Suzanne Storer on wed 11 apr 12
Has anyone successfully used a rock tumbler/polisher to grind small =3D
batches of mason stains or a small amount of ceramic material like =3D
whiting? My tumbler has a quart size rubber container and I'm planning =3D
on buying 1" porcelain ball mill balls for it if this can work. Then =3D
I'll deflocculate the ground whiting and add the fine particles to my =3D
large batch of white sig so that my coral pink stain will remain pink.
Suzanne Storer
Ogden, Utah
www.SuzanneStorer.com
Vince Pitelka on wed 11 apr 12
Suzanne Storer wrote:
"Has anyone successfully used a rock tumbler/polisher to grind small batche=
s
of mason stains or a small amount of ceramic material like whiting? My
tumbler has a quart size rubber container and I'm planning on buying 1"
porcelain ball mill balls for it if this can work. Then I'll deflocculate
the ground whiting and add the fine particles to my large batch of white si=
g
so that my coral pink stain will remain pink."
Suzanne -
As Mel already wrote, a rotary rock tumbler works well as a ball mill. Just
keep in mind that the container needs to be about 1/3 full of grinding medi=
a
(porcelain pebbles, glass marbles, any small hard rocks, etc.), 1/3 materia=
l
to be ground, and 1/3 air. Generally it all works best if you mix the
material to be ground with water to give a fluid slurry, and measure that
out as the 1/3 material to be ground.
1" porcelain balls are very large for a 1-quart container. Those would be
appropriate for the big gallon-size containers used on the Amaco ball mills=
,
but you should be using something smaller. You can make your own porcelain
balls by just rolling porcelain clay between your hands and have someone
high-fire them. If you have to use the 1" balls it's just going to take a
lot longer because you have far fewer friction points than you would have
with smaller balls. For a one-quart container I would use balls between 3/=
8
and 1/2" in diameter.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
Steve Mills on thu 12 apr 12
Hi Suzanne,=3D20
I use a rock tumbler with porcelain balls to mill my test batches of ash gl=
a=3D
zes. I had to get another jar as I wore out the first one!
Wouldn't be without it.=3D20
Steve M
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
www.mudslinger.me.uk
Sent from my iPod
On 11 Apr 2012, at 15:50, Suzanne Storer wrote:
> Has anyone successfully used a rock tumbler/polisher to grind small batch=
e=3D
s of mason stains or a small amount of ceramic material like whiting? My tu=
m=3D
bler has a quart size rubber container and I'm planning on buying 1" porcel=
a=3D
in ball mill balls for it if this can work. Then I'll deflocculate the grou=
n=3D
d whiting and add the fine particles to my large batch of white sig so that=
m=3D
y coral pink stain will remain pink.
> Suzanne Storer
> Ogden, Utah
> www.SuzanneStorer.com
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