11-08-2017, 09:23 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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Annealing is usually something you do to relax internal stresses like work hardening in metals or differential cooling in glasses, though it presumably means something different in iron metallurgy.
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11-08-2017, 10:08 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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Setting up a full chemical plant with Ostwald and Haber processes so you can make enough nitric acid for millions of rounds probably requires a late TL5 or TL6 tech base. But if you only need 1 lb of nitrocellulose - which is 7000 grains of powder, enough for 100 or so rifle bullets - you can probably do that with stuff made from a TL8 Factory module and a couple of weeks' work in a lab. Making ammonia at 4 oz/hr is going to be tedious, but 6 pints of the stuff should hopefully be plenty for both the nitrocelluose and the mercury fulminate. Are the kinds of brass cartridges, mercury fulminate primers, and nitrocelluse powder that a single guy makes in a lab going to be of less than commercial quality? Sure. Would I expect to see a lot more misfires and corrosive gunk in the barrel? Definitely. Is it better to have 100 somewhat unreliable bullets than 5 reliable bullets? I'd expect so.
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11-08-2017, 10:20 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
So one thing that hasn't been mentioned so far, but that is relevant, is that a lot of the chemistry works best when the chemist has access to abundant levels of electricity and/or heat. Depending on how much stuff he wants to make and how his vehicle is powered, one the steps might be "drill for oil, make a dirty-tech refinery (High-Tech p 16)". This is less of a concern if he's a time or space traveller with a fusion plant on his vessel, though you still might want to do some fractional distilling of petroleum to get useful feedstock chemicals like methane.
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11-08-2017, 11:30 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Dec 2015
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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11-08-2017, 11:34 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
US Army Technical Manual TM 31-210 Improvised Munition Handbook gives instructions for hand reloading cartridges using chemicals improvised from a variety of low(ish) tech sources. It also warns that the products are unreliable and a good way to blow one's self up in the long run.
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11-08-2017, 11:39 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
There was a similar question asked a while ago, here. It has a fair bit on primers, as does this thread about ATE firearms, though it degenerates (very strangely) into a crossbow fan trying to convince everyone else of his agenda. Together, they have a lot of information on what you want, from some of the GURPS Forums gun gurus, who I am surprised have not shown up here yet.
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I'd need to get a grant and go shoot a thousand goats to figure it out. Last edited by acrosome; 11-08-2017 at 12:24 PM. |
11-08-2017, 11:40 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Dec 2015
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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11-08-2017, 12:20 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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I would note, however, that TL 8 industrial machinery is specialized. It's certainly possible to have a refinery system that produces nitric acid and ammonia from air, water, and electricity (or several other ways of producing hydrogen, such as coal or natural gas); it requires catalysts that you probably can't make or replace at local tech, but they won't be any more of a problem than any of the other parts of your machinery that you can't make or replace with local tech. |
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11-08-2017, 12:40 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
Out of curiosity, what is the exact TL8 weapon that this character is trying to feed? It will be a lot easier if it's a shotgun, frex, and some weapons might actually tolerate black powder as a propellant very well, especially if corned. Whereas e.g. an M16 absolutely will not...
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11-08-2017, 01:03 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Making more ammo stuck on a low tech world.
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You can probably make the wealth necessary by buying the leftover slag from their precious metal mines and using your much more efficient Mining apparatus to extract even more precious metals from them. The rules for making stuff with the Factory are on Spaceship 1 p 16. TL6 goods are 4 times as expensive at TL4 as they are at TL6, so .30 caliber ammo that costs $0.8 is going to have an effective price of $3.2 and require $1.5 in materials - you can crack out 5000 in an hour once you get going. That seems absurdly fast to me unless you have multiple assembly lines (and implies you can make a car in few hours...) but even a more reasonable 50-500 rounds/hour means that a day's work supplies you with a reasonable load of ammunition.
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Tags |
ammo, gurps, high tl, low tl |
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