pyrosailor99 Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I bought it in form of ultra-fine powder "food-grade" but it have small granules very hard to break also between fingers... Now it's about 40 minutes it is in the ball-mill ... i opened the barrel to check the status...Well... it's a powder like chalk... but still have that damned hard granules! there are too many granules! Just like when i tried to mill it in the electric coffee grinder for 5 minutes... just not a good resul. how much time i will spend in trying to mill that shit! have i some hope to obtain a fine powder? someone started from my same point and got some good result? as i have some kilo of na-benzoate (yes too much... it will last for years), i'm starting to think i could screen it all roughly trough an 120-mesh sieve AFTER the mill (or 80-mesh before the ballmill) and TRASH OUT that shitty granules! maybe i will lost 1-2kg each 5kg of powder but maybe i will be happy! (i could also re-mill granules only residues instead of trashing it... but i don't think it's worth the work and the time...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeee Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I would screen the large granules out and ball mill them separate.Make a small batch of fuel out of the granule material first, to make sure it is Benz.Coming from over seas you never know what might be mixed in the chemical. Mikeee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seymour Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 It sounds like Na benz to me. While it is waxy and this can be annoying, you can mill it successfully so that it's all airfload and there's nothing left of the prills. With many powders that clump, having it damp does not help at all. As with oven drying the KNO3 and Charcoal before making BP, baking the water out of your Na Benz before milling helps. Secondly, it's not very dense. Are you sure you are not overloading the mill? You might find that you are better off milling smaller quantities at a time. I do not suggest screening it with a 120 mesh screen. at least it's soluble so you could clean up your mistake, but this stuff loves to block screens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrosailor99 Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 I would screen the large granules out and ball mill them separate.Make a small batch of fuel out of the granule material first, to make sure it is Benz.Coming from over seas you never know what might be mixed in the chemical. Mikeee mmmh. i think it is benzoate because i've already done the whistle mix last year. it never produced sound (only in one occasion a little sound) but ever produced a high energy orange flame...The seller is the first that provided me HQ chems i think i could trust it (but maybe this time their supplier did the bad job!)what you say is interesting... maybe i can't make whistles because the Benz is not so pure... for sure this is the last test i could do... now i have all chems needed, also the Vaseline/BabyOil and the camp-gas-fuel... if it not work... i should change Benzoate...for the first test i will hand-press the 10mm tube wit some gram... someone told me small whistles works also if pressed with the body weight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrosailor99 Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 It sounds like Na benz to me. While it is waxy and this can be annoying, you can mill it successfully so that it's all airfload and there's nothing left of the prills. With many powders that clump, having it damp does not help at all. As with oven drying the KNO3 and Charcoal before making BP, baking the water out of your Na Benz before milling helps. Secondly, it's not very dense. Are you sure you are not overloading the mill? You might find that you are better off milling smaller quantities at a time. I do not suggest screening it with a 120 mesh screen. at least it's soluble so you could clean up your mistake, but this stuff loves to block screens. Thanks very much for the advice! I will not try to screen it with the 120mesh! I just bought that screens... they are new! the mill is not overloaded. i followed the rules of the famous ballmill book... it's just half full of balls and chem and half empty. when it started to mill, the powder was just 1cm under the balls.Now, after 2hrs of mill, the powder compacted much. it is 3-4 cmd under the balls...The powder nos is really airfloat, if i insert my finger it become white... it's like the talc... small granules are still there but... now they are soft... if i rub some powder between finger i can feel the granules crumble and disappear (unfortunately some remain there small like grinded coffee).I think overmilling won't get finer powder. i think it's time to screen it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Pushing Na Benz through a 120 mesh is a tad tedious (the back of a spoon is useful) but the screen will come clean easy enough with some hot water, No sense buying a screen if you dont use it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 I wouldn't worry about it much, put it back into the ball mill if you like and mill it some more and then use it as is. If there is no whistle, you may not have Na Benzoate. You can get a homogenous mixture with the gas, just knead it in a bag for a while. -dag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaMtnBkr Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 Maybe try putting the ball mill jar, with all its contents, into the freezer for a couple hours. It probably won't be cold very long but should help a lot. Lead will help keep it cold longer if that is your media, longer than if you only put the Benz in the freezer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 (edited) Ever tried to ball mill frozen wax before? A blade mill with cold Benzo works fine but unless you can keep the Benzo under -5° F all the time you are ball milling it, it will clump. (I tried it once in the winter...) -dag Edited October 23, 2012 by dagabu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaMtnBkr Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 I would think hard wax would mill better than soft wax. I was just relaying what I have heard others say helps. I gave up long ago trying to mill the stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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