HOW not TO MAKE A DIY BALL MILL OUT OF A PROPANE TANK

Comments · 475

• SI

  @SimpleSluice · 1 year ago (edited)

  As an industrial mechanic of 23 years, very well versed in power transmission: If you were to put larger diameter wheels under the tank (with bearings), use flange bearings to support the shaft, and increase the tooth count on the larger sprocket by 100% or so, I bet this would work just fine. Super cool project! don't give up.

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• MI

  @mikemiller9717 · 1 year ago

  Just watched your video. I’m a mechanic by trade and i got to say you rocked that project. Saw lots of problems but was routing for you all the way. Loved the show.

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• MR

  @MrLeadghost · 1 year ago

  I belly laughed out loud when the whole treadmill control panel hit the shot. This reminds me of so many of my wild project attempts ! Awesome video!

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• CL

  @clasicdemott5986 · 1 year ago

  Nice to see someone recording real win or lose video. <br>I enjoyed watching it

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• JE

  @JesseWealthy · 1 year ago

  Love this! Trial and error is one of the best and also most frustrating teachers!<br><br>My advice: your design isn’t bad! Weld a bar to the bottom end of the tank to go through another board, that’ll help limit the binding. You ought to be able to find a couple automotive bearings or something even cheaper to press onto the bars/boards which will also help a ton. This also removes the need for your wheels on the bottom!<br><br>A possible redesign could be the setup I just described, but forget the chain and attach a old wheel (maybe a wheelbarrow wheel, the lighter the better) directly to your motor and have it press onto the tank to spin it directly.<br><br>Last idea, forget the motor and attach your chain to a bike! Get your workout in while the ball mill runs haha

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• BE

  @BearArms1488 · 1 year ago

  These are the best youtube videos, failure is a better teacher than anything.

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• JU

  @jumpeeeee3 · 1 year ago

  Absolute joy to watch. Super entertaining video

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• DA

  @danielhughes9556 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Brings a whole new meaning to &quot;ain&apos;t got no gas in it&quot;. This is cool to see you fab. I&apos;m a union Ironworker, so it&apos;s kinda up my alley. Kinda. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/wherearetheferrets">#wherearetheferrets</a>? 😂😂 Edit. You can still use the propane tank. You need another shaft on the bottom of the tank. It needs to go through a board just like the shaft with the gear. Get a new tank and just cut a square door on the tank. Make 1 single cut first, then weld the hinges on. Make the other 3 cuts and you have a door. Make sure it opens down towards you when you open it. Use the frame of the tread mill to build your structure. Nothing has to be perfect. But the spinning action should be as perfect as possible. Make the motor adjustable so you can tension the chain. Bearings on the shafts would be good. This is an easy diy. Put that Tig to use. If you can figure out how to contact me outside I can make a few crude drawings

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• MI

  @michaelharmon5991 · 1 year ago

  As a foundry engineer with 30 years of experience making balls and liners for ball mills, and working in mines to tune the processes for feeding and controlling ball mills I can safely say you have no idea how much you don&apos;t know. The lost foam casting was a novel idea and you were close to making that work with your understanding of the need to manage the heat in the sand. But, as you noted, balls are the hardest thing to cast without shrinkage. Finally, you could buy any of several designs of rock tumblers and modify them to make ball mills out of them. The ball bearings would be a good choice for DIY ball mill media since they are high quality steel alloy and would wear pretty good. I have been in gold mining operations in Nevada where they were processing tons of gold. The process of separating the gold from the ore is way complicated on the industrial scale but I suppose you would go to panning at your scale. You will also need to seal whatever mill you wind up with or all your gold dust will sift out of the joint between the drum and the end. Honestly, your approach to mechanical design and just slapping shit together with no knowledge of bearings and gear ratios and power requirements is probably going to give me nightmares tonight. But, good luck.

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• MI

  @mikespaintstudio · 1 year ago

  The fact that you let your intrusive thoughts win within the first five minutes was good enough for me to watch the rest of the video. It was valiant attempt. You’ll get it.

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• TE

  @TecKnowFreak · 8 months ago

  When I lived in CO we took a old cement mixer took fins out welded up the bolt holes. Then found a tractor in er tube to use as a rubber band to seal up opening with a sheet of plastic to have crushing medium we took round river rock easy to replace and only added more crushed rock lol. It worked slick in a few hrs could crush buckets of quartz ore down to powder for sorting out gold

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• DA

  @Dan-b7t9y · 11 months ago

  👍🏼

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