Strange Powder Storage Situation

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veeshooter

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Hi Folks,

I have a bit of a situation with my powder storage. Any input/ help would be appreciated as I haven't encountered this in over 30 years of reloading. I keep all my powder in a climate controlled environment, in a room with a dehumidifier. On top of that, in the actual storage containers themselves, I also have desiccant. Much to my surprise, when I opened the container today, there is some sort of growth on only the containers with metal lids. Can anyone tell me what this is? It's not rust, at least not in a standard sense. It readily wiped off, and came off in a dust form for lack of better description. It also lifted the paint off the lids in the exposure areas, but only the bare metal remained. No corrosion... None of the powder appears contaminated in any way either. LOL please help??!! Also, I neglected to mention that this only occurred in my rifle powder container. There are metal lid 1 lb cans in my pistol powder stash, stored in the same area but different bin, and they were not affected at all.

Also, if any of you out there have 1 lb containers with the plastic lids, I'd be happy to take them off your hands to avoid this again in the future.










 
I don't know what the outside fungus stuff is, but the only thing that matters is the condition of the contents. if I had to hazard a guess I would say it is a byproduct of the powder breaking down and getting through the pores in the metal. quite unusual for sure.
 
definitely looks like some kind of a corrosion product. The fine texture reminds of what I have seen with metals exposed to acid vapours. The fact that it appears more or less equally on all the containers suggests the corrodent is external, coming from the room, rather than from inside the container.

The lids may have been zinc plated before painting, in that case you wouldn't get rust, not until the zinc is substantially exhausted.
 
LOL I was waiting for Ganderite to chime in. Thanks for the replies so far guys! Just given the texture of it, some sort of fungus was my guess as well. Still uncertain though. You'd think if it was fungus, it would affect everything in the container.
 
I remember seeing this somewhere else, I'll try to find it again. From what I remember that dust IS rust.
 
This isn't where I remember it from but it's a similar problem.

ht tps://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/powder-with-chlorine-smell.3955817/
 
Last edited:
maple_leaf_eh said:
Is the dust magnetic? Is it flammable?
Click to expand...

These are the right questions.

When powder breaks down it can produce acids. Acids attack metals.

Some of those single base? powders have a nitroglycerin content and that could be nasty if it is breaking down. I'd want to find out of that growth is flammable?

Does the powder inside have a sweet or acidic smell?


Fungus needs organic material to feed off of. Metal and plastic don't grow fungus.
 
barsik said:
I don't know what the outside fungus stuff is, but the only thing that matters is the condition of the contents. if I had to hazard a guess I would say it is a byproduct of the powder breaking down and getting through the pores in the metal. quite unusual for sure.
Click to expand...

Metal doesn't have pores.

There will be a space between the threads of the metal lid and the plastic container through which vapours could travel. Then when the corrosive vapours hit the exterior of the lid they attack that material.



BattleRife said:
definitely looks like some kind of a corrosion product. The fine texture reminds of what I have seen with metals exposed to acid vapours. The fact that it appears more or less equally on all the containers suggests the corrodent is external, coming from the room, rather than from inside the container..
Click to expand...

IF the corrosive vapour source was external, the corrosion would not occur only around the circumference of the metal lids. The lids would be uniformly corroded. The location of the corrosion suggests vapours escaping from inside the can, via the threads.
 
Those look like re-used / DIY repackaged powder containers. What was in them before? Could they have been damp or soapy from cleaning or contained residues with something else incompatible with your powder?
 
That’s pretty strange, looks like rust but the towel photo looks like dirt and grime. I’ve seen so many tobacco tins, metal jar lids etc in basements and barns that never had this growth.
 
I had a similar problem a year or so ago. Check the following CGN link:
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/2341016-Strange-Growth-on-Powder-Containers
I scraped some the corrosion onto a sheet of paper and it's definitely magnetic (rust). Looking at the powder grains in a number of cans with a magnifier (10x geologist's loupe) , I could see rust on the powder grains in one can and trashed the stuff rather load it. It went to fertilize the lawn.
The rest of the cans, i cleaned with a brass brush and sprayed them with G-96.
 
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