paddy Posted October 16, 2016 Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) I have numerous types of mills..just ruined my 80$ blender!..Ive tried drying first,no help..Please help. they actually will burn fingers if you touch a blade.. I do live in a very humid area.. Edited October 16, 2016 by paddy
OldMarine Posted October 16, 2016 Posted October 16, 2016 I ball mill my KNO3 if I need more than a tiny bit at a time. Friction will heat up a blade type mill fast! If I'm using my coffee grinder, I'll grind in short pulses with plenty of shaking in between them. If you keep the chem "fluffed up" it will reduce easier with less strain on the machine.
dynomike1 Posted October 17, 2016 Posted October 17, 2016 Sounds like you may have Nitrate from Duda Diesel. I got some that was prilled from them and it did the same thing, even with a ball mill.
NeighborJ Posted October 17, 2016 Posted October 17, 2016 Oh boy, I know what you mean. Dudas kno3 is tough as nails. I had to make a larger ball mill with 3/4" brass just to bust it up. It still leaves a small amount of unmilled prills in the screen after milling. It still works great.
paddy Posted October 18, 2016 Author Posted October 18, 2016 well I finally did it,I cleaned my ball mill .I added about 1kg of kno3..I plan to mill overnight and check it in morning..I think the most important thing ive learned is not to be in such a hurrey..When I decide to make a comp. I want it now,hence mill it in a hurrey..rush the drying time etc..I will be putting more thought and more time in my next project. maybe some of you other newbies may use this advice.. I want to thank all APC members for all the help and knowledge since joining...paddy
OldMarine Posted October 18, 2016 Posted October 18, 2016 I think you'll find if you mill your KNO3 too long you'll get clumping in the mill no matter how dry the chem is. It may be the humidity here but even after 4 hours in the oven at 250F my nitrate starts clumping and adhering to my media after 2≈ in the mill. Don't know why. It screens fine through a 100 mesh screen and I've had no trouble other than have to shake my media in the separator screen for an inordinate amount of time.
Richtee Posted October 18, 2016 Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) Why do you mill it? I’m assuming it’s for BP... or something such as a star comp. Mill with the other components if applicable. Never had an issue making BP. Edited October 18, 2016 by Richtee
Ubehage Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 I have numerous types of mills..just ruined my 80$ blender!..Ive tried drying first,no help..Please help. they actually will burn fingers if you touch a blade.. I do live in a very humid area..Don't blademill for more than 2-3 minutes. Then let the mill cool off. Or get a ballmill. It's expensive, but in so many ways worth it!
OldMarine Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 Why do you mill it? I’m assuming it’s for BP... or something such as a star comp. Mill with the other components if applicable. Never had an issue making BP. I mill KNO3 for use in screen mix, primes and polverone. 1
Richtee Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 I mill KNO3 for use in screen mix, primes and polverone. I guess I missed the jist of this. I always had a ball mill. Sorry.
FlaMtnBkr Posted October 20, 2016 Posted October 20, 2016 (edited) OM, I'm under the impression that once certain chemicals get to a small enough particle size, that they start locking together and forming a solid matrix that results in clumping. I assume when the particle size is bigger the particles don't lock together and fall away from each other. This is why water doesn't matter which I imagine in sufficient amounts could cause some chemicals to become sticky, or small amounts of dissolved chemical basically glue particles together, or perhaps even stick together because of surface tension/adhesion/cohesion. There are some chemicals like barium nitrate that aren't very hygroscopic and can be really dry but over time will turn into a solid rock hard mass that is almost impossible to break back apart into a free flowing powder. I'm not positive about this and more a hypothesis but I've experienced it many times when I know something is dry and have heard of many others experiencing it as well. Maybe someone can verify or explain the exact science? Edited October 20, 2016 by FlaMtnBkr
OldMarine Posted October 21, 2016 Posted October 21, 2016 FlaMtnBkr, sounds right to me. It does clump up but hours right back to dust through the screen.
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