Does It Really Matter?

[green beret]

I am planning on making a ball mill, and have been reading up on different constructions etc.

There are so many different ways and opinions, and I want to know, does it really matter about the type of motor used etc. as long as it turns the mill rapidly enough? I have looked at a few ways on the net, and I was talking to someone who claimed to have made one before and he said "Oh well you need this and it has to be this size and do this many RPM's" etc. and I thought what does it really matter, as long as it makes good BP. It would obviously be alot easier if one could simply make up thier own design. All feedback would be much appreciated.

PS. Sorry I think this might belong in the pyro section.

[blindreeper]

Well in my experience messing with all fancy cogs and and wheels and driving shafts is all too complex.
This is the ultimate simple ballmill (http://www.geocities.com/blindreeper_chemistry/ballmill.JPG)!(sorry you have to copy and paste into browser) Yeap thats my girl, 100g BP in 1/2 hour :D
All it is, is a windscreen wiper motor ripped from a toyota corrola (old school corrola ;)) I got a nice bit of 4 inch dia PVC pipe for the drum with an end cap that I glued on. This has a hole drilled in it which connects directly to the shaft of the motor. Then I have another end cap which I just push on hard when I am milling and it stays on pretty well as long as you push it down as far as it goes. My milling media is show in the pic which is 40 sinkers I got from crazy clarks (national cheapo store in Australia you should be fimiliar with green beret) After a few millings the sinkers got round and the holes diappeared, but if you wanted to you could always jsut run the mill for a day with jsut media in it and they would be nice and round and "holeless"
I recomend 60 sinkers (they come in packs of 20) because you could do 200g of BP with 60 because 40 sinekrs seems to strugle a bit with 200g...

A last note the drum is jsut sitting on some bits of wood and the dowel is only ther to stop it rolling away. Yes the drum wears out a bit but you'll have to replace it only once a year if that depending on how much you use it - seeing as it's so cheap to make (the drum) it doesn't matter that it wears out.

Well thats my alternative :D hope it helped all those out there wanting a cheap ballmill which is really easy to make

[green beret]

Thanks Blinreeper! Thats very helpful, its shown me that it dosent have to be complicated. How does your BP go? Is it suitable for bursting and lifting etc? Anyhow, cheers.:)

PS. Do you mill your powder dry, or with dextrine or water?

Cheers!:D

Edit; How do you press your powder after milling? I think I will just use two boards then back the car over it, thats what I did for the CIA method anyhow.
Something else that just occurred to me, being a windscreen wiper motor, does it do full revolutions or just go back and forth, and is it less efficient if it goes back and forth?

[blindreeper]

My BP goes sweet! I would consider my BP good for lifting as demonstrated here (http://www.geocities.com/blindreeper_chemistry/starmines.html) with some starmines. Seeing as those stars are going 30m+ high with only 20g of my BP I think it performs well. I havn't tried it as a bursting chrage because I am not up to shells quite yet. Working on rounds stars first.

BTW I granulate my BP the same way EP (http://krimzonpyro.com/ep/projectsdevicesdir/blackpowder.html) does, except I don't add any dextrin. Just straight BP:) Another simple but effective way of doing things. Even though I have a press I couldn't be bothered pressing BP and waiting for it to dry (EP's way I can have it dry in 2 hours on a hot day, hell almost everyday here is hot we are semi desert :rolleyes:) And this way you get a more consistent powder because the grain size is mostly the same.
The BP performs well in rockets (click here (http://www.geocities.com/blindreeper_chemistry/BP_rocket.avi) for a movie of one 1/4 of the casing full of BP going at night)

About milling, since I make my own charcoal it's in 'sticks' (cooked bits of pine in a charcoal cooker) I put the 15g of charcoal sticks in for about 1 mintues and then after that add the KNO3 and Sulfur and probably go another 1/2 hour. Then once it's done I pour it into a strainer to get the media out. You may find a couple of bits of charcoal that didn't crush in the mill or KNO3 for that matter. What I do is get the pestle from a mortar and pestle and grind the charcoal/KNO3 through the strainer and mill it for another 10 minutes.
I don't add any water or dextrin because I add the minute amount of water one time and all the BP clumped to the sides of the mill and didn't mill just got compacted by the media so I scraped the water idea.

Well thats about it. If you want to chat or somthing email me through the forum system.

[Anthony]

Windscreen wiper motors continously rotate in the same direction like most motors, only the linkage to the wipers gives the back and worth motion (works on a cam).

Ball mills don't have to be complex. All you really need is a motor than you can run, so mains powedered, or say 12v and can be run from a car battery charger or a power supply you have handy. It needs to be powerful to turn your milling jar without overheating. wiper motors for cars are around 50W and blindreepers turns a reasonable sized jar ok. The power of your motor and the weight of your jar just need to be matched.

Finally you need some gearing to turn the jar at a reasonable speed. Too fast and you get a centrifuge and no BP :) So motors like wipers with built in gear reduction are simplest, or cobble something together from simple belt and pulleys.

[Tuatara]

Mine was built from photocopier parts, bought from my local junk shop. The motor is only 40W, runs on mains power, and lucky for me had a 11:1 reduction box on the output. It handles my 6kg of lead media with no effort. I can mill 1/2kg of BP at once.
The rubber rollers already had matching bearings and sprockets attached. I got the chain from the copier too. All very easy, and very cheap.

[green beret]

Once again thanks all. Blindreeper, those starmines are awesome! I'm going to have a go at them as soon as I make some BP. So with youre powder, you just mill it then press the straight BP through a sieve? Very good! I cant wait to make some star mines.

Edit; Blindreeper, can you email me about the zinc powder? Thanks.

[blindreeper]

After I mill it i wet it with 25% metho in 75% water. You don;t want it to be runny but jsut enough to stick together.
I am afraid I don;t have you email address, sorry. If your the one who emailed me about "bacto" some months ago then I have your address.

[green beret]

OK Thanks. I think I emailed you about bacto, just try anyway, my email should be in my profile.
Cheers.

Thanks for everyones help on this.

[blindreeper]

Email addresses are no longer displayed in profiles. Ahh hell, heres mine anyway - blindthug@hotmail.com