Affordable Ball Mill

[Cobalt.45]

For the sake of expediency, I'll forgo a proper introduction at this time to share the following "FYI".

www.harborfreight.com, search word "tumbler", has a three lb. capacity mill on sale for $25. It's identical to one on a pyro site priced at $70 or thereabouts.

Spend the money on some BP fixin's or whatever from them instead.

I hope this isn't considered advertising, as I have no affiliation with Harbor at all. And, a thousand pardons if this is old news.

[Sausagemit]

You still need the balls though, as a "tumbler" doesn't come with them. It's still cheaper though to buy the lead balls on your own from someone else.

You can get 100 balls for around $25.00.

[Cobalt.45]

You can get 100 balls for around $25.00.

Yep, you sure can. But I'm a cheap SOB from way back.

I researched The Forum here and sites elsewhere for mill media, and found that good results were obtained by using: Egg and round sinkers, musket balls, shotgun buck shot and nickles, to name a few.

Marbles, ceramic balls, CV joint balls, clad coinage, balls from a "mouse" (wouldn't you need tweezers?), and slingshot ammo were all mentioned and rejected.

My local gun shop sells 25, 50 cal. (1/2 in.) musket balls- 13 oz.- for $2 a pack ($2.46/lb.). The mill only holds 3 lbs., remember, 100 balls from United weighs 3.25 lbs., and at $25 plus $6.95 S&H, is $9.83/ lb!

Lead, esp. hardened, seems to be the media of preference. Chromed steel should be OK for inert comps. Glass and ceramic are too light and glass can chip.

The mill I wrote about really is a decent unit. Came with an extra belt, good warranty, thick rubber barrel and has a built in cooling fan.

Sausagemit, what do you use or plan on using?

[Sausagemit]

I plan on making my own mill because I have an old tablesaw motor just lying out in my garage begging to be used for something. I just need to pick up some belts, some PVC pipe, and some bearings. When it's all said and done I figure the price should be right around $10-15 for a 5-7lb mill with everything but the balls.

Since I am going to save quite a bit on the mill I was considering going ritzy on the balls and getting some hardened Lead-Antimony balls rather than straight lead balls (.45 caliber) which I currently use in my 1/2 lb rock tumbler turned ball mill, as I heard they chrush to a finer grain and are easier to clean (not that the straight lead ones are hard to clean either).

Mabye I should do a test, take some BP from an earlier batch that I made, put it in my 1/2 lb mill with some Lead-Antimony balls and do a speed test.

[deadman]

Cobalt as you said it is identical to the one United Nuclear sales. So don't you think it is obvious that it could run with that amount of weight? I use 100 .50 caliber lead shot for muzzle loading. Then I run 200 grams of black powder for about 8 hours (all night). The only thing you'll find about that much weight is that it only has a hard time getting started and runs a little slower than normal. So just push it in the right direction and it is good to go. I have used that for a while now, but will be moving up soon. But it is great. Oh and with extra weight make sure the lid is on the side away from the motor, for some reason it snags up the other way.

[Cobalt.45]

Cobalt as you said it is identical to the one United Nuclear sales. So don't you think it is obvious that it could run with that amount of weight?- Quote from deadman

Well, yea and no. They advertise their mill as having a "full three pound capacity". The weight of 100 hardened lead balls is right at three pounds- pure lead would weigh 3.25 pounds, more or less- so no capacity for anything else w/o exceeding three pounds.

This isn't to say that you can't get good results with the full 100 balls plus the millage, it is to say that you've exceeded three pounds.

What I've found, is that weight not withstanding, over filling the drum makes the milling operation inefficient. With one pound of BP and two pounds of 1/2" lead balls, I had reached both the weight and bulk capacity of the mill. Instead, I kept the total weight at three pounds- 1/2 pound BP to 2 1/2 pounds of media and got good results.

For peace of mind, I soldered into the motor line a temperature overload switch pirated from an old coffee maker.

When it's all said and done I figure the price should be right around $10-15 for a 5-7lb mill with everything but the balls.- Quote from Sausagemit

Sounds like a plan. I couldn't make the figures work for me to assemble one myself. When I ordered mine, it was on sale (Harbor Freight sends out emails to anyone who asks with the sales), but even so, it hurt to pay for something that I should've made myself.