Madumi Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I know it's a bit OCD, but does anyone know how much lead powder is ground off of lead media in ball mills per batch? With the black powder smoke that tends to blow around, I'm curious how much lead oxide/inorganic lead potentially exists in the powder ground in a ball mill... Any thoughts?thx! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boophoenix Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 It’s ridiculously low I think with hardened media for the most part. Since most aren’t just lighting and sniffing purely for the rush I wouldn’t think it a concern. Although I use stainless to keep from discoloring my supplies when milling. I do mill BP most of the time now with stainless as well, but am aware of it just being spark resistant and plan accordingly. DaveF did a little testing to answer the question of contamination amount once, but I can’t find the info currently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMat Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 For a long time, I didn't even use hardened lead, simply 50 cal. musket balls. I never actually measured them, but those balls would last for a lot of batches of BP before they got noticeably smaller. I would guess the amount of lead released into a batch of BP is very minimal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madumi Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Sounds good... I'll probably weigh my media & keep a track of how much on average they abrade... At least satisfy my curiosity about how much lead goes into the compositions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Realistically I'd expect to lose about one gramme of lead per kilo of milled product, when milling BP like powders. Add a metal flake especially Ti then I'd expect to lose much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boophoenix Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Here’s a good read from DaveF the paragraph just above preparation addresses the lead contamination he experianced with hardened lead. http://www.pyrobin.com/files/A%20Basic%20Comparison%20of%20Milling%20Media%20and%20Preparation%20Methods%20for%20Black%20Powder.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madumi Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Thanks so much for the links! OK, so 20 grams of (hardened) lead for a 500 gram batch of charcoal... Sounds like something to at least be aware about... I'm currently using soft lead, so, one of these days I'll upgrade :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boophoenix Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 It was worse for non hardened lead per Dave’s information if I recall correctly. He stopped using non hardened lead because of the wear and swapped to a different media which I believe was brass rod cut offs. If you are gonna use non hardened lead it would be educational for future reference if you wouldn’t mind recording you efforts and sharing with us? I started with Hardened lead from Leadballs ( Steve who is no longer with us ) so I have no personal experiences with milling with non hardened. Leadballs had a vast amount of lead out in use and I don’t recall anyone ever complaining about the quality. Since Leadball’s passing Caleb has picked up the mold and staterted casting hardened media which as far as I know of is doing just as well as Leadballs media does. If you aren’t planning on milling much and soft lead is available it might be a cheaper way to get started. I’d assume in a smaller jar the wear wouldn’t be as pronounced as it would be in a larger jar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calebkessinger Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 From Arkansas..Heck, you could just stop by and say hello sometime depending on where you are located. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madumi Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 (edited) If you are gonna use non hardened lead it would be educational for future reference if you wouldn’t mind recording you efforts and sharing with us? It's going to be a while before I'm milling, but I'll definitely take some measurements & report back... I'm OCD like that Edited January 30, 2018 by Madumi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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