Hermes_Trismegistus - 29-11-2003 at 17:11
To make finely divided Al2O3, or just plain metallic Al?
I was reading the post about making aluminum oxide and I wanted to scream by about page 5 (seriously)
check out this link!
http://www.unitednuclear.com/ballmill.htm
this is a Ball Mill guys.
It is how substances are finely divided, including all metals, except the extraordinairily ductile!
If I wanted.....lets say aluminum oxide(just ann example) I would go to my bench grinder attatch a rasp wheel, turn into shavings a pound or two of
aluminum (not alloy) in about twenty minutes and then all it to the ball mill along with a bunch of small steel ball bearings.
Of course a drum for metals would have to be fairly large(30 cm diameter at least) and DROP the ball onto the product.
So I would attatch a SINGLE fin inside the drum, making sure not to exceed a maximum of 1/3 the diameter of the drum so as to not drastically impede
the flow of powdered metal.
To speed up the oxidizing I would attatch a nipple into the endcap of the drum so I could add oxy from a welding cylinder.
but remember that such a reaction is exothermic so only use plastic that wouldn't soften under heat
also you would have to replace some of the oxy once and a while as it reacted.
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Or if I wanted to powder the aluminum without oxidation I would add nitrogen/helium into the cylinder.
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remeber BALL MILL = mortar +pestleX100
http://www.unitednuclear.com/ballmill.htm
unionised - 30-11-2003 at 05:34
Personally I just folded up some foil then filed it.
Can't think what I would really want podered Al2O3 for.
How many chemists does it take to change a light bulb?
Just one, but as it is an equilibrium system they will only do it under pressure.