@@roflryan1 don't think "they" are gonna ban them, but if that happens you just need a pipe that fits the bullet snuggly, a nail and a spring of some kind. That is however for the fireing mechanism and you'll just have to make some kinda mechanism that pulls the spring holding the nail and release it. But, isent the idea of having guns to overthrow the state if they try to go against the constitution by say banning guns?
I am a fire performer, I do fire magic along with fire spinning. I like to combine these two worlds and make an awesome show. Flash cotton I use alot! It's expensive. I tried this method at home and IT WORKS!! I AM SO HAPPY!! THANK YOU!
Schel Sullivan the funny thing is, that this is basically the method used to extract 70% or 99% nitric acid, You’re missing The methylene chloride phase of the reacting mixture with cooling. Anyway you method for nitrocellulose works, keep the videos rolling out!! :) also I would be interested to see how much nitrogen content you’re achieving, at least 11% to 13%?
Of course it would be easier to use Nitric Acid, if you can get it, but for the process shown: KNO3 + H2SO4 = K2SO4 + HNO3 The reaction stoichiometry indicates you need 48.5g of H2SO4 for 100g of KNO3. The reaction products are Potassium Sulphate, K2SO4 and Nitric Acid, HNO3.
Alright! It took me a couple of years but I just watched this video. Wow, what a great tutorial! Even including FLIR to measure the temperature changes. You, my man, are the Guncotton King of America! Seriously though, so good, and much improved over your previous video. Thanks for the info.
Very unsafe didn’t wear gloves. You were very informative on the process! Good Job on burn rate! However I wouldn’t dare even try this. Isn’t this illegal? Don’t you need a ATF license? Surprised you don’t have a guy Faulk mask on, the ATF means business and their not to be trifled with. However I do like “How and Why stuff works” Thanks for the knowledge. Be Safe
@@mooretreeservice do you mean "guy fawkes" mask? The guy tryin to blow up the british parliament way back when, cause he was in a rebel group, enemy to the brits. No need wearing gloves as long as the baking soda water "neutralizer liquid" sits right beside you on the table. You saw it, he rinsed his hamd just before it went itchy...thats just enough to avoid acid burns, he didnt even had stains on his hands that day later. Watch out pal, do not blow yourself up.
Great instructional :) You can use litmus paper to test the cotton mass for nitrate residual, may save you some time. I also remember reading up on this years ago and distilled water was recommended for some reason. It was important, but I cant recall why. You can also use a natural solvent to dissolve the guncotton in preparation for mold casting. For example shotgun powder made from guncotton is small flat discs with a hole in the middle and rifle powder looks like small cylinders similar to pencil lead maybe two millimeters long. This effects the burn time and therefore the build up pressure time of the expansion during the explosion in the barrel. Cheers :)
This was great! Reminded me of the "good ol' days" of the internet back before it got so corporate and everybody lost their mind. I first heard of nitrocellulose as a wood finish. It is what Fender used on their guitars in the 50's and 60's. You can imagine how flammable that had to be! I doubt I will ever make it but after watching this I think that I could. Nice to see a video that does address safety yet doesn't demand you have $1000s in equipment before you can try somthing like this. Gloves probably would have been a good idea as well as goggles. However every time I start out with goggles I wind up removing them halfway through becase they fog up and I can't see. If I ever try this I will put on safety glasses. This was very enjoyable to watch and I will check out your other videos.
I was always interested with making all the parts of a weapon from ground up and projectile, the chemistry of the projectile I mean was the missing part. Thanks for the video.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
@@_EllieLOL_ don’t do this. You even compress that a little reloading with match heads and it will go off. This guy is actually making smokeless propellant by name. Used in modern firearms. Definitely the safer way to go
This method is useful for making the “paper” for paper cartridges used in black powder cap & call revolvers & Sharps rifles. Substitute rice paper cigarette rolling papers for the cotton balls for use with the cap & ball revolvers. Larger paper, or 100% light cotton cloth, for the Sharps.
Oh yeah I just subscribed and I love your combination of wit and knowledge!!...I love the rain ..it adds a really awesome dimension.....very calming and informative!!!....I love the mesh trash can idea...So innovative and inventive......use what you have an it turns out to be incredible!!!!...I love crazy looking things with wires and alligator clips and what is the thing right beside your computer to the left with the red wire and alligator clip. ...I have a High pressure liquid chromatograph pump that looks like that ........lol
That "crystal" in there i believe are the potassium sulfate byproducts of the sulfuric acid, as the potassuim is stripped away from the kno3, to make the nitric acid in situ. Washing the cotton with water dissolves it away quite effectively. And yes, those fumes are toxic. They are a mixture of suphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and water vapor.
It would essentially be a single base powder. However you do need to add an unknown amount of Nitroglycerin. Much too dangerous to make. Also possibly aluminum dust and graphite. Nitrocellulose is relatively too unstable to use in a cartridge. You would need a scale capable of measuring tenths of a grain. You will also need a brass rod and good knowledge of over pressure signs. If you have zero "experience" reloading your own cartridges you will be prone to losing fingers, eye sight and possibly life.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
I see you made a toxic waste hole as well! My friend and I used to do little experiments in his driveway, like making a penny stove, or Rocket Candy, or filling a balloon with oxy-acetalyne and popping it with a match. Good times. He dug a little hole in the ground in the brush next to the driveway, and we would always dump whatever acid or toxic byproducts we made into it. Incidentally, all the plants around that hole died, for some reason.
hey Schel I am a chemical engineer and I am working on a book or series of books on survival chemistry. For instance potassium nitrate from wood has and urine. I want to make a book on precursors for nearly everything that the books on underground chemistry leave out. I want to be able to go from wood ash all the way to sodium nitrite and even nitroethane. I was a fan of all the Loompanics unlimited books and now that loom panics is gone so are most of all the books. Kurt Saxon was a great editor who collected out of print books and put them out in a collection called Grandad's wonderful book of chemistry . I want to do the same thing only with the most important synthesis and it has been suggested to put together a glassware kit to go with the book that will allow someone to distill nitric acid and even sulfuric acid . What are your thoughts?
Schel, I hope you see this. You asked in your first video on nitrocellulose, How can the fibers be separated? I say, by "carding". Carding is the separation and straightening of fibers in the preparation of them being spun into yarn... My great-grandmother still had and used carding paddles for wool when I was a kid. All fiber carding paddles I have seen have steel pins, which should not be used for the purpose of teasing out cotton nitrocellulose, obviously sparky. The key is to find, or make, carding paddles (or another combing system.) with non-sparking pins... I hope this post finds you well Schel. Enjoying you channel. -tjb-
I am so jealous of the summer thunderstorms...I live in California but I used to spend my summers in Ohio and I miss those summer thunderstorms. Lucky dog.
One day I'm going to have to make some videos and start a channel that I will have to name "Shell Sullivan Made Me Do It". Mahalo for your channel Brah. Sometime I'll have to send you some video of the tweaks I have made to things that you have done. The gun cotton gun gave me some ideas that you'll love.
Temu has these spring loaded egg beaters. I don't know how long they would last around the acid , but they wisk really well with just an up and down motion.
Question: Would this land me in hot water with the ATF? I'm looking at making some for single base smokeless powder, yet everything I can find in 27 CFR Reg. 555 only relates to the commercial manufacture of the stuff.
I've always complied with the rules and regulations supplied by ATF documents. They are all online. I make tiny amounts, use it all that day, never store or transport.
What happens is that, when confined, the gun cotton burns and the gas which is generated creates pressure. As the pressure increases, the nitrocellulose burns faster and creates more pressure. It's a feedback loop. Charting this on a graph, the line sweeps upward dramatically. All of this increasing pressure feedback, and resultant burning rate increase, takes place in 1/1000th of a second or less, much faster than the speed at which it burns on your open hand. For a lifetime, I've worked continuously with a long list of single and double-base smokeless gunpowders (those made from a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine); 61 years now, and you would not believe how slowly they all burn in the open, or in an ashtray. A quarter teaspoon may take three to ten seconds, depending upon the powder number. So when bottled up, a tuft of harmless looking gun cotton is like an atomic bomb, compared to the relatively weakened smokeless gunpowder made from it. The bottom line is, please be very careful with this stuff. It only looks like "ordinary old cotton" after nitration. You've got a tiger by the tail. Have fun, but be careful, and study to learn everything you can about the chemistry and characteristics of such substances when working with them. They are fascinating but unforgiving. Arms and eyes don't grow back as fast as fingernails.
I'm a magician, not a chemistry major and have recently ' discovered' flash(gun) cotton. In my routine I use glycerine in my smoke generator(a couple drops on a hot coil covered with heavy felt) I use to use mineral oil or baby oil. But recently it was suggested to use glycerin. In my routine I ignite a BB size (very loose) of cotton in the palm of my hand without any injuries. I would like to add a very small miniscule drop of glycerin to add smoke. What would happen to the chemical composition and heat generated. At present I can tolerate the slight discomfort the cotton produces, but I'm not interested in the China syndrome or worse in the palm of my hand! I know what I don't know and this is one of those times. I know certain things shouldn't be mixed like bleach and acids, ammonia/iodine and such. But this, I don't even want to try to mess with without some guidance from an expert. Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated. I definitely don't want to lose a hand in the middle of a children's ward!
@@philohio thank you for the reply. I'm always leary of doing things I know nothing about in the fear of F'n up big-time. In my younger years not so much!😂 I know when glycerin is dropped on potassium permanganate it will start a fire. I guess as I got older I got a little smarter but not much wiser. Chemical reactions always interested me, but only after someone else did it without dying! Just didnt want to create an explosive of some kind and getting my ass in trouble!
@@wizardwillbonner Will, what happens with your magician's method of burning glycerin to create smoke is that the glycerin is subjected to a great amount of heat suddenly. But when a tuft of nitrocellulose is ignited on your hand, it burns instantly, creating so little heat that your hand hardly feels it. And anyway, the glycerin-soggy stuff would not ignite. In the commercial manufacture of smokeless gunpowder, made by dissolving guncotton in a mixture of ether and acetone, various amounts of other chemicals and lubricants are added, to change the burning rate and other characteristics of the final product. The jelly-like product is then extruded into various grain shapes and sizes, with surface areas which also influence burning rate. The solvents evaporate and you have grains ranging from the size of the period at the end of a sentence, to grains you can hold in your hand, for 16" naval guns. It would be possible to add an ingredient to make as much or as little smoke you want, and in any color. All you need is a multi-million dollar ammunition factory and the, in my opinion brilliant, scientists to do it. The subject has fascinated me since the first time I made guncotton in about 1957. I still have a tuft of it, which has not deteriorated or changed color in any way. FYI: The maximum shelf life of smokeless powder ammunition first made around 1920 has not yet been determined, except that some types of primers become nonfunctional after 30 - 50 years. Some pistol and rifle ammunition made during WW-I (around 1917) will still work just fine. I have some. So again, your question revives a lot of memories about my long-time fascination with an amazing substance, common old cotton transformed by immersion in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid. Of course, the process is a good bit more complicated.
@@philohio wow, you answered a million questions I was always curious about but in today's world, I wasn't 'that' curious! I make my own cotton an I'm get satisfactory results on the flash, not as fast as I like but it's a lot faster than the commercial flash paper I ordered. What can I use to make my own flash paper I would like to use something thin like rolling papers. I don't want to be a pita but you seem to have the knowledge I seek and I thank you for your time.
*Click the adds on video and help Schel to keep doing great videos !* dont be lazy because you watch real scientist on yt and nobody make great NC like Schel
I made mine on a small scale. I only soaked One(1) cotton ball. once it drys, I am thinking about stuffing a little bit on it in one of my BP revolvers. I haven't had the opportunity to do any Chemistry sine 1998. I miss it. Thanks Thumbs Up, as usual.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
The hard cotton is the result of mixing the potassium nitrate with the sulfic acid right? ... you still have lots of potassium hydrogene sulfate in there, that is not desolving very well .?
This is fantastic! I was looking into making flash paper and guncotton for magic supply, I have done this before using the acids but I'm not sure about where to get those now. This method (along with comments below about extra/neutralizing washes for safety) looks like it has many improvements over the original methods. Without proper washing, nitrated cellulose can become spontaneously explosive, this happened with some of the original guncotton factories that weren't washing adequately... the factories blew up. Anyway, great job Shel, keep up the great work!
also im pretty sure you can reuse sulfuric acid (it's a catalyst after all, and doesn't fume) by evaporating it after your nitration, and then all you'll need to replace is your potassium nitrate as it's expended. not totally sure though.
cooler is too big. love watching video. I used to set charges in a mine. drill holes shove in sticks of dynamite add blasting cap run wires and hit the bricks. had so much dynamite used to have fun blasting around.
(8:30) - That acid mix would cool a lot quicker if you simply poured it into the square dish, and put that dish into the ice bath, because the dish has much more surface area that would be in contact with the ice water. >
That's so hot it's cool... or is it so cool it's hot? Either way that's a really great video on making gun cotton. Can't wait for the videos of creative uses for gun cotton.
I heard that the Aussies and New Zealanders made what they called Jam Tin Grenades at Gallipoli. They were tin cans, fuses and pieces of guncotton. After seeing this stuff in action, I can kind of see how.
You can't do this stuff without learning those things as well. Hopefully I'll never have to use my skills for anything other than entertainment and education
Might i suggest rigging up a five gallon bucket of water, with a siphon running into rinsing container with an outlet and adjusting the flow rate. It would require less attention and work. You could test the outflow from the rinsing container with litmus paper from time to time.... Thanks for posting this informative video.....
7:18 am My question is, does the reaction temperature need to stay below the 70 degree benchmark or only after you place the cotton balls. I'm having a hard time keeping the reaction temp below 70 degrees
Thanks, thats why I wanted to revisit this topic, to upgrade it to my current skill level. Im hoping to get some camera and audio equipment upgrades soon.
I got a big big patch of thorn rockwood iron wood or whatever J can afford a backhoe but I might could blast its center out if I dig it to the root level and tamp it on top
Have you ever tried making HNO3 with your KNO3 and the Rooto professional drain cleaner? If you don't have the glass you can get a decent distillation set on eBay from Deschem or other's.
Ive spent my spare time learning more about video editing that chemistry! I would need help with that for sure. Check out Darian Berg's channel. He has been mentoring me. ruclips.net/channel/UCus2mJvIQ62lVt5HVbkQ-UQ
@@brokenpencil57 I had a bad connection at the time and YT kept timing this comment out, so I kept reattempting to post it. I don’t know why they all showed up. I think I deleted the rest of them.
kind of random soaks them for 5 minutes and they turn out great. this is an unnecessarily long time to nitrate? also it becomes a crystalized cake and takes way longer to rinse when you leave it that long
dude thank you for your instruction, you're right when I wash it, It's not cold enough, so when I tried again with very cold water, and it's work until the end once again thank you dude :)
I did a two to one ratio of sulfuri acid and potassium nitrate andit just became a thing of fuming nitric acid. what did I do wrong, should i have done two cups and one cup.
You remind me when I first started chemistry. No gloves, drops of acid everywhere, using glass from my moms kitchen. Dangerous as hell but the fun excitement of the result outweighed it all. Don’t listen to these haters. Most start out like this, one day you’ll be angerly commenting on videos about how dangerous their conduct is as well. It’s a matter of not getting maimed by chemicals before you invest in proper glassware and PPE. It’s okay to be using gloves in this. It’s not concentrated enough to catch them on fire.
What does it mean if your acid solution is red after mixing potassium nitrate and sulfuric acid. It clears up like your's does after 20 min but it never turns yellow except when i initially mixed them. Using same brand drain cleaner. KNO3 is stump remover as well.
@@schelsullivan you are quite right sir. This is really fun stuff to play with. I took mine out at 22 hours which is why mine burns a tiny but slower. What I'm wondering now is if it's possible to make gun cotton with a colored flame. Would substituting strontium nitrate for the potassium nitrate give it a reddish flame? I'm not a chemist either 😢
@@benjaminsinger1897 Yep. Black powder is a mechanical mixture, not chemical. When black powder burns, the components combine to form at least a dozen different compounds. When nitrocellulose burns, the nitrate bonds break before recombining into other compounds.
Would using cotton pads, instead of cotton balls, and then shredding them dry, before acidifying and nitrating save the tearing apart of wet cotton balls at the end, as well as simplify drying the separated fibers? I do think that using bicarbonate to neutralize the acid when the cotton is separated like that would make it much easier to rinse out - and then diluting the residual water with alcohol, pressing out the excess, and then air drying it, would speed drying, as well. Alcohol evaporates much faster than water. Just a few thoughts.
I dont, I never store any. I only make very small batches and use it the same day. There are very strict safety guidelines that must be followed to store any pyrotechnic. That being said, although this GC burns very fast and efficiently, I dont think its molecularly stable for long term storage.
As an experiment I made a batch last year and after washing it thoroughly I soaked it for an hour in a solution of 5% urea, followed by more washings then drying. I kept it in a bag in a place where it wouldn't do any damage if it went off. It stored just fine for almost a year now. Just tested a little sample of it and it's good as new. The urea neutralizes the last traces of acid, the ones that are absorbed into the surface of the fibers and won't go away just by washing. This is the process actually used in the industry for stabilizing nitrocellulose, which was developed after it was established that accidents happened due to residual acid in the guncotton.
If I use a glass Pyrex container to make this in, then after it’s over neutralize the container in baking soda water and wash it, will it be safe to cook in again? I guess what I’m asking is does the acid permanently contaminate the glass or can I neutralize it and it be fine again? Thanks!
Ok. Schel you can concentrate the sulfuric acid by heating it to a boil. Very dangerous. I think aound 300 Celcius. But it will concentrate the acid and i would like to seeif the higher conc. Makes any difference. I u would have to use less acid or if it would nitrite the cotton faster. What do you think
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The coat gives an air of legitimacy, excellent content.
Local Amish Bakery sells Food Grade Potassium Nitrate. It sits on the shelf next to powdered sugar. I chuckle when I see it.
I just replenished my supply. 5lbs for $17.77 from a fertilizer store.
schel sullivan not a bad deal for 5 pounds!
schel sullivan just buy chilisalpeter. I can get 5 kilos for 7€
Can you give us a label. I cant seem to find it
Spectracide brand
The mad scientist working with thunder and lightning in the background. Classic.
Sounded great
the earlier video had some sort of weird tik-tik-tik in the background that sounded like an alien was lurking close by.
Making explosives outdoors during a thunderstorm. Fucking legend.
Welp, I'm back on that watchlist again...
I never left it ... 😆
Lol too late for me i voted republican
We will all be soon when they try to ban our guns and we watch videos on how to make guns.
@@roflryan1 don't think "they" are gonna ban them, but if that happens you just need a pipe that fits the bullet snuggly, a nail and a spring of some kind. That is however for the fireing mechanism and you'll just have to make some kinda mechanism that pulls the spring holding the nail and release it. But, isent the idea of having guns to overthrow the state if they try to go against the constitution by say banning guns?
@Milesfem this almost got me fired from a good paying custom aluminum fabrication job in the 90s😂😂
I am a fire performer, I do fire magic along with fire spinning. I like to combine these two worlds and make an awesome show. Flash cotton I use alot! It's expensive. I tried this method at home and IT WORKS!! I AM SO HAPPY!! THANK YOU!
If I ever make gun cotton, I'll definitely use your method, seems great. 👌
This method is great if you dont have access to chem lab grade sulfuric and nitric acids.
Schel Sullivan the funny thing is, that this is basically the method used to extract 70% or 99% nitric acid, You’re missing The methylene chloride phase of the reacting mixture with cooling. Anyway you method for nitrocellulose works, keep the videos rolling out!! :) also I would be interested to see how much nitrogen content you’re achieving, at least 11% to 13%?
What is the work of baking soda in this?
@@shariqkhan6627 it neutralises any leftover acids
Love your videos, from canada.
Of course it would be easier to use Nitric Acid, if you can get it, but for the process shown:
KNO3 + H2SO4 = K2SO4 + HNO3
The reaction stoichiometry indicates you need 48.5g of H2SO4 for 100g of KNO3. The reaction products are Potassium Sulphate, K2SO4 and Nitric Acid, HNO3.
Alright! It took me a couple of years but I just watched this video. Wow, what a great tutorial! Even including FLIR to measure the temperature changes. You, my man, are the Guncotton King of America! Seriously though, so good, and much improved over your previous video. Thanks for the info.
Ty. I copied the recipe from Cody's lab mostly!
@@schelsullivan can you help me please?
"Don't try this at home"
Me watching cos am tryna make this at my home
he warned us! ;)
Cant be *that* dangerous when *HE* is surviving it !!! 😎😂😂
Very unsafe didn’t wear gloves. You were very informative on the process! Good Job on burn rate! However I wouldn’t dare even try this. Isn’t this illegal? Don’t you need a ATF license? Surprised you don’t have a guy Faulk mask on, the ATF means business and their not to be trifled with. However I do like “How and Why stuff works” Thanks for the knowledge. Be Safe
@@mooretreeservice do you mean "guy fawkes" mask?
The guy tryin to blow up the british parliament way back when, cause he was in a rebel group, enemy to the brits.
No need wearing gloves as long as the baking soda water "neutralizer liquid" sits right beside you on the table.
You saw it, he rinsed his hamd just before it went itchy...thats just enough to avoid acid burns, he didnt even had stains on his hands that day later.
Watch out pal, do not blow yourself up.
@@mooretreeservice check with your local state laws .... different places have different regulations ...
The "raising of the fist at the sky" was classic. Luv'd it!
Love the lab coat schel! Always entertaining and informative.
Thanks Barb! did you my steak cooking video I just released?
Thx for updating the subject 👍😁👍
Great instructional :) You can use litmus paper to test the cotton mass for nitrate residual, may save you some time. I also remember reading up on this years ago and distilled water was recommended for some reason. It was important, but I cant recall why. You can also use a natural solvent to dissolve the guncotton in preparation for mold casting. For example shotgun powder made from guncotton is small flat discs with a hole in the middle and rifle powder looks like small cylinders similar to pencil lead maybe two millimeters long. This effects the burn time and therefore the build up pressure time of the expansion during the explosion in the barrel. Cheers :)
This was great!
Reminded me of the "good ol' days" of the internet back before it got so corporate and everybody lost their mind.
I first heard of nitrocellulose as a wood finish.
It is what Fender used on their guitars in the 50's and 60's.
You can imagine how flammable that had to be!
I doubt I will ever make it but after watching this I think that I could.
Nice to see a video that does address safety yet doesn't demand you have $1000s in equipment before you can try somthing like this.
Gloves probably would have been a good idea as well as goggles.
However every time I start out with goggles I wind up removing them halfway through becase they fog up and I can't see.
If I ever try this I will put on safety glasses.
This was very enjoyable to watch and I will check out your other videos.
I was always interested with making all the parts of a weapon from ground up and projectile, the chemistry of the projectile I mean was the missing part. Thanks for the video.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers
This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
@@_EllieLOL_ don’t do this. You even compress that a little reloading with match heads and it will go off. This guy is actually making smokeless propellant by name. Used in modern firearms. Definitely the safer way to go
@@_EllieLOL_ You can also make it from cap gun ammo. 1 circle should be enough for a load.
totally loved your presentation and you explained some points that where well under looked by others.thanks mate
MAZZA.
Totally agreed
Can i use this guncotton to NC Lacquer mixture?
It dissolves properly in acetone But i've not used the resulting mixture to lacquer any guitars or violins.
ruclips.net/video/A3HaSUHERKg/видео.html
Even the dog is excited.
This method is useful for making the “paper” for paper cartridges used in black powder cap & call revolvers & Sharps rifles. Substitute rice paper cigarette rolling papers for the cotton balls for use with the cap & ball revolvers. Larger paper, or 100% light cotton cloth, for the Sharps.
Oh yeah I just subscribed and I love your combination of wit and knowledge!!...I love the rain ..it adds a really awesome dimension.....very calming and informative!!!....I love the mesh trash can idea...So innovative and inventive......use what you have an it turns out to be incredible!!!!...I love crazy looking things with wires and alligator clips and what is the thing right beside your computer to the left with the red wire and alligator clip. ...I have a High pressure liquid chromatograph pump that looks like that ........lol
Calm down, people. He's weearing his safety beard.
That "crystal" in there i believe are the potassium sulfate byproducts of the sulfuric acid, as the potassuim is stripped away from the kno3, to make the nitric acid in situ. Washing the cotton with water dissolves it away quite effectively.
And yes, those fumes are toxic. They are a mixture of suphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and water vapor.
Washes the hell out of it, dumps into the crash can xD. Awesome method man
You've a fantastic channel mate, thanks for all of your content!
Albert Saran thanks man I just do what's fun hope you guys enjoy it
Can you make a video where you use this to reload rifle rounds
It would essentially be a single base powder. However you do need to add an unknown amount of Nitroglycerin. Much too dangerous to make. Also possibly aluminum dust and graphite. Nitrocellulose is relatively too unstable to use in a cartridge. You would need a scale capable of measuring tenths of a grain. You will also need a brass rod and good knowledge of over pressure signs. If you have zero "experience" reloading your own cartridges you will be prone to losing fingers, eye sight and possibly life.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers
This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
Too risky! Canister powders are very specific for reasons.
I might experiment with cordite, but even that is risky.
I see you made a toxic waste hole as well! My friend and I used to do little experiments in his driveway, like making a penny stove, or Rocket Candy, or filling a balloon with oxy-acetalyne and popping it with a match. Good times. He dug a little hole in the ground in the brush next to the driveway, and we would always dump whatever acid or toxic byproducts we made into it. Incidentally, all the plants around that hole died, for some reason.
Are you sure he didn't pee in the hole?
hey Schel I am a chemical engineer and I am working on a book or series of books on survival chemistry. For instance potassium nitrate from wood has and urine. I want to make a book on precursors for nearly everything that the books on underground chemistry leave out. I want to be able to go from wood ash all the way to sodium nitrite and even nitroethane. I was a fan of all the Loompanics unlimited books and now that loom panics is gone so are most of all the books. Kurt Saxon was a great editor who collected out of print books and put them out in a collection called Grandad's wonderful book of chemistry . I want to do the same thing only with the most important synthesis and it has been suggested to put together a glassware kit to go with the book that will allow someone to distill nitric acid and even sulfuric acid . What are your thoughts?
hey schel, you should get a magnetic stirrer for this, they are dirt cheap now, like $30-40, it can keep it stirring while you are away
Wouldn't work for very long. As you can see in the video, in his process the whole thing form a crystaline mass.
Thank you Schel.
Schel, I hope you see this. You asked in your first video on nitrocellulose, How can the fibers be separated? I say, by "carding". Carding is the separation and straightening of fibers in the preparation of them being spun into yarn... My great-grandmother still had and used carding paddles for wool when I was a kid. All fiber carding paddles I have seen have steel pins, which should not be used for the purpose of teasing out cotton nitrocellulose, obviously sparky. The key is to find, or make, carding paddles (or another combing system.) with non-sparking pins... I hope this post finds you well Schel. Enjoying you channel. -tjb-
You could card the cotton balls to make a "rope" of cotton fibers. That's what my mother used to do with her wool before she spun it into yarn.
ideal for magic shows! this looks really fun. have a great day.
Nice touch with the thermal camera
3-2-1 Contact fever dream. Well done sir!
Nice tutorial thank you I really appreciate the information
I am so jealous of the summer thunderstorms...I live in California but I used to spend my summers in Ohio and I miss those summer thunderstorms. Lucky dog.
The sky puts on the best pyro show!
I love it,yeah it's fun to play with
those omaha steak coolers are legit man. they work really really well.
Thanks for the video, very informative and I had no trouble or at all making my own
Thunder Rain and Lightning in the background. Spooky Mad Scientist. Awesome!!!
One day I'm going to have to make some videos and start a channel that I will have to name "Shell Sullivan Made Me Do It".
Mahalo for your channel Brah. Sometime I'll have to send you some video of the tweaks I have made to things that you have done. The gun cotton gun gave me some ideas that you'll love.
Thunder ! The Nitro Gods are angry for sharing alchemy with humankind.
Temu has these spring loaded egg beaters. I don't know how long they would last around the acid , but they wisk really well with just an up and down motion.
Question: Would this land me in hot water with the ATF? I'm looking at making some for single base smokeless powder, yet everything I can find in 27 CFR Reg. 555 only relates to the commercial manufacture of the stuff.
This is a good question.
I've always complied with the rules and regulations supplied by ATF documents. They are all online. I make tiny amounts, use it all that day, never store or transport.
What happens is that, when confined, the gun cotton burns and the gas which is generated creates pressure. As the pressure increases, the nitrocellulose burns faster and creates more pressure. It's a feedback loop. Charting this on a graph, the line sweeps upward dramatically. All of this increasing pressure feedback, and resultant burning rate increase, takes place in 1/1000th of a second or less, much faster than the speed at which it burns on your open hand.
For a lifetime, I've worked continuously with a long list of single and double-base smokeless gunpowders (those made from a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine); 61 years now, and you would not believe how slowly they all burn in the open, or in an ashtray. A quarter teaspoon may take three to ten seconds, depending upon the powder number. So when bottled up, a tuft of harmless looking gun cotton is like an atomic bomb, compared to the relatively weakened smokeless gunpowder made from it. The bottom line is, please be very careful with this stuff. It only looks like "ordinary old cotton" after nitration. You've got a tiger by the tail. Have fun, but be careful, and study to learn everything you can about the chemistry and characteristics of such substances when working with them. They are fascinating but unforgiving. Arms and eyes don't grow back as fast as fingernails.
I'm a magician, not a chemistry major and have recently ' discovered' flash(gun) cotton. In my routine I use glycerine in my smoke generator(a couple drops on a hot coil covered with heavy felt) I use to use mineral oil or baby oil. But recently it was suggested to use glycerin. In my routine I ignite a BB size (very loose) of cotton in the palm of my hand without any injuries. I would like to add a very small miniscule drop of glycerin to add smoke. What would happen to the chemical composition and heat generated. At present I can tolerate the slight discomfort the cotton produces, but I'm not interested in the China syndrome or worse in the palm of my hand! I know what I don't know and this is one of those times. I know certain things shouldn't be mixed like bleach and acids, ammonia/iodine and such. But this, I don't even want to try to mess with without some guidance from an expert. Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated. I definitely don't want to lose a hand in the middle of a children's ward!
@@wizardwillbonner I wouldn't work at all. The guncotton would not ignite and burn.
@@philohio thank you for the reply. I'm always leary of doing things I know nothing about in the fear of F'n up big-time. In my younger years not so much!😂 I know when glycerin is dropped on potassium permanganate it will start a fire. I guess as I got older I got a little smarter but not much wiser. Chemical reactions always interested me, but only after someone else did it without dying! Just didnt want to create an explosive of some kind and getting my ass in trouble!
@@wizardwillbonner
Will, what happens with your magician's method of burning glycerin to create smoke is that the glycerin is subjected to a great amount of heat suddenly. But when a tuft of nitrocellulose is ignited on your hand, it burns instantly, creating so little heat that your hand hardly feels it. And anyway, the glycerin-soggy stuff would not ignite.
In the commercial manufacture of smokeless gunpowder, made by dissolving guncotton in a mixture of ether and acetone, various amounts of other chemicals and lubricants are added, to change the burning rate and other characteristics of the final product. The jelly-like product is then extruded into various grain shapes and sizes, with surface areas which also influence burning rate. The solvents evaporate and you have grains ranging from the size of the period at the end of a sentence, to grains you can hold in your hand, for 16" naval guns. It would be possible to add an ingredient to make as much or as little smoke you want, and in any color. All you need is a multi-million dollar ammunition factory and the, in my opinion brilliant, scientists to do it. The subject has fascinated me since the first time I made guncotton in about 1957. I still have a tuft of it, which has not deteriorated or changed color in any way. FYI: The maximum shelf life of smokeless powder ammunition first made around 1920 has not yet been determined, except that some types of primers become nonfunctional after 30 - 50 years. Some pistol and rifle ammunition made during WW-I (around 1917) will still work just fine. I have some. So again, your question revives a lot of memories about my long-time fascination with an amazing substance, common old cotton transformed by immersion in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid. Of course, the process is a good bit more complicated.
@@philohio wow, you answered a million questions I was always curious about but in today's world, I wasn't 'that' curious! I make my own cotton an I'm get satisfactory results on the flash, not as fast as I like but it's a lot faster than the commercial flash paper I ordered. What can I use to make my own flash paper I would like to use something thin like rolling papers. I don't want to be a pita but you seem to have the knowledge I seek and I thank you for your time.
*Click the adds on video and help Schel to keep doing great videos !* dont be lazy because you watch real scientist on yt and nobody make great NC like Schel
I've got a patreon to
I made mine on a small scale. I only soaked One(1) cotton ball. once it drys, I am thinking about stuffing a little bit on it in one of my BP revolvers. I haven't had the opportunity to do any Chemistry sine 1998. I miss it. Thanks Thumbs Up, as usual.
Use strike anywhere match head powder instead, ~10 heads should be enough for a 9mm idk how much for rifle calibers
This flashes more than it pushes, if you notice he burns it in his hands just fine whereas gunpowder will hurt you if you do that
@@_EllieLOL_ Strike anywhere matches are hard to get in most of the US.
Tweakers use them to make meth so they have been banned in many areas.
Great video schel!,thats the fastest guncotten on utube!
Its faster than a lot of chemistry lab preparation videos Ive seen, but wait till Darien chimes in. His is faster!
schel sullivan pyro chem source 3.00 a lb great people
You said by a comment or something it eventually breaks down; did you find a way to stabilize it to prevent that happening?
The hard cotton is the result of mixing the potassium nitrate with the sulfic acid right? ... you still have lots of potassium hydrogene sulfate in there, that is not desolving very well .?
I'd say so. At least mostly. It is quite soluble in water though, so not that big deal to get rid of it.
This is fantastic! I was looking into making flash paper and guncotton for magic supply, I have done this before using the acids but I'm not sure about where to get those now. This method (along with comments below about extra/neutralizing washes for safety) looks like it has many improvements over the original methods. Without proper washing, nitrated cellulose can become spontaneously explosive, this happened with some of the original guncotton factories that weren't washing adequately... the factories blew up. Anyway, great job Shel, keep up the great work!
Loved the way yo dried it. Important no heat. lol :P good job on the video man.
Yup was out of impatience I came up with that.
Hi,
Here we cannot buy nitrate potassium NKO3, do you think nitrite potassium NKO2 can do the job?
Have a good day.
No, nitrites and nitrates are not the same molecule. This said, you can transform nitrites to nitrates.
A real mad scientist, with thunder!
i actually use gun cotton for cap and ball pistols... works awesome
also im pretty sure you can reuse sulfuric acid (it's a catalyst after all, and doesn't fume) by evaporating it after your nitration, and then all you'll need to replace is your potassium nitrate as it's expended. not totally sure though.
cooler is too big. love watching video. I used to set charges in a mine. drill holes shove in sticks of dynamite add blasting cap run wires and hit the bricks. had so much dynamite used to have fun blasting around.
sounds like fun
BTW, dynamite is not the same a gun cotton
(8:30) - That acid mix would cool a lot quicker if you simply poured it into the square dish, and put that dish into the ice bath, because the dish has much more surface area that would be in contact with the ice water.
>
Cool! Making gun cotton outside in a thunderstorm.
What happens if you leave in the nitrite more than 24 hours
Turns into an unusable goop
That's so hot it's cool... or is it so cool it's hot? Either way that's a really great video on making gun cotton. Can't wait for the videos of creative uses for gun cotton.
Thanks for watching!
I was waiting for the big guttural laugh at the end, LOL!
Can I nitrate paper for paper cartridge's for my muzzleloaders using this process?
I heard that the Aussies and New Zealanders made what they called Jam Tin Grenades at Gallipoli. They were tin cans, fuses and pieces of guncotton. After seeing this stuff in action, I can kind of see how.
You can't do this stuff without learning those things as well. Hopefully I'll never have to use my skills for anything other than entertainment and education
Nitrated cotton is pretty much smokeless powder and burns very fast ..... Where black powder smokes a lot and burns a lot slower
can i use this to make lacquer for wood? I've tried with gun cotton before and it dried to a white powder instead of a glossy clear finish
Might i suggest rigging up a five gallon bucket of water, with a siphon running into rinsing container with an outlet and adjusting the flow rate.
It would require less attention and work. You could test the outflow from the rinsing container with litmus paper from time to time....
Thanks for posting this informative video.....
Bad idea. The material needs mechanical washing, the stronger and longer the better.
7:18 am
My question is, does the reaction temperature need to stay below the 70 degree benchmark or only after you place the cotton balls. I'm having a hard time keeping the reaction temp below 70 degrees
your edits, camera choices, and table setup - great job!
Thanks, thats why I wanted to revisit this topic, to upgrade it to my current skill level. Im hoping to get some camera and audio equipment upgrades soon.
O yea can I put the cotton in a spinning well and a loom knit a blanket or a sweeter
If I leave this sitting for say around 28 hours will this destroy the batch
I got a big big patch of thorn rockwood iron wood or whatever J can afford a backhoe but I might could blast its center out if I dig it to the root level and tamp it on top
great video Schel!
Thanks! I worked hard on it!
Have you ever tried making HNO3 with your KNO3 and the Rooto professional drain cleaner? If you don't have the glass you can get a decent distillation set on eBay from Deschem or other's.
Ive spent my spare time learning more about video editing that chemistry! I would need help with that for sure. Check out Darian Berg's channel. He has been mentoring me. ruclips.net/channel/UCus2mJvIQ62lVt5HVbkQ-UQ
I am watch Darian's videos all the time on minds.com. That's how I found your channel.
If you ever need help let me know brother.
You can replace the cotton balls with sawdust or any form of the fiberous parts of any plants.
6 attemps at leaving a message... Pls don't try this experiment.
@@brokenpencil57 I had a bad connection at the time and YT kept timing this comment out, so I kept reattempting to post it. I don’t know why they all showed up. I think I deleted the rest of them.
You can but cotton is 90% cellulose. Plant matter isn't quite as pure.
Even cooler!! 😉 I wonder what would happen if it were confined? 🤔
It would explode? If i remember correctly, 4 moles of nitrocellulose produces 29 moles of gas products.
@@witekkiAny mole of Gas has 24 liters
Hi when are You putting backing soda in???
kind of random soaks them for 5 minutes and they turn out great. this is an unnecessarily long time to nitrate? also it becomes a crystalized cake and takes way longer to rinse when you leave it that long
Can you over-wash it? Like if you want to be super safe and just rinse it a few extra times, would it dilute the efficiency of the gun cotton?
Not at all. The more it's rinsed the better.
dude thank you for your instruction, you're right when I wash it, It's not cold enough, so when I tried again with very cold water, and it's work until the end
once again thank you dude :)
You add twice as .much H2S04 than van react with the potassium nitrate. Is this because you need unreacted H2SO4 in the mix?
Very cool and educational thanks man I admit It is very tempting to go to the hardware shop and do a bit of shopping.
Or did I go 24hrs ago 🤨
😁
I did a two to one ratio of sulfuri acid and potassium nitrate andit just became a thing of fuming nitric acid. what did I do wrong, should i have done two cups and one cup.
Gunhair @ 9:44
You remind me when I first started chemistry. No gloves, drops of acid everywhere, using glass from my moms kitchen. Dangerous as hell but the fun excitement of the result outweighed it all. Don’t listen to these haters. Most start out like this, one day you’ll be angerly commenting on videos about how dangerous their conduct is as well. It’s a matter of not getting maimed by chemicals before you invest in proper glassware and PPE.
It’s okay to be using gloves in this. It’s not concentrated enough to catch them on fire.
High quality great job 👍👍
What does it mean if your acid solution is red after mixing potassium nitrate and sulfuric acid. It clears up like your's does after 20 min but it never turns yellow except when i initially mixed them. Using same brand drain cleaner. KNO3 is stump remover as well.
The drain cleaners typically have impurities like stabilizers and the like. It probably won't affect your in product.
@@schelsullivan you are quite right sir. This is really fun stuff to play with. I took mine out at 22 hours which is why mine burns a tiny but slower. What I'm wondering now is if it's possible to make gun cotton with a colored flame. Would substituting strontium nitrate for the potassium nitrate give it a reddish flame? I'm not a chemist either 😢
This seems quite similar to makeing black powder and paper cartrages, How does this compare to black powder when used in a rifle?
Black powder is completely different.
@@benjaminsinger1897 Yep. Black powder is a mechanical mixture, not chemical. When black powder burns, the components combine to form at least a dozen different compounds. When nitrocellulose burns, the nitrate bonds break before recombining into other compounds.
Would using cotton pads, instead of cotton balls, and then shredding them dry, before acidifying and nitrating save the tearing apart of wet cotton balls at the end, as well as simplify drying the separated fibers? I do think that using bicarbonate to neutralize the acid when the cotton is separated like that would make it much easier to rinse out - and then diluting the residual water with alcohol, pressing out the excess, and then air drying it, would speed drying, as well. Alcohol evaporates much faster than water. Just a few thoughts.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you all the shade tree chemist.
I love experiments and chemistry, good vidoes
Reminds me of my aunts pumpkin n marshmallow pie 😂
I must be using some high concentration sulfuric acid, it is lab grade. My first 5 rinses foam and fizz like crazy
How was your final product ?
schel sullivan It is high grade stuff. It burns extremely fast.
70degs F is around 25-30 degs C
0degs C is freezing point, and 100degs C is boiling point... easy.
97degs F is around 36degs C body temp...
Im too old and too American to learn.
Lol, no probs...
Cool, thanks...
Hi. Hope all is well. in regards to your cotton? once you made your batch, where do you store it? and what is its shelf life.??
I dont, I never store any. I only make very small batches and use it the same day. There are very strict safety guidelines that must be followed to store any pyrotechnic. That being said, although this GC burns very fast and efficiently, I dont think its molecularly stable for long term storage.
Ok, better get rid of it before something goes pear shape. Have a nice day.
As an experiment I made a batch last year and after washing it thoroughly I soaked it for an hour in a solution of 5% urea, followed by more washings then drying. I kept it in a bag in a place where it wouldn't do any damage if it went off. It stored just fine for almost a year now. Just tested a little sample of it and it's good as new. The urea neutralizes the last traces of acid, the ones that are absorbed into the surface of the fibers and won't go away just by washing. This is the process actually used in the industry for stabilizing nitrocellulose, which was developed after it was established that accidents happened due to residual acid in the guncotton.
For saftey's sake it can be stored indefinitely in distilled water
Great video sir!
Guess I should have said the 1.800 is specfic gravity of the sulfuric acid.
Hi
Thanks for The great video! More please💯🤗🇩🇰
Have you tried lighting it with a feral rod
If I use a glass Pyrex container to make this in, then after it’s over neutralize the container in baking soda water and wash it, will it be safe to cook in again? I guess what I’m asking is does the acid permanently contaminate the glass or can I neutralize it and it be fine again? Thanks!
Ok. Schel you can concentrate the sulfuric acid by heating it to a boil. Very dangerous. I think aound 300 Celcius. But it will concentrate the acid and i would like to seeif the higher conc. Makes any difference. I u would have to use less acid or if it would nitrite the cotton faster. What do you think
An amazing video, would it be possible to use information from this video to possibly make it more powerful?
ruclips.net/video/vtan4_wfZVM/видео.html