How to make a ball mill for black powder - DIY - Part I
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- In this video, I start by showing that homemade black powder doesn't burn very well if the ingredients are only ground separately with a coffee grinder. Then I explain how I made my own ball mill. Finally, I show how the quality of my black powder highly improved after going for only one hour in my ball mill.
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Hi very interesting vid thanks for sharing. I have a few questions.
1. How did you center the holes
2. do the led balls chip the glass?
Thanks mate!
1) To center the holes, I simply put crisscrossed rubber bands and drilled where they crossed.
2) The balls won't chip the glass, as long as you have enough powder in it. The powder make the collisions soft.
@@BlueMoonshine Thanks so much. Very grateful for the response and video. Do you have a venmo or bitcoin address where i send some $ to buy you a cup of coffee?
@@tropics9633 Thank you very much, I appreciate it! My bitcoin address is: 3Acuvi7SL5xfQgVsZQYi1avQqL6ngD8LYx
My Venmo QR code is here: vadcpa.com/Val/Images/Venmo.png
Thanks for the video. Very informative. If one cannot access lead balls as the media for the ball mill, can glass marbles work in place of the lead balls? And if so, what size should the marbles be in diameter for a shell (container for milling) that is about 4 times the size of the shell as the one you used in the video? Also, what type of lead balls did you use? Were they an alloy of lead or pure lead, because pure lead is substantially soft. Thanks.
I guess glass marbles could work, but you would have to mill for a much longer time. The point of using lead is that it is heavy, and therefore better at crushing micro particles into nano particles. I really don't know about the ideal diameter one should use. I simply used pure lead balls that I got from the fishing section at Walmart. And yes, we want the balls to be soft so that they won't spark.
@@BlueMoonshine thanks lots for the response. I see that some fellow amateur pyrotechnics also use marbles, but it's like trial and error, I guess.
My last question here 😀, can an empty, clean 4 pound Skippy peanut butter plastic jar or an empty, clean 3 pound jif peanut butter jar work as a drum when building the ball mill, in case I cannot successfully drill the hole into the glass jar?
@@torro6460 I believe that would work too!
@@valrousseau7039 thanks for the advice.👍🏾
Does it really matter to use heavier metal for the "marble". e.g lead is better than steel? I really want to know about it
It is crucial! Not only would steel be less efficient because of being lighter, but steel might generate sparks and make your ball mill blow up. Lead won't spark at all.
The most important part of the ball mill is the lead balls. Black powder becomes way more reactive and combustive when its grinded into smaller particulates. Lead balls are used since they don't spark at all. Replacing them with steel or anything else, well, prepare for an explosion
instead of lead balls, is it ok to use glass marbles? will it spark?
I don't think they will spark, but they will be much less effective at grinding and pounding the powder. You need something heavier.
I would be very careful using glass. To make a sparking flint, you look for any stone with a mohs hardness of 7 or greater (flint, chert, and quartz being the most common). Glass is made primarily of quartz sand and has a hardness rating between 5 and 7 depending on the makeup. If you get the wrong glass and use a common steel drum, it's very possible you could detonate your black powder. This is why lead and brass are the standard because not only are they non-ferrous, but they are also low on the hardness scale.
How long before the glass jar brake?
I don't know, it hasn't broken yet after 2 years.
Can you use.50 cal lead musket shot for media it says they are 100 % pure lead ?
I haven't tried. But if they are 100% pure lead, it is safe to try, as they won't spark.
Hi.
Why not using different calibers rubber steel balls instead of ?
I never tried, but you want the balls to have a high mass density (11.34 g/cm3 for lead vs. 7.84 for steel). Also, you don't want the softness of the rubber, you want them to be hard so that they can pound the powder more efficiently. I know that lead is not super hard, but still harder than rubber.
@@BlueMoonshineanother question please : do fishing weights balls goes well ?
@@joe_6306
Yes, what I used in the video ARE fishing weights balls. Just make sure they are big enough.
@@BlueMoonshine oh ok sorry , did not pay attention to.
Thx a lot dude ! 👍
If I were to finely ground the chemicals before I mixed them would I still need to mill it
YES! In the first test I show, the chemicals were finely ground before I mixed them, and you can see that the resulting powder burns poorly. You need the ball mill to pound the microscopic particles so that you end up with a mixture where there are always potassium nitrate molecules in very close contact to carbon and sulfur molecules.
@@BlueMoonshine thank you for the help
can glass marbles be used?
I'm not sure, but if it works, you would have to mill for a much longer time. The point of using lead is that it is heavy, and therefore better at crushing micro particles into nano particles.
Brother can’t we mix them by shaking with hand ✋ for 15-20 minute
Certainly not! It is not only about mixing, the mix really need to be ground and pounded by lead balls for at least 4 hours. And it would be very dangerous to do it by hand, because as the process is progressing, the mixture becomes more and more explosive. You want the ball mill to do the job for you at a safe distance because, although very rare, ball mills explode sometimes. If you just mix and shake by hand for 20 minutes (without pounding), your powder will be very weak (as shown in the video).
@@BlueMoonshine thank you my friend for the reply 🙏🏻😊 love from india 🇮🇳 ♥️ i would like to ask one more question 🙋🏻♂️ can i use anyyyy wood for making charcoal for black powder?? I have heard that willow grapevine work best but here in india I can’t find willow or grapevine 🤤 so can i use any soft wood(mango mulberry or any other) for this ? 🙏🏻 thank you
@@Rahul.patel48 I honestly don't know. I simply bought ready-to-use charcoal, and I don't know what would it is made of. I also heard that willow is the best, but that any wood should work decently.
I've heard that newspaper makes good charcoal.
One of the few times it's probably better to just buy the item than make it.
Haters gonna hate!
@@valrousseau7039 stop hating on me hater
You can also pay people to play tennis for you.
A glass jar . . . . .
It works perfectly well, as the result proved it! You think you would be safer if the jar was in metal if it explodes? The point of using an electric ball mill is to be away from it when it runs, in case of an explosion!
@@valrousseau7039 Yes but it's too much work drilling holes into a glass jar , i don't even know how he did that , and there is a chance it may break , so pvc or firm plastic jars are a better choice mayhaps .
@@vespergremlin3367 No, plastic is a terrible choice, as it is the best way to build static electricity that sparks and ignites the powder.
@@valrousseau7039 Ah , so pvc
wait a minute pvc is plastic heh )
so what would you use if you didn't want to use a glass jar ?