Hobo's Guide - Ball mill Hack - Chip Masher Quantum 7000..

[SilverFox]

So I hacked myself a ball mill, Made from two pieces of pipe and two Caps, one 2 inch pipe threaded one side. The other pipe is made from a 1 inch pipe threaded one two sides with a 1 inch cap..

Dusted those chips pretty good, not recommended for commercial refiners but backyard Buckinners like myself; this was a massive improvement over "The hammer and box" approach.

Heres what it looks like

Last picture is the 270 grams of Chip Mash I created in under 55 seconds.

 

[Noxx]

Good idea. But be aware of the dusts.

 

[SilverFox]

Yeah I wear a hazardous fumes mask whenever I deal with anything refining acids or otherwise.

 

[patnor1011]

yeah mask is something you cant ignore but as from your pictures - your fingers seem to be covered with something like dust - dont want to be stupid saying that they are dirty or so... you can absorb way too much chemicals through your skin too so rubber glows will be needed too...

You probably know this very well - this is for all newbies like me. I did not know that in these IT stuff is that much things which can easily kill you :wink:

 

[SilverFox]

When mashing the chips, I had been wearing a set of green chemical gloves. It is hard to get the bottom cap off when wearing those, so I removed them.

And yes, I promptly washed my hands. :? :?

 

[Gold Nut]

Silverfox, I like your idea. I think I'm going to try this. Just one question...Is there a cap on the 1 inch pipe that fits into the 2 inch pipe? And, how would a solid steel bar work instead of the 1 inch pipe? Just wondering !!
Gold Nut

 

[SilverFox]

Silverfox, I like your idea. I think I'm going to try this. Just one question...Is there a cap on the 1 inch pipe that fits into the 2 inch pipe? And, how would a solid steel bar work instead of the 1 inch pipe? Just wondering !!
Gold Nut

Yes what your looking at is a 1 inch pipe with cap and a 2 inch pipe with cap.

As for the steel bar, I don't know, I like the two caps because The curves on the caps meet one another at the same angle, this way there isn't any place the chips can get wedged and avoid the smashy smashy.

 

[butcher]

make a plastic disk for top of pipe like a doughnut, helps keep particles from flying out

 

[bmgold]

On a video from Charles Butler of Butler labs on torch assaying he used a mortar and pestle that was modified to allow the pestle to be mounted in a drill press chuck to crush up rocks real fine. He used a piece of rubber to cover the top of the mortar to cut down on the dust and fragments getting out of the mortar. I never tried it but it did work on the video to get real fine dust. The rocks were broken up to small pieces first then ground up with the drill press powered device. I expect it would work for chips as well except any larger pieces of metal wouldn't be reduced to powder but they should be easy to screen out of the dust. As with most methods of crushing stuff a dust mask would be advised but it looked easier and quicker than doing it by hand.

 

[Gold Nut]

Silverfox, I went out today and found some 1 in. and 2 in. pipe, some caps, and a piece of plastic to fit in the end of the 2 in. pipe with a 1 in. hole cut in it so the smaller pipe will slide up and down through it. I put it together and it works great!! Thanks for the idea.
Gold Nut