ardri
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2019
Posts: 3
|
Post by ardri on Jun 13, 2019 20:01:42 GMT -5
Heya everyone! New to the community and already hoping some folks can help me with a curious question, lol sorry.
So I primarily do work with Inlay where I need glass, stones, and gemstone at a size of around 100-140mesh (0.1mm) I've gotten pretty good at the classic method of (two pipes, hammer, and mesh sives) but the finished product is often a bit jagged and unpolished.
What I was wondering is if anyone's found a way to tumble micro bits to become more uniform? Some hurdles I figure there'd be are things like.... Cant use tumbling grit because my target size finished product would be the same size as the grit. (Maybe micro metal balls that can be removed with a magnet?) Timing might be a major factor (Since the bits are so small if I waited just a bit too long everything would be powder)
I love to kit design, most of my tools and machinery I frankenstien'd, so I've been brainstorming some solutions.
I was thinking that if I placed a wire-100mesh cage within the tumbling cylinder that's secured in the center I could place the rough/jagged bits into that. As the pieces tumble and break up, when they fit the desired mesh size they'd fall out into the outer circumference. This way the larger pieces (18-24 mesh) would no longer hit them as a tumbling medium. Once rolling around in the outer circumference might the inevitable powder produced help polish the table salt sized bits?
I figure a 50% loss would be expected as I sift the final 100mesh out from the powder, but with glass I can just melt that down and repeat. (Have a fully enviro suit to protect from glass dust)
Does anyone have experience of with this sort of thing? Any help or kit brainstorming would be greatly appreciated. ATM I'm looking to repeat produce small batches, less than 1/2 lbs/run, uniformity would be the primary factor.
Thanks a ton for any help!
|
|
quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
|
Post by quartz on Jun 13, 2019 22:53:09 GMT -5
What about a small ball mill? That's often how ore is crushed, you can build things, shouldn't be too hard to do.
|
|
|
Post by Rockindad on Jun 14, 2019 9:33:04 GMT -5
Welcome, very interesting question. I've never done anything as small as this but have tried 3/16"-1/16" chips of various Jasper's and Agates that we have set aside from various batches. "Traditional" tumbling method using a wet slurry did not work very well as the chips had a tendency to stick together. We still have them and are thinking we will try a dry method next time.
Hope you get get more responses here!
Al
|
|
ardri
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2019
Posts: 3
|
Post by ardri on Jun 14, 2019 14:25:42 GMT -5
Checked out the ball mills, interesting but I worry they'd just powderize everything. I figure a low end tumbler is around 50, and can pick one up to experiment with. Think I'm going to try to build that cage method. As all medium will be super small I wont have to worry too much about impact damage on the frame, more just ensuring it remains sealed over the tens of thousands of rotations. I won't be able to tackle this project for about a month(moving) but will be happy to share any finding here with others who might be interested.
|
|
quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
|
Post by quartz on Jun 14, 2019 23:04:16 GMT -5
I wasn't thinking so much about commercial ball mills, knowing they would likely over crush, but maybe a small homemader. It still would probably take lots of tinkering to get it right, but what's life without a fun challenge.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
|
Post by jamesp on Jun 17, 2019 7:26:48 GMT -5
Oversized Silicon carbide was crushed from 3/8" to SIC 8, SIC 16 and SIC 60 grits. I used 3/4 inch steel balls for 2 hours in a rotary tumbler. You could try a rotary tumbler with say 1/2 inch marbles or similar to crush softer materials. The domestic screens in the photo were used to separate the sizes. It was simple to do. May have to do some experimenting with amount of run time and the type of crushing media. Glass frit can be made this way too. I did the process dry.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
|
Post by jamesp on Jun 17, 2019 7:32:15 GMT -5
Or you can buy frit, it comes in about 4 sizes.
|
|
|
Post by rockpickerforever on Jun 17, 2019 17:26:37 GMT -5
ardri , I don't know if this fits the bill for you or not. I was perusing an online catalog for American Scientific and Surplus (just came via email today). Glass beads (sans hole), different colors, but may be too small -
Don't cost ya nothing to take a look -
www.sciplus.com/beads-clear-glass-64986-p
|
|
ardri
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2019
Posts: 3
|
Post by ardri on Jun 17, 2019 19:37:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the GREAT responses! rockpickerforever: Those beads are a really nice find, thanks for sharing. Hehe they're actually a wee bit to big,.055in is about 1.3mm, but I can pick some up to experiment with. jamesp: saved in info and thanks for the pic. This looks like it is probably the most sensible way to get it done and a good way to get started before I start going all mad scientist on it.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
|
Post by jamesp on Jun 18, 2019 12:39:30 GMT -5
Ball mills may use different vacuums levels to separate the various sizes. It is a problem, many different sizes created by ball milling. A range is about necessary. Stacked mesh screens of many sizes on EBAY
|
|