Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading

Powder shortage: Will it come to this?

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GreyGeek:
Got a good digital balance?

Assuming 100gm of product weigh out
74.64 grams of NaNO3 (Sodium Nitrate)
http://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Nitrate-Tech-Grade-Powder/dp/B00HEWSLMG/ref=sr_1_2?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400715229&sr=1-2&keywords=sodium++nitrate

13.51 grams of powdered Charcoal (Activated Charcoal is best -- most porous)
http://www.amazon.com/100%25-Pure-Activated-Charcoal-Powder/dp/B00GNPOWAK/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400714944&sr=1-1&keywords=activated+charcoal+5+lbs


11.85  grams of Flower of Sulfur (Sulfur powder or dust)
http://www.amazon.com/Ground-Yellow-Brimstone-Approved-Feedstock/dp/B00K3RBYJQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400715099&sr=1-1&keywords=powdered+sulfur

(or consider those values as percentages of the total amount desired)

Dissolve the NaNO3 in 100 ml of distilled or de-ionized water.
Grind the Charcoal or Sulfur if necessary.  Pass both products through a fine filter mesh if grinding was required.
Shake the Charcoal and Sulfur together in a plastic bag until throughly mixed. (Easier than mixing while wet)
Add the Charcoal and Sulfur mixture  to the NaNO3 solution to create a paste.
Throughly mix the paste with a wooden or plastic spoon, or squeeze it in a plastic bag until a uniform color.
Run the paste through a spaghetti extruder using a 1 - 2 mm extruder die, slicing off the sticks at 1mm lengths.
Let it air dry without heat or lamps. NO ovens!
Break clumps apart manually with wooden utensils until all pieces pass through a fine mesh filter.
Store in plastic jars.  Watch out for static electric discharge.  The stuff is very clingy.

Nitroglycerin or Nitrocellulose.
I'm not going to give the stoichiometric relationships or a description of how to make it because making either product is too dangerous. I've made them both.  On one occasion I made about 20 ml of Nitroglycerin to show some oil engineers how it is made.  I didn't bother with the neutralization step because I didn't plan on saving any of it.  To show the its power I took a dropper and dropped a drop from shoulder height onto the floor.  The explosion was as loud as a shotgun blast and the pressure wave was easily felt.  It detonates.   The blast is almost like an M80.  I used about 5 ml showing the engineers and put the 50ml beaker containing the rest to the back of the hood.  Got distracted.  Forgot about it.  The next day when I walked into the door at work one engineer said "take a look at your hood".  The hood held a couple hot plates, a titration unit, some 100 ml bottles of  volatile chemicals and some other things on the shelf at the back of the hood.  Everything on that shelf was destroyed or blown out, and the two side walls of the hood had been pushed out and flattened.  The plastic sliding front door of the hood was laying on the floor.  On top of it was the busted titration unit and the two hot plates.  The top of the hood, surrounding the vent to the outside, was puffed up and out.  Just 15 ml or so of Nitroglycerin.

Nitroglycerin and Nitrocellulose are used as the basis of "smokeless"  powders because unlike TNT and many other nitrates, they form only gaseous products of detonation (4 moles Nitro changes to 35 moles of gases at high temp).   Table tennis balls used to be made of Nitrocellulose, camphor and a plasticizer.   They burn in a flash.   Extract them with Acetone and you've got NC.
 

 

SemperFiGuy:
Please Quit Diddling Around and Go Make Some Kegs of...........

RED DOT!

sfg

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