Open Source Ball Mill (Continous Flow Version) - Revision history

Eric: Added some more information

2020-07-06T18:21:55Z

Added some more information

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:21, 6 July 2020
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	*Finally the product exits the other side		*Finally the product exits the other side
	**To help this many are often tilted at a small angle		**To help this many are often tilted at a small angle
			*[[Dust explosion]]s May be a hazard

	=Use Cases=		=Use Cases=

Eric: Minor Clarification

2020-07-06T18:21:13Z

Minor Clarification

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 Ball mills can be used to grind down a medium to a powder, which could be useful for the application of selective laser sintering, where a powder (ie: plastic, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, etc) is sintered into a 3d model by a laser.
 ===Eric's  Comments on Your Comments (Comment-ception)===
@@ Line 39: / Line 26: @@
 =Industry Standards=
+*
 =Minimum Viable Products=

Eric: Created a redirect to a similarly named page

2020-07-06T18:20:51Z

Created a redirect to a similarly named page

New page

=Basics=
*Part of the [[Open Source Laboratory Construction Set]]
*It is essentially a cylendar placed on its side, it has an axis going down the center of it's axis as well (preendicular to the circle faces), this is spun causing the material placed inside to repeatidly fall carying ball bearings with them, these then meet and collide on the cylendar walls
*The material is flowing into one side, and is run in a ball mill section
*This material then passes to an internal screen/mesh/diaphram to select particle size, this can be done in phases
*Finally the product exits the other side
**To help this many are often tilted at a small angle

=Use Cases=
=Generally Used For=
*Making powder for Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printers
*Powderization of solids
*Mixing of said powders

==3D Printing Uses==

Ball mills can be used to grind down a medium to a powder, which could be useful for the application of selective laser sintering, where a powder (ie: plastic, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, etc) is sintered into a 3d model by a laser.

=Comments=
==Comments by [[User:Maltfield|Michael Altfield]] ==

I ([[User:Maltfield|Michael Altfield]]) used to make ball mills for grinding shredded aluminum foil into a fine powder for thermite.

My first ball mill I bought for $20 from unitednuclear.com. It was the simple 3lb rotary rock tumbler. Iirc, the rubber belt-drive broke on it, so I ended up making my own. I would scrap motors from wasted electronics like standing osculating fans, hook the drive up to a long threaded rod, and use that to spin the cylindar.

The aluminum powder I made was very, very fine. The aluminum was sourced from aluminum foil passed through a nice-ish paper shredder then grinded in the ball mill.

Could we 3D print aluminum parts from aluminum powder produced from a ball mill?

Also, it's worth noting that there is a strong correlation between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer's Disease. If we ever did work with Aluminum Powder, we should probably wear protection like the workers do at [https://i.materialise.com/blog/en/direct-metal-laser-sintering-dmls/ Materialize.com]

[[File:AluminumProtection.jpg]]

===Eric's Comments on Your Comments (Comment-ception)===
*First of, cool respirator + face sheild! I was looking at the version that added a flip down welding mask. Expensive, but useful. How often do you need to relace the blower cartriges?
*Anyhow on the note of using aluminum powder, it might work, but I am unsure if the oxidzaion of the powder could effect anything. Otherwise though it might be fine.
*Another option is to start with plastic sls/slm and work our way up from there? This design that was at MRRF could work, albeit in a less gittery and more D3D form.

=Industry Standards=
*

=Existing Open Source Designs=
*[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG3sMuAqqz0&t This one might honestly be ready to use with the addition of a housing, motor, and motor control system (also maybe scale up/down)]]

=Minimum Viable Products=
*Scaleable
*Modular (Each "stage" is a connectable module perhaps?)
*Long life for internal mesh etc
*Noise Reduction
*AC or DC input power

=Basic Design=
==Container==
*A cylendrical container in which the grinding takes place
*Needs to Be Durable
*Also has the addition of the axis through the middle

==Mechanism==
*The part that takes the rotation from the modor and adapts it to the axle of container
*Could be as simple as direct attatchment or much more complex

==Motor==
*

==Controller==
*

==Power Supply==
*

==Housing==
*The shell in which all the above componets are contained

==Balls==
*Stainless Steel Ball Bearings work well for most cases
*Ceramic or Teflon are better for more reactive substances

=BOM=
*

=Other DIY Ball Mills=
*Gizmology version - [http://www.gizmology.net/mixer.htm]

=Internal Links=
*[[3D Printer]]

=External Links=
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_mill Wikipedia Page on Ball Mills]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintering Wikipedia:Sintering]

[[Category:RepLab]]
[[Category:Digital Fabrication]]
[[Category:Metalworks]]
[[Category:Materials]]
[[category:3D Printer]]