Draco_Aster Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Heres my 200 mesh (stainless steel) my dad lets me use I use it for making sievs and as a heating element. Im not quite sure where he got it from but its of mighty fine quality. I wonder how long it can withstand certain acids, probably not very long. http://public.fotki.com/dracoaster/random/mesh.html http://public.fotki.com/dracoaster/random/meshcut.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilgecko Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 http://images16.fotki.com/v280/filerVUw/71...007/meshcut.jpg http://images16.fotki.com/v287/filezY3H/71...938007/mesh.jpg Links don't work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sason.net Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 yeah... i cant see it to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 If you live in the US, McMaster-Carr sells 12"X12" sheets of 304 and 316 stainless screen quite cheaply. Go to http://www.mcmaster.com and search for "wire mesh". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 For people new to pyro, or looking to order some screens, I thought I would give an overview of the different meshes and such. Also a list of blasting powder meshes. I would suggest getting either stainless steel or brass. I prefer stainless as it is less susceptable for corrosion and isn't incompatable with ammonium salts. Milling grade is cheaper. Screens in general will run you between $5 and $15 a square foot. They're not extremely cheap, but taken care of they will last a long time. 4 - Available as "hardware cloth". It is used for keeping animals out of the garden, and stuff like that. It is used to make rough powder sometimes as well. Good for seperating media from powder during ball milling. Sometimes used as a backer for finer screens to give strength. 8 or 10 - Generally used to make lift, or to corn lift. It is one of the most important screens you will have. It is used to make dragon's eggs, and granules for rockets, pumped stars, chrysanthemum stars, microstars, etc. 12 - Commonly available as food strainers. Useful for grading lift and break and such. 16 - Commonly available as window screening. Useful for the same things that 8 mesh is. A general purpose screen due to it's cost and availability. 20 - Good for lower limits on lift. Can be used to break up big clumps 30 - Good for screening chemicals together. Useful for seperating out "fines". Can be used to get out finer clumps and such. 40 - The smallest mesh that can be practically used for screening chemicals together, 60, 80, 100 - Useful for grading metals, and charcoals and such. A common cutoff for metal powders. 150,200, 325 - useful for grading metal powders. GRADE MESH RANGE FA 3 - 5 2FA 4 - 12 3FA 10 - 16 4FA 12 - 20 5FA 20 - 50 6FA 30 - 50 7FA 40 - 100 Meal D + 50 Fine Meal + 100 X-Fine Meal +140 A common practice is to use -4+16 or 20 as lift. For someone looking to get a set of screens I would recomend the following meshes. It will give a good general use. 4, 8 or 10, 16, 20, 30 and 60 or 80. It will allow you to do most everything except grading things. This will run you maybe $40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al93535 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Some information about screens, and how to mount them into a useable box. I did infact get my screens from mcmaster-carr, very high quality stuff. Shown here is Milling grade stainless (304) steel woven wire cloths. The exception is 42 and 58 mesh screens, they are bolting grade so I could have more open area, and 316 stainless. In general 316 will resist corrosion as well as 304, except 316 is more resistant to nitrates. Keep good care of them, and even 304 will last for long time! Just wash them off after each use! Anyways, I have pictures of the boxes I used and each mesh screen installed. After you get the screens, you need the plastic boxes. You could of course go with wood, but unless you finish it properly and seal it, you will have trouble cleaning them. I suggest going with the rubber maid boxes. These stack about 1 to 2 inches stand off from eachother. Believe me, these screens make everything easier!! Screening BP was alot faster, and mixing chems was a pleasure! Make sure you buy a few extra boxes, because first you will probably destroy one learning how to cut it right (I destroyed 2), and you want a few bottom pans. Now you need to get yourself a tiny torch, I got mine from harbor fright and it works well! You can also use a pencil torch, or even a propane blow torch. You just need a small flame. Also, you need a dowel, about 12 inches long, and 1/2" diameter. Or anything around that. Get yourself a razor knife and you are ready to proceed. Now you need to cut out the bottoms of the boxes. These are easy to destroy if you just try to slice them. The ones I got have a rasised area, thats about 3/4" wide. I scored along this to make a good straight score. Run your razor knife along the same score a good 4-5 times. Do this along each side. Next you can push the razor through the bottom at the score line, and pull the razor along it. The cutting should go really easy seeing as the plastic is scored now. But push to hard, just slice up and down and pull the razor along. I posted a close up pic of the box I used, and I highly reccomend these. The price, strength, and most of all the ridge around the bottom. these are 1.62$ at walmart! I melt the screens into the plastic. I tried to epoxy one, and it didn't stick well, even after useing coarse sandpaper. Melting makes a GREAT connection. The screens will make two finished screens, cut the screens exactly in half and lay one half over the cut out box. Now tape two sides down to hold it in place. I use the torch and hold it to the screen at the edge of the outter side of the rim while at the same time holding the screen against the plastic box with the dowel. It doesn't take long to melt it enough to push the screen into the plastic. Do this all around the box on the outter rim part. Now do the same thing on the inner side of the pastic rim. Except now hold the dowel under, inside, the box and press the plastic up into the screen after you melted it slighty. BE CAREFUL with fine screens 200+ mesh burn easily! Pressing the plastic into the screen on the second melting makes a good conenction. Here are my pictures. They are 6, 12, 16, 30, 42, 58, 100, 200 and 325 mesh. The 325 mesh feels like silk cloth! I hope this helps!! If you have any questions, ask away! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/stacked.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/label.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/6mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/12mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/16mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/30mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9...30meshclose.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/42mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/58mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/100mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/200mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/325mesh.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9...cornerclose.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Good info, Mumbles, and nice job on the screens, al93535. I believe I'll use that idea this Summer. I have a set of the Skylighter Chinese round screens, which Harry no longer carries unfortunately, and I need bigger ones for mixing anyway. Looks like a trip to Wally World for some storage bins is in order.... M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.k88s.f.u Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 WOW! Great job al93535... The only Homemade screen i have is my 16 mesh screen,i use it to screen my charcoal and sulphur for black powder:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/Ik-pyro/Black%20powder/7.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/Ik-pyro/Black%20powder/8.jpg I also have 38 mesh screen and 140 mesh screen..both cost me about 4US$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Well, I just bit the bullet and bought a 12x24 sheet of 406 Stainless Steel cloth from McMaster's in each of the following sizes: 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 160, and 230 mesh. Now one more trip to buy the bins and I'll be set. BTW, I screen ALL my comps (that don't contain chunky metals) *THREE* times through a 60 mesh screen. If I had an 80 I'd try that. Until I moved to that small a mesh, my stars kept blowing blind. Obviously, I wasn't mixing well enough. Problem gone now, though. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 You may want to modify your order Sidewider. A single 12"X12" piece of mesh will make two screens and you really only need the following sizes: 3 (for pulverone - 3-mesh is closest to 2FA size..better than 4-mesh)8 (for pulverone - "middle powder"..filler, small shell lift)20 (mixing)40 (mixing)60 (mixing)80 (grading)100 (grading)200 (grading) Order all of these in type 304 stainless. 316 has a bit greater corrosion resistance but the price is usually considerably higher. Use the extra $$ to buy chemicals Additionally, you'll want a screen with ~1/4" openings for separating your milling media from the powder after ball milling. Instead of spending $13-14 on stainless from McMaster, just buy a roll of galvanized hardware cloth from your local hardware store. Unless my chemicals are really lumpy, I sieve each separately through a 40-mesh screen. If my chemicals are lumpy, I'll usually use a coffee mill for small quantities (<30g) or a ball mill for larger. After mixing all the components together by hand, I then screen 3 times through a 20-mesh screen. This has worked very well for me. You'll find screening through 80 mesh is prohibitively slow. Sieves with a mesh finer than 60 are really only useful for grading materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Thanks for the advice, FR. I'm going to make two sets of screens, one for Chlorates, one for non-Chlorates. Each will have a cloth size of 12x12. That's why I'm getting the larger sizes. I may even get ambitious enough to make my own screen frames out of wood, as I did with the drying rack. I have plenty of lumber. As to mesh sizes..... I thought about it, and decided I'd go whole hog now, rather than wait until later when the price may go up. My order is only 3 more sizes than your recommended list anyway, so what the heck, eh? I already have hardware cloth (which I used to make my star drying rack) so I have plenty to make 2 more screens with that size. Personally, I use 60 mesh for screening because my chems *are* somewhat lumpy, so I grind and mix in the first step, really. Subsequent screenings are just to mix them better, and especially to mix in the binder (Dextrin, Red Gum, whatever) more thoroughly. Before I switched to 60 mesh, I discovered that the binder had NOT been thoroughly distributed in most batches. Since I switched to 60, my comps seem to burn much better. I dunno, maybe that's just wishful thinking. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 LOL..I won't try and sway you again after this, BUT by taking my advice and buying only the screens that you really need, you'll change your ~$180 order to $125 and save over $50. THEN, take that $50, search for "arch punch" on McMaster's site and buy a few of those and never have to buy end-plugs again While making your frames out of lumber would make for stronger screens, you'll have to coat the wood with polycrylic or similar to facilitate cleaning. Plastic bins are much easier to clean. Also, by not buying a 3 & 8 mesh screen, you're not going to make true pulverone. Granted, 5 and 10 are pretty close, but the powder is going to be quite fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Thanks again, FR. The shells I'm building are all 4" and under (mostly under), so I don't need pulverone just yet (though I've made several batches for testing). In my shells I use cannules filled with 4Fg and powdered rice hulls for filler, and I've *just* about got them dialed in. Yep, if I build wood racks, I'll use Minwax Spar Polyurethane. It's on my work surface. Arch punch, eh? My credit card is calling to me, Frank..... M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Fair enough About the arch punches, yeah, they are quite useful. I bought a 3/8" one for 1/4" ID tubes and a 1" one for cutting out end-plugs for my 3/4" tubes; I use them both quite often. I've been thinking about purchasing 3/16", 5/16", 7/16", 9/16" & 11/16" sizes and making my own star-sizing screens out of sheet metal (aluminum). It might be cheaper to just have the sheets laser-cut, but I doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Wow, that was fast. Shipped from McMaster Chicago on Monday, got them yesterday. 3, 5, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 160, and 320 mesh screens, cut 12" x 24". Each one flat-packed in seperate cardboard sleeves. Man, that 230-mesh feels like silk! I think I'll make my own arch punches once I get that Sherline Lathe and Mill System I mentioned in another post. I should be able to do this just fine with a good carbide cutter and hardened steel of some sort. I have end discs for all the sizes of shells I need, at least for now. And now I'm off to someplace for some suitable bins.... M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 That is a really good idea for the star sizer thing. Hmmmmm, theorising will ensue. Is 1/8" extra a good guide for internal diameter of the disk? Don't mean to take away from the mesh conversation. It has been amazing thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Wow, that was fast. Shipped from McMaster Chicago on Monday, got them yesterday. 3, 5, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 160, and 320 mesh screens, cut 12" x 24". Each one flat-packed in seperate cardboard sleeves. Man, that 230-mesh feels like silk!You did get the 3 and 5 mesh screens... good man Mumbles, I'd suggest at least 1/4" oversized for tubes larger than 1/2" ID. That will give you a shoulder of 1/8" all around. I made a sizing die out of aluminum with an ID .1" larger than my rammer to form the plugs. You can just put the flat disk against the base of the tube and form them like that too if you don't have access to machine tools. Copper water pipe ID is *slightly* oversized from the dimension marked, so that would probably work as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al93535 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I guess I should have included my star sizers. I am making them as I need them. Cheap cake baking pans at wal mart, good steel, very long lasting, and I just drill the appropriate sized holes. It is good to spend time on these, as you only make them once anyways. Here I have 5/16", 1/2", and 3/4". I am making a 3/8" now as well. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/starsizer.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer2.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozentech Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I guess I should have included my star sizers. I am making them as I need them. Cheap cake baking pans at wal mart, good steel, very long lasting, and I just drill the appropriate sized holes. It is good to spend time on these, as you only make them once anyways. Here I have 5/16", 1/2", and 3/4". I am making a 3/8" now as well. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/starsizer.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer2.jpg Good idea ! Heheh... I was just thinking of this today, using thin flat sheet metal, but I think I like the idea of the cake pans even better, no need to make a box frame ! I think they should add a "coolest home-made tool" sub-category to the competition, and I nominate you for your star sizers. Wait till you see the star-roller I am gonna make... found the ultimate motor for one... actually another forum member and myself both bought them on eBay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star_Roller Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Here is another Sieve idea for you hardcore people that ball mill alot and really care about you meshes.Make a mesh bow and set it on top of a stereo speaker and put the base on.Now think about how this would work.Vibration will will seperate the finest particles. When moving the mesh side to side you could actually be rolling the particles such as Mg when using an angle grinder but anyone could do this plus you can sieve something while you do something else. Try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I guess I should have included my star sizers. I am making them as I need them. Cheap cake baking pans at wal mart, good steel, very long lasting, and I just drill the appropriate sized holes. It is good to spend time on these, as you only make them once anyways. Here I have 5/16", 1/2", and 3/4". I am making a 3/8" now as well. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/starsizer.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al9.../starsizer2.jpg Great idea! Using a step bit (unibit) or bullet-point bit would make the edges of the holes nicer; I know standard metal bits tend to snag when cutting through sheet metal. Also, using a bit 1/16" less than the size you’re aiming for is a good idea. That way, the stars sit on the hole when they're the right size. Nice shell too, btw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tentacles Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I found screen mesh at michael's (craft store) - they had 4, 8 16 and 80 mesh, brass and copper. The store here didn't have anything between 16 and 80 however. It was pretty damn cheap, like $9 for 2 or 3 sq ft of the 80 mesh. Also, I used ziplock containers for my screens (I had a set of odd sized boxes) and I found that hot glue sticks to the plastic like nobody's business! Not as pretty as melting it into the plastic but I just picked up 4 and 8 mesh hardware cloth, and some aluminum screen. Also, this place http://www.twpinc.com/ has a HUGE selection, some samples are availible for $8 but prices are pretty good and they sell right on the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlos Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Homemade Star separators: 6 and 7mm.http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/7/2/25...tom_3a66436.jpgbye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolotoc Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schroedinger Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Maybe it`s interesting for a cuople of you. If you fishing store even supplies you with things for coarse fishing. Look for sieves with are used for preparing groundbait. You will find 'em in 45cm Diameters with openings of 2,4,6 mm. Also you will find the right bowl fitting for this sieves. Cost should be around 6-8$ per sieve and around 5-8$ for the bowl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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