Non-Chemical Hammer Mill

[rusty]

The trick

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks gil for getting back in the game,and not getting upset over what I said.
And thank you for starting this thread.....now do you still have the pics and info on the other mill you made,the one with the swivel ends on it?I think that was very well made and would be an asset to new people making mills.

 

[rusty]

Never did find the silver from the thermostats,

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Never did find the silver from the thermostats, but it's in there somewhere.

The picture of the metals sitting on the lid, separated the the milled circuit breakers and thermostats are from left to right brass, copper, aluminum and iron.

Next I could not resist the next picture of some tek cable that I feed through the mill.

If I were to stay in the business of salvage I would definitely look for a larger hammer mill, imagine feeding transformers and electric motors through and getting clean shredded metals back that can be easily separated using a vibrating screen deck set at various slopes and angles

Get one of those machine that chops cars up.

 

[qst42know]

You may want to check the magnetic bits for your silver.

You still have some contacts that haven't been hammered?

 

[rusty]

Your absolutely right

 

[joem]

looking at the picture of the four separated metals they look melted, are you saying that the metal naturally came together within the ball mill?

 

[rusty]

Yes this is how the metals came out,

 

[Oz]

Something to consider with ball and hammer mills is grounding. This is probably more important with ball mills than the hammer mills but it might be worth it to just play it safe. At issue is the build-up of static electricity in a finely dispersed dust environment. This could cause a dust explosion much like they have at feed mills occasionally. This is why they use non-sparking shovels.

A simple ground to your drum can prevent this. It would not be pretty if this were to happen in a tightly sealed steel ball mill drum.

 

[rusty]

How ever I must thank Oz for bringing this to your attention, and extend my apologies for my oversight.

 

[joedirt]

Howdy Rusty,

I was wondering about the details of your Hammer Mill, especially since you said you spent a couple of hundred dollars on it. Where did you buy it and what size materials will it do? Will it do hard drives? I would appreciate any info you could provide. I definitely like that price range.

Thanks

 

[rusty]

Yes the price was right,

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Howdy Rusty,

I was wondering about the details of your Hammer Mill, especially since you said you spent a couple of hundred dollars on it. Where did you buy it and what size materials will it do? Will it do hard drives? I would appreciate any info you could provide. I definitely like that price range.

Thanks

Yes the price was right, this is the 3rd and largest of the mills I have purchased in this price range, you will find them at farm auctions or by knocking on some farm house doors and asking around. All of mine were purchased from local farmers.

Do not buy a mill that has a circular screen, you want a partial screen.

Quit often the larger farm type hammer mills are PTO driven from the tractor and will have a cyclone built into the system. These mills are built to last and could possibly get you by until you found it in your budget to purchase a commercially designed mill built for shredding iron.

An industrial mill for iron will have replaceable manganese liners inside the housing, you might find a used at reasonable cost at recyclers.net

On the PTO driven unit you will possibly want a smaller screen so the items are chopped up better. The tanks on them are emptied by an auger and if the pieces are too big you will take the chance of bogging down the auger. Trust me you don't want that to happen. And don't forget about dust colletion or a water spray system.

 

[rusty]

Ball of putty.

 

[darshevo]

Rusty,

I have seen the idea floated (pun totally intended) of using floatation to separate plastic from the mix, how has your experience been with it? Does all of the plastic float, or just certain densities? Once the snow flies I'll be retiring to the shop for the winter where I will finally assemble my ball mill and (for another project) rock crusher I have been amassing parts for all summer. I got a line on a shredder today that uses hammers, thinking maybe I can make it work for this application with the addition of a screen mechanism. Hopefully I can pick it up this week and get it into the project pile for the upcoming winter

-Lance

 

[joedirt]

Ok, thanks Rusty. From the info that I have seen I assume the ones you are buying are used for grains, etc.? What kind of hammers are they?

 

[rusty]

Pay income tax.

 

[joedirt]

I hope I'm not wearing this thread out, but I'm thinking about driving around to some farms in the surrounding areas to look for a mill. Rusty do you or anybody else have any suggestions about what to look for? I'm currently taking motherboards, cd and floppy drives, and power supplies to a buyer, but am looking for a mill to process them myself. I would also like to be able to destroy hard drives, as there might be some money in offering this service to businesses. A lot of our ewaste still goes to overseas, and I would like to make some of that money myself.

Thanks

 

[rusty]

Look for one of the larger mills

 

[joedirt]

Thanks Rusty for the great info and pictures, very, very helpful. Is there any manufacturer info for the one in the 2nd picture(Name and/or Model #)? I think I understand what the PTO does, but what does it stand for? Did you have to modify yours? Thanks, again.