# New ball mill



## Anonymous (Oct 31, 2010)

Well I am finally retiring my (smaller) ball mill.It has served me pretty well for the little time I used it.But alas it's time to go bigger.I am not done with her yet,but I will start posting pics now,and then I'll add more as I go along.
The tank is 3/16" thick,22.5" O.D. and will be 14" long.I am not sure if I will be using the same motor setup that I was using so I will leave those spec's for later.The stand that I made,slides over the dolly that you see in the pics,and has dog ears to keep it up off of the ground.So It can stand by itself,or be placed on top of the dolly to be easily moved.The dolly has double wheeled casters so the mill can operate with the stand on the dolly as well.The primary balls are 1 1/16 chrome alloy steel.I have other media I may try later.
Images deleted


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice looking progress. I like the golden balls touch. Are mine the same color?


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## Anonymous (Oct 31, 2010)

*Here's yours.And the rest of your I have in another box.*






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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 31, 2010)

Those are so nice looking I might have to play with them for a while before I use them. I will see if the misses can polish them up some. :twisted:


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## Sodbuster (Nov 4, 2010)

Mic: 
Nice job, can't wait to see the end product. 
You mite want to consider stretching a piece of innertube from a large truck tire over the outside of the drum to kill some noise. 
Or even a pare of huge O-rings if it dosn't hinder the way you drive the drum. 
I havn't had a chance to try it yet, but I always thought I would use a collection of various sized old transmission or axel end gears as a grinding media. Use those perty balls to mesh it down really fine.
I can see you got things under control , I'm just rambeling.
Keep us updated 
Ray


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## Anonymous (Nov 4, 2010)

Sodbuster said:


> I can see you got things under control , I'm just rambeling.


No worries ray.
I placed parts of a stretched inner tube over my last mill,however it was for traction to my drive bar,and not sound deadening.This mill will have an insulated box around it to help deaden the sound.We just moved recently and my neighboors are much closer now,than the 1/3 acre lot we were on before.I will be using the same drive bar from the previous mill,however I may use a coating on the tank like rubberized automotive undercoating to help it not slip on my drive bar.
Since the new tank has such a larger diameter than the previous tank,I may have no "slipping" problem at all.I will not know until I run it,which should be today or tomorrow at the latest.I will post some more pics later today.
Have a good day everyone.


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## glondor (Nov 4, 2010)

Looks like you are doing a hellava fine job ob that mill. A bit of a technical question tho, are your balls big enough?


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## Anonymous (Nov 4, 2010)

In my last mill they would have mattered,however the diameter of this one is 22.5 inches,so the media has more distance to gain energy.The farther an object falls,the more velocity it gains(until it reaches terminal velocity) and the energy store is discharged on impact.My last mill was only about 13" in diameter,therefore I used very large media.


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## joem (Nov 4, 2010)

glondor said:


> Looks like you are doing a hellava fine job ob that mill. A bit of a technical question tho, are your balls big enough?


 :shock:


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## Anonymous (Nov 5, 2010)

Here are some more pics of the progress.As of right now it is finished except for a guide wheel,to keep it from drifting.I will be building an insulated box that fits over top of it to help deaden the sound.I threw in a couple of pics of some stuff I received today.
Images deleted


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## joem (Nov 7, 2010)

what is the best type of metal bearings to use in a ball mill?
(brass, stainless...?


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## samuel-a (Nov 7, 2010)

joem said:


> what is the best type of metal bearings to use in a ball mill?
> (brass, stainless...?



One of the considerations is whether if have fear of explosions (grinding charcoal or aluminum)...
brass don't spark...

in grinding electronic components, i don't think there is a difference... just the ball size.


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## Anonymous (Nov 16, 2010)

I finished the (sound) insulation box for the mill about a week ago.I've been doing some testing and fine tuning since then.I have ran it the last 2 nights with excellent results.
The box consists of a full shell of 1/2" inch particle board.Inside of that I have double insulated "panels" that I got from the space center,a 1/2" thick layer of foam(not polystyrene)another layer of 1/4" plywood,and another layer of 1/2" foam.the box is 4'(w)x3'(d)x4'(h) and has a double hinged door to allow for very easy lifting.
In the mill I am using a "raised" lifter bar(my idea) to allow the material to pass under the bar,but not the media.Basically it allows the material to stay on the bottom of the mill.Originally the bar was dropping the media about 3 inches past the material,so I simply cut the bar down about an inch,now it drops it right on top of the material.I'm using 6 of the same steel "slugs" as I used before(3" long x 2" diameter)and about a dozen of the chrome alloy balls from the earlier pics 1-1/16" .I ran a couple of small loads(a few pounds at a time) to test different crushing scenarios.I learned quickly that too much material without a large enough surface area on the bottom,will cushion the material against the media strikes.The first night I ran it,the mill "walked" over and started rubbing against the side of the box,so I placed 3 boards on the floor,1 on the back and 1 on each side to stop that,last night it stayed in place.The last 2 nights I ran about 15 pounds each night with about 80% being fine ground powder.The rest gets put back in the mill with fresh material.
Images deleted


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## rusty (Nov 16, 2010)

...


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## Anonymous (Nov 16, 2010)

Super nice post gill!I just finished screening my powder from last night and the totals are:
9 pounds finely ground,
6 pounds not finished.



rusty said:


> Have you cracked open any of the chips outlined in red from your photo to have a peek inside.


Yes sir,
I have been doing a lot of that lately.I have found countless different ceramic IC's (non processor and non -prom) that have gold plate and/or gold wires on the inside.However I found that a lot of -proms and all plastic ic's contain no visible gold on the insides.I am sure there are other values,however I am not set up to recover those.Since reading your advice on the "incinerating to ash",I have aquired a very large stainless pot with a thick bottom used as a turkey frying pot,and I found my roof tar melting torch.And I am (as I am typing this) on the phone with a local hardware store to try to find refractory.(fingers crossed)
(few minutes later)
Well they said they can get it,but I think it's kind of expensive, 25lbs-$36.
How much would it take?(ballpark)


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## rbramsey (Feb 14, 2011)

Where's the pictures?

Richard


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## seawolf (Feb 14, 2011)

I think he deleted all of his pictures on all posts.
Mark


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## Anonymous (Feb 14, 2011)

seawolf said:


> I think he deleted all of his pictures on all posts.
> Mark


Yes I did mark.I wanted to show everyone my photos,however I do not know how to resize them so they would fit on the forum,so I used photobucket to post my pictures,and that is frowned upon,so I deleted everything rather than chance getting in trouble.


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## seawolf (Feb 14, 2011)

Check with any of the moderators I'm sure they can / will walk you through the steps to post them.
Mark


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## Anonymous (Feb 15, 2011)

Lol....thanks mark,I've known the moderators almost longer than anyone here.....they will tell you there is no hope for me :mrgreen: 
Thanks but I'll end up downloading some software sooner or later to bring everything down so I can put it on.I just never seem to have the time.


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## lazersteve (Feb 15, 2011)

mic said:


> Lol....thanks mark,I've known the moderators almost longer than anyone here.....they will tell you there is no hope for me :mrgreen:
> Thanks but I'll end up downloading some software sooner or later to bring everything down so I can put it on.I just never seem to have the time.



I highly recommend Irfanview for anyone working with images, it also works on many audio and video formats as well. I've been using it for nearly 10 years.

Oh, and it's free.

Steve


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## glondor (Feb 15, 2011)

I did not know linking to photobucket was a no no. All my photos are links.oops. Is the linking bad for the forum? Let me know and I will try something else... Thanks


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## Anonymous (Feb 16, 2011)

Clickable links are allowed.


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## Harold_V (Feb 17, 2011)

mic said:


> Clickable links are allowed.


If pictures are linked, make sure the pictures don't display larger than 800 pixels in width. Those with older monitors experience text spread when they do. 

Yeah, I know----most monitors are set to 1024 x 768----------------BUT---the software uses a part of the display. Anything slightly larger than 800 pixels in width starts spreading text. 

Harold


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## metalmickey (Apr 1, 2011)

The pictures have been deleted so I can't see how good a job you've made of you mill. You might interested that there's someone on ebay that sells cheep ball mills thier members name is *hobfir* :!: They sell three sizes and offer a 2 years manufacturers garuntee/warrenty :arrow: You can use all three barrel sizes on the largest model mill, but not the larger barrels on the smaller models :lol:


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## Anonymous (Apr 1, 2011)

Those are not ball mills,they are tumblers for polishing items.The plastic tanks would give out in no time.
I am not sure if you are Hobfir,but you do not need to repost this 3 times,everyone will see it even if you only post it once.


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## metalmickey (Apr 2, 2011)

No I'm not hobfir :arrow: but after I searching ball mills on google and mainly founding big industrial type which use industrial power and cost a fortune. I thought there must be some cheaper and more economical for a home refiner. Then I saw a google result that was a post on another forum highly recommending that seller and thier ball mills/polishers so I checked it out. *The seller mainly lists them as polishers* but if you check out the ad its self, it has a list of uses including ball milling, Yes the barrels are plastic but they're tuff plastic and thick read the ad. Anyway I'm not trying to sell you one just thought they maybe of interest to people. :idea:


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