Poor Mans Ball Mill

Make a cheap ball mill for light use.

I needed to grind up some cat little to test if it would be suitable as a source of bentonite clay, I needed a ball mill but I didn't want to spend a lot of time making a decent ball mill if the cat litter wouldn't suit my needs.

Step 1: What You Will Need

you will need the following

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a plastic tub ideally with a screw top

a cordless drill

1 bolt

1 nut or wing nut

2 washers

and some lead balls, you can make these using the following instructable

https://www.instructables.com/id/Lead-Pewter-Casting-at-home/

Step 2: Prepare the Tub

Drill a hole in the top of the tub the same size of the bolt

put a washer on the bolt and push it through the lid so the shaft of the bolt is on the outside.

then put a washer on the bolt and put the nut on the bolt and tighten it up.

that's it, for the tub, just pour in the medium you wish to grind and put in the lead balls, screw the top on and move to the next step of this instructable.

Step 3: Prepare the Drill

preparing the drill is really easy

clamp the drill to a solid desk

put the bolt on the tub in to the chuck of the drill and lock it in place.

Step 4: Start the Milling

ok we are now ready to start milling.

using another clamp, a pump clamp would be ideal, tighten it around the grip of the drill depressing the button, do this slowly you don't want the drill to get out of control.

its best with this method of milling to go slowly, other ball mills run faster than this one, but this is not intended to be used a lot, it's a light mill.

have a look at it working.

after about an hour and a half it has turned the cat litter in to a fair powder, if it left it much longer it could be much finer.