272 replies to this topic

[BigG]

It is quite possible this question has been answered in this topic already but having already read severeal pages I have not seen it.  Can marbles be used as milling media?  (Just plain old glass marbles)

How about running a search on "glass media" or "glass marbles"? That is what the SEARCH function is for.... The question been asked and a very long debate took place.

[broadsword]

remember to add the + to the words so search +glass +marbles

[DrDerekDoctors]

Anyone looking for Lead Milling media, go to Centervine in Formby Liverpool.
I got .570" round balls 50 for ?5.90 quiet reasonable.

I just cleared my local gun shop out of these, but seeing as they'd been sitting around for ages doing nothing he kindly sold them to me for ?4 for 50. Hurrah!

[Flashy]

I just cleared my local gun shop out of these, but seeing as they'd been sitting around for ages doing nothing he kindly sold them to me for ?4 for 50. Hurrah!

Alternatively you can go to Sutlers here:

Sutlers

Right down at the bottom of the page, 100 0.44 calibre 0.451 dia, 137 grain, swaged lead balls. ?9.50

When I ordered I paid ?22.50 for 200 including postage and packing.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Alternatively you can go to Sutlers here:

Sutlers

Right down at the bottom of the page, 100 0.44 calibre 0.451 dia, 137 grain, swaged lead balls. ?9.50

When I ordered I paid ?22.50 for 200 including postage and packing.

Mine are .570 for the most part, but there was one box of 100 x .457's in there which was ?7. I win!

[Flashy]

Mine are .570 for the most part, but there was one box of 100 x .457's in there which was ?7. I win!

I went down to my local gunshop before ordering from sutlers. They said they had some but they wouldn't sell them to me. They are a strange bunch though, he wouldn't sell me a spring powered air pistol without ringing my parents and that was when i was 17. At that time the legal age to buy them was 16.

[DrDerekDoctors]

I went down to my local gunshop before ordering from sutlers. They said they had some but they wouldn't sell them to me. They are a strange bunch though, he wouldn't sell me a spring powered air pistol without ringing my parents and that was when i was 17. At that time the legal age to buy them was 16.

Ours used to be the same but it's under new management now and he had no qualms about letting me walk out of there with a total of 450 items which the packaging describes as "bullets" in a plastic bag. I have no gun license, obviously.

[Amleth]

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.

Actually, pencils don't contain any lead, nor ever have. Modern pencil "leads" are made from a fired mixture of graphite powder and clay, and old-style pencil leads were cut from from solid graphite mined in the UK. Due to the primitive understanding of chemistry at the time they basically just assumed this new material was a form of lead since it vaguely resembled it, and the term stuck...

For more info on the surprisingly interesting history of pencils, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil

This post had been brought to you by the letters, C, A, and the number 12...

[skipjack]

for the last few years, i've been going through all kinds of milling media. and each of them had some kinda disadvantage, whiche made me look for another possibility to get my compositions milled in a safe way.

right now i'm milling with lead balls.

on one hand i'm very pleased with the fineness of the powder, on the other hand i'm worried about the lead contamination, which occurs to the compositions milled.

the other day i filled my ballmill with the components of 2 kg BP, let it mill for 8 hours and weighed it again afterwards. it happened to be 140g more and thats a lot in my opinion!

now i'm pretty much worried about that lead dust, which would also be in the star compositions, i roll my stars with.
do you guys classify it a major health problem, being exposed to this dust when rolling stars, coating ricehulls, and so on? or will i be just fine, using a dustmask?

cheers,
skipjack

[LadyKate]

the other day i filled my ballmill with the components of 2 kg BP, let it mill for 8 hours and weighed it again afterwards. it happened to be 140g more and thats a lot in my opinion!

now i'm pretty much worried about that lead dust, which would also be in the star compositions, i roll my stars with.
do you guys classify it a major health problem, being exposed to this dust when rolling stars, coating ricehulls, and so on? or will i be just fine, using a dustmask?

I worry about it, too. I've just cut some hard copper tubes and filled them with lead to get away from the lead erosion. I'm surprised you gained 140 gm in that mill ... I would double check things, that seems like a lot - you would be losing a kilo of lead every 7 or 8 mill jobs. That's almost 4 (edit: 7) percent lead in your mix - which would probably affect its performance.

The general point is that breathing that stuff seems like a bad idea so I'm slowly converting to copper or brass cases with poured lead innards.

Edited by LadyKate, 20 September 2005 - 04:23 PM.

[skipjack]

yeah, seems a lot huh? i'll recheck things after milling my next batch.

i already tried the coppertubes, filled with lead. evrything seems to be just fine in the beginning, but sooner or later the lead in the tubes start to leave the tubes.

theres a special cutter-tool which makes the ends of the tubes a little smaller in diameter. this way the lead sits in the tubes without a possibility to move out. .... well at least thats what i thought.
in reality it doesnt do the trick.
also a few sharp blows with the hammer didnt work.
eventually the lead in the tubes got loose and started wandering out to one side of the tubes.

only thing i didnt try is to punctuate the side of the empty coppertubes with a center punch, before filling it with molten lead. maybe you wanna try?

[sasman]

Hi Skipjack..

Not seen you about for a while...Last post was about your star roller i think?..I also remember you posted a nice video clip of one of your strobe shells?.. Did you make any more? strobes shells? got any clips?..

cheers

[karlfoxman]

Hi Skipjack..

Not seen you about for a while...Last post was about your star roller i think?..I also remember you posted a nice video clip of one of your strobe shells?.. Did you make any more? strobes shells? got any clips?..

cheers

Did somebody say strobe shells??!!!

[LadyKate]

i already tried the coppertubes, filled with lead. evrything seems to be just fine in the beginning, but sooner or later the lead in the tubes start to leave the tubes.
only thing i didnt try is to punctuate the side of the empty coppertubes with a center punch, before filling it with molten lead. maybe you wanna try?

I did the pipe cutter thing which causes the ends to close slightly and I slightly overfilled the lead on both ends. I hate to dent the middle of the tube but it might be necessary. In any case, it is that or pure brass which is not going to give the performance that the lead gives. I'm willing to go to pure brass, though. So if it doesn't work, I'll start whacking away at my brass supply.

Edited by LadyKate, 20 September 2005 - 04:28 PM.

[Pretty green flames]

Skipjack, Did you weigh the milling media yet (1 ball), You should notice if they start eroding.