Show and Tell - Ball mills.

[Guest no6]

My biggest impediment to making kick-butt BP is my crappy Harbor Freight ball mill. So let's toss that piece of trash out of the conversation and concentrate on optimal solutions.

 

I've read Lloyd Sponenburgh's book and would recommend all new guys like me do the same. I will be building Lloyd's mill (compact version) and also be buying this mill as recommended to me by a relatively decent source. Ball mill

 

What say you?

[Guest no6]

Sponenburgh's book explains that with a properly designed mill one can make BP that can actually outperform commercially made product. And you can do it in three hours.

 

THREE HOURS.

 

What are your results?

[Guest no6]

If you're a beginner, buy this book. It will save you time and money and disappointment. You may only learn 3-5 things from this book, but it's worth it.

 

#WINNING

Edited March 13, 2011 by no6

[Peret]

I have a six pound double Harbor Freight mill. I run only one drum with 200, 50 caliber lead balls - these weigh 5 pounds and half fill the drum - and I mill half a pound of powder at a time (200-250g). With willow charcoal it makes powder as fast as Goex in three hours, and running it longer doesn't make it noticeably better. I don't think the size or quality of the mill matters as much as getting the quantity of media right - two drums with half the balls each doesn't work nearly so well. The single drum 3 pound model can't handle enough weight to do the job properly.

[pyrogeorge]

Sponenburgh's book explains that with a properly designed mill one can make BP that can actually outperform commercially made product. And you can do it in three hours.

 

THREE HOURS.

 

What are your results?

I make 1kg BP in ONE HOUR

[Algenco]

I have a bigger mill but , my little HF mill with Pawlownia charcoal will turn out 200g of blazing fast BP in 3-4 hrs

15-20% hotter than Goex

[dagabu]

If you're a beginner, buy this book. It will save you time and money and disappointment. You may only learn 3-5 things from this book, but it's worth it.

 

#WINNING

 

Is there not a rule about Charley Sheen quotes on APC?

[pillyg]

Is there not a rule about Charley Sheen quotes on APC?

 

Haha

 

I have a Lortone 3A mill and it takes longer but works pretty good.

[BJV]

I using a Lortone 12 lb Rock Tumbler

with 10lbs of ceramic media. It sure works

great for me.

BJV

[Guest no6]

Is there not a rule about Charley Sheen quotes on APC?

 

I can't promise I will stop. We'll have to see how it goes.

[50AE]

I make mine in 3 hours and I know the time can be reduced, because my rotation speed isn't at the optimum. Also, my media is ceramic.

[Guest no6]

Can you share your process with us? And show us your set up?

[50AE]

My ball mill is an ugly junk looking thing built from scrap stuff. The drum is from PVC and has an inner diameter of 110mm. (4" 1/3). The media is ceramic round balls with a diameter of 14mm. The rotation speed is ~76RPM. The motor is a 20W russian oldie.

I am currently saving money in order to build a new, optimized and multi jar ball mill. I already have the motor and shafts.

[Guest no6]

I watched all your vids today, 50AE. Good stuff.

 

Ordered the Ebay mill linked in my first post yesterday. They say it should arrive by the end of the week. Can anyone familiar with this mill tell me the optimum milling time?

[Guest no6]

Will have a Sponenburgh mill made also in about 2 months. The plan is to make all of the needed BP twice a year and pack away the equipment.

[Guest no6]

I make 1kg BP in ONE HOUR

 

Would you care to elaborate? We're all ears...

[marks265]

I added my mill to the gallery today. I am about to cut it up into a different configuration though. If I add airfloat charcoal I will mill a batch in 1/2 an hour. If I use lump charcoal I will go an hour. I mostly use prilled nitrate and always add all three ingredients plus dextrin--so 4 ingredients-. One batch is 1 kilo and I've made a lot of them.

Mark

[ballmill]

I built this ball mill to start making bp. I'm new to pyro, and went through some problems during my first attempt. After I got everything sorted out and made my first good batch, my BP was just as hot as commercial and maybe a bit better... in 2 hours mill time.

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/2qvv02q.jpg

Edited March 15, 2011 by ballmill

[marks265]

I built this ball mill to start making bp. I'm new to pyro, and went through some problems during my first attempt. After I got everything sorted out and made my first good batch, my BP was just as hot as commercial and maybe a bit better... in 2 hours mill time.

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/2qvv02q.jpg

 

 

That looks like a pretty nice setup there Ballmill. I would guess you have a way to cover the motor area when running it. When making your jar did you add lift bars to the inside? Sorry if I missed it previously. I took a piece of the same pipe that I made the jar from and cut 3/8" wide slivers. I took two of these and glued them in with PVC cement 180 degrees apart. Works wonders I tell ya!

Mark

 

 

[ballmill]

Thanks Mark, I have a way to cover the jar, but leave the motor area open because of cooling issues. I have to run it with a fan blowing on the motor or else it will get super hot. There's a thread on passfire about my mill, I seem to have figured out all the issues with it. It's a solid machine, the motor just gets a bit hot because of where it's located.

 

And yes, I added a single lift bar cut from a piece of 1/2" pvc cemented to the side.

Edited March 15, 2011 by ballmill

[pyrogeorge]

Would you care to elaborate? We're all ears...

I make a ball mill,you can see my pics at the gallery.

Also,the key is what charcoal did you use..a lof of people use bbq charcoal,but you can't make so fast BP.

I use pine or white aspen charcoal(homemade).White poplar is faster than pine.

Another point is to not overmill your jar..i use less than 1/2 of media and 1/4 of composition,because this values are theoretical..

Of course you must pay attention at rpm you need the jar for optimal milling,but i made my mill to rotate 20rpm more of the optimal speed.

But i made o lot of tests before i have the final result..

i will post a video soon,to see how it burns..it lift 6' shell without problem

Edited March 15, 2011 by pyrogeorge

[cplmac]

Got the idler axle and the drive axle assembled on the mill today and mocked it up with the motor and pulleys to test the turn speed. The drum is an empty 210 pound bright flake aluminum drum, about 40 gallons with 750 golf balls in it. The mill operated very well, but the rpm is still off. It was turning at 95 rpm and I'd like about a third of that. Going to have to add a gear reduction axle with a couple of pulleys on it to reduce it another 3:1. I was worried whether it would have the power to turn a drum that is going to weigh between 70-150 pounds but it turned 70 with little trouble. I think I might switch from belt drive to chain drive though because the weight was really working the belt over. I'm thinking at the slower rpm it might be okay, we'll see. Anyhow, this is still in rough construction phase, I will paint it and make it pretty when it's done.

After final axle installation

Mock up

[marks265]

I reworked my ball mill yesterday. When doing so I removed part of the drive belt configuration I had in place to drive the idler shaft as well. I immediately noticed a difference and wish I had not done that. I had a lot of slippage and the jar turned abnormally slower, struggling to turn. I found a big rubber band to put over the two axles for now. I wish I had not cut that belt off!

 

Mark

[Updup]

Thanks Mark, I have a way to cover the jar, but leave the motor area open because of cooling issues. I have to run it with a fan blowing on the motor or else it will get super hot. There's a thread on passfire about my mill, I seem to have figured out all the issues with it. It's a solid machine, the motor just gets a bit hot because of where it's located.

 

And yes, I added a single lift bar cut from a piece of 1/2" pvc cemented to the side.

 

Okay do lift bars really get the job done better? It seem to me like it would make the mill lope (Not the right word, but you know what I mean I’m sure) pretty bad, and give the motor some strain trying to lift the heavy media up, I could be wrong, but if I am I want to know.

 

Also, ballmill, I have the same motor cooling issue, do you all think it’s because my motor just isn’t designed to be run for long periods of time? Or it just heats up and that the nature of the motor? I've run it without a load and it still heats up. But the heat isn't affecting the performance of the motor any, it not melting anything anyway, actually, it doesn’t start moving quickly until its heated up.

 

 

[marks265]

Okay do lift bars really get the job done better? It seem to me like it would make the mill lope (Not the right word, but you know what I mean I'm sure) pretty bad, and give the motor some strain trying to lift the heavy media up, I could be wrong, but if I am I want to know.

 

 

Yes, lift bars make a darn big difference. If you run the jar without them at slow or what is perceived as optimum speed the material may slide back down to the bottom. Conversely with or without them and the jar turns too quickly centrifugal force takes over and there is next to no milling at all as well. The "lope" that you mention is what I prefer. That tells me it is pulling the material off the bottom of the jar. Then as the material falls off the lift bars it crashes back to the bottom. This action is what I refer to as milling. The media has the best change to pulverize the material. My mill sounds like a train and I try to make that train run as fast as I can. Without losing the sound of the train! The lift bars do not have to be all that tall. The thickness of the mill jar wall is all I use. Once again IMHO of course.

 

Mark