635 replies to this topic

[gilbert pinkston]

i realize most of you are more advanced in pyro than i am (washing machine and dryer motors thats a lot of milling capability i will never go that big) but i will add my two cents worth

a while back i decided to make a new milling machine
since i dont pay retail (for anything if i can help it) i used an old akai (60s?) real to real motor i found in a closet its about as big as your fist

i combined it with some parts out of an old lexmark printer (printers are a good place to find steel shafts and rubber rolers) connecting the printer shaft directly to the motor shaft using rubber tubing and aluminum tubing and anchoring the other end to a bearing from an old blender motor....... i made a mill that turns a large coffee can at about 120 rpm

put a smaller container inside this rapped in rags and you have a low noise mill that will do about half a pound of BP in three hours glitter mixes in less and a quarter pound of fine aluminum dust in about three or four days

its small scale all mounted on a 2X4 but mills chems faster than i wil ever use them and i didnt have to buy anything.....i liked it so much i made others just for kicks (sometimes i just set and watch them run [it beats whats on TV])

[pyrotrev]

glitter mixes in less......

I hope that's minus the metal..... To quote Ron Lancaster "Some amateurs report that ball milling glitter mixes destroys the effect. It also risks destroying them."

Edited by pyrotrev, 20 February 2006 - 02:23 PM.

[EnigmaticBiker]

a while back i decided to make a new milling machine
since i dont pay retail (for anything if i can help it) i used an old akai (60s?) real to real motor i found in a closet its about as big as your fist

Man after my own heart!
I won't pay for anything if I can find a way of making it.

i combined it with some parts out of an old lexmark printer (printers are a good place to find steel shafts and rubber rolers) connecting the printer shaft directly to the motor shaft using rubber tubing and aluminum tubing and anchoring the other end to a bearing from an old blender motor....... i made a mill that turns a large coffee can at about 120 rpm

Agree completely, A3 printers are a great source of very straight, often high quality stainless rod. I use them to make fine bore tubes etc etc.

I've used knitting needles to make tubes for home made fuse before now.

Rubber tubing worked as a drive shaft for me too.

[gilbert pinkston]

yes minus the metal and also the antimony sulphide if used
just mill the KNO3 C S and maybe NaHCO3 but no metals with oxidizers
i had a four day batch of Al milled with steric acid catch fire once
i had the mill outside in a small cooler to protect it from the elements and keep the noise down the temp inside was probably 100F maybe more...Al dust floats in the air but this looked like it was being forced out when i opened the milling can ...... the activity increased untill i saw a small spot start to glow red and get bigger i put the lid on and it went out....no big deal but i would never open something like this around combustables
under a microscope this batch was not as fine as some others so i think it was the initial heat that got it going
next time i will put it in the freezer before opening and i always make shure the Al is exposed to plenty of air for a time with mixing before i store it away

[Pretty green flames]

Hey guys, i have more or less finished my ball mill today, some things are missing but they are on the way.

Anyway it's a triple jar ball mill, each jar is about 1.3liters in volume so at full capacity it should churn out 600-700grams of high quality BP in a couple of hours.

The motor was salvaged from a lathe and it has 400W power which is more than enough to rotate the three jars at 100RPM

The rollers are 8mm stainless stell and are supported so the weight of the jars doesnt bend them, they are covered with shrink hose for better grip.

And some pics
Ball mill
some more ball mill
The motor

[Frozentech]

Hey guys, i have more or less finished my ball mill today, some things are missing but they are on the way.

That's looking really good PGF !

[littlejohny]

How much is the media going to cost you for the three jars, just interested

[Pretty green flames]

That's looking really good PGF !

It's going to cost me my nerves, cutting all that hex brass rod will take forever, but financially around 20-30pounds

[adamw]

Would it be worthwhile making the legs a bit shorter to aid stability and reduce vibration?

But very good.. that motor looks the part!

[Frozentech]

It's going to cost me my nerves, cutting all that hex brass rod will take forever, but financially around 20-30pounds

Jaka, I used .75 inch hex brass rod cut up for media. It only took a short while to cut it all up, I got a metal cutting blade for a small jigsaw and it went smooth after that Run the media in the mill by itself for 2 hours, and all the small burrs and slivers will be smoothed out, and you'll have clean shiny high efficiency media.

Nice job on the mill !

[fishy1]

not all of us have jigsaws.

i have spent the good part of a day cutting media with a hacksaw.

get a nice new blade if the current one is blunt if you use a hacksaw, it makes a huge difference.

[Frozentech]

not all of us have jigsaws.

i have spent the good part of a day cutting media with a hacksaw.

get a nice new blade if the current one is blunt if you use a hacksaw, it makes a huge difference.

One advantage of having accumulated various tools for number of years, I suppose. I was just looking at some UK sites to see how much a decent jigsaw cost there. I was shocked at how expensive power tools are in the UK, and do you have some 20% extra tax added on that ???? ( V.A.T. ? ) that sucks.

In any case, there are other uses for shop tools beside pyro work, so I just justify it to myself and go ahead any buy the tools. It's worth it to me to saw up 6 feet of hex bar into .75" chunks in an hour.

[Frozentech]

One advantage of having accumulated various tools for number of years, I suppose. I was just looking at some UK sites to see how much a decent jigsaw cost there. I was shocked at how expensive power tools are in the UK, and do you have some 20% extra tax added on that ???? ( V.A.T. ? ) that sucks.

In any case, there are other uses for shop tools beside pyro work, so I just justify it to myself and go ahead any buy the tools. It's worth it to me to saw up 6 feet of hex bar into .75" chunks in an hour.

I looked a bit more and found an online site in the UK that has a reasonable price for a Skil brand jigsaw.
24.99 including VAT. World of Power tools

[EnigmaticBiker]

I looked a bit more and found an online site in the UK that has a reasonable price for a Skil brand jigsaw.
24.99 including VAT. World of Power tools

I'm not really sure that one would be up to cutting brass, more like laminate flooring/thin wood etc.

A cheap angle grinder might work, but is wasteful.

get a nice new blade if the current one is blunt if you use a hacksaw, it makes a huge difference.

Given how hard brass is, go for quality blades with small teeth (32+ per inch) and lubricate with thin oil.

[adamw]

Frozen.. don't you know, everything is more expensive here!

Most things have 17.5% tax added.