Ball Mill Balls?

[Doug Watson]

Anyone know a good place to get some balls for a homemade mill like the one in an earlier post? I live in western washington, so there isn't much in the way of mining equipment around here. Thanks, Doug.

[robzom27]

unitednuclear.com has grinding media under their ball mill section.

[Doug Watson]

Thanks for the info. About how many ball do you use? Doug.

[Doug Watson]

Thanks, Doug.

[Southern Yankee]

[/quote]

Well ..... to start with , everything is relative to your equipment , material size and so on .
I use a couple of tumblers . In my larger barrel I put in about 15 lbs. of selected 1/4" crush with 25 - 1" and 10 - 1 1/2" chrome steel balls . I fill the rest up ( 3 to 4 inches from lid top ) with water and some vegetable oil . I don't mill everything , just what I choose to . I run it until it's where I want it to be . I stop it once a day to check the float and break the lid seal in order to release any pressure that may occur .
[/quote]

Takoda, You have any pics of your setup? I would love to see them. Thanks, James

[Sam Burgin]

I purchased mine from Legend Mining in Sparks, Nevada (www.lmine.com).

Me set-up is a cheap concrete mixer with a constant and variable water supply hanging over it, yep, a garden hose. Below that I have a large trough.

I load 5 gallons of material, any size, and about 4 gallons of balls, mixed circumferences. I cover the rocks and balls with water until it slowly begins to overspill and drop into the big tub. I turn on the mixer and adjust the water to just above a trickle. Just enough to keep the mixer full, and to allow the float to drop into the waiting tub.

I was very popular with my neighbors. When I took the lifters out of the mixer, they began speaking to me again.

Sam

[Southern Yankee]

How loud are these things? I want one but I don't want to have to shoot the neighbors either.......

[Sam Burgin]

LOUD!

[russau]

How loud are these things? I want one but I don't want to have to shoot the neighbors either.......

i wrapped my tumbeler with old bicycle inertubes and it quieted it down real good.

[Sam Burgin]

I actually made an insulated box for mine, but the neighbor still griped; naturally, I removed the box.

Think how loud a sound a rock would make if dropped into an aluminum pan from 2 feet..Now multiply that by the continuous sound of 100 pounds of iron balls dropping into the pan. The closest sound I can think of is the sound a garbage truck makes when it slams a 5 yard receptacle on the concrete.

Lots of fun!!

Sam