BPinthemorning Posted December 31, 2008 Author Posted December 31, 2008 (edited) I knew you would notice that (I kinda placed it in the shot ) And while its mentioned, anyone who is looking to make their own oxidizers for the coming pyro holocaust canalized by the inauguration of our new Commander and Chief, look no further than Swede's agora post! His anodes and cathodes are amazing, and in just over a month I've made tons of KClO3! And the best part is his stuff is a fraction of the normal price. Edit: Now if I could just find a bag of KNO3 that big... Edited December 31, 2008 by BPinthemorning
Mumbles Posted December 31, 2008 Posted December 31, 2008 The place that makes the good media is Coors-Tech. Yes, same owners as Coors beer, at least before they were bought out by Miller beer. I always wondered if this had something to do with why Coors always tasted like shit Anyway, they specially make anti-explosion media. This I would trust. I've used it in manufacturing facilities without problem. I don't know if the place is texas has this stuff, or if all 90% alumina media is created equal or what. My ceramic media knowledge is not great, only that I generally wouldn't trust it unless directly from Coortech.
Swede Posted January 1, 2009 Posted January 1, 2009 (edited) Mumbles, Cole Palmer sells "Burundum" ceramic media, something like 950 1/2" diameter cylindrical pieces for $85. Just as a guess, I would assume that a company that focuses on chemistry would sell ceramic media that is safe. But nothing is guaranteed. Almost 1,000 of those is quite a lot. My favorite media is brass, although the prices are just insane these days. I've still got 1 dozen 1/2" diameter 303 SS rods to be bandsawed into media, and those may take over from the brass. Edited January 1, 2009 by Swede
Mumbles Posted January 1, 2009 Posted January 1, 2009 I've found reasonable prices on brass. Well, reasonable by todays prices. Less that $100 a jar. Unfortunatly I have no way to cut them in a reasonable amount of time. Oh how I wish we had a horizontal bandsaw. I will probably just end up casting lead into scrap wood. Perhaps pick up some ceramic off ebay for lone chemicals.
bret Posted January 2, 2009 Posted January 2, 2009 I've found reasonable prices on brass. Well, reasonable by todays prices. Less that $100 a jar. Unfortunatly I have no way to cut them in a reasonable amount of time. Oh how I wish we had a horizontal bandsaw. I will probably just end up casting lead into scrap wood. Perhaps pick up some ceramic off ebay for lone chemicals. http://cgi.ebay.com/ceramic-supplies-GRIND...p3286.m20.l1116 This is what I use, either that or 3/4" brass rod cut into 1" length pieces, you need access to a band saw made for cutting metal and a stop to speed things up and give you consistent lengths.
tentacles Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 That is *tons* of tension. Vee belts tend to grip well even if only loosely tensioned, it wouldn't surprise me that at our light loads, you could have the fit sloppy enough to be able to remove the belt entirely and it would still spin fine.
BPinthemorning Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 That is tons of tension... My motor is only about 1 foot from the center of the drive shaft to the hinge, so its MUCH shorter than yours... But I LOVE this system. Lots of tension, no slipping, easy to make; whats not to love?
tentacles Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 There's nothing wrong with having more tension than you need, although you may experience unnoticeably higher belt wear and the bearings won't last quite as long (half a lifetime is still a long time). I'm just saying, it's very much more than sufficient tension - nothing wrong with that.
qwezxc12 Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) The 'lever' section of my motor mounting plate is 12" from the fulcrum of the hinges to the axis of the motor shaft; the actual board was cut to 15" to allow enough meat for bolting the motor feet. I also took a few pictures of the small swivel casters I use to keep the barrels from wandering. The zip-ties are to put enough tension on the swivel so they stay aligned at the correct angle to roll along the jar lid - they made a racket when they were loose...sort of like the inevitable shopping cart with the bum wheel you have to flog through the grocery store. Interesting enough, only the big jar walks (toward the cap)...the smaller jar stays put. Edited January 7, 2009 by qwezxc12
Swede Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 I love the use of motor weight on a pivoting platform to provide belt tension for a couple of reasons - first of all, it works very well. Secondly, if you are a pulley swapper, the new length between sheaves is easily adjusted for. Don't forget, you can always add one of those beefy hook tension springs into the system, either to increase, or decrease, the belt tension. A threaded rod as part of that spring system completes the job, i.e. adjustable tension.
BPinthemorning Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 Oooo... I like the threaded rod idea swede... I'll give that a try this weekend and post results.
Aquarius Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 So, I finally got the time to finish my ballmill. Used mainly scraps I had lying around, getting very close to the optimal RPM for my media and jars. Design and ideas taken from here and there, and thanks for the help on the forum guys.It has one driven roller, but in time I'll machine two pullies and use a belt to drive both rollers to make it smoother and reduce slippage. And it work wonders, compared to my old ball mill. I was a bit surprised with the first batch of milled BP. A small sample went "poof" straight from the mill...Now, I have seen a video of how folks in the ol' days used a handdriven "machine" to finish their hommemade casing tubes. It is a quite basic setup with three rollers, two on the bottom and one hinged on the top in a triangular config. The freshly rolled tube is put in the mysterical device with the tube still on the dowel . Then one of the two bottom rollers is turned by hand with the tube and dowel in between and the top roller being forced upon the tube. This applies pressure to the freshly glued tube and is supposed to roll it very vell together, squeesing out glue and air trapped in between the layers of paper. I would like to try this using my ballmill setup, any ideas out there?I'm thinking of making a third roller close to the one with power and pully, and use hinges for moving the one on top and applying pressure to the tube inbetween while the motor is running and turning the roller.
Yankie Posted January 11, 2009 Posted January 11, 2009 (edited) I am drawing up the plans for my new ball mill, I want it to run around 1kg of BP at a time. I have a pretty good motor, 1/4 to 1/2hp (havent checked). I had this great idea to attatch the motor to a hinge on the underside of the mill system and use bolts with wing nuts on the other side so you can have adjustable tension. Here I was thinking what a great idea, then I read this post detailing the same method of using the motors weight for tension lol. I was too late so I cant take the credit :{o (surprised/shocked mexican) Anyway, another one of my great ideas was to get 2-4 caster wheels and screw them all to a plank of wood, then embed 2 peices of dowel in each end of this plank, drill a line of holes on both sides of the mill platform the same size of the dowel. that way you can just move the plank with the casters on it to any custom distance from the powered shaft meaning you can use any sized jar. Genious, yes. Now this probably isn't making much sense to anyone, (not making much sense to me) so I will attatch some pictures of my design soon.Ball_mill_design.bmp Edited January 11, 2009 by Yankie
Sambo Posted January 11, 2009 Posted January 11, 2009 Anyway, another one of my great ideas was to get 2-4 caster wheels and screw them all to a plank of wood, then embed 2 pieces of dowel in each end of this plank, drill a line of holes on both sides of the mill platform the same size of the dowel. that way you can just move the plank with the casters on it to any custom distance from the powered shaft meaning you can use any sized jar. Genious, yes. The only problem with this is if you design the mill to run optimum for a 6-8" jar, when you put a smaller jar on it will rotate to fast. If the jar is very small it may end up throwing the media to the outside of the jar, so the composition won't get milled at all.This won't matter if you're planning to change the pulley ratio/speed of motor as well.
Yankie Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 The only problem with this is if you design the mill to run optimum for a 6-8" jar, when you put a smaller jar on it will rotate to fast. If the jar is very small it may end up throwing the media to the outside of the jar, so the composition won't get milled at all.This won't matter if you're planning to change the pulley ratio/speed of motor as well. I thought of that, you could have different sized pulleys on the driving shaft, or interchangeable ones if you really want.
Mumbles Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 I would also change the orientation of the swing arm the motor is attached to. That way, the motor is always oriented with the pully on the drive rod. Allow it to swing parallel to the drive shaft. Having it off center could cause the drive belt to come off the pulleys or cause undue wear on it.
Yankie Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 I would also change the orientation of the swing arm the motor is attached to. That way, the motor is always oriented with the pully on the drive rod. Allow it to swing parallel to the drive shaft. Having it off center could cause the drive belt to come off the pulleys or cause undue wear on it. Thanks, either it is due to the holidays or I simply don't have the logical mind to think of that, I knew the pulley would be at an angle I just couldnt work out something so simple to counteract it
Swede Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 (edited) Fellows, remember, if you are designing a ball mill, it is an easy option to add the stacked, multiple pulleys like those you'd see in a drill press. This is the best pic I coud come up with on the quick:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/556man/DrillPress2-1.jpg Use two of them, not three, and allow the motor weight to provide tension. To swap pulleys (and hence the speed of the device) simply release the motor tension and move the belt. Simple easy peasey pie. Something like that. Most pyros have multiple jars of differing diameters. Rarely is a single speed ball mill optimum. These stacked sheaves are not hard to find, and can be bought new from industrial places like Grainger or MSC, cost less than $15, and look cool to boot. I also like the ideas guys are coming up with to provide multiple powered rollers. Two is easy with a sprocket and chain set. Three (or more ) I'm not sure is necessary. Edited January 12, 2009 by Swede
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