Black Powder Piston Capsule Test
Conducted by: Jack A,
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Jenna B
Location
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, Date: Blast Chamber, 04/
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15/
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23
Safety Precautions:
All participants must wear safety glasses.
Range safety officer must audibly countdown before the test and ensure that everyone is paying attention.
Test articles should not fragment into sharp, hard pieces during the test sequence. This is ensured by eliminating any unfastened materials within the body sections, and limiting the amount of pyrotechnic charge used.
The SO should inspect all test articles prior to initiating the piston test.
Appropriate PPE will be used when installing the charge prior to the test (i.e. safety goggles and nitrile gloves). There will never be skin contact with the charge
If a misfire occurs: wait at least 60 seconds and disconnect the battery (or use an alternative method to disable the testing mechanism) before allowing anyone to approach the test article.
Strict 25 foot keep-out zone must be established, which all test participants must obey. Members should ensure that no bystanders are present. The SO must ensure that no one is in the expected path of the projectile regardless of distance from the test articles. Mark of the test area (such as with caution tape) or otherwise guard entrances from bystanders.
All debris must be cleared out of the blast chamber when the test is complete.
Call MIT Police 617-253-1212 to report an emergency.
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Black powder (.4 g per capsule)
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Piston4 pistons
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8 e-matches
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2 Brass NPT Plugs with two holes
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2 Brass NPT Plugs with one hole
- 4 Brass NPT Reducing Adapters
- 4 Burst Disk Washers
- Hot glue gun
- Hot glue sticks
- 5 minute epoxy
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Gloves
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Alligator clips
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Weighboats and popsicle sticks
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Teflon tape
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bricks/weights
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Vacuum chamber & pump
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Safety glasses
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Close toed shoes
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A very long wire
- Multimeter
- Two adjustable crescent wrenches
9V battery
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Scale
Check-offs:
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Using a 1/4 inch torque wrench, ensure that the bolts holding the piston together are tight (100 inch-pounds of torque). If the bolts are loose, the piston will lose pressure as it extends. (torque wrench adapter in piston box)
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Use multimeter to check continuity of e-matches (should be about 1.0-1.4 ohms) and twist the wires to short it. Two people should visually confirm that it is shorted.
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Everyone put on safety glasses. From now on, everyone within the vicinity of the pyrotechnics must wear safety glasses.
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Measure out 0.4 g of black powder and pour it into each brass plug, holding over a weigh boat to catch any fallout. This should be close to filling the plug and may overflow slightly.
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Wrap the brass plugs with three wraps of Teflon tape.
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Insert one burst disk washer into each reducing adapter
- Screw the the powder-filled plug carefully into the reducing adapter (hopefully until it bottoms out on the washer)
- Check for leaking black powder
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Compress the piston completely!
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Screw the entire fitting assembly capsule into the piston NPT hole. Make sure that the fitting assembly is pointed up (in the direction of the bore) and rotate tee fitting until the side plug is as close to the body of the piston as possible.
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Test the piston by pulling up rod for 5 secs and checking that it is sealed
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Log Fireboltse-matches
Piston Testing Procedures:
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