Barron and I went out to the Boomershoot site today. Barron has the full report, with video but the bottom line is that Boomerite stored via a new packaging technique appears work well even after being stored for 13 days.

We put the Boomerite directly in the cardboard boxes then wrapped the cardboard boxes with plastic wrap. They way we have done it for years was to put the Boomerite in zip lock bags and put the bags in the cardboard boxes. This new method is faster, cheaper, allows us to put more Boomerite in each box, and it fills the box all the way to three edges. There is still a bit of a gap at the top edge but less so that before.

I’m very pleased to report that after running a sample of our existing stock of potassium chlorate through a blender the problems appear to be solved:

Barron has his own report of our tests.

Also of interest is that I talked to our supplier on Friday and discovered that we can order whatever grade and class of potassium chlorate we want. That probably means we won’t have this problem again and can use our existing stock for private parties and miscellaneous testing when we have the more time to run it through a blender.

Barron and I drove out to the Boomershoot site today for some more testing of the potassium chlorate. There was a large snow berm blocking the road out to Mecca and the snow was too deep to drive across anyway. We parked at my cousin Dennis’ place, packed up our stuff and started to walk. It is only 789 yards (I wrote an app for that!) but the crust on the snow was weak enough that I broke through about every other step and Barron broke through almost up to his knees with each step.

The wind was coming up and it was starting to snow and I decided (after getting confirmation from Barron) that this wasn’t a good idea. It was going to be a lot of work getting out there and back. So much work that it was bordering stupid to even try. We drove back to Moscow without doing the testing.

I’ll be back in town in two weeks. Maybe the weather will be more cooperative and if not we’ll bring snowshoes and we will win the battle with the snow.

As Ry reported yesterday we verified the KClO₃ we currently have in Boomershoot storage has much larger particle size than what we know has worked in the past. I purchased a cheap blender and tested a sample of KClO₃ to see if we could reduce the particle size.

I’m happy to report that it appears “blending” it did reduce the particle size significantly. Looking at it under the microscope shows there are still some particles that are larger than the “old stuff” but most of the particles are more like powdered sugar than granulated sugar.

Further evidence that we are on the right track is the dust generated. Even after a minute or two of waiting for the dust to settle in the blender just gently taking the lid off the blender gets a cloud of dust flowing through the air from the blender to the air cleaner:

Another interesting thing is that the volume increased significantly. My guess is that it about occupies about 40% more volume than previously. The container on the left had about 1.5 inches of air above the KClO₃ before blending. After blending it would not fit and I had to put some of the material in a different container.

It blends, but will it detonate? We have more tests to run the next time I visit Idaho.

Yesterday Barron and I went out to do more tests on our Boomerite mixture and packaging. It failed the last time we tried it and we want to get the problem solved.

We tried both the new packaging and the old from about 20 yards with .223 Wolf hollow points. All were complete duds. There was not even a hint of reactivity.

We were quite perplexed. What could have changed? Thinking that maybe some water had gotten into the old stuff we mixed up a new batch with some fresh ethylene glycol. Still absolutely nothing.

Barron was measuring the KClO3 and reported the powder didn’t seem quite right to him. There was no dust! I had three air cleaners in the shipping container because we knew the KClO3 generated a lot of dust and it wasn’t healthy to breath it. But there was no dust. Something was wrong. Could it have gotten wet? Maybe it could have drawn moisture from the air.

We took a couple of pounds to my parents house and dried it in the kitchen oven. Still no dust when handling it.

We ground some in the mortar and pestle. There was a little bit of dust but I could tell it still wasn’t as fine as what we usually have. Usually it it is so fine you cannot feel any grittiness. With this you could.

The Boomerite we made with the dried and ground KClO3 didn’t go boom with Wolf 60 grain .223 HP’s from Barron’s rifle. I had him try some 50 grain VMAX that I had. With the non-dried (or ground) we got a little bit of detonation but still not normal. With the ground and dried it went boom.

I put some of the KClO3 under the microscope. The crystals are average about 1/3 as large as granulated sugar. It should be much smaller than that.

It turns out there even though I was getting “MIL-SPEC” KClO3 “just like” always before there are various “Classes” within that spec. I strongly suspect we got a different class with this drum of KClO3. That could explain, rather than the plastic deli containers, why we had problems with a lot of the targets at Boomershoot. At the private party we had last summer it didn’t detonate very well either. We used the 50 grain VMAX bullets from fairly close and about 20% did not detonate properly.

Barron has more details on our experiments.

My blogging activity has been pretty meager the last few days. First it was the guests we had for the holidays then I spent a lot of time on Boomershoot stuff. This is a post about some of the Boomershoot stuff.

I purchased an ATT Microcell to put on site so that I could have cell service at Boomershoot without switching carriers. It requires a solid high speed Internet connection with low latency. The existing connection was via satellite and it wasn’t even close to good enough. My brother Gary has a good connection a mile or so away and while I didn’t have line of sight to his place from Boomershoot I did have the ability to pick up the Wi-Fi signal from the T.V. antenna mast of the neighbors house. I spent all day Wednesday (December 28^th) in the rain climbing up and down the roof of my brother’s house putting up a Nanostation 2. This was more challenging that most roofs because it was very steep and made of slick steel. Smooth steel in the cold rain. That little exercise involved parking my vehicle on the other side of the house to attach a rope to, using two ladders, and laying face down on the wet roof. I got soaking wet. In North Central Idaho. In late December. But it was going to be worth it. Right?

I first measured the signal strength with the unit attached to the top of a ladder. It was good, about -55 dBm. I need at least -75 dBm to get a semi-reliable connection. After I had it all mounted and powered it up again the signal strength was about -82 dBm. What? How could that be? It was higher than on the ladder and even though it still wasn’t high enough to get line of site to the neighbor’s house it should have been better.

I moved the vehicle back around to the other side of the house did the thing with the rope and two ladders and getting soaking wet again to tweak the position. I turned the antenna a little bit and the signal strength looked great again. I came back down. Still good. Nice.

I came back the next day (Thursday) to finish up on the inside of the house with putting an end on the Ethernet cable I pushed through the wall and routing the cable on the inside in a neat and tidy manner. I connected it all up and tried connecting to the Wi-Fi access point at Mecca two hops away. Pings were erratic. Sometimes they were 4 mS and sometimes they would time out. I measured the signal strength again. It was bouncing all over. -85 sometimes and the mid -60s at others. I rebooted units, changed antenna polarizations, and all kinds of things on both units involved. Nothing helped. The signal strength was just not dependable.

Friday (yesterday) morning I visited the only non-satellite high speed Internet provider office for that location (their office is in Moscow, where I live) to talk to them about getting a direct connection. They wanted an address.

It’s in the middle of a field:

View Larger Map

There is no “address”.

This seemed to be a bit of a problem for them. I told them it was a shipping container where I had solar charged batteries for electricity. I finally allowed them to believe it was a construction site (we construct targets there, right?). Then they wanted to know how long construction would be going on. “Several years” seemed to suck the brains right out of them because they stood there with slack faces without saying a word. I finally explained that I hold a shooting event there every year and we construct the targets for the event there. I run the event with web based software, I need a good Internet connection to run the AT&T Microcell so I could make emergency services calls if needed, and a large number of bloggers attend and they appreciate having free Wi-Fi. I go out there several times a year to check on things and do tests. I use the Internet a lot and will continue to do so.

The blank stares slowly faded and they started talking again. After about 20 minutes they agreed to send someone out “sometime soon” to do a “site survey”. I had requested one back in August or September without them following through so I wasn’t exactly convinced they were wanting my business so I pushed them pretty hard for a firm date. They told me I was about number 94 on their list and it would be a while.

It was now my turn to be speechless for a few seconds.

I then told them the site had a great view of the mountain top where their access point is and it is closer than my brother Gary who subscribes to their service. The site survey really isn’t necessary. Could they just send someone out right now, while I was going to be there, and connect me up? And I’m almost never around on weekdays since I work in Seattle… Nope. That was impossible.

More pushing for a date and they said maybe in a couple weeks. And they might even be able to do it on a weekend when I was there. They took my number and promised to get back in touch when they had a firm date.

I then went back to Mecca and confirmed my connection was flakey. From Mecca to the neighbors house I had about 15 to 20 Mbs transfer rates. From Mecca to the outside world it was about 15 Kbs—when it was connected at all. Good enough to sometimes get email to come through and some web pages to eventually load but the satellite connection was actually better.

I spent the rest of the day tidying up Mecca. I put in the RIGrunner and routed wires a little neater and more permanently (still much to be done). I unpacked all the mixing table stuff and spread it out on the tables to see how it might work with the new layout. This was potentially important to get done yesterday because Ry thought he might be bringing over a new shooter today. I wanted the place ready to produce targets with minimal time spent unpacking and getting ready to actually make targets. It turns out the new shooter backed out so it didn’t matter that much.

Here are some pictures:

The boxes would normally be folded and ready to be filled but the layout was good enough to see that it should work out.

We will probably go back out with a small crew sometime in the next couple of months and do some testing just to make sure but so far, except for the Internet connection, I’m very pleased with the new explosives production facility.

Barb and I went to Boomershoot Mecca today. I installed a 3/8” U-bolt on the solar panel mount and made a plate to replace the conduit clamps I had used to secure the pole to the top edge of the shipping container. I just didn’t trust the previous configuration. Barb and I raised the pole and secured it in place:

Then I did some more wiring and tested out the transfer switch (it automatically switches from the external generator to the battery powered inverter):

I moved some shelves into the proper position and started putting things away.

But by then Barb was cold and tired and wanted to go home. I had a 1750 Watt heater at her feet with my coat over her lap but it’s getting cold enough that you have to be moving or else be in a warm environment to keep from getting hypothermia.

I still have a little bit more wiring to do such as connecting the 115 VAC battery charger to the generator side of the transfer switch, installing an Anderson Powerpole and securing the cables and flexible conduit to the wall. Then I want to arrange all the boxes, chemicals, mixer, air cleaners and other stuff in prep for Boomershoot 2012.

The solar panel seems to be working well. At one point the charge controller indicated 7.1 amps which is getting close to 100 W (the panel is rated at 130 W under ideal conditions). As we were leaving the sun was lower and the battery was nearing full charge and the amperage dropped down to the four amp range. Still that is far more than enough to run Wi-Fi and a web cam without generator backup.

On Sunday Barron and I went to Boomershoot Mecca and mounted the solar panel on the pole and did most of the wiring for the power transfer switch and the solar panel. I was not happy with the mounting of the solar panel to the steel pipe with just two hose clamps. The panel has quite a bit of surface (wind) area, clamps are very thin with holes (weak spots) ready made from the factory. After we had it mounted it was trivial to rotate it on the pole. It just didn’t have enough grip. And if it would rotate that probably meant it could slide down the pole as well. We drove to Orofino for lunch and bought some friction tape at the hardware store. I wasn’t entirely happy with this solution but it was better than what we had.

I ultimately realized what were really needed was a U-bolt in addition to the factory provided clamps. The hardware store was closed by then and so we used the friction tape and cobbled something together that was better than nothing.

Also the conduit clamps I planned to hold the 1” pipe to the side of the shipping container started looking weak to me when I thought about the panel being pushed around in the wind. I installed two but figured four would really be better. It took a lot of time to bore and tap the holes into the corner of the shipping container so I decided the other two could wait until the next time I came out.

It was decided that I would look at the weather forecasts and if there was no high winds I would take care of it on Thursday when Barb and I go to my parents place a couple miles away for Thanksgiving. If there were winds forecast I would get up early Monday morning, buy the parts at the local hardware store, drive out to the site, finish it up, and still be able to get back to Moscow without being excessively late in my “work from home” week at my Seattle job.

The wind forecast looked good and I didn’t even bother to purchase the parts. Then about 9:30 last night I checked my email on my phone and found (in part):

Joe,

Here is a current Wind Advisory for Boomershoot (Lenore, ID) until 8:00am, Wed Nov 23 2011, from your local National Weather Service office.

…

URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MISSOULA MT
940 PM MST MON NOV 21 2011
OROFINO/GRANGEVILLE REGION-
840 PM PST MON NOV 21 2011

…WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TUESDAY TO 8 AM PST WEDNESDAY…

A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TUESDAY TO 8 AM PST WEDNESDAY.

* IMPACTS/TIMING: SOUTH WINDS WILL BECOME QUITE STRONG AFTER
MIDNIGHT. STRONG SOUTH WINDS WILL CONTINUE INTO WEDNESDAY
MORNING.

* WINDS: SOUTH 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH…INCREASING TO
25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP 50 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT INTO
WEDNESDAY MORNING.

I am already in bed, ready to go to sleep shortly and now I have 50 MPH winds forecast for Boomershoot in about three hours. Even 25 MPH winds would have made it difficult to sleep without taking some action to prevent the loss of the solar panel. I drove out to the site which is normally one hour each way but last night the roads had snow and ice on them. I used a rope to safely lower the pipe and solar panel to the ground and tie it to a couple of railroad ties (thanks Matt!) so it wouldn’t blow around and bang into some nearby rocks:

I made it back to bed by a little after 1:00 AM.

My Tweets for the little adventure were (minor grammar errors corrected):

We needed one more bolt to secure the solar panel against high winds.

I could have done it this morning but no winds were in the forecast so I could do it on Thursday when I was going to be there anyway.

A few minutes ago I got a wind warning for Boomershoot. Up to 50 MPH winds starting at 1:00 AM. On my way out to the site.

On site at #Boomershoot Mecca. Not much wind yet. Glad I didn’t try to drive across the field. It was very soft and muddy.

I’m going to take down the mast with the solar panel and Wifi AP. No cell service so this is the last Tweet until I get back home.

#Boomershoot Mecca solar panel is secure and I’m back home and in bed with @BoomershootWife where I belong.

This morning I received another wind warning for Boomershoot:

URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MISSOULA MT
815 AM MST TUE NOV 22 2011
OROFINO/GRANGEVILLE REGION-
715 AM PST TUE NOV 22 2011

…WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 AM PST THURSDAY

The winds are going to last until 4 AM Thursday? I’m really, really glad I took it all the way down rather than just tried to lash it together a little better with the rope or paracord. I’ll get the parts tonight and get the panel back up later this week after the winds have died down.

Saturday son-in-law Caleb, Barron, Ry and I did some more prep for Boomershoot 2012.

Ry has pictures and an overview. Barron has a bit more.

I was tempted to make Ry’s comment just before we left Mecca my QOTD, “I’m doing you a favor.” Barron said he agreed with that sentiment then Ry threw my 8″ crescent wrench over the hill. Sunday morning Ry gave me three new crescent wrenches in various sizes and told me they had lifetime warranties and to take them back if I ever had problems with them.

There is still a lot of work to be done. I had hoped to get the solar panel operational but we didn’t quite get there. There is still more wiring to do but most importantly the pole it mounts on needs to be secured to the shipping container with something more than zip-ties.

Ry reports on Boomershoot 2012 Sunday lunch.

I have ordered the cardboard boxes for Boomershoot 2012. I stress cardboard because for Boomershoot 2011 we mostly used plastic “deli” boxes. This was, essentially, a disaster. For reasons we are not entirely certain about (probably the additional confinement provided by the extra mass of the cardboard) the cardboard box targets detonated as expected and the plastic ones had a very high percentage of duds.

Next weekend I will deliver the 500 7”x7”, 800 4”x4”, and 900 3”x3” boxes to Mecca (and here) along with the new 130 W solar panel, new tables, and miscellaneous other stuff. I think I have enough reclosable (“Zip Lock”) bags for next year but I have an idea for a new method of sealing the targets which I will do some tests on someday soon. This new method will eliminate the slow process of putting the Boomerite in the plastic bags. The small bags for the 3”x3” and “4×4” targets are a real pain.

Son-in-law Caleb says he will be able (he broke his leg a few weeks ago and hasn’t completely healed yet) to go with me and help do the installation of the solar panel, wiring, and the Wi-Fi.

The last time I visited Mecca (October 15^th) I had numerous problems and did not get done nearly as much as I had hoped. Weather and soil is getting to the point where it will be “interesting” to delivery anything that we can’t carry by hand. Fortunately Mecca is much closer to a drivable road during the winter than the Taj. It is only about 140 yards. So even carrying a wood tabletop is doable unless you are on snowshoes or wading through knee deep mud (both of which are possible at certain times of the year).

I was updating the Boomershoot links page (about half the links were dead) and I found the stats on the last Gateway Colorado Dynamite Shoot:

WHAT A BLAST!!

With 198 shooters, 172 charges exploded!!

[sarcasm]I must be doing it wrong. We go through about 1500 targets and only get about 120 shooters.[/sarcasm]

The Boomershoot 2012 Precision Rifle Clinic is now open for entries. Instructor Gene Econ reports, “Already have a number of guys signed up.”

Sign up here before it fills up.

There are still 23 positions left in the main event for Boomershoot. Sign up for Boomershoot here.