combo ball mill/star roller

[justanotherpyro]

You've inspired me to make an adapter to my ball mill so I can rolls stars nascar style. Tread mill ball mills are the shite. They can turn very heavy jars, have movable rollers, variable DC motor, and talk about durability. Best of all they kind of come pre-assembled. Mine only took a few hours of work to cut it down and shift stuff around so it wasn't so large. I think I might have to post a picture in that one thread somewhere on the internet

[marks265]

Thanks for the heads up M.

 

I will do that. I Have met Jim and am a proud owner of his NEPT's. I will shoot him an e-mail with a heads up. I can bring my old mill for contrast. There are several hundred hours of run time on it and the balls are deformed and have lost 2 grams of weight on average.

 

AFTER SEVERAL BEERS and several hours of thought I'm wondering if TheSidewinder, Charlie, or Jim own a "cannon loaded to rob and plunder" AFTER SEVERAL BEERS! And Mumbles, are you with WPAG HMMMM?

 

Lastly inspiration for adaptation, modification, and innovation usually comes best to me AFTER SEVERAL BEERS but am glad thoughts rub off on others in some way!

[TheSidewinder]

There are several hundred hours of run time on it and the balls are deformed and have lost 2 grams of weight on average.

 

Sounds like what happens to all of us guys sooner or later, doesn't it?

 

Mark

[ST1DinOH]

Thanks for the heads up M.

 

I will do that. I Have met Jim and am a proud owner of his NEPT's. I will shoot him an e-mail with a heads up. I can bring my old mill for contrast. There are several hundred hours of run time on it and the balls are deformed and have lost 2 grams of weight on average.

 

AFTER SEVERAL BEERS and several hours of thought I'm wondering if TheSidewinder, Charlie, or Jim own a "cannon loaded to rob and plunder" AFTER SEVERAL BEERS! And Mumbles, are you with WPAG HMMMM?

 

Lastly inspiration for adaptation, modification, and innovation usually comes best to me AFTER SEVERAL BEERS but am glad thoughts rub off on others in some way!

inspiration coming from barley and hops, i'll have to try that, i've always considered other forms of vegitation to be my muse.

[TheSidewinder]

Thanks for the heads up M.

 

I will do that. I Have met Jim and am a proud owner of his NEPT's. I will shoot him an e-mail with a heads up. I can bring my old mill for contrast. There are several hundred hours of run time on it and the balls are deformed and have lost 2 grams of weight on average.

 

AFTER SEVERAL BEERS and several hours of thought I'm wondering if TheSidewinder, Charlie, or Jim own a "cannon loaded to rob and plunder" AFTER SEVERAL BEERS! And Mumbles, are you with WPAG HMMMM?

 

Lastly inspiration for adaptation, modification, and innovation usually comes best to me AFTER SEVERAL BEERS but am glad thoughts rub off on others in some way!

LOL!!

 

 

You're welcome, M!

 

I don't own any such oversize blunderbusses , but I think Charlie does.

 

We have several WPAG members here, actually.

 

 

Hope I can make whichever shoot you bring that contraption to.

 

Mark

[Draco_Americanus]

I think i may have a small cannon that could do the job

and i have 2 dragons waiting to strike! ok well they are bearded dragons , but they look bigger then they are after a few beers!

too bad i dont have 3 phase AC to run the thing

[marks265]

You don't need 3 phase on the line side (the power supplying the drive). I am running 115 volts AC to the drive and I bought a 220 volt AC 3 phase motor for the load side (motor connections).

 

If you would like to ask more tech questions visit this link and call them if needed.

 

http://www.wolfautomation.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=23167

 

Because I did not know how much work (amperage) I would need I bought the half horsepower drive and adjusted some parameters to reflect a smaller motor which I am using a quarter horse power. I felt if I ran into trouble buying a second motor alone would be cheaper than buying both a motor and a drive if I needed more power or the pyro machine got bigger!

 

I think one of the pics had a clear picture of motor specs. If not just ask me.

 

Cost was about ;

 

$150 for the drive (less if you bought the smaller drive)

$142 for the motor

$83 for the NEMA 4 enclosure

$6 for back panel of enclosure

$20 for the cooling fan

$6 for a small roll of wire

a toggle switch I had

$10 for a speed pot (potentiometer)

$2 for the knob for potentiomter

$5 for 5 feet of 4 conductor 14 awg copper wire

$15 for cord grips

$10 for an extension cord

$1.50 for cable restraints to hold cord to cabinet

 

$450.50 total for electrical

$450.00 total for hardware

 

$900.50 total TO BUILD THIS plus gas for the many road trips!

 

Everything was bought new. I can't stand messing around with used stuff anymore. If you were to shop around on the net and dig around your house I'm sure you can do it cheaper.

 

The speed pot is a 10K ohm linear potentiometer that uses a 10 volt DC signal from the drive.

[justanotherpyro]

If you were to shop around on the net and dig around your house I'm sure you can do it cheaper.

$50 tread mill and free time. Although I guess the C-clamps are probably around $25. I opted not to weld anything so that I could move the roller if I wanted to. The motor can handle a lot of weight so its a good option to leave open for the future. Roughly $75, but yours is professional and pretty.

 

With the nascar roller "attachment" I added today.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/justanotherpyro/IMG_1945.jpg

 

One of my milling jars.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/justanotherpyro/IMG_1946.jpg

I think tomorrow I'll wipe it down. Most of the dust is carbon, and dirt ( my pyro shed has no floor) but it would be bad if something were to catch fire.

[marks265]

Cool! If there is a will there is a way. Just do me one favor if that is a DC motor. Check and see if it is dust proof if not make it dust proof. If it is DC, it has motor brushes and them there those things makes sparks! As for as the shaft you have clamped you could cross drill (for small bolts) it and have several sets of holes, for the jar and farther for the tire. It would make the tire a lot more stable by getting it farther from drive roller. Bolt a plate on the motor side to make up for the short roller which will help cover the motor somewhat. Lastely for now Please do something do get rid of the terminal board in the lower left of pics. If you are working with conductive compositions you WILL get an arc from terminal to terminal someday. I don't know the potential of those wires but I gotta believe both polarities are there.

I know it is work in progress and I don't want to mean so please take it as constructive criticism(sp?)! You always want to think ahead about what could remotely possibly happen. Be safe and tell me to shut up if I ticked ya off.

 

Mark

[Bonny]

As soon as the snow melts (to expose the pile of old tires) I plan on using a tire in my ball mill to to roll stars. Due to the size of my ball mill, I'll be trying a lawn tractor front tire...about 12" diameter. Hope it works...

[justanotherpyro]

Cool! If there is a will there is a way. Just do me one favor if that is a DC motor. Check and see if it is dust proof if not make it dust proof. If it is DC, it has motor brushes and them there those things makes sparks! As for as the shaft you have clamped you could cross drill (for small bolts) it and have several sets of holes, for the jar and farther for the tire. It would make the tire a lot more stable by getting it farther from drive roller. Bolt a plate on the motor side to make up for the short roller which will help cover the motor somewhat. Lastely for now Please do something do get rid of the terminal board in the lower left of pics. If you are working with conductive compositions you WILL get an arc from terminal to terminal someday. I don't know the potential of those wires but I gotta believe both polarities are there.

I know it is work in progress and I don't want to mean so please take it as constructive criticism(sp?)! You always want to think ahead about what could remotely possibly happen. Be safe and tell me to shut up if I ticked ya off.

 

Mark

Quite the opposite, I appreciate the suggestions . It definitely is a work in progress. I have only started really using it recently because I had been forced out of pyro due to schooling. Priority on the list was getting my shed back into a usable condition. Now its time to sure things up a bit.

[tentacles]

I didn't want to start a new thread, but I'm just about done building myself a new ball mill - right now it's just a motor and rollers on a board, but someday I may construct some sort of housing.

 

It's powered by a 1/4HP Leeson motor, and I made some MDF pulleys on my lathe to run the 8" Sch 80 PVC mill jar at the optimal speed. Actually it'll run a little under, like 64 RPM rather than 66. And I have two faster speeds for start rolling, if I need them.

 

I used 1" pillow blocks (free is good!) and for roller shafts I purchased some 1" stainless tubing (Oh noes my $1!) that I covered with a bicycle tube for grip.

 

All I'm really waiting for at this point is the seals for the mill jars (Did you get over there yet, Bonny?) and a few finishing touches. Like tapping the jars for the screws to hold 'em together, lifter bars, etc.

 

I spaced the rollers as far apart as I feasably could, so that using it for a NASCAR roller will work well.

[pudidotdk]

This is some SketchUp pictures from an idea I've had in mind.

It's a hybrid NASCAR starroller/Corning machine.

 

http://pyrobin.com/files/nascarhybrid1.jpghttp://pyrobin.com/files/nascarhybrid2.jpg

http://pyrobin.com/files/nascarhybrid3.jpg

[FrankRizzo]

Looks like a nice all-purpose cabinet, Pudi. I might suggest adding some fold-away arms with idle rollers or casters to keep the smaller tire from wandering.

[tentacles]

Well, here's a pic, it's not much right now but mostly I need it to be small for storage and portability... I have quote the range of speeds availible.

 

Ball mill RPM:

107.5 96.9 89.7 92.2 83.2 76.9 76.2 68.7 63.5

 

NASCAR RPM (based on 24" OD tire)

38.08 34.34 31.77 32.68 29.48 27.26 26.99 24.35 22.52

 

Pics:

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DCP_2527.JPG

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DCP_2528.JPG

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DCP_2529.JPG

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DCP_2530.JPG

 

Still a few things left to do on it - Need to move the rollers anorther 1/2" or so apart to accommodate the extra length of the wingnuts and studs. Not a big deal, there's just enough tubing to do so. Need to get some casters or whatever to keep the jar in place but I'm also considering using UHMW pillow blocks for that for now.

[marks265]

Pudi

 

I would not bother with swivel casters on the side of the tire that travels upward. The swivel wheel hangs down and then when the tire hits it the caster wants to spin upwards and throws off the smooth rotation. Clamp one in place when you get that far and you will see what I mean.

 

Mark

[tentacles]

I think I'm done building my new mill, aside from a future cabinet, etc.

 

Driving the jar with one shaft was giving me more slipping than I liked, so I whipped up a second pulley:

 

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DCP_2532.JPG

 

The jar spins like a champ now, can't wait to mill up a big batch of BP, some TT, maybe some willow. And then roll up some stars!

[Mumbles]

I really like that setup Pudi. If anything it would make cleaning spilled comp from rolling much easier. An airhose, and a quick wipe down, and you'd be golden.