How do I clean up powder I spilled

I have a small electronics vac that does an excellent job. Whether needed or not it is anti-static. Or at least they claim it is.
 
If I spill it on the bench, it gets swept up and goes into the trash. If it lands on the floor, it stays there for a decade, or when I feel like sweeping it into the trash.
 
If I spill it on the bench, it gets swept up and goes into the trash. If it lands on the floor, it stays there for a decade, or when I feel like sweeping it into the trash.
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We are on the same page there.

I spill more than most it seems. I fail to move the funnel and double charge and an overfill. 30-06 I can get the shell and funnel, 308 and 7.5 I can grasp both, spills out, what goes into the tray goes into the garbage.

I love the auto dispensers but they tend to wind up with powder here and there. Sooner or latter you are going to leave the trap door open, pour powder in and watch if low onto your bench (good thing there is no powder shortage)

If top is clean I get as much as I can and back in. If not swept up and into the trash.

Some old stuff I picked up onto the lawn. For what its worth:

I'm a trial attorney, and I recently defended a lawsuit involving a young man who was very badly burned, after stepping on a discarded cigarette that happened to be in contact with 5 to 8 pounds of Bullseye powder that my client (a former competition shooter) had poured out onto the ground in his backyard at least six months before the fire. Witnesses described the victim as being engulfed in an "8- to 10-foot fireball of yellow flames." After being transported to the hospital, the guy was given a 50/50 chance of survival. Fortunately, he lived and is now back to work.

During this litigation, I deposed several chemical experts from different parts of the country, as well as a key product expert witness who is now retired after 40-some years with Hercules Incorporated, the former manufacturer of good ol' Bullseye powder.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about smokeless gunpowder during this case.

The bottom line: The only safe way to dispose of smokeless gunpowder is to burn it under controlled conditions. Water will not permanently neutralize it. Oil will not permanently neutralize it. Smokeless powder is extraordinarily stable and non-hygroscopic by design, and until it is completely consumed by burning, it must be considered flammable, and at least potentially dangerous.

Interesting side-note: The powder involved in this incident was determined to have been manufactured sometime in the early '60s. I kept a left-over square metal powder can as a souvenir of the case. The powder is definitely still flammable (as controlled testing proved) and I suspect still perfectly usable. It looks and smells exactly like the Bullseye powder I bought at the gun shop a month ago!
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Kevin Rohrer said:
If I spill it on the bench, it gets swept up and goes into the trash. If it lands on the floor, it stays there for a decade, or when I feel like sweeping it into the trash.
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That's a man I could share a loading bench with. Why sweep and vacuum when you can just grind it into the floor? Adds character to the loading room. I sweep mine about once a year. Usually when I'm adding a piece of equipment or doing so sort of rearranging of my stuff. I did spring $25 for one of the new spend primer catchers for my Dillon 650 off ebay. Catches primers and down a tube into a large plastic jug. I didn't realize how many spent primes missed the catcher until I bought this little gadget. That's my contribution to keeping clean.
 
Well, I once spilt an entire pound of RE22 on a carpeted floor......stood there for some time trying to devise a way to pick ALL of it up.
Found some old stockings in the kitchen drawer my missus used for gardening tasks and proceeded to put them into the vaccuum cleaner and duct taped them in place.......half a pound at a time got every kernel up out of the carpet......that I could see anyway.

Worked very very well and I was proud of my own ingenuity.

Have done this a few times now.

Cheers.
 
RC20's case quote is interesting. Usually, however, the advice for lawn disposal is to spread deteriorating powder on the lawn like fertilizer, not to make a pile of it, and not to do this when the powder is still good.

Deteriorating powder has consumed all its stabilizer. Otherwise, it would not be breaking down. Once the stabilizer is gone, it will continue to break down and release nitrogen compounds. This breakdown is evidenced by the acrid nitric acid smell it has. If you put it in water, the water turns yellowish from all the soluble nitrogen acid radicals in it. Powder in that condition will not go undegraded whether it remains in the can or is put out on the lawn. If it has been spread about, the individual grains are not in contact with one another so it will not sustain burning or flare up as described.

I had a container of old Accurate 3100 that I found had gone over to acid smell when I opened it. I mixed the powder together with the spring application of lawn fertilizer and crabgrass inhibitor. It was well and thoroughly spread out. The lawn seemed extra green this spring, but then there's been a lot of rain, so I can't say if that's just coincidence or not.
 
Smokeless only...

If only a few grains, I sweep it with a broom and into the trash can. For greater quantities I sweep it up and spread it into a narrow row on the ground or gravel driveway and light it. Burns at about 2 or 3 inches per second.

A few grains of smokeless thrown into a fire responds about the same way as a similar amount of fine sawdust. A quick burst of sparks and flame. Fine sawdust burns very suddenly.

Probably nothing wrong with dispersing it in the yard.

I don't use a shop vac since they tend to use universal motors with commutators/brushes that spark. Probably not an issue, but one I avoid in any case.
 
Just keep the filter on the shop vac and put a quart of water in the bottom first. It may not destroy the powder but it sure will discourage any sort of sustained burn.
 
I don't use a shop vac since they tend to use universal motors with commutators/brushes that spark. Probably not an issue, but one I avoid in any case.
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I am the same sort of nervous. Lots of archy sparky going on inside the air cooled slots of one of those motors.

Per Unclenicks practice you may be able to mitigate it to a non issue.

Still does not give me a warm fuzzy.
 
Unclenick said:
McCarthy,

Please read the board rules about posting copyrighted materials. Had to pull the photo out.
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Better?


IMG_0600.jpg
 
For small amounts and general clean up around my loading area I use a damp sponge. I picks up loose powder, which I then flush down the laundry sink when I rinse the sponge.
 
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