Make a Ball Mill in 5 Minutes

This is for all the pyro nuts that I came across on Instructables.

This can be used to grind chemicals to a very fine grain or to polish rocks.

Wiki says "A ball mill is a type of grinder used to grind materials into extremely fine powder for use in paints, pyrotechnics, and ceramics."

Many instructables refer to United Nuclear Ball Mills. Their small ball mill cost between $70 and $80 dollars.

For no more than $30 and in 5 minute you can build a ball mill of appreciable performance.

Check out my other Instructables:
MAKE A HIGH VOLTAGE SUPPLY IN 5 MINUTES
Hack The Spy Ear and Learn to Reverse Engineer a Circuit
Super Easy E-mail Encryption Using Gmail, Firefox and Windows
Make a Rechargeable Dual Voltage Power Supply for Electronic Projects
Make a Voltage Controlled Resistor and Use It
SODA CAN HYDROGEN GENERATOR

You need

1. A rugged container (You can use PVC pipes or big plastic bottles)
2. An electric screwdriver (these are fairly cheap, I got mine for $10)
3. A bolt, a nut and maybe a washer.
4. Epoxy putty.
5. Steel or lead balls which in my case I substituted with screwdriver bits that I got for $3.
6. A vise clamp to hold down your ball mill.

Drill a hole dead center of the container's bottom. Put the bolt through the hole. Thread the nut tight.

This is the most important step. The joint holding the the container and electric screwdriver should be strong and able to hold the weight of the assembly.

Put a little putty on the bolt first. Insert the bolt into the screwdriver's bit holder. Cover the whole joint with putty. The more putty the better the ball mill stays together.

Fill the container with the screwdriver bits or with steel balls or lead balls. Add the chemical you need to grind. Close the container and clamp the whole assembly to a table top.

I use a popsicle stick to hold the screwdriver button down. I jam it between the clam vise and electric screwdriver (see video). But that depends on your electric screwdriver.