33 replies to this topic

[Vic]

You can make a cheap star roller, it may not be ideal but if you are just starting off and you want something mechanical, that is a step up from a wok. It's all about the bits you have laying about or if you can scrounge them.

12 volt DC geared motor like this My link highly recommended will run a ballmill as well.
Old 12 volt transformer model railway or scaleletrix type or you could convert a psu.
Cheap hand drill.
Stainless steel bowl 9” diameter and 5” deep or there abouts you could go bigger but not much.
A short length of flexible breather pipe used on cars same bore as your shaft.
Some steel plate to fix the motor to and some odd bits of wood.
Two jubilee clips.

All needs mounting on a board, but basically you need to mount your motor on to your piece of steel plate and this in turn is screwed to a wooden batten on your board so your motor is about 5” above your base board

From the motor you have a short length of flexible pipe with a nail or something the same diameter as your motor shaft in the chuck, this is held in place by the jubilee clips.

Remove the winding handle from the drill and glue the bowl to the large gear

Then screw the drill handle to a block of wood securely, whilst trying to keep it all aligned also have your bowl on a upward tilt

There you have it, it's cheap and it works

[Maxim]

Digger, what do you make of this?

Its not ATEX but still:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...LVI&its=I&otn=2

Its for three motors but that makes the price very good!

[Maxim]

Thanks a lot fflach! The design is very detailed and i reckon even with my terrible DIY skills, ill be able to make it! Ill probably make a step by step tutorial for future users when i make it. Only question is, is it safe to use with loose powder around?

Edited by Maxim, 18 April 2010 - 06:43 AM.

[Arthur Brown]

Research those motors carefully, the fact that the Parvalux motor includes 230/380/440 may suggest a three phase power supply is needed. The others I don't know so check with the vendor or the manufacturer's website.

Maybe look also at stepper motors.

[Vic]

Only question is, is it safe to use with loose powder around?

The motors are non vented so about as safe as you can get,
obviously a more robust design using large geared motors or pulleys with speed controllers is going to be better.

Has anybody tried making a car tyre type star roller some people swear by them?

[digger]

The motors are non vented so about as safe as you can get,
obviously a more robust design using large geared motors or pulleys with speed controllers is going to be better.

Has anybody tried making a car tyre type star roller some people swear by them?

Yep I have a tyre roller. They are absolutely fabulous. It is so easy to roll stars in them. The best tyre I have found are the ones with small internal ribs.

When I use mine I roll up a load of cores from millet then dry em off then just use a few of these to roll on to the desired size.

The beauty of a tyre roller is that you can have a combined roller / mill just drop the tyre steady frame on the mill and chuck in the tyre.

D

[BrightStar]

Thinking on the small scale. Arthur's suggestion of the Maplin Como Drills gear motors (WC71N) is an option. They're reliable and surprisingly high torque, but sparky with open vents adjacent to the brushes.

You'll need an additional support bearing, some sort of framework, a housing for the gear motor, a small plastic disposable paint bucket as the drum and a variable voltage 1.5A plug-top PSU. This works fine for batch sizes up to 250g or so.

Star rollers really do just eat up chems though and raise a fair bit of dust. Outside use is generally preferred...

[dr thrust]

seen this video on youtube, of a simple set up even if you dont go down the cordless drill route, it shows there are other ways of getting the rpm down, by reduction gearing so your not limited to a expensive 60rmp geared motor

[Maxim]

This looks really good! It already has the pulley wheel (sorry, i dont know the technical terminology!)

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item439ea5bb03

Or this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item414a57851a

Or this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2a06379011

Edited by Maxim, 18 April 2010 - 05:04 PM.

[digger]

This looks really good! It already has the pulley wheel (sorry, i don't know the technical terminology!)

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item439ea5bb03

Or this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item414a57851a

Or this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2a06379011

Right then. I do tend to get carried away. It is worth listening to some of the other comments. A small star roller is the place to start. If you use it outdoors with limited material I guess a small hand drill with some steady bearings would do the job.

I do tend to go for industrial scale myself *building for the future). The motors you have shown above would have enough power to turn the earth. I would guess that 1/4 hp would be more than enough, 1/2 hp at the most.

Have a word with chris m I believe he has probably converted old pillar drills for use in these sorts of applications. The good thing about this is that the motor and pulleys are all there and you can even get new ones for little money. A second hand cheap one can be had £20

[Arthur Brown]

That's three motors 2.25 1.0 and 2.0 HP respectively in order from the top, the top and bottom ones will be brush motors the middle one may be contact free or not. Firstly 100w or 1/8HP should be fine for power, second you want a motor that is brushless, third you want a slow motor complete with gearbox.

Some serious thought about a stepper motor with solid state drives and control would help, or go to maplin and buy one of the motor gearbox units and get a decent housing for it.

[dr thrust]

here again is a very simple design this time using the variable speed on a corded drill
star roller
the link to my mill is home made mill
made from these

this was the easiest i found to get a motor and pulleys cheap, once built it wouldn't be a problem to tilt the mill and run a bucket on it or even a tyre.
thinking aside have you got a ball mill, then think about converting that some way, we pyros are known for our ingenuity we have to be not much is available to us

Edited by chris m, 18 April 2010 - 06:02 PM.

[cooperman435]

alternative motors can be had from mobility repair centres.

12v to 24v
30 to 100rpm depending on load and voltage supplied
gearboxed and sealed
easilly mountable both to the support and the drum


cheap at around £45 £55 for the whole lot

[Atom Fireworks]

Star roller- DC hand drill, IVE DONE it pal, it works a treat mines made from a makita . But on a serious note the variable speed controller in the trigger is pants.

I used it to run my mill at first it lasted all of 3 hours. On the high note i bought a PWM off ebay from a place over in yorkshire, best bit of kit i ever bought, i have integrated it into my ball mill and star roller which both run on 12v so i can mill in safety ( paranoia). Also the makita drill i used had a 2 speed gear box which means i can seriously fine tune the rpm of the final product mill or star roller.

I cannot stress the need to fine tune the speed of your star roller, I am just looking for a better star roller drum.

[CCH Concepts]

check out this speed controller 12V 30A DC

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2a00d51ed2

or this 24V 60A DC

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2a034b63f1

or what i went for with the ball mill i was going to build

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2a05e56324

Edited by CCH Concepts, 20 April 2010 - 08:17 AM.