn grinder. Otherwise, you're just grating it through a screen. More boom boom per grain with pucking.
I actually just weigh out 1-2% dextrin by weight of my BP mix and heat up about 15-20% by weight water of my BP mix, and dissolve the dextrin into that. Then I just add that into my BP mix and finish off with my 75/25 H2O/Iso solution as needed/if needed. But you can also just make a batch of 10/90% dextrin/H2O solution. Just don’t make too much as it will go rancid within a few days to a week.
Holy cow! That was a quick burn! I never got mine as good as that! To make the granuals more durable for transport and stuff usually 5% dextrin is added as a binder. Thats the stuff that makes watercolor hard when it's dry, and its basically just starch, but baked in an oven.
"making a really simple substance that was discovered 11 centuries ago to compete with a guy that discovered how to split atoms in half and have them level cities"
Why my mixture is burning slow and leaving behind a texture like melting sugar..i didnt use the alchohol and i mixed it by hand.. Please help me to get it to ignite fast
When I was younger I got some potassium perchloride and some type of aluminum powder and made firecrackers. Is that the same as this? The ones I made were loud AF. Probably dangerous too Glad I still have my hands and fingers.
You are describing flashpowder. It burns way hotter and way faster than black powder, because the fuel is a metal powder like aluminum or magnesium. Potassium perchlorate is also an oxidizer just like potassium Nitrate, just more powerful. Firecrackers made from this stuff can be incredibly powerful, and that's why they are actually illegal in some places (like Germany)
@@engineer0239 I'll tell you they were the best firecrackers I've ever seen. I was buying the powder and the cardboard tubes sent right to my house along with the fuse. A little hot glue and you're in business
Your BP probably has better or more reactive charcoal and didn’t contain dextrin or a binder that the commercial BP does. This is the reason why your BP has a much faster burn rate. If you use balsa charcoal your BP will almost be explosive when burning. Look up black match and quick match if you want to understand how fast things burn in a confined environment.
why did you use 99% isopropyl alcohol instead of a 75/25 water/isopropyl mix? do you think using 99% isopropyl is the reason it burned faster than store bought? maybe the recrystalization of the KNO3 slows down the burn rate and is the reason store bought is harder?
Now thats cool and all but have you ever tried putting a cap on both ends of that tube and liting the powder through an internal fuse? That's usually how I get the best results.
I wonder if some of your results are from trace lead from the milling. Be interesting to see the difference between some milled with lead vs ceramic or stainless.
To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/Chemdelic/ . The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.
get that bag
I checked out brilliant but they cant help you, there are no instructions on how to build a cannon.
Fortunately, I know how to build a super easy cannon. Dig a round hole in the ground big enough to be your cannon barrel. Find a suitable sized tree to be the hole in said barrel and if it isn't a smooth barked tree, strip the bark off. Depending on how complex a cannon you want to make either lodge the tree in the ground for a breach loader or rig up a way to hold the tree in the center but off the ground for a muzzle loader. If this is your first cannon I advise a muzzle loader. Pour your brass around the tree, it will burn a bit and that's fine, it will even things out. I forgot to mention, a very important detail, put the thickest end if the tree where the muzzle will be. If you dont, your cannonball can get stuck if it deforms (and they often do) and turn your cannon into a bomb. Let that metal mess cool for a while, and dig it out. For finishing work if you have a decent lathe that is big enough you can shore up the inside. Otherwise you basically just scrape down any part of the inner barrel that is sticking out. Don't overdo it, remember it tapers towards the back naturally. Really the muzzle will be the worst part if the tree doesn't crack. Oh and for a muzzle loader make sure its secure of you might get the tree wanting to launch out of the barrel thanks to gas buildup. For a breach loader you need to ream out the bore very well, grind down the back and make a fancy manhole cover for the back of the cannon.
I've always wanted to know how gunpowder would perform if you used lycopodium as the carbon source, or even charred lycopodium but that probably wouldn't be necessary.
Wow that was without doubt the best BP deflagration I've ever seen.
I know it's classified as a LE, but that's the closest I've ever seen an unconfined pile get to "going off with a bang".... honestly I've seen this a thousand times and can't praise it enough.
I used to open up Chinese firecrackers and even their industry standard was only about, close to as good as this. But for this to be home made, I'm stunned.
Kudos to you!
Brother, can black gunpowder be nitrated by adding nitric acid to make it smokeless?
it would be nice if someone came up with a black powder substitute that burned clean like smokeless so the guns wouldn't fowl up.
Pyrodex is probably the closest we can get to that.
is this ironic or ?? cause there is
Pyrodex, Triple 7. There’s plenty of substitutes
I mean there is nitrocellulose. That is also what they use in smokeless powder iirc
How abt smokeless?
Store bought powder is pressed, then ground to a particular size, the only need to add dextrin is if you aren't pressing and just grating with a screen like you did. They usually coat the grains with very fine graphite, which makes it blacker like you noticed. Awesome video! If you need any lathe work done for a small cannon, hit me up, I'd be happy to help
Thank you!!
The graphite makes it less susceptible to being ignited by static electricity.
The sulfur also serves as a plasticizer when it is compressed in a press to harden the granules. Hence the reason for no dextrin.
They also toss the sized granules back into the mill for 24-48 hours to polish and round off the sharp edges to make it flow better. Graphite is usually tossed in the last couple of hours.
Using the right tools you can easily make homemade powder that rivals or exceeds the best commercial brands.
Usually the type of charcoal used can make a big difference.
@@arezhik7774 When it loses all sharp edges it might not catch and progress the fire front easily.
So I would expect a rough granular powder to burn quicker, but be less consistent/stable.
For a commercial powder consistency and safety are certainly key, not the highest performance.
Adding a small amount of dextrin before you turn it into granules will make them stronger and less likely to crumble and turn back into a powder
Yes commercial BP is coated with graphite to help protect it from moisture and also makes it a little harder to ignite, thus more safe from accidental ignition from a random spark.
It is also hydraulically compressed then crushed into granules to make a more dense granule, thus giving more energy in a smaller space. It’s also bound with a small percentage of dextrin to help make a harder granule.
The best way to introduce dextrin into your powder, is to PRE-DISSOLVE the dextrin into warm water. A ratio of 10% dextrin to 90% water is more than enough. Then just spritz your powder with the dextrin liquor mix until thoroughly integrated into your composition enough to granulate it or just enough to integrate the dextrin then switch to your Alcohol mix to get your consistency.
By pre dissolving the dextrin before adding it to your composition really makes a huge difference, than just adding dry dextrin into your dry mix.
The dry dextrin really likes to hog all the water until it gets its fill and gets fully activated. And during that time, that dextrin really likes taking your nitrate and separating it from your thoroughly ball milled microscopic chemical mixture, and creating larger particles rather than keeping them small and tight together.
I know I just wrote a book of a comment, but IT REALLY MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR POWDERS BURN RATE over just adding in dry dextrin, AND YOU STILL GET NICE HARD GRANULES without sacrificing burn rate.
Commercial BP (Goex, Swiss, Schuetzen, etc.) doesn't contain dextrin. Dextrin addition is used in the fireworks community to help with binding because they use screened and not pressed BP. Addition of dextrin (for any purpose, fireworks or muzzleloading) only decreases the burn rate, which is unacceptable for commercial purposes. For fireworks, the decrease in performance is very negligible and aids in manufacturing process for bulk, speed of manufacture, and ease of handling.
I used to make gunpowder back in the 70s. My friend and I added fine Aluminum dust to the powder and it made a huge difference.
Ah yes, accidentally making a flash powder
Yet, nitrates and aluminium are not that stable together long-term. For star formulas one has to add boric acid esp. when the powder is processed with the use of water.
If I remember correctly some recipes use dextrin mixed into the powder. This makes it a bit harder and more dense, as you noticed with the store bought powder.
It also makes it much much easier to corn without using a press. Without dextrin or using the press method, the corned chunks aren’t very durable and crumble easily.
The density also has an effect on burn rate. This is basically a polverone type powder. The powder I made from white poplar charcoal was like a sluggish flashpowder in low density form but slowed down some (but not too much) after pressing. That's ok though because it's for my pistol. Gunpowder is an art that can take a while to perfect. Yours is pretty good BTW.
This would work great in a flintlock. The quicker burn time would speed up the flash pan to main powder reaction making a better overall situation. Flintlocks are often called flinchlocks and a slow burn affects accuracy.
I really appreciate your channel dude, it kind of reaffirms that being a chemist is sort of where I want to head. 🤙
I really appreciate your appreciation of the appreciated sir. Many Appreciations, yours truly Mr appreciated
@@franukito ahhhhh!! Much appreciated! 😘😘😘
I think one thing a lot of chemists have in common is glee at watching stuff blow up
@@tezinho81 it's why we suffered through physical chemistry
Breaking Beakers
Wetting BP with isopropanol was a mistake, it gives very weak granules. Pure water works best. Or use at least water-ethanol mixtures, with no more than 50% of ethanol. Dry it only at room temperature without heating or potassium nitrate will recrystallize. Also for your process (without press) its a good idea to add 5% of dextrine to make granules stronger.
Thank you for the advice! I’ll have to try that next time :)
I have some experience in black powder, and I gotta say, this is one of the fastest burning black powder I've seen, maybe even better than goex.
Great job! Shy of using a press you did everything right, if you're still interested in powder making there's a channel called "Everything Black Powder" that's really thorough.
Usually powder coated with graphite to prevent self-ignition caused by electrical charges
Oh no….there was a hole in your glove when you held the lead ball. I’m sorry.
I am a goner :(
the diffrence between your bp and commercial is that commercial stuff is pressed into pucks and then grinded to form hard pebbles which dont turn to dust when compressed in the loading process
im assuming the store bought powder uses some binder agents to help keep the granuals consistent, you can try doing this by adding 1-2% dextrin to your mixture and using a solvent which has a percentage of water in it like 70% ethanol
I think I’ll try the CIA method next time as well. Thank you for the tip!
Store bought powder does not actually, it's corned with a hydraulic press
@@chemdelic777i
@@chemdelicThat's well known to be an inferior method
@@chemdelicyou would be losing a portion of the potassium nitrate using the cia method, just ballmill the black powder and granulate it like a normal human
Commercial BP is made by compressing the powder into extremely dense pucks. Then once dried thy are crushed and then screened. The grain size is determined by the screen that it will go trough. Then the power is tumbled with graphite to smooth the edges and polish the grains.
Yet, pressing and esp. crushing is the most dangerous part. If you get good enough results without it, it's not worth the risk and effort.
part of the reason store bought powder burns a bit slower is because they grind it to burn at specific rates so you don't over pressure (Ie: blow up) the chamber.
Pretty good myth someone started. 4f BP won't blow up a rifle.
Thank you dear fellow, I will now utilise this upgrade for me Brown Bess, Land Pattern Musket for home defence just as the Magna Carta intended
I've never seen the real need for the long and tedious ball mill step. Please pay attention. What occurs when you add the lethal alcohol to the step after the ball mill? It wets and rapidly increases the mixing. I simply put the three part mix in large plastic container and after a few minutes of steering with a wooden spoon, screw on the lid and lid and hand tumble it end for end and stir it around by hand until the mixture looks homologous. Then back to a 2L beaker and add enough alcohol a few ml at a time while stirring with a non-metallic device and bring it to a roughly damp state, then dump it into a plastic bowl and work it by hand with plastic gloves. As the adding of liquid into the mixture increases the product mixing, I can't see the need to add the ball mill step and waste a day or two milling it to a fine powder only to turn it back into a dense rough classified grainy powder.
I've been known to add other carbon as a substitute in the process, like a small percentage of confectioners powdered sugar, a small amount of thermite powder, etc,. to increase the rapid expansion and higher temperature as blasting powder, not gun powder. Think creatively and not redundantly, it's never a good feeling to know you are wasting time in meaningless ways.
Works well if you just force it through the strainer with the back of a spoon . Also use 75% alcohol to 25% water
It's amazing how tough then granules are when you use a press same with the pucks
thank you for this tutorial it really helped me :D
Glad it helped!
I like the concept of this video for educational purposes. Good job!
I always add dextrin to mine for the grains. It's superior and I've used it for black powder shooting.
oh wow he actually make the quality wayyyy better than anything else ive seen with his process
I commend you for your wisdom in deciding not to attempt to make a cannon. There’s more to making a cannon than most realize. The most common mistake most novices make is to not create an adequately robust construct. The U&C result is that one realizes that instead of making a cannon, they instead made a pipe bomb, if they aren’t killed by the shrapnel from the first firing of their homemade cannon.
Without a musket or a canon, I really don't know what you are making this for except the exercise to understand how some history to it.
You are right that thee some European makers used various forms of alcohol, including regular spirits like Rum or Vodka. This also makes them a bit slower burning, nice larger hard crystals, which make different grades of gun and cannon powder. This moderation of the size of crystals, hardness and sometimes the exothermic addition of other elements and moisture moderates the total thermionic runaway as well as making a crazy high explosive. Adding things like iron oxide, ultra fine tin and magnesium powder to the mixture increase the secondary rework of the fine powder into ultra high explosive, the first base mixture as you have it here uses alcohol to form the working clump mixture, and the added oxides for higher therm rates often used urine (yes, I spelled that right) as the wetting agent and this also added ammonia and a slower drying time to make better large crystals. There are many ways to accomplish this, including adding elements like fine cotton fibers to other high thermionic elements like steel wool, which are used to moderate longer and larger barrel cannons to greater effect (more gas expansion equals greater force and not just a single fast boom.
I think part of why commercial powder looks different is its classified both large and small... a sifter will let everything smaller than its mesh fall through.... to be more like a commercial product you would need to have a finer mesh after that to separate the ultrafine powder. It also wouldn't surprise me if the comercially made stuff uses a binder to keep the grains their intended size. Might try experimenting adding a bit of dextrin when youre mixing your dry ingredients... may need to adjust your ratios a bit tho
You should have put an object stuck in one end of the tube and you would basically have a small cannon
Wow... what a noticable improvement on production!
I am here because i am going to make my own "match tape" (sticky match) for lighting multiple fireworks simultaneously.
You should use some of your black powder to make a roll of match tape.
It is really simple and really effective and uses the same thermal runaway principal as you demonstrate with the rubber tube.
It is safer to mill the ingredients separately (at least KNO3). I guess it doesn't have negative effects to the end result.
and to add little graphit
Hey chemdelic, if you want to make a 1 time use cannon with a small amount of gunpowder, put a cap on a tube (Pvc, acryclic, anything that can concentrate a blast) and add a small amount of gunpowder (2 oz per lbs of projectile) on the cap (make sure cap isnt sealed too tighy otherwise if your projectile is too big it will explode) then once you have the gunpowder (or any explosive) add the projectile. Have an air hole at the top of the tube so you can light the gunpowder.
Important notices: Make sure to have air holes on your tube or it might explode.
Also, to whomever it may concern, I am not responsible for any accidents that may occur during usage of hazardous chemicals.
The reason this works, was taught to me in the public school system because when things burn, they release co2 and that will propell things. The faster something burns the faster it will release the co2 making the co2 pressuirsed and going down the path of least resistance (which is towards the projectile)
Not that I think any of this matters for the mixing your are doing.
I could be very wrong here but it is my understanding that the difference between a tumbler and a mill is speed*.
In a tumbler the action of the grit is achieved through a sloshing motion. The bulk of the material isn't in motion, or is in a lateral motion along the bottom.
In a mill the the action of the medium is achieved with a falling motion. The material is tumbling around in a more circular motion like it was in a dryer.
*you can lower the required speed with geometry, many ball mills have flat sides to give the material a longer ride up the side of the barrel at lowered speeds.
Mark my words man, you will be one of the biggest chemistry youtubers.
Let us hope. Thank you so much for that
lets hope not
@@fetBwhy
@@fetB dawg😂
Build a cannon with a old pressurised canister like a propane one, or an oxygen one used for diving.
>reference to Oppenheimer with homemade powder
>where pipe bomb
Dude, use dextrin as a binder to make your granules hard and use balsa wood charcoal it makes the fastest burning bp
Your "store bought" powder, is not black powder. It's smokeless powder, which is a completely different chemical composition than black powder. Smokeless powders are designed to burn at a consistent rate while the bullet is traveling down the barrel, adding volume to the gas expansion over time. Which is why it burns slower than your powder. Doesn't mean your powder is more or less powerful, it's just a different composition. For example, commercial black powder is pressed to a specific density of around 1.75g per cc. Where as your powder is "screened" which hasn't been done commercially since the 1700's. To get the same performance from your powder than a commercia bp in a muzzleloader, you would need to around 1.5 times as much (in terms of volumetric measuring), than a commercial bp. The powder you made, will fire a muzzleloader, but is more appropriate for fireworks hobbyists. This sort of makes your open air burn test comparisons a bit pointless.
That was great, any videos on making the play dough version?
Downloading this video before it gets blocked in my country
It always gets blocked in South Korea for some reason lol
Lead will leave residue, but brass will not spark and would be sufficient for crushing.
here before it gets taken down
About time I've been waiting.
A cannon is like a pipe bomb, with a cap at one end & a removable plug at the other.
By far the best Black powder video i have watched. Appreciate your time and effort.
Try adding dextrin or red gum for holding the grains/granules together after.
Why is it that granules burn faster as opposed to fine powder?
Store bought typically has fast burning and slow burning varieties, with the main difference being a relatively high KNO3 ratio in the faster burning and more greyish powders. I doubt they coated it.
Yeah I assumed a different formula at the end
@@chemdelic You also put extra work in with the milling process. Have you considered using a larger jar? Bigger radius = more smashy. Non-sparking ceramics that are durable are hard to come by. Haven't tried it outside of alumina, but zirconia cylinders are really good.
@@jesseparrish1993 I am just too lazy to buy a larger jar haha. I really want to build a cannon and test it out. I bought steel balls too for other applications.
@@jesseparrish1993pie weights for baking pie crust are ceramic and relatively inexpensive.
@@thefirstmissinglink That's a good thought.
I got a lot of work done with an old child's rock tumbler, a coffee tin, and some duct tape.
With a little bit of modification, you can also spheronize some of the material, in case you want to make fireworks stars. Haven't tried it with black powder, mostly with concrete, but I reckon a little damping some mild binder solution (PVA?) would be sufficient. Just need a rolling pan at an angle.
At about 1:30 you talk about corned powder. Corned powder is usually compressed in a pucking die.
the comparison between your powder and "store bought" really reminded me of infomercials. id say im convinced
-liz
Glad I sold you on it
-Chemdelic
Store bought powder is formed into more cylindrical granules designed to pack together better. They burn a bit slower, but that's a good thing because you're trying to launch a projectile with it, not blow your hand off
Interesting. I didn’t know that
Tell me why you put alcohol and whether water helps
watching this channel is like roulette lmao. every time a new vid comes out I have to ask myself if this is the one that's gonna get it deleted
@Chemdelic *from the depths of the GunTube…*
Your homemade powder granules would rapidly disintegrate as they were carried in a modern cartridge. The powder shakes around inside a bullet and so it actually does need to be dense and hard, for safety. If the granules broke up too much, the burn rate typically increases and the cartridge develops overpressure in the firearm… NOT good. So for safety, both powders and primers are typically made with a degree of hardness to them. Old cartridges and gunpowder are often considered unsafe and disposed of for this reason. Why risk it when you can buy a new box at the store? Now for preppers, it’s ok because the ammo is sitting stationary and if properly stored, that ammo will be fine for many years.
Good that not all gunpowder/blackpowder is used for guns, so we don't always have to adhere to those standards. Letting the use of firearms dictate how we think about safety must be an american way of thinking.
It looks like you made some really nice powder! I always thought you should mill your powder slightly damp but I've seen a lot of people say they just run it dry like you did.
Experienced reloader here. To anyone who may try. Please do not attempt to use this in ammunition. His burn rate is extremely fast. You will likely detonate any firearm that you put this in.
Seemed more like flash powder, might be great for using in a pan on a flint lock
Ok you've convinced me, time to get up and fix my ball mill
it looks like Hern Iron Works will sell you a full scale cannon for under a grand if you can build your own carriage for it
Shouldn't ball mill all the ingredients together!! Although you are using lead balls, which is relatively safe, it's FAR safer to mill them seperately, and then mix by placing them together on a sheet of paper, and folding the mix onto itself repeatedly until fully mixed. Even better, mill and mix the sulphur and charcoal, then add to a saturate hot solution of KNO3, mix well, then cool rapidly by placing the container in an ice bath, and adding some chilled isopropanol (wear a decent respirator at this stage!).
commercial black powder is glazed with graphite to make it electrically conductive
I've been making my own black powder because it's hard and expensive to get where I live and I shoot muzzleloaders a lot, including flintlocks. My powder which is about the consistency of 3F, burns faster than Goex commercially made powder, BUT I can't get any accuracy out of it at all. I'm not sure why I can't get the guns to shoot at all with any reliable accuracy, but there it is.
You need to press your powder slightly wet into pucks..like coins and than brake it with wooden hummer into small pieces and sift it to calibrate exact size you need. Also do not make 75/15/10. Make it 70kno³/20c/10s + 3% dextrin. On 100gr bp add 3gr of dextrin and ball mill it together
@@accipiternisus649 do you add any graphit?
Measure your loads by weight instead of volume, most black powder measures are by volume because store bought powder is consistent in grain size making grain size consistent and keeping it from crumbling into different sizes is not that easy, but weight should give more consistent results
How does this work for rocketry? Better than sugar rockets?
It would be rad if you tried making cordite.
Need to puck the powder to actually corn it. Then when its hard like a rock, grind it in a corn grinder. Otherwise, you're just grating it through a screen. More boom boom per grain with pucking.
Nice video man I love how sulfur looks too but how it smells keeps me awake at night
I actually just weigh out 1-2% dextrin by weight of my BP mix and heat up about 15-20% by weight water of my BP mix, and dissolve the dextrin into that. Then I just add that into my BP mix and finish off with my 75/25 H2O/Iso solution as needed/if needed.
But you can also just make a batch of 10/90% dextrin/H2O solution.
Just don’t make too much as it will go rancid within a few days to a week.
Holy cow! That was a quick burn! I never got mine as good as that! To make the granuals more durable for transport and stuff usually 5% dextrin is added as a binder. Thats the stuff that makes watercolor hard when it's dry, and its basically just starch, but baked in an oven.
Interesting! Thank you
why not replace potassium nitrate with kclo3 …?
Filed flint sulfur aluminium and match heads test at your own risk
"making a really simple substance that was discovered 11 centuries ago to compete with a guy that discovered how to split atoms in half and have them level cities"
the store bought is harder because it probably has dextrin in it
Why my mixture is burning slow and leaving behind a texture like melting sugar..i didnt use the alchohol and i mixed it by hand..
Please help me to get it to ignite fast
Question.... what wood did you use for the charcoal.
When I was younger I got some potassium perchloride and some type of aluminum powder and made firecrackers. Is that the same as this? The ones I made were loud AF. Probably dangerous too Glad I still have my hands and fingers.
Nah, what you made was way more dangerous than this.
You are describing flashpowder. It burns way hotter and way faster than black powder, because the fuel is a metal powder like aluminum or magnesium. Potassium perchlorate is also an oxidizer just like potassium Nitrate, just more powerful.
Firecrackers made from this stuff can be incredibly powerful, and that's why they are actually illegal in some places (like Germany)
@@engineer0239 I'll tell you they were the best firecrackers I've ever seen. I was buying the powder and the cardboard tubes sent right to my house along with the fuse. A little hot glue and you're in business
@@engineer0239 What isn't illegal in Germany?
@@technoman9000 paying taxes. Yeah it's pretty bad.
Your BP probably has better or more reactive charcoal and didn’t contain dextrin or a binder that the commercial BP does. This is the reason why your BP has a much faster burn rate. If you use balsa charcoal your BP will almost be explosive when burning. Look up black match and quick match if you want to understand how fast things burn in a confined environment.
The chemdelic is perfect for explosives
why did you use 99% isopropyl alcohol instead of a 75/25 water/isopropyl mix? do you think using 99% isopropyl is the reason it burned faster than store bought? maybe the recrystalization of the KNO3 slows down the burn rate and is the reason store bought is harder?
Now thats cool and all but have you ever tried putting a cap on both ends of that tube and liting the powder through an internal fuse? That's usually how I get the best results.
I would say that, when mixed with the alcohol, it has become Serious Putty
9:13
Regula milled black powder
9:31 Chemdelic homemade powder (Granulated)
9:47 Store-bought Black Powder
Have you ever tried to use the "boiling method" where you disolve the saltpeter in water and then add charcole and sulfur?
homogeneous mixture. Homogolus is used to signify a series of similar compounds like FeS(x) as in Pirite, pirrotite and iron sulfite.
they actually also used black powder in the making of Oppenheimer for the explosion
you shold try dark aluminum powder instead of charcoal its very bright and is very fast but pottasium perchlorate and aluminum is better
it would surely be nice to see how i don't build a pipe bomb by accident while cleaning my apartment
You can use a Salute cannon that shoots a toilet paper wad and goes Boom . They are pretty cheap !
It amazes me that Carbon is the "Explosive" in this concotion.
We were sailing smoothly until the thermal runaway demonstration.
What do you mean?
I have a blue kinda nitrate potassium and I did everything right but it didn't burnt is it because of the nitrate potassium
You should do some pyro flare mixtures next. StyroPyro did a beautiful blue but didn't give the exact recipe.
Twice I have made this by this recipe and it won't burn,what is going wrong?
Great work sir👍.
Imagine inventing something to live forever that would enviably lead to the death of millions, and injuring of millions more.
Maybe a ball mill with an air hole or a pressure blow-off valve? What you've made is a very capable bomb.
I wonder if some of your results are from trace lead from the milling. Be interesting to see the difference between some milled with lead vs ceramic or stainless.
Build the cannon please
You should never dry mill the black powder! Add a little bit of solvent