1-3/4" blkpwdr cannon wadding....

R

railriderstv

Inactive
Hello all,......
Friends and I was using aluminum foil for wadding......
THEN we got to think'in about "static elect."........
Everything is all metal/steel sitting/touching ground.....
Should there be a concern on this?.....since august have run 8lbs. of pwdr thru it.....using pyrodex....works great....what a ka-boom!...built to slide when recoils(sliding rail sys.,my design)......please advise....thank u...rlrdrstv.:cool:
 
Can't offer any advice, but how about some pics of the cannon? I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you out.
Does Dixie carry anything you could base your wadding on? Or perhaps buy from them.
 
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Never say never..... But We have used golf ball shells in aluminum foil where the charge and the ball is rolled into a aluminum shell and rammed down the barrel, And I have keep those shells for days and sometimes weeks before using them and no issues of static electricity.

But more important to this a couple of photos would be nice.. I have a 1/2 scale golf ball french 75 cannon that recoils. I did not build it.. (that is why it looks so darn good) but here is a youtube shot before I packed it in the car. It was built by one of the great cannon makers of all time, One who's powder I am unworthy to set off..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJzCXGEck&list=UULppBh2yxT7axnCIZh-X3XA&index=42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqhbkTcA32o&list=UULppBh2yxT7axnCIZh-X3XA&index=43
 
The aluminum foil that surrounds the powder charge effectively forms a Faraday cage around the charge and actually protects it against static charge rather than causes static charge.

A lot of folks have a misconception about being in a metal building during a lightning storm, a metal building is exactly where you want to be during a lightning storm, you are inside a Faraday cage and protected.

Here's a Faraday cage video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6XGKZxYxA
 
It's the temperature of an electric spark that ignites stuff. The charcoal in gunpowder is such a good conductor of electicity that the current going through it won't make it hot enough to ignite, usless you have currents way higher than the microamps, nay, nanoamps of current seen in a typical static discharge.

Anyway, having the charge wrapped in aluminum foil makes it safer still. One of the reasons Goex and others have used steel cans for their product was concern for static. Now even Goex is converting to plastic cans, perhaps the plastic is an electrical conductive plastic formula like the electrically conductive plastic used to package mosfets and other static sensitive electronic components.

The "g" in FFg, FFFg etc. stands for glazed. The powder granules are glazed in a coating of graphite, which is electically conductive and forms a mini Faraday cage around each granule of powder.
 
Moocho thanks to both BLE & Hawg,... I really did not know how protected that was.. And it makes sense...

So let me ask this question is FFF and 4f black powder sensitive to Static charge then..
 
Unglazed black powder is marked FA, FFA, FFFA etc. Its mostly used in pyrotechics and by some re-enactors for blank loads. I'm not sure how much more sensitive to static it would be.

Smokeless or nitro powders are also graphited, mostly so it meters better and does not cling to drop tubes due to static buildup.
 
re:wadding

Thank you all who replied!......
Very important info. ......
I'm new to the group(wow,time flies since joined).......
I'm rookie w/computer stuff.....
Been trying to get a vid. on youtube with it......
will get a friend to help,he has equipt. to record vid. ......
It's (barrell) 40''s length,approx. 1-3/4' bore ,wheels made from lock-rings from
old style truck wheels w/welded square spokes....I used 8# steel "T" rail for sliding rail to heavy duty shocks(coil over) for recoil.....two shocks on top(off of a "bandit" mini-bike,one gabriel gas shock underneath.....barrel supported by 3 points,welded....used arc weld on barrel assem.,m.i.g. the rest of it....
Made breech(solid steel round stock,machined, which is arc welded to barrel. .....my niehbors love it.....said they can fell the ground shake,they r about 1/8th mile from me....hee,he.........thanks again, stv.:cool:
 
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