Ball Mill for Making Black Powder and Milling Fireworks Chemicals
Skylighter now carries a ready to go, fireworks making ball mill that’s perfect for small batch hobbyist use.
- It’s optimized for making black powder fast! Like raw ingredient to high-speed meal in a few hours fast.
- The speed is adjustable so you can mill, mix and coat all in the same tool.
- There are two drums so you can mill 2 chemicals at the same time (when using light weight ceramic milling media).
- And its sized just right for small batches so you don’t need to deal with the hassles of storing buckets of finished material.
It’s pretty close to the perfect mill for the hobby fireworks maker.
There is no reason to make due with “eh” black powder any longer when you can mill your own high-speed powder which is as good as, or better then Goex at home for the cost of the ingredients.
Make your own 2FA, Meal-D and other grades of black powder at home for a tiny fraction of what it costs *IF* you can even find commercial black powder for sale.
If you're planning to make your own black powder, the Black Powder Chemicals Kit (shown on the left side of this page) contains everything you need and will save you 20% off the retail price of the chemicals. It comes with complete instructions for using this mill to make professional-grade black powder. To make different grades of black powder, you need certain sized screens:
To make 2FA black powder (lift powder), get a 4-Mesh Framed Screen.
For 4FA black powder, you'll need a 20-Mesh Framed Screen.
Recommended Guides:
Guide for running a ball mill can be found here
Guide for making black powder with a ball mill can be found here
Tips for using this mill:
Optimal speed for this mill is ~90 RPM which translates to “high” on the dial. Lower speeds are suitable for mixing operations, breaking up lumpy oxidizers, or slurry coating where reducing the particle size is not desired.
Optimal loading for MILLING operations:
1/4 full of chemical or formula to be milled
This translates to 150/125g for black powder, or 160/200g oxidizers – depending on the bulk density of the mix.
1/2 full of milling media
This mills jar is sized for ½” round, lead milling media, and an optimal loading is 225 balls, or about 6-lbs of lead milling media. ½” Alumina ceramic or Brass media may be used for single chemical milling operations.
Notes & Warnings:
- The mill comes with two jars which can be used simultaneously only during milling with light-weight ceramics, or when the combined weight of the two jars is less then 8lbs. For making black powder, with an optimal loading of lead milling media, a single jar should be run at a time, the second jar allows you to have a second batch loaded and ready to run.
- Its best to start the mill at the highest speed then slow the mill to your desired RPM. For milling black powder, the highest speed is optimal--slower speeds result in longer milling times.
- Your mill comes with an extra belt and is very simple to change out. If your belt starts to slip, clean any oil residue. If it continues to slip replace the belt.
- Bonus tip for all the reloaders reading: this mill on medium speed is also a top-tier brass cleaning\polishing tool when used with stainless steel pins.