5 replies to this topic

[ITCHI]

Now now people, I'm talking ball mill media, especially lead balls.
What do you do with the media between milling different chems? Do they get a full wash with soap or water bath alone or just a simple wipe down with a damp cloth?
If washed, do you dry them any special way?
I have read about using a batch of ball mill media per each chem then storing them in a labeled container but that want be an option for me to begin with.
Any one willing to share their knowledge here is greatly welcomed.

[Frozentech]

Now now people, I'm talking ball mill media, especially lead balls.
What do you do with the media between milling different chems? Do they get a full wash with soap or water bath alone or just a simple wipe down with a damp cloth?
If washed, do you dry them any special way?
I have read about using a batch of ball mill media per each chem then storing them in a labeled container but that want be an option for me to begin with.
Any one willing to share their knowledge here is greatly welcomed.

Sorry, I had to laugh. The topic, combined with your nickname, had me expecting some really odd spam advertising...

Lead balls do not clean well at all. Usage forms tiny nicks and pits which will not wipe clean enough to ignore the chemical incompatibilities. IE, if you were mill BP, you could never use the media for chlorates, due to sulfur contamination.

I do use seperate media for classes of chems. My brass media is for BP and charcoal only. I have several batches of ceramic for other chems, which I actually wash with soap and water.

[Steve]

Although the advise I am about to give is primarially for pestle and mortars it can be scaled up to ball mills.

I find that grinding an inert, souble salt, such as NaCl or Sugar will loosen and incorporate most 'sticky' chemicals like charcoal, binderes, etc. Then a simple rinse is enough to remove both chemicals.

Like I said, this is for P&M practice, I always have seperate mill jars for incompatible chems, but I can't see why you couldn't use this for cleaning a BP jar, for use as a KNO3 mill jar, for example.

[ITCHI]

Looks like I will be buying more media if I want to play it safe.
I wonder if running the insoulable with the media on the ball mill will loosen/clean as you talked about with the mortar and pestle?
For what it's worth, here in Georgia, we can only do smokers and fountains so it wouldn't be like I need multiple batches of balls.
Just the few key ingredients.
Any opinions on this?

Edited by ITCHI, 28 March 2007 - 12:05 AM.

[RegimentalPyro]

If your milling jar is watertight you could try half filling with soapy water and putting back on the mill for 15 mins. This is what I do and it works a treat.......

[Andrew]

Sorry, I had to laugh. The topic, combined with your nickname,

lol , my immediate thoughts were "well, I itch them a little......."

Lead can be a pain, you've got to go careful. I'd always suggest if you can afford it, have different balls for different chemicals, if not have smaller milling jars. Ceramic balls are easier to clean (in terms of knowing your not going to affect the mechanical properties of the surface), hardened Lead can soften due to poisoning from seemingly innocent cleaners, it's best to keep it simple and know exactly what your cleaning with.

On general terms you can aid the cleaning process by using the mill to do the work for you. Put your selected cleaning agent into the jar and mill it!

An appropriate solvent is good, i.e. for a KNO3 mill just soak in water, rinse and soak again followed by another rinse (and a few repeats if your not feeling lucky). Hard Lead balls are easy to clean if they are perfectly smooth. Little pits (very small ones that you cannot see) are the problem when cleaning anything. Especially when it's charcoal. If there is no solvent there is only good old elbow grease (but that's what the mill is for!).

The big hoo-har comes about when you need to ensure against incompatibilities. Keeping track of what media has milled what over the lifetime of the media is difficult even for the most well organised persons. One of the biggie's is ensuring Sulphur goes nowhere near Chlorates or Perchlorates. And I can't stress this enough, NEVER use media with a chemical that is incompatible with anything that it has milled before, EVER, no really, stop thinking it'll be OK, I know you've cleaned it but even Kim and Aggie aren't good enough if your life is on the line. It does not matter how much or well you've cleaned it, one day media that has been used for Perc or a Chlorate will be used for BP and you'll get f*cked in the arse by two dozen musket balls, not to mentioned your house/garage/shed/garden will be missing, along with a few important parts of your body. NEVER EVER re-use media (most important when milling compositions and chemicals with known issues with other common chemicals), if you don't know what it has milled before in the past, regardless of how much it has been cleaned. Even introducing small traces of Chlorate into say KNO3 that is used in a fountain mix with meal is bad news.