Ball milling black powder. Will lead sinkers banging around inside a tin can spark?

I am making black powder, an ancient form of gunpowder for a science project.


It needs to be ground together very finely, so I am making a 'ball mill'.


I have a big pile of round lead sinkers, becasue I know that lead doesn't spark when banged together.


I am wondering if it will spark against a tin can though?


I am planing on using a tin can for the container in my ball mill.Ball milling black powder. Will lead sinkers banging around inside a tin can spark?
I can't see any chance of a spark, but if you mill any powder very fast you could theoretically create heat, or maybe a static charge?


ISTR something about milling the powder wetted with water, to get a really fine paste, then let it dry completely (in small batches) and break up the paste VERY carefully. It has to be safer than messing with Nitrogen-tri-iodide (hope I remembered that right)Ball milling black powder. Will lead sinkers banging around inside a tin can spark?
it might not spark, but the impact energy might be enough to set it off.





You would do better to ball mill all the individual components separately (charcoal by itself, saltpeter by itself, and sulfur by itself.) using steel balls, then put them all in a ball mill minus the balls and tumble it to mix it. Make sure that the tumbler is conductive and grounded to prevent static electricity buildup.