Extrarius Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 I've been reading about ball milling for a long while, and the most affordable option for milling media seems to be lead (especially if you cast it yourself). However, lead has several downsides from its softness - lower media life and content contamination. As I also have an interest in ceramics, I've tried to think of various ways of coating lead with ceramic materials, but its low melthing point makes that rather difficult (there is the possibility of making hollow hemispheres, but joining them around the lead would be extremely difficult without fancy, expensive, equipment). Then it occured to me that there are many types of epoxy and resin that are hard and abbrasian resistant and that could be used to coat lead balls rather easily. However, I haven't seen anybody ever mention anything like this, so I wonder whether I'm missing some obvious reason not to do this. Is there a good reason to use uncoated lead balls for ball milling instead of coated the lead with some kind of epoxy or resin that would prevent the lead from contaminating everything milled?
Bobosan Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Guess you could always try a few coated lead media for testing. I'm thinking any epoxy resin hard enough to resist abrasion would also be brittle and prone to cracking during the tumbling process. Lead hardened with additional antimony is the normal media used and it doesn't wear easily. It does discolor light colored chems (probable contamination). You might look into alumina ceramic media since you have an interest...maybe even casting your own alumina?
LambentPyro Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) Buy lead media from Leadballs (Steve Young) here on the APC forum, he has the best media you can possibly ask for. It's cheap, much better quality than some stores. PyroDirect and Skylighter sells his media, get it cheaper by directly buying it from him. I don't regret buying my 30 LBS. of media for my ball mill, great service, shipping cost is pocket change, great packaging. When I received it, it went straight into the mill jar. You'd be nuts not to buy from him. Worried about hardness? If you think lead is soft, you haven't felt this media. It feels like a solid block of granite to me. Edited January 20, 2014 by LambentPyro
FlaMtnBkr Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 The coating WILL wear. Just don't know how fast and what that contamination will do. It may be slow enough to be acceptable. I think the only way to find out is to try it and test it out.
Maserface Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 I'm interested in your results with epoxy resin media - if you decide to go that way. I'm sure there is alternatives to lead/ytz, maybe not as good but certainly serviceable! Let us know what you discover!
MrB Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Replacing a contamination with another. Fail to see the point, really. Few things react with traces of lead, or rather lead oxide, and those that do, shouldn't be ball milled much in the first place unless you have real special needs. But i'll second the ceramics alternative.B!
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