ball milling shellac

[taiwanluthiers]

I placed some blender ground shellac inside a ball mill hoping to reduce it to an even finer powder, but 3 hours later it still looks as coarse as the moment I ran the ball mill!

 

Is it possible to powder shellac with a ball mill or something more aggressive must be used?

[Potassiumchlorate]

I guess it's possible, but it takes many hours. Count on 6, 12 or 24 hours or perhaps two, three days.

[Zumber]

wrap a fine mesh cloth around a pot and pass blender ground shellac through it,place remaining coarser powder again in blender.

Or dissolving shellac in boiling ethanol and binding the star is another method to which i am not familier.

[taiwanluthiers]

Ok I ran the mill for a whole 24 hour (ran it in the morning and through the night) and the shellac is finally finer with a few bits and pieces. The downside is that it picked up a little bit of black from the media oxidation and the residual charcoal from the jar...

 

Won't affect the pyrotechnic property but it might hurt things a bit when I decide to use the shellac for painting guitars...

[Potassiumchlorate]

But you can dissolve the flakes directly in alcohol. Takes a couple of days, perhaps, but it will work.

[AdmiralDonSnider]

What about putting it in a freezer and powdering the cold mass/flakes in a kitchen macerator or mill? A pyro buddy is regularly doing this to powder stearine.

[50AE]

1. Cooling the shellac to freezing point of water or bellow to make it more brittle or milling it during the winter. Done it many times, a kitchen blender does the work faster, then goes the ball mill. I've obtained +200 mesh shellac this way

2. Dissolving it in methanol and adding water to let the shellac reappear into a fine powder and then filter. Never done it so I don't guarantee the result and it looks messy to me

Edited July 20, 2012 by 50AE