On May 21, 2:54*pm, "Snag" wrote:
Ed Huntress wrote:
"steamer" wrote in message
...
--I've been trying for ages to get my .177 cal mortar to shoot a
pellet more than a foot. I'm using FFG which is the finest powder
available
locally. What I need, I think, is the stuff that's normally packed
into firecrackers. Now' I've toyed with the idea of making a brass
mortar and pestel to grind the FFG powder into something finer but I
thot I'd better ask here B4 becoming a candidate for a Darwin Award.
--Any useful advice appreciated!

Get a ceramic mortar and pestle from a gourmet cooking supply shop,
and do a match-head-sized lump at a time. Wear face protection and
gloves. Keep your supply and container for ground powder eight or ten
feet away, and keep dumping each little bit into the container.

I've done it when I couldn't get good primer powder for a flintlock
rifle. I've also ground up homemade powder this way, when I mixed it
wet and dried it into little lumps. I never had any drama from it.
Patience is better than drama.

--
Ed Huntress

Additionally , use a grounded strap on your wrist and all containers and
work surfaces . A static spark can kill you ! Wear cotton clothing - less
likely to build a static charge - and thin leather gloves for both
sensitivity and burn protection . BP is originally granulated while still
damp , with the exception of FFFFG , which is pulverized in a ball mill .
* Every accident I've seen (only a few ,thankfully) involving HE and other
explosives/pyrothechnics has been caused by static discharge ... or sheer
stupidity , as in "hole ma beer an' watch this" .
--
Snag
"Still got ten , two , and two
For two years during the Viet Nam war I worked at the Cornhusker Army
Ammunition plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. One of the jobs on the
bomb making line was to take 50# boxes of TNT (sometimes Ammonium
Nitrate) off a conveyor line and unbox the sacks with the explosives
and dump them in a hopper where the contents dropped into huge wheeled
carts a floor below. Usually these bags were waxed paper. In addition
to all cotton clothes and special shoes and gloves we took all kinds
of precautions to prevent static electricity. One day two truckloads
of TNT cames in that were packed differently. They were wrapped in
plastic instead of the usual waxed paper. The station that unloaded
the first bag noticed a static electric spark when they emptied the
bag. Luckily no explosion! The lead man immediately hit the switch to
stop the conveyor line and called the foreman. The foreman called the
line supervisor and the safety man. The line supervisor we could keep
the bags in contact with the metal hopper while emptying and they
would not spark. The safety man was not going to say NO to the line
supervisor. However by this time the Union Steward had notified the
Union Headquarters about the problem and the Union honchos told her to
shut down the line. We all walked off because we knew it was dangerous
to continue unloading those plastic bags. Eleven million pounds of TNT
from that shipment was returned to DuPont to be repackaged. During a
follow up by the Union it was said that this 11 million pounds had
been rejected by another arsenal because of the spark hazard. Instead
of repacking then someone in the food chain decided to send it to us
because they thought our Union people would cave in. A perfect example
of just how stupid decisions are made by management all the time.

DL