Givat Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 Well, this thread always come up sometime. Any one have any experience Ball Milling Al shreds or Al foil to powder?If so, what where the medias were made of? steel? And would you think I can use steel rods in the length of the mill jar as efficient medias? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 This topic has been discussed many many times. I would suggest bringing over one of the decent threads from the old APC, rather than starting a new topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 Best media I have ever had. Go to a gun show or a bullet maker and buy empty casings for .45 auto pistols doesnt matter if they are the shorts or the longs. and fill them with lead.You get the hardness and durablity of brass and the weight of lead! I use them for everything got about 200 of them. Dont need that many in a container. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistos Minion Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 That is a very good idea there Star_Roller! Apparently for milling metals .75 or 1" barstock cut into 1" segments or chrome steel barings are best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sason.net Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 does sombody can estimate what is the highest mash that i can reach with a ballmill of Al?do i need a special media for this job? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swany Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 I cannot estimate the highest mesh you will achieve, but you do need special media, as in NOT lead. Lead media will contaminate the Al to no end. You want big heavy chunks of media, not lots of smaller stuff. Heavy is good. You don't have to worry about shock really when your milling Al. I have never heard of Al becoming pyrophoric(spelling) but, it could happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Givat Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 Does an efficient ball mill (when the medias are making a slope and rolling on each other) is the best for milling Al or maybe I need to make somting more similar to a corning mechine were the medias fall on the BP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teknix Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 Just make sure you open the mill jar every 1/2 day or day to make sure it has oxygen in there so your Al can oxidize and not use up all the oxygen in the jar and when you open it a few days later have it burst into flames because of the sudden oxidation of a lot of Al at once. I've heard this happen to 1 person before. Nothing too crazy but they opened the jar and a few min later the milling jar caught fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somebody Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 Pyrophoric Al does happen, a friend of mine who mills his own Al had it different times.Ones he got a fireball out of the jar and a few times his Al started to glow/burn spontaniosly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 Yes it can happen and the effect is different on how long you let it go. It may produce a flame and it might just glow I've had both effects happen to me from milling it to long.I now don't have to worry about this anymore since I don't ball mill like that anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 So what other media can you use, for those that can't buy gun supplies? Coins? Screws, but I read that the screws wear away over time and contaminate the Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 go to the store and buy brass tubing and melt lead over it and cut it.or Al tubing doesnt cost that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 How do you melt your lead? I don't think I have anything but a kitchen stove and I don't want to be doing that in the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Well this is easiest way to do it if you have good coordination.First thing is go out and buy the tubing and lead like sinkers or just lead ingots. make sure you can fit the lead down the pipe. Now go to a hardware store and buy a torch a butane torch that you have to screw onto a butane tank. Now put the lead down the pipe and start heating the pipe till its red then go to the next area and so on till its done. Make sure you use some gloves so you dont get burnt. When your done clean off the rod and cut it in to sizes of lead that you want and there you go perfect ball milling media.Brass tubing works best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBuzzard Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 What about brass tubing and bismuth rocks? I've had a couple of these since my father uses them to cast his luers <--- (spelling) And they melt with the heat of a normal kitchen lighter. From what i heard its cheaper than lead in certain areas, just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 I like the idea of melting down lead and pouring it onto empty .45 shells for milling media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Givat Posted February 21, 2006 Author Share Posted February 21, 2006 I got 1" long, 2.3 c"m OD brass medias for my ball mill. But I read some where that milling Al with them can damage them alot and even brake the 1.5 m"m brass tube wall. star roller, you say you used this kind of medias before for milling Al and it didn't grind the medias? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 So what is the quality of the Al using the ball mill method? In the old forum people used the blender method but they kept using water which created an oxide coating and it didn't work as good as the commercial Al. Since there is no water to speed up the oxidation I was wondering what the quality of the Al is since there won't be as thick of an oxide coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I find that milled Al is decent quality. It's not commercial flash Al quality. I'd say it makes a similar product to "slow flash". The flash is better for breaking shells and whatnot as it is slower. Slow flash is made with -325 mesh flake Al. It will certainly be serviceable, and I imagine fairly decent for a flitter type effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 yup i use them all the time for milling Al i have what I would like to call a jungle gym of ball mills attached to my tread mill bunch of containers rolling off each other.At first I thought they were wearing down but if you look closer at them you see that Al powder is coating them and when you wipe it all your get the original brass color again and you fingers are silver for awhile.I find that the bigger amounts of Al you have in a ball mill the better I'm not sure why but it seems it produces much finer Al in there I have a container made out of PVC that could hold about 6-7 pounds and mills exceptionally good. Ill take pictures of this.The only down fall to this is you have to watch how long you ball mill; it for this container is the only one i noticed that get pyrophoric Al in it.Yes the Al coats the inside but after a few batches it doesnt get worse. I think I have the best ball mill around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb51 Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 So if I take a block of pure al and grind it down with a dremel or grinder, and then take all my collected powder and put it in a ball mill, how much will it reduce (In mesh size) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
competebeginner Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 depends on how long you ball mill, the efficiency of your mill the weight of your media etc but you could get fairly fine stuff after a while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb51 Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Cool. What about a rock tumbler ball mill. AKA something not made to be a ball mill with like 1/2 inch steel media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaman Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Rock tumblers should work. I use one for BP and it's great. For Al I tried milling it overnight but my belt broke so now I'm waiting for my order of 10 belts from Ebay. Once I get the belts I'll post on how long it takes to get it to a fine powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
competebeginner Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 thats the same thing I have for milling mg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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