CLeaning up gun powder

moronic behavior vs all it takes is once

Take a handkerchief and place it over the vaccum's nozzle.
Push it in some with your finger, then rubberband the excess around the outside of the nozzle.

Then vacuum, but before you turn it off simply peel the kerchief away, holding the sucked-up debris.

WARNING: PRIMERS WILL EXPLODE


My production bench is carpeted; I ain't guessing; this ain't theoretical; safety first.
 
Archey suggested what I do. My carpet is not very big, and not held down by anything. I just take it outside now and then and shake it off. Maybe you could put a piece over it. My wife, and kids who are now gone no this is one place to stay out of. I claimed that corner of the basement as mine period. I do keep it picked up, and never use a vac on it.
 
Use the tweezer method mentioned before. Then you'll be qualified to pick the fly poop out of the pepper. A good government job might well follow! (;
 
You guys are entirely too paranoid.

You take greater chances of never returning home every day, just by getting on an expressway / freeway / interstate; than you ever will by vaccuuming up smokeless powder.


Just today, I demonstrated the burning characteristics of smokeless powder outside a pressure vessel. It calmed my fiancee down an amazing amount. I actually had 3!! matches burning in the pile of "scrap" powder before it ignited. Then, of course, the 8 second burn time made another impression of a less-than-alarming nature.
As of now, she could care less what I do with smokeless powder.
 
I sweep up primers,and use my shop vac for powder never had an issue and dont expect to.Im reasonably carefull with my powder and the amount of spillage is not going to create a bomb even if it did ignite.But then again I might not be the brightest bulb on the tree.
Bob.
 
I vacuum it up, even from my reloading room floor which is hardwood. Remember, modern smokeless powder does not explode, it burns rapidly. Vacuuming up 50 granules or so is not going to explode. I've done it for years, no problems at all. I wouldn't vacuum up a pound of it, but a few flakes shouldn't be a problem.
 
I vacuum it up also, as long as it is smokeless powder and not Black.

I don't think smokeless powder will conduct electricity so it shouldn't be prone to ignition from a static spark.

It should act more as a faraday cage and the static will just pass around it.

If it were prone to static ignition we would all be using brass and aluminum powder measures like you have to use with black powder.

Black powder does conduct electricity because of the salt peter in it and will ignite with a static spark.

If the humidity in the room is 35% or higher the chance of a static spark isn't very high anyways. Above 35% and there is no chance of a static spark.
 
FrankenMauser said:
A vaccuum will be just fine.

We're not talking about black powder here.
This is smokeless powder. It burns like a wet poop*, if not in a pressure vessel. *(t-urd; the uneditted word is censored here.)

Even if it does ignite in a vaccuum cleaner, you'll have more than enough time to grab some popcorn and watch... or pick it up and take it outside to watch it burn.
The odds of ignition are probably about the same as being stuck by lightning twice, on the same day.
Click to expand...

^^^for the win!
 
Even black powder isn't easily ignited by sparks. The problem is more along the lines of it not being a good idea to have it confined in an environment where you might also suck up a nail or a primer or anything else that might supply enough of a spark to get it going. The wet vac with water inside will handle that.

The revival of this zombie thread by the new member appears to be entirely for the purpose of advertising expensive explosion-proof commercial vacuum cleaners. The post is a first post. Its body is entirely a quote from the site literature at the end of the link and is not original. The poster registered from one of the two places where a distributor of the mentioned products exists.

Because it violates our advertising policy, I will delete the post.
 
I've been reloading in a carpeted room for forty years and I'm sure I've spilled more than a little powder. Wife's been vacuuming up after me all along and never had an incident. Assuming she vacuums once a week, that's 2,080 times gunpowder probably got sucked up.
 
If any of you posters from the original 2009 thread have blown yourself up vacuuming up spilled powder in the last 11 years, please speak up. I need to know if I should stop doing it. Thanks.
 
Piling On . . .
....primers will explode....
Click to expand...
Has anyone, anywhere, ever actually had a primer explode and/or powder ignite while being vacuumed...?

No theory, please.
Just evidential instance/experimental results.
 
I doubt if the amount of powder spilled on a carpet is much more than a few grains (unless you drop a charged 45-70 or fully charged 44 Magnum and it empties on your rug). I have a small Shop Vac and a dust buster I have been using for quite a while with zero Kabooms. Just wondering, has anyone seen or read from a reliable source an instance of a fire or explosion when vacuuming up spilled powder? Or a "Chicken Little", old wives tale idea?
 
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Vacuuming up a lit cigarette with a vacuum full of lint doesn't surprise me coming from a rocket scientist.
Sometimes they are so smart their dumb.

The revival of this zombie thread by the new member appears to be entirely for the purpose of advertising expensive explosion-proof commercial vacuum cleaners. The post is a first post. Its body is entirely a quote from the site literature at the end of the link and is not original. The poster registered from one of the two places where a distributor of the mentioned products exists.

Because it violates our advertising policy, I will delete the post.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out.
Enough said.

Has anyone, anywhere, ever actually had a primer explode and/or powder ignite while being vacuumed...?

No theory, please.
Just evidential instance/experimental results.
Click to expand...

I haven't had a problem in 48 years, I vacuum my reloading room out every couple weeks, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the winter when the air is really dry. Mr Murphy is always watching us.
 
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