Homemade Ball Mill

[leavemealone]

Grade 8 will work but are going to wear quickly adding garbage

I must have read it wrong then.I thought one member had mentioned that grade 8 was hard enough.I probably read it backwards though,after reading about 100 posts a day my eyes start crossing... :roll:
Johnny

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Man ya'll are tough on a guys ideas today :roll: .

I'm going to go put my dunce hat back on and sit in my corner.

These worthless ideas could go on for pages and pages, and more worthless pages of drivel. You want to accommodate that type of dialog, you can not build a ball mill inside this forum.

Perhaps I should have included a list of the required shop tools one would need to build such a mill.

1. A cloths dryer is not going to make the grade
2. For all the good mice balls would do, you could just as well fill the drum with paper clips.
3. A basic understanding of electricity.
4. If your skin is so thin, move along.

Hold on sir it was a joke. I didn't mean for you to take it serious. I said the dryer wouldn't work, didn't comment on the mice balls and still won't :roll: . I have a Master electrical license. My skin is not real thin either. I liked your ball mill, only question I asked about it was the gear box I think. and a comment about the motor. And btw you probably will not find a motor in a residential HVAC unit that runs over 3,000 RPM most run around 1750 RPM or slower with a few exceptions, I have a master HVAC lic as well. I don't mean to question your abilities your photos show your ability for them selves and they are good. I enjoy your posts.

 

[Anonymous]

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[butcher]

I think Gustavus, is just trying to get you to see that this needs a little more serious thought, a dryer is good to tumble clothes, a ball mill would need to be much stronger to do the job.

a tack hammer won't work if you need a sledge hammer to get the job done, look at the ball mill in the picture above, built from used junk,built well and strong, and the handful of fine dust proved it works, now that type of thinking is what you need to build a simple ball mill, forget the dryer or plastic 5 gallon bucket, if that is all you can come up with, get you a piece of 2"pipe say 12" long and a cap, then a 1" pipe 18" long with a cap on each end, crush your material with that untill you can come up with a better Idea.

 

[pinman]

I only asked about the mice because they have a 1/2" ball bearing beneath the rubber. Sorry to have stirred up such a stink.

 

[Anonymous]

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[Barren Realms 007]

I'm 60 years old and find very little amusing, I thought the forum was an educational site where one could learn from reading then move on to practical, run into a problem there is help from the more experienced. Between the resident Pro's we have at our disposal my estimate 300 years of experience at our disposal - all for free.

The resident professional refiners have dedicated many hours answering our questions, sometimes , many times replying to the same questions written a bit differently from the last guy.

I agree the pro's do a great job and this forum would be nowhere without them. I really don't know how they do it day in and day out answering the same questions. I would like to think that you are included in this list because of your abilities and vast knowledge as well as your experience in diffrent fields.

I really didn't mean for this to get blown out of proportion about using a dryer. I thought it would have been dropped after my 1st reply but it wasn't and it has snowballed into a tense situation. I normally would have written a short answer and say this would not be a good idea and list the reasons why, I didn't do that I was being a smart ass and answered with a smart answer. Well it has gotten blown out of proportion and caused a wrinkle in a possability of a friendship developed betwen us and I really don't want that to happen. I would like to feel that I can ask you question and I know I will receive a mature and accurate answer that can be properly applied to the situation at hand

If you got up each morning and all you read were the comic section and cartoons on the box, what an interesting person you would be. Have some mercy and respect for the Professionals donating their expert knowledge and time.

I really don't have enough of a sense of humor to get much out of reading the comics on a daily basis. It seems like that is what it is like here sometimes (reading the comics). I have all the respect in the world for the leaders, the knowledge they share here and thier time that is sacrificed answering the same things over and over.

I would think that the Pro's have a rather high IQ level and here we are boring them to death, lets us try to keep their minds busy at work with intelligent questions

A good wine is known to mature with age, this forum has aged but not matured.

This is true, they shuld not be botherd with having deal with questions off in left field.

If a guy is not able to at least change the spark plugs in his automobile, he should not be attempting to build a ball mill.

That a 100% corrct answer, someone with the lack of abilities to do such things are bound to get hurt or hurt other people and they should not be attempting to work with these chemicals. They can bee to dangerous.

On a side note, the spelling from a couple of our members not naming anyone in particular is atrocious, MINE INCLUDED. I use firefox with a spellcheck every wrongly spelled word is underlined in a red drawing my attention towards it to make a correction, check the spelling then add to the dictionary.

If I'm not sure of the spelling of a word, I google it then copy and paste the correction into my post. You have probably heard that a lot of good deals can be found on ebay because some guy/gal cant spell worth a darn.

Perhaps I'm taking the spelling thing a bit far, but it relates to having respect for the Pro's donating their time.

People who repeatedly asks STUPID QUESTIONS should be directed to the lounge.

Sincerely Gill

I can admit that my spelling and grammer are not the best as well. It is not something I put a high reguard on I will try to do better in this area. It is not ment as a insult to anyone.

Barren Realms 007 a man of your caliber, several trade TQ's.

I'll bet you an ounce of gold, anyone who asks you how to fix their washing machine and comes on with absolutely no knowledge in asking the questions gets short listed real quick.

I would say that is not completely true, If someone asks a question and they are sincere on learning the answers I will walk them thru fixing the problem as best I can in a step by step way to acomplish the task. I enjoy teaching people that want to learn and have little paitence for people that want to take short cuts and not follow instructions.

So why do we have to entertain and encourage such nonsense by answering dumb questions, where others as or less knowledgeable jump in keeping the thread alive. This is the drivel I'm speaking of, and I can not for the life of me see how that would be entertaining or stimulating to a learned friend who has put in many years dues inthe art of refining.

You know as well as I do that there are going to be people that post stupid question's and some more than once about the same thing. I don't care for it any more than you do but it is going to happen. I'm sure most of the pros here just shake thire haeds and wonder where people come up with some of the off the wall ideas but they tolerate it and carry on. That is dedication and integrity that is beyond approach.

It just never stops, had you tired that in trade school they would have written you a ticket alright, one back home. We have to give the Pro's what is rightfully due them, some respect in the type of questions we reply to keeping that thread alive until a questions has been properly answered or a problem resolved.

The teachers did come close a couple of times I think. I use to press the teachers on scinerios that were way out there, that was because I had been in the fields for a lot of time and liked messing with them. And generally knew they would not come up with a correct answer because of thier lack of experience.

Again let me offer my aplologies to you. I really wasn't trying to question you, your abilities or your judgement. And I didn't mean to have this get blown out of proportion. I offer my hand to you for a hand sake to show my sincerity, I hope we can let this be forgotten and ended and be friends.

 

[Anonymous]

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[Barren Realms 007]

I agree with your above post 100%. I say we put a fork in it call it done and continue as friends.

We have all had our time of mis spent youth. Any one that can rise above that and make something of themselves is A-1 in my book.

 

[butcher]

been a long winter, we all need some sunshine. :lol:

 

[erogers36]

Will 5 of these work for a ball mill ?

 

[leavemealone]

Wow eric,thats a hell of an idea.I have a bunch of those and I have a chop saw that can cut the shafts off.
Gill do you think these would be hard enough to not wear down fast?
Johnny

 

[Anonymous]

Wow eric,thats a hell of an idea.I have a bunch of those and I have a chop saw that can cut the shafts off.
Gill do you think these would be hard enough to not wear down fast?
Johnny

Not sure about the cheap chrome plating which is going to eventually peel off, otherwise they would be perfect for the hobby refiner. Ideally if you could get your hands on some cat or excavator track chains and cut the link to suit. The metal used for crushing does not have to be round like a ball, just heavy and wear resistant.

 

[leavemealone]

The father of one of my friends owns a large trackhoe maybe I'll see if he has any parts of the track that is useless to him.You will have to show me what part to use though.If I get anything from him I'll post a pic and let you decide.Thanks gil
Johnny

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a picture of some track chain, you could also use the the old bolts and nuts used to hold the pads in place also the old pads cut up into smaller pieces, all these parts are highly resistant to wear.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

you could also use the the old bolts and nuts .

I mentioned useing this earlier in this thread and people didn't like the idea.

 

[Anonymous]

you could also use the the old bolts and nuts .

I mentioned useing this earlier in this thread and people didn't like the idea.

Difference is Cat bolts are Fedalloy which are superior to grade 8

 

[Barren Realms 007]

you could also use the the old bolts and nuts .

I mentioned useing this earlier in this thread and people didn't like the idea.

Difference is Cat bolts are Fedalloy which are superior to grade 8

Ok thanks. :mrgreen: Always a learning experience.

 

[samuel-a]

hi guys.

i have done some research on the web, which lead me to conclude that the bigger & heavier grinding media isn't always better.
particularly when grinding ceramics or fibrous matirial.

a study that i stumbled across on the web suggest that 1/2" to 5/8" balls as grinding media preform the best for... basiclly most of ball mills, regardless of their size and matter to be grinded. assuming that the mill is running on it's optimum RPM.

now, the only way i know of, to get that kind of steel balls are from bearings, but i do not know how they will preform over time as they are designed to wear and not to impact. (any suggestions?)

the optimum RPM for any given size of mill is 65%-75% of it's 'criticl speed'
critical speed = the speed of which the cylinder becomes a centrifuge.

i'm currently working on the construction of 3.5 gallon mill from 8.5" steel pipe.
i'll update with pics when ready.

 

[skippy]

Ball bearings are usually 52100 steel, a high carbon steel. Looking it up, they are hardened to 59 Rockwell C hardness, which is just a little less hard than a file.

Now I'm looking up grinding media, and these specs come up

► Chrome or chromium alloy steel.
AISI 52100 / SUJ 2 / En 31.

► High carbon steel.
AISI 1085 / C85.

Thorough hardened to 58 - 63 HRc,
Rockwell C.

So basically ball bearings are already nearly perfect grinding media. 8)