Dave Finkelnburg on fri 9 jul 04
Christie,
The stainless balls are denser than porcelain so in that respect they
will grind more. The only drawback may be that wear of the stainless balls
will put small amounts of metal into the glaze. However, small is the
operative word, and if you are using iron bearing glaze ingredients, the
amount will probably never be noticeable. If the metal won't bother you,
the stainless balls are probably superior to the porcelain for getting the
grinding done faster.
Regards,
Dave Finkelnburg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christie Lucero"
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 5:28 PM
I'm just about to buy a ball mill from Hobby Fireworks in Ill , a source for
black powder affictionados which I heard about here on Clayart. The grinding
media they sell, small lead cylinders, doesn't sound like a good idea for
glazes. I know the ideal is porcelain balls but The Black Hole, the junkshop
for the Los Alamos labs (nirvana for junkyard lovers) has stainless steel
balls very reasonably. Does anyone have an opinion on whether they'd work as
well?
Christie Lucero on fri 9 jul 04
I'm just about to buy a ball mill from Hobby Fireworks in Ill , a source =
for black powder affictionados which I heard about here on Clayart. The =
grinding media they sell, small lead cylinders, doesn't sound like a =
good idea for glazes. I know the ideal is porcelain balls but The Black =
Hole, the junkshop for the Los Alamos labs (nirvana for junkyard lovers) =
has stainless steel balls very reasonably. Does anyone have an opinion =
on whether they'd work as well?
Christie Lucero
Snowlion Fine Arts
Coyote Creek, NM
steve harrison on sat 10 jul 04
Hi Christie,
Steel balls and rolls are routinely used in industrial applications.
Being twice as dense as porcelain they will work better.
However, Being made of iron, chrome and nickel (with possible other
traces, depending on the grade) they will almost certainly suffer some
wear during milling.
The question is, will it be enough to stain your glaze.
This will depend on the all the usual factors such as;
The relative size of the jar and the balls,
the running speed,
the relative proportions of balls, charge and water and air space,
whether you dry mill
and any combination of all of the above.
You'll just have to try them and see what happens.
Alternatively, you might want to make your own balls for the mill.
You can roll them out by hand using porcelain clay or vitreous white
stoneware.
pre-fire them to stone ware temp first. it wont take you long.
Best wishes
Steve Harrison
Hot & Sticky Pty Ltd
5 Railway Pde
Balmoral Village
NSW 2571
Australia
http://ian.currie.to/sh/Steve_Harrisons_books.html
On Saturday, July 10, 2004, at 09:28 AM, Christie Lucero wrote:
> I'm just about to buy a ball mill from Hobby Fireworks in Ill , a
> source for black powder affictionados which I heard about here on
> Clayart. The grinding media they sell, small lead cylinders, doesn't
> sound like a good idea for glazes. I know the ideal is porcelain balls
> but The Black Hole, the junkshop for the Los Alamos labs (nirvana for
> junkyard lovers) has stainless steel balls very reasonably. Does
> anyone have an opinion on whether they'd work as well?
>
> Christie Lucero
> Snowlion Fine Arts
> Coyote Creek, NM
>
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