they say im crazy

thanks its been milling for about 12 hours so far so ill leave it for another 12 hours i will bind with dextrin and see if it is beter than just corning alone

hey there sort of straying of topic but not much,
i was milling my bp the other day with lead media now, after about 8 hours i checked progress by opening the container and all the powder was compressed at the bottom of the jar ( i dont know why it was the bottom but hey) so does that mean its done? or should i keep milling? i heard about milling for 2 days which i can do no problem any ideas
oh forgot to say i made powder like this before and wet it into a paste and forced it though a seive and dried it, the burn rate improved alot but i heard of putting the granuels in a ball mill with no media to "polish" the grains also do you reccomend dextrin as a binder when i seive the powder? (would it make it a better quality powder) and how much dextrin per grammage of bp should be used

I'd know it's dry when it comes out of the oven at 115C for 2 hours. In all seriousness, you can't just look at it and know it's dry. You can weigh it, and when it stops loosing mass, it will be dry. Other than that just err on the side of excess when heating for a period of time.

weighing it? thats so simple how come than never crossed my mind? thanks

Is there really a need to make KNO3, when it can be bought quite easily, from various sources? Even if the KNO3 is bought in an impure form (and therefore cheaper), it is easily purified by a simple process of recrystalisation from deionised water. NH4NO3 has very few uses in pyrotechnics; it is both hygroscopic and chemically unstable, especially when contaminated with traces of metal salts or organic material. NH4NO3 finds use as a specialist rocket propellant; although I would stick with KNO3 for this purpose, as it is a lot safer. There are some quite 'antisocial' applications for NH4NO3, so if you want to keep your door on its hinges, do not buy the stuff! If you buy NH4NO3 in any quantity, it's a safe bet that your name will end up on some list! What a waste of HNO3 - I would rather use dilute nitric acid to make some strontium and barium nitrates for my colour comps! If you must make your KNO3, try fractional crystalisation from a concentrated solution of potassium chloride and another nitrate.

i don't understand why he wants to make KNO3 its just a bit less common that salt (NaCl) just so you don't say which salt
try Ebay for instance
but HNO3 is great for NH4NO3 production along with other nitrate production just react the HNO3 with NH4OH (common household ammonia and yes it is avalible in the U.K just look)
personally i use NH4NO3 for rocket motors, fertilizer (nitrogen booster) and cooling water its great for camping, just take some with you and use it to cool your beers!

What a Frakin` Waste!

they do supply it in a 5lt container and as it is 70% you need little to react with the salt and its only £5 so i can always get more
but HNO3 is very dangerous so i agree don't mess around with it