Non-Chemical Chainsaw Flail Mill anybody seen this?

[924T]

I just ran across this tonight, ran a basic search on the forum, with no results, so this unique tool
might have been off the GRF radar:

It's a highly portable chain flail mill that is powered by a chain saw named the rock collider,
at rockcollider.com--------------in their video, it's a high dB device that appears to make short
work of powdering modest quantities of ore.

It's the type of innovativeness I've been coming across consistently here on the GRF, so I found
it to be pretty interesting.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Palladium]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbFjyKIJ6qw&feature=channel&list=UL[/youtube]

 

[924T]

This one:

http://rockcollider.com/chainsaw.htm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Zf1-nPNHI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I hope I got the links right.

Dust control doesn't appear to have been seriously addressed for either product yet!

Cheers,

Mike

 

[silversaddle1]

Would I be wrong in thinking that with all that dust flying away, so are values?

 

[malfeces]

Ahhhh, but how does it do with pistachios....

 

[924T]

malfeces,

I think the odds are pretty good it would be able to handle pistachios, but the dust would drive me nuts! :lol:

Cheers,

Mike

 

[GotTheBug]

I wonder how that would work on flat chips.... I just happen to have a couple larger cc trimmer motors lying around and some 5/16 trucker chain.

 

[924T]

GotTheBug,

That's an intriguing idea, to run chips through a chainsaw flail mill.

If you've got the mechanical savvy to put one together, and could figure out a way to block
or divert the resulting (dangerous) dust, you would be armed and dangerous to i.c. chips, at the right price!

patnor1011's main caveat, that of abrading some of the super-thin Au wires onto the metal plates
found in some of the chips, might be a concern; but it wouldn't abrade all of the Au, and you could
certainly grind the chips up in very short order, any time, anywhere, which would have to be
very satisfying, I would think.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[GotTheBug]

Funny you say that, as I was just doing a sort of "proof of concept" by attaching a few links cut from a tow chain to a bench grinder axle that spins at 3450 rpm. If I figure out the peculiarities I will certainly share with the group. I am also wondering about incinerating before beating them into submission. Had some good results with a modified blender, til the plastic piece at the bottom decided to, well, you can imagine.

 

[924T]

GotTheBug,

Since I haven't personally processed any of these chips yet, I'm limited to either parroting what I've
read here on the GRF, sharing what my research has found, or firing off some semi-informed opinions.

Having read and reread patnor1011's process, it is clear that the incinerated chips do need to be broken up or
ground up-------------it looks like incinerating first to reduce the material volume and increase
access to the Au is a really good idea.

From all of the chain flail mills I have looked at on ebay, they seem to share 1 thing in common, and that
is they operate at around 1500 rpm, and could care less what you feed into them.

By contrast, the Action Mining hammer mills run at 3000 rpm, and from the test pictures I've seen, they
produce a finer mesh of dust on the 1st pass than does a 1500 rpm flail mill; however, the carbide hammer
heads will chip or break if they hit a certain amount of metal, so you've got to be careful what you jam in
them (I know one guy who was demonstrating his large mill to a prospective buyer, and a rock got jammed
in the feed hole, and the buyer goofed up when using a screwdriver to dislodge the rock, and broke one of
the 4 hammers).

EDIT: Just to make certain I'm not misrepresenting the quality of Action Mining hammer mills, the screwdriver
incident was a dumb, flukey thing; their mills are designed for one thing, and that is grinding chunks of hard
rock ore .5" or smaller. I called them a while back and asked if their smaller mill would grind I.C. chips; the
owner said "no". But, by contrast, the ebay seller RockyMountainGold said he used to grind I.C. chips in his,
with no troubles at all. I intend to acquire one of the small mills in the near future, and will post the results
of my testing here on the forum.

So, with your rig operating at 3450 rpm, and capable of accepting just about anything you could stuff into it
because it's a flail mill,it would be very interesting to see what mesh size you would get on the 1st pass.

I, for one, would be very interested in your results.

Cheers,

Mike
on the first pass

 

[BJL1984]

a system of spraying water on that is comming out of the mill may work for keeping the dust down, Just a simple idea i had the other day when i was using a wet saw to cut some ceramic tiles