Nikom Chimnok on mon 6 mar 00
I reckon it depends what kind of hammermill you have. I know David has a
corn grinder, and we have cassava grinders, and neither of those will last
very long. But the one I designed and had built at a local machine shop
grinds whatever we put into it. The hammers do wear down, but they're
repairable, in that you can build them up with hard-face welding rod, and
finally replacable when too far gone. The hammers are just quarter inch
plate steel cut with a torch, and since each hammer is small, it's always
possible to find scrap to cut them from.
On the other hand, this is a borderline industrial machine. It cost about a
thousand dollars to have built here, which would translate to 3 or 4
thousand in the States. And we use it constantly--20% of our claybody (grog)
is made with it, or 80% if you include the clay, which is also ground in the
same mill. If one were just going to have it sitting around to toss the odd
"imperfect" coffee cup into, it'd never pay for itself.
Of greater interest might be a laboratory sized jar crusher. I once looked
into these, and found I could get for about $3000 a German machine with an
output of 50 KG/hour. That was way too slow for our needs, and way too
expensive, but imported machinery is always expensive here. For a studio
potter a used machine might be a reasonable investment.
Nikom in Thailand
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At 17:33 5/3/00 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>High-fired clay is way too hard to practically crush for
>use as grog.
>Maybe some kind of heavy duty commercial roller or crusher
>could do the job, but this is way beyond anything a potter
>would have. Even a hammer mill is not up to this task; it
>would wear down the hammers in no time.
| |
|
