On Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 11:09:05 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 7:02:49 PM UTC-5, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pete Keillor wrote:
On Thu, 5 Feb 2015 12:29:32 -0600, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:22:21 -0600, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 18:05:52 -0600, "Terry Coombs"
wrote:

wrote:
On Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 3:08:25 PM UTC-5, Terry Coombs
wrote:
Anybody know what they're made of ?
--
Snag

There is at least two types. One a lead alloy and the other
zinc.

Dan

These are the lead alloy , a place my son worked at tossed boxes
of new weights when they converted . Most of the boxes made their
way into the shop manager's car ... my son managed to get one for
me and no one ever asked why the manager ordered a bunch of them
shortly before the changeover ... . I also got a bunch of used
ones from somewhere , the ones that didn't melt were all steel .
The lead alloy weights are alloyed with antimony to make them
harder. Will lead particles in the finished product be a problem?
Because there will surely be lead dust in the dust you are making..
Eric

Well , since it's intended to push lead , I don't think it'll
matter much . I have really gotten into primitive hunting
techniques since moving to the woods of North central Arkansas ...
next thing ya know I'll be gluing turkey feathers onto wood sticks
with glue from boiled hooves . Though I might get into something
more modern once I finish my Gingery shaper build . With a
shaper one can fabricate bolt action receivers . And a lot of
other neat stuff . Like falling blocks ...
I thought that black powder was made by milling the charcoal and
sulfur together, the saltpetre by itself, and then carefully mixing
them. I have a recipe somewhere from over 40 years ago that I used
to make my own powder. I used a mortar and pestle. Made by Coors.
Appropriate at the time because we were drinking some we stole from
my friend's dad. I remember wetting the powder and pressing it into
tiny pellets about 1/4" diameter and 1/8" long. After drying we
made some pretty loud bangs but not as loud as hoped.
Eric

It all gets milled together . I'll be using KNO3 prills for some ,
that material will be milled a couple of hours before adding the
charcoal and sulfur . Once it's all milled to the consistency of
very fine dust it'll be moistened just enough to be pressed into
cakes which will then be processed into granules by pushing it thru
a screen . Let it dry out then make bangs .

Man, I thought you had found a bat cave or was saving your
pee in buckets to leach through wood ashes. One of the foxfire
books had techniques and recipes. If you want, I can dig through
mine and give you the reference.

Pete Keillor

Pee and wood ashes? Hmmm ... wood burning stove, camper black
water holding tank ... I could do that! But not really worth
the effort right now, I have enough ingredients to make a few
pounds, probably more than I'll ever shoot. Just a few days ago
tried my hand at making charcoal from some black gum. Very similar
to willow , which supposedly makes the best .

Well I mean back to reality though, Terry. If you want the best explosive - or smokeless powder (if that's what you mean), you really should have a friend or two there with you and all of you should have taken college level chemistry courses. Best explosive such as in heat? Light? Force? Pounds per square inch?

I mean, otherwise, you are just like a bunch of intermediate school kids gathering dog crap and your own urine, etc... and playing with make-believe fireworks, home made rifles, etc... on a saturday. When I was a kid, I saw some dangerous stuff done by kids just for kicks in the neighborhood.

None of that was long-time professional explosive manufacturing complete
with consultants, physicists, etc... Only that gets you "the best",
let's not fool ourselves,

Now if you don't want to go the college physics/chemistry route. There are always groups like rec.pyrotechnics and alt.engr.explosives