272 replies to this topic

[tajmiester]

Thought so, ahh well the search continues...

[BurlHorse]

I would think it would wear down in short order. Musket balls would serve you better. Copper tubing filled with lead I think is your best bet. A ball mill is pretty good at what it does. It would grind down your hard wood in short order.
  I think that if you expect to advance in the hobby then a ball mill is a great investment. I doubt you will be disappointed. When I first got into this I also made my own mill. What a contraption it was. It worked mind you.....
  If my mill should go bad on me and I needed a new one it would not bother me one bit to spend 0-300 on a new one. Money does not grow on trees over here in the states either. I am happy to report that watermelons do grow on vines and with some luck they will end up in the ice box when ripe. Perhaps some rum injected through the rind will make them even more yummy.

Was That Cruzan (St. Croix Rum) or some variant thereof....HAHA, Please send info Privately Bernie, And Shipping costs as it's a bit cold up here right now....Appreciate it!

Regards, Stay Green

Bear

[Phoenix]

I have a vague memory of reading about "bead mills" somewhere. I think that if you are grinding a finer powder, then it is far more efficient to use smaller media. This stands to reason, as anyone who has used a ball mill with one big chunk of steel bar in to break up charcoal will know it makes short work of the lumps, then doesn't do much. To get to AF quickly you have to change to normal media. So perhaps really small shot could be used on pre milled powders to efficiently further reduce the particle size? Anyone know anything about this?

[BurlHorse]

and he says use a board. What's the difference as long as 2003 is getting some balls. No pun intended.

If your mill is laboring then chances are you have just overcharged it with media and or comp. Lighten things up a bit and it will work better.

Yes, I agree, Choked (Over Loaded Mills) definetly don't work as well, if it over 2/3rds full with comp and media, it's too much and becomes inneffective and very time consuming. In Days of of old, I used to load mine to the top thinking that it would reduce in bulk as the mill did it's job....NOT!! Experience pays, your on the money Bernie.

Regards, Stay Green,


Bear

[tajmiester]

Lord Dranack send me this helpful personal message:

If you are after lead balls, www.sutlers.co.uk sell .45" lead musket balls. It works out at 100 for ?12 including p&p. I have not yet got a ball mill but I gather lots of people use them.

I've now ordered from them online and they seem fine.

Tris

[lord_dranack]

I'm ordering my rock tumbler this week as the bulk of my exams are over!

[The_Djinn]

New ball mill arrived today and am awaiting lead media from Sutlers which was ordered online so hopefully by this weekend I will be working with more refind comps and can get fully back into the swing of things.

Mark

[BurlHorse]

Coffee grinders are great for preparing coarse charcoal from lump, but I would think it would be quite dangerous to prepare sensitive mixtures in them.

They are far too violent and also tend to get hot...

On the subject of coffee grinders, You should have at least three, One Marked Fuels Only, One Marked Oxidizers Only and one marked Other, Bear in mind that anything you put in these gets under the blade and into the bearing, so if you use only one for everything, you can effectively contaminate your possibly pristine chemicals quite by accident. To Prove this fact, take a phillips head screwdriver and take your mill apart, you will see all kinds of gunk up near the motorshaft/bearing. I Hate unpleasent surprizes almost as much as I hate Screwed up Formula's.
BTW, I just bought a new Blender made by GE that has a Mill included that operates from the same blender base, Excellent Product, 22.00 US at wahl-mart. Of course this will only be used for pyro, but I have found Blenders to be great for grinding almost anything (Singular Chemicals) to talc fineness. The particular Blender Has a 40 OZ Glass main container, as well as the Mill attachment, which has about a 12 oz usable capacity, where most coffee mills will only gring a couple of ounces capacity at best.

So there ya go!

Regards, Stay Green,
Bear

[The_Djinn]

Have been milling KNO3 for a couple of hours using the lead balls from Sutlers. I have noticed that the KNO3 if becoming more like talcum powder but it is now taking on a grey appearance which leads me to believe that the milling media may also be breaking down to a certain extent. Has anyone else noticed this ?

Once I have finnished this batch, I will put the calipers on the balls I have used and compare there size to some of the unused ones to see if they are breaking down and if so by how much.
Put it this way, if they are breaking down I will move this post to a new link titled " how to polish you lead milling media using KNO3"

[bernie]

Your lead musket balls are going to wear down. Most likely pure lead for black powder firearms. Some bullet lead is alloyed with antimony and tin which casts a harder bullet. Don't worry about it spoiling the purity of your comp or chemicals.

There are options to musket balls which will give longer life.

[Phoenix]

Think about where the term "Pencil Lead" comes from. Since you can write on paper with lead, it's inevitably going to discolour anything like KNO3. I doubt that there is actually any significant amount of contamination, but I still don't like inhaling lead (compounds) unless I have to, so for milling single chems I usually us my good old flint media, or glass marbles. They're not as dense, so don't hit as hard, but don't really take much longer.

[The_Djinn]

Thanks for the input guy's, only problem now is that my kids are going to want to know where there marbles have gone

Mark

[bernie]

Hey Bear, any thoughts on the use of ceramic milling media. In particular the variety mentioned on Passfire. No substitute ceramic need apply. Great stuff in my opinion.

Edited by bernie, 17 January 2004 - 08:38 PM.

[pyrotechnist]

I have found i nice web site located in germany but has a UK one aswell it sells lead in different size balls like shots, balls and other sizes here is the link http://www.mommer-gm...html2/blei.html.

[pyrotechnist]

Were do you lot get your motors from for the ball mills. And wats the name of the place were you get from thanks.

Edited by pyrotechnist, 18 January 2004 - 04:48 PM.