Introduction

This ball mill was made for grinding sand and cleaning objects like rusty bolts. It works but takes a very long time to grind sand down, this is because of the size of the balls are too small. Getting larger balls will help.

Some professionals that design and manufacture mill for industry helped in the design of the lifter and the correct speed for milling. The professionals were interested in how long it would take for the lining of the mill to be worn out. This is yet to be tested.

The parts can be found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2713357

See more what I have done: http://tinkersprojects.com/

Circuit and program:

https://github.com/tinkersprojects/Ball-Mill

Operation:

After powering the mill with 12V DC power, settings can be seen/changed using the LCD and can be altered using the 3 buttons (up, down and enter). Speed and duration are the 2 settings that can be set to control the mill. While the mill is in operation, the LCD will display the current speed and the time left of milling. By pressing the enter button, the mill will stop.

EXPANDED TECHNICAL DETAILS

Desktop Material Processing

This project builds a professional-grade ball mill for grinding chemicals, pigments, or polishing small parts, leveraging 3D printed mechanicals.

• High-Torque DC Motor Drive: Uses a powerful geared DC motor managed by a PWM motor driver (BTS7960). The Arduino allows the user to set a precise RPM to optimize the grinding efficiency.
• Temporal Timer Hub: Features a digital countdown timer. The user sets the "Grind Duration" (e.g., 60 minutes), and the Arduino automatically shuts off the mill and sounds a buzzer when complete.

Stability

• RPM Maintenance Loop: (Advanced version) Includes an infrared tachometer; the Arduino monitors the drum's physical rotation and automatically increases the power if the material load causes a slowdown.