Free ball mills everywhere.

[Guest]

It doesn’t take much time or effort asking or looking around your neighborhood or Craigslist to get a free, or very cheap ball mill.

A little fabricobblering skills are needed, but not much.

You’ll need a few tools such as a screw gun, some screws, and some sort of metal saw, ie hacksaw or sawzall.

A dc power supply will most likely be needed, as well as a dc variable motor controller, all of which can be found at the Amazonian place.

Your drum is up to you, and your imagination.

Mine is an 8 inch giant hdpe chunk of water pipe with 2 hdpe buckets cut and cemented in place.

Many times you’ll find these with the electronics still working, and if you know your shit, you can still use them, otherwise the power supply and controller are most likely easier.

These dc motors are beasts for a reason, and are very rarely the reason these things are scrapped, sold, or given away. Sometimes you can find folks who will pay you to take these almost ready to go ball mills away.

Wouldn’t you just love to know how you can get a ball mill that can mill pounds of powder at a time damn near for free?

 

Just send a self addressed stamped envelope and a $100 bill to…….

 

Just kidding.

If you don’t know what this is, or have no idea how to go about it,  I’ll post instructions…….  (if enough people donate to my personal pyrotechnic mental health fund.)

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Bbqjoe

[Guest]

I forgot to add a pic.🤪

 

 

[Richtee]

Hell that would work if you don’t mind turning in about 40 miles or so... 😃

[cmjlab]

Brilliant!  So many ball mills at the gym at work, and plenty of gym rats too!  I'll just start bringing 5 or 10 mill jars ready to go, walk around putting mill jars wherever people are getting their "run on", and check back in a couple hours to retrieve my finished B.P.  I like it!  

Now I need to find a lawyer who can draft a waiver in case a workplace "mishap" occurs so I'm not held financially liable, or an agreement to have arbitration done by my wife!  

In all seriousness, nice ball mill.  I've seen a few times people have referenced using an old treadmill to make a ball mill.  I should see if I can source one, I wouldn't mind a 2nd mill capable of turning a larger tumbler or two.  My current one uses the 17 lb rebel jars which are amazing, but only one at a time.

[cmjlab]

How many RPM is your mill turning at?  Looks a little slow, but could be video. I run mine around 68 RPM.

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, cmjlab said:

How many RPM is your mill turning at?  Looks a little slow, but could be video. I run mine around 68 RPM.

Actually, right or wrong, I vary it throughout the process using the adjustable motor controller. I have an app on my phone that will tell rpm by using the flash and a white line, but it only works in the dark. I also listen to how it sounds.

On the inside of my drum I have a couple long beads of hot glue running the length to facilitate media movement.

I also made it so I can adjust the space between the rollers, that way I can use the large drum, or a couple of the regular small rubber ones.

The cool thing about using a treadmill is for the most part, everything is right there.

[cmjlab]

Nice.  I like it.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, cmjlab said:

 

In all seriousness, nice ball mill.  I've seen a few times people have referenced using an old treadmill to make a ball mill.  I should see if I can source one, I wouldn't mind a 2nd mill capable of turning a larger tumbler or two.  My current one uses the 17 lb rebel jars which are amazing, but only one at a time.

 

I don’t believe I’m familiar with the rebel. Is that 17 lbs media and product, or what?

which reminds me, I need to post my fully adjustable satellite base-wiper motor-stainless bowl star and rice hull setup that also runs off the same power supply and motor controller.

[cmjlab]

It's the black, hexagonal mill jar sold with the rebel mill.  I'm not sure it's actually just 17lbs, I think it holds more like 35 lbs when using lead media, but I'm not 100% sure.  

[cmjlab]

I have a windshield motor star roller too that I run off a PC power supply, and has a removable clear plastic rolling drum.  I've not rolled many stars though, I just never got the hang of it.  I prefer pumping and cutting.  

[TheSidewinder]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:01 PM, Bbqjoe said:

I don’t believe I’m familiar with the rebel. Is that 17 lbs media and product, or what?

which reminds me, I need to post my fully adjustable satellite base-wiper motor-stainless bowl star and rice hull setup that also runs off the same power supply and motor controller.

Bbqjoe, your email address isn't working (554 errors) and we're getting bounces for all notifications being sent. I had to turn off email choices in your notifications preferences to stop those bounces. Once you get a working email in place, you can edit preferences to change those back. Thank you!

[Mumbles]

The one down side to DC motors is that they're often brush driven motors, which tend to spark.  Just something to consider, but it's not anything I want near my BP.  

[cmjlab]

I hadn't considered that.  I ASSumed a windshield motor must be enclosed to prevent water from ruining it.  

[Guest]

22 hours ago, Mumbles said:

The one down side to DC motors is that they're often brush driven motors, which tend to spark.  Just something to consider, but it's not anything I want near my BP.  

I get what you’re saying, 100%.

Taking that into consideration, I thought I’d double check myself.

Here is my motor running, then in the dark. 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Bbqjoe

[Arthur]

On 12/9/2023 at 4:01 AM, Bbqjoe said:

I don’t believe I’m familiar with the rebel. Is that 17 lbs media and product, or what?

which reminds me, I need to post my fully adjustable satellite base-wiper motor-stainless bowl star and rice hull setup that also runs off the same power supply and motor controller.

Ball mills/Rock tumblers are rated for load inside the jar so 17lbs of pebbles, grit and water, or 17lbs of balls and ingredients. 

Having personally seen a rocket fuel mix in a stainless bowl burst into flames due to the sun being concentrated and igniting the material, DON'T USE STAINLESS BOWLS, in the daylight.  the flame was rocket fuel fierce and about 20 feet high. People were hurt, clothes were scorched and two work tents were destroyed.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Arthur said:

Ball mills/Rock tumblers are rated for load inside the jar so 17lbs of pebbles, grit and water, or 17lbs of balls and ingredients. 

Having personally seen a rocket fuel mix in a stainless bowl burst into flames due to the sun being concentrated and igniting the material, DON'T USE STAINLESS BOWLS, in the daylight.  the flame was rocket fuel fierce and about 20 feet high. People were hurt, clothes were scorched and two work tents were destroyed.

Hell, where I live, I've seen people burst into flames just standing outside in the sun!

I always work in the shade.

JK about the people part.😉

[cmjlab]

Aurthur, i'd agree not to use stainless steel bowls for mixing in the sunlight, but not using it for the star roller seems a bit overkill to me.  Even if I'm rolling outside, there is water involved, typically under a collapsible canopy, and the bowl is spinning and not set down immobilized in direct sunlight to catch and focus the sun's rays.  Lastly, the inside of the bowl is scuffed up to help small stars not just slide in place, so that also helps not catch the sun as quickly. 

*Edit* A lot of star roller you see also include two bowls bolted / welded / epoxied together with a smaller hole cut out creating an enclosed space where the stars roll.  Also mitigates catching and focusing the sun's rays to heat a comp to ignition.

Edited December 13, 2023 by cmjlab

[Guest]

9 hours ago, cmjlab said:

Aurthur, i'd agree not to use stainless steel bowls for mixing in the sunlight, but not using it for the star roller seems a bit overkill to me.  Even if I'm rolling outside, there is water involved, typically under a collapsible canopy, and the bowl is spinning and not set down immobilized in direct sunlight to catch and focus the sun's rays.  Lastly, the inside of the bowl is scuffed up to help small stars not just slide in place, so that also helps not catch the sun as quickly. 

*Edit* A lot of star roller you see also include two bowls bolted / welded / epoxied together with a smaller hole cut out creating an enclosed space where the stars roll.  Also mitigates catching and focusing the sun's rays to heat a comp to ignition.

Damn, this just got me to thinking that I should probably be using my glasses instead of a Fresnel lens while viewing my bowl in the sun as I make flash powder stars and grind nitroglycerin lift powder.🫠

[cmjlab]

I'm fairness, I believe the biggest dangers were that people were mixing star comps, b.p. comps, and/ or whistle in stainless steel mixing bowls because they are convenient to clean and durable.

However, if left exposed in sunlight, some people demonstrated that B.P., whistle,  and star comps could ignite from the rays of the sun being caught by the stainless, in as little as 30 seconds. 

30 seconds is not a lot of time, and could be as little as taking a ball of comp to roll out into a party and cut while leaving the rest in the mixing bowl while doing so, then have it all go up in flames pretty quickly.  

Again, if you're working under a canopy, in the shade, or using it as a star roller, I'm not sure that the speed or risk at which it goes up in flames would be even remotely the same.

[Powderman]

There is a big group of BLDC motors these days used in allmost everything that moves around - mainly scooters, balance boards, electric bicycles and more... They are brushless and the rpm is easily set by the controller. It can be used in combo with battery and solar panel - if remote milling needs to be very remote... 

[SharkWhisperer]

On 12/14/2023 at 1:14 PM, cmjlab said:

I believe the biggest dangers were that people were mixing star comps, b.p. comps, and/ or whistle in stainless steel mixing bowls because they are convenient to clean and durable.

Member HCB left a stainless bowl of crackle/DE mix drying in the sun a few years ago that lit up, scared the shit out of him, and coulda burned down his barn/shop (it didn't).

Crackle's probably pretty entertaining when a few pounds unexpectedly go off all at once nearby.

[DecimusMaximus]

On 12/8/2023 at 11:10 AM, Guest said:

I forgot to add a pic.🤪

 

 

time to scour craiglist for some free or throwaway stuff that I can take apart and make a bigger ball mil than this tiny HF ball mill that im struggling with. Great idea!