You can get potassium nitrate for making black powder really cheap, if you can find prilled or hard nitrate. “Prilled” nitrate comes in little spheres, around 1 mm or less in diameter.
Make Black Powder Using Cheap Potassium Nitrate Prills
Prilled nitrate is too coarse to use as-is in making black powder and other fireworks, but once you grind it up to about 200 mesh, it’s perfect.
It's best to have experience with simpler fireworks, like firecrackers and sparklers. One good test is firing baseballs from a 3-inch mortar and timing the flight of the ball from launch to landing. This homemade smoke bomb is easy to make and only requires two ingredients. Time for some homemade fire crackers! The smoke bomb you would purchase from a fireworks store usually is made from potassium chlorate (KClO3 - oxidizer), sugar (sucrose or dextrin - fuel), sodium bicarbonate (otherwise known as baking soda - to moderate the rate of the reaction and keep it from getting too hot), and a powdered organic dye (for colored smoke). Jul 31, 2017 - Explore David Carpenter's board 'Fireworks' on Pinterest. See more ideas about fireworks, how to make, homemade fireworks.
Keep in mind that potassium nitrate, like most oxidizers commonly used in making fireworks, eventually absorbs enough water to get more or less petrified. But it’s still good. You just need to grind it up into a fine, fluffy powder again. It never goes bad, even if it’s gotten wet or has been stored for years.
So learning to grind/mill hard chemicals is one of the routine tasks that all fireworkers need to master.
We routinely recommend two ways: coffee milling and ball milling. Both ways have advantages.
To grind a single chemical (vs. a mix like black powder) using a ball mill, fill your mill jar half full of hardened lead or brass grinding media, and 25% full of potassium nitrate. Turn the mill on and come back in an hour. Your nitrate should be light and fluffy. If not, continue grinding it ’til it’s fine powder with no chunks or grains.
But guess what?
The good news is that sometimes you don’t need to do anything extra like pre-milling. Here’s a quick and dirty video I made. It shows how you can even use coarse chemicals and primitive equipment to make black powder just as good as any commercially made BP.
Making Black Powder with a Ball Mill
Just so you know what’s going on. This is me in my backyard. I am using a homemade ball mill I’ve had for 20 years, and Skylighter’s ½” antimony-hardened lead balls.
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Free webkinz codes. Check out my fancy-dancy mill jar! It’s a one-gallon plastic mayonnaise jar stuck inside a large coffee can for reinforcement. I actually have to tape the screw top on it so it doesn’t come off while it’s turning!
This is down and dirty, almost totally homemade equipment. You do NOT need to be fancy or sophisticated (which I sure as hell ain’t!) to make great black powder which performs as well as anything you can buy.
To make this black powder, I’m using Skylighter’s el cheapo, prilled potassium nitrate–the cheapest stuff we have. Everything you see is right out of the containers—no pre-grinding or screening. The point is, look at how quick and easy it is to make black powder using really coarse potassium nitrate without having to spend any time making it finer first.
When the black powder’s finished, you’ll see me using my busted up old bucket screen to separate the lead balls from the new black powder. (You will NOT be impressed!)
Remember these magic proportions when you’re making black powder with a ball mill:
- Fill your mill jar half full of hardened lead balls (or brass)
- Fill half of the remaining space with your 3 chemicals
- Leave 25% empty “head space”
- Fill half of the remaining space with your 3 chemicals
- Leave 25% empty “head space”
Got it? 50% lead balls, 25% chemicals, 25% air.
These proportions are the “sweet spot” that guarantees that your powder will be good AND that you can do it in the shortest amount of time (typically 3-4 hours).
Troubleshooting: How to Prevent Pitiful Powder Syndrome
From time to time, folks call who have been seriously afflicted with Pitiful Powder Syndrome, an acute black powder deficiency known to cause all manner of fireworks failures and hair-pulling.
Their symptoms are always the same: their ball-milled black powder doesn’t work.
So, the first thing we do is get him (the “hers” are never afflicted) to describe how he made it.
Every time… I mean every single time, the victim’s PPS can be traced to making the black powder a different way than the simple process shown. (Or, as we were warned in kindergarten, by not following instructions—a manly trait.)
Here’s how people most commonly get infected by Pitiful Powder Syndrome:
Not using enough milling media: Always fill your jar 50% full of grinding media.
Using media that’s too small: Use ½” for 1 gallon mill jars or smaller; ¾” for larger mill jars; for 5 gallons or larger, use 1-inch.
Using lightweight grinding media: You want lead or brass. Both are heavy enough, but will not spark or cause an accidental ignition. Do not use steel or ceramic. They can cause another syndrome—death.
Milling for too short a time: run your mill for at least 3 hours. You probably don’t need to run it longer than 5 hours. Milling longer than that will probably not improve your black powder significantly.
Using different chemicals: Standard black powder is made with potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal. Switching or omitting chemicals is a common cause of pitiful powder. Do not waste time and money by second guessing these chemicals.
Remember: making black powder this way is a tried and tested method, perfected for hundreds of years by people who learned more about it than you and I ever will.
Want to Get a Black Powder Making FAQ?
Cached
If you’re new to making black powder we made up a Black Powder “Cheatsheat” for you. This would be a good thing to print out and keep in your fireworks-making notebook or pinned to the wall of your shop.
The Black Powder Cheat Sheet will help you make sense of the different black powder, legalities, grades, sources for store-bought BP, and a comparison of the most common ways of making BP.
- Understand the legalities of making black powder
- Discover the different methods for making black powder
- Cut through all the confusion surrounding grades and particle sizes
- Learn the best type of black powder for each fireworks application
- Find the best places to buy commercial BP
Just click here and give us your best email address and we’ll send it to you.
Learn how to make a homemade firecracker. (Rob Cruickshank)
It’s easy to make homemade firecrackers, plus it’s fun and offers a way to learn the science behind how fireworks work. You only need a few simple ingredients to make homemade firecrackers:
Homemade Firecracker Materials
- Black Powder
75% Potassium Nitrate
15% Charcoal
10% Sulfur
or
- Nitrocellulose (flash paper) – make it
Cotton
Nitric Acid
Sulfuric Acid
and
- Kitty Litter
- Fuse – buy or make your own
- Cardboard or Paper
- Tape
- Pencil
Assemble a Homemade Firecracker
- Make homemade firecrackers no longer than the length of one finger joint. (G36) Genarts sapphire for mac.Roll a strip of cardboard or paper around a pencil to make a hollow tube. Tape the paper to hold the shape in place and remove the pencil.
- Cut the tube into 1″ or 2″ sections.
- Tape the bottom of each tube to seal it.
- Add a small amount of kitty litter (clay) to a tube and use the pencil to press it down to the bottom. Use the erase end to pack down the clay to make a plug.
- Add black powder or nitrocellulose to the tube. Insert a piece of fuse and continue adding powder around it until you are near the top of the tube. Don’t be stingy with the fuse. You want to get it into the gunpowder and make sure there is enough exposed fuse outside the firecracker that you can light it and get away from it before the fuse burns down to the gunpowder.
- You have a few options for sealing the tube. If you’re working with paper and plan to light the firecracker immediately, you can firmly twist the paper around the fuse to seal the firecracker. Another option is to top off the gunpowder with a small amount of kitty litter. Tape the top of the cylinder, leaving fuse exposed. Finally, you can just tape the top of the firecracker, leaving exposed fuse. Experiment to see which design works best for you.
Firecracker Safety Information
- Gunpowder or nitrocellulose are flammable and will explode if they are compressed when they burn. This, of course, if how firecrackers work! Make sure the materials only explode when you’re ready by keeping your work space away from heat and flame.
- It’s a firecracker, so it should be made by and lit by an adult.
If you enjoyed this homemade firecracker project, you may also enjoy: