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I will try to be complete in my instructions .
Safety,safety,safety! Glasses,gloves (nitril, noeprene,latex the cheap mechanics or hairdressers kind). I probably presume too much caution,18 yr slinging ammo for GIs makes safety gear and sense like my thumbs still there and vital. Don't use anything that could spark or make static .
The easy route for parts. You can of course spend more or less and buy top shelf premium components purity proofed and the certified tools. This is what I use and what several folks I've met use for their own 3-5# needs. I'm not a pro just a joe making some of my own from what I can get easy w/o playing 20 questions.
This is about as safe as pouring smokeless powder from the can to the measure and back . IT MUST BE CLEAR YOU ASSUME ALL RISK FOR THIS AND THAT IT IS NOT HAZARD FREE. It is BP and could burn unexpectedly. Use no steel to steel parts,no smoking, no open flame, no lanterns, oil lamps or sparks . Use your head ,think, be aware, take this very seriously,don't do anything stupid.
To keep it light '' the bright flash isn't a problem,the boom is,my God you have no idea the paper work''
I have a 2 drum Harbor Freight rock tumbler and cast my own balls of soft lead to make the above a ball mill.45,50 and 690 the 45s and 50s are prefered.
I buy Spectricide stump remover its 97% KNO3
I buy Bonide sulpher plant fungacide 90% sulpher*
I make the charcoal ,but, black willow charcoal sticks are also available in art supplies.
Dextrose food grade corn starch.
* Ace Hardware the rest is from Wal-Mart.
Charcoal
I use a salvaged 5 gal steel can w/a lid. I just poked 5 holes in the top ''dice'' pattern. I fill it w/3gallons of wood to char, so far, I haven't diced it down to make maximum occupancy . Grape is hard to stuff really full because of its vine nature. I see where a professional fireworks guy cuts his in to 2'' blocks or less to really fill the bucket . My yield seems to be pretty stable at about 60% of what goes in 50% if its wet.
Camp fires or burn piles are pretty handy for this. I drop the can into the fire,in just a minute or 2 it begins to off gas w/steam and white smoke in maybe 6-7 min the vent gas will ignite and depending on details will be a wick or rocket . About 30-35 min and the gas burn goes out. I then pull can and put the open end down while it cools down.
I crush it down small marble sized chunks and mill it an hr or so w/about half of the mill full of LEAD balls and half charcoal and it powders. This is the depressing part you start w/2.5-3 gallons of wood in a 5 gallon bucket and the powdered charcoal fits in a gallon zip lock bag. Good news it makes a lot of powder.
Next up you can get powdered saltpeter (KN03) but I used the Spectricide stump remover which is granular so in the second drum (double drum mill) I mill it to powder also again an hr or so 50/50 w/LEAD balls. Note here, at Wally world it is in the home section between closeouts and house paint not in the garden area.
Next is the sulphur. I was unable to find rose dust that was sulphur at Wal-Mart so a trip to Ace took care of that . Again pure can be purchased and this may add to my issue w/corning . The Bonide brand is 90/10 w/the 10% being an anti-clumping agent contributing to getting it to stick together later. This is already well powdered .
Last is the dextrin aka cornstarch this gets added at the last little bit and is just to make it all stick together for corning .
I went to the local hardware for some copper screen and built a a screening/sorting/corning tray about 10-16'' . Its real handy for shaking the balls loose from the powder and powdered parts.
I have an old enameled oval wash basin and an aluminum cookie sheet. I pour the powdered stuff through the box screen to get the balls out into the oval basin then into saving containers spectracide into its original bottle and charcoal into a bag.
Formulas are more or less the same but all over. The recipe I is as follows.
200 gm specticide
40 gm charcoal
20 gm sulphur
26 gm corn starch
I scrape the charcoal drum ''clean'' as the charcoal sticks to the sides and bottom corner. I use this drum to blend .
Measure in the spectracide ,charcoal and sulphur.
I double up and let it mill w/half a drum of balls for 3-4 hr they say an hr is enough and little is gained by more than 2 ,but, finer powder blends finer let it mill a little longer or not.
At about the last 15-20 min you intend to mill add the corn starch. Use caution opening the drum the powder is sticky and very light. Meaning it could be floating dust and it will get all over you if you stick your finger in it.
Now you've got it all blended grab your cookie sheet and the screen box and scraper. Pour out the drum this is about 5F (fffffg)maybe 6F BP. W/the corn starch added it seems to be less prone to dust and more sticky to itself. Shake your screen out scrape the drum pour the balls back in the drum.
I use rubbing alcohol but water is ok too and wet the powder while mixing it to a consistency that will be damp but not wet and will stick together like that damp mud ball that would standup but just never stayed all together when you threw it at your sister, or the clay sand that you cast lead in for HS metal shop . By the 3rd batch you'll have it down pretty good.
With it wetted you can ball it up into a single ball the double batch is about halfway between a baseball and softball size wise. Now use the screen box like a grater and grate the ball down into an even layer across the cookie sheet the 12x18 will have a 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch w/an inch or so border . The drying times depend heavily on how wet the powder is,humidity,temp and takes about 150% longer w/water than alc. My 1st batch took about 5hr and should have been a little wetter I think.
I did a burn test w/equal amounts of 3F 777 and this BP and the open burn was very very close in terms of time. Over the Chrony in a 58' Remmy 3F Goex w/a nominal full charge 25gr((?) I trimmed the spout and forgot about it) clocked 805-828fps while this filled flush to the cyl mouth and compression seated w/the ball clocked 645-658 later I shot some w/ 1/8 in felt wads and by feel I would say closer to 700 w/the compression being higher and less chamber space etc. As for clean well I've shot 777 and Pyro RS in this pistol and never once gotten over 12 rds in my 1st test I fired 24 including the 1st 6 of 777. In March i went to a gathering and fired 14 cylinders uncleaned 1 day, more than I'd shot that pistol in the 5 yrs I'd had it combined. I'm going to say its about as clean as Goex or Pyro but more dust off sooty. The 1st pound cost me close to $80 the 2nd was closer to $8 . Just because I'd bought the tumbler for this and a lot of seasonal close out chemicals.
Other thoughts . W/o the 3% of whatever in the stump remover and the 10% anticlumping stuff in the sulphur there would be 5% more active powder and would likely need less corn starch which would also increase the active powder. 16 mesh screen (common window) makes a powder of course 3F.
For detailed videos you can check out brushhippy outdoors on Utube. I've met him, he's straight as a die and has a wide knowledge base far beyond BP shooting, but I think he may have lived as a buffalo hunter.
Charcoal wood guide
http://www.wichitabuggywhip.com/firewor ... tests.html
My 1st batch burn test w/777 on the rt.
Screening guide
http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/hel ... Charts.asp
Brushhippy Outdoors powder video
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