steel balls / pulverizing mill

[Kenny O]

Hello, , any and all steel ball jokes aside , I have acquired some balls from a job I did in Clarksdale Az.
They where for a huge rotating mill that was very hot, a rock smasher for a"C-ment factree"

About a 4 to 5 inch diameter

Any clue to a standard type of steel?

and thank you very much

[kpotter]

I have some of those as well, living in AZ they are at the scrap yards I have had trouble welding them they are manganese steel at least that is what I was told. When I welded to them the stake that i tried to attach would crack off. I have found better balls but not cheaper balls from bearing supply houses.

[forgemaster]

Hi all
We have been doing some R&D work for a large aussie steel producer near us. It has involved us forging balls under our hammer of the sizes that you are mentioning, when I ask what is the grade we are told it is a proprietory ball forging grade of steel, and its on a need to know basis and you dont need to know. But I do know that some of it is such as 4080H, 5179D, 5190, 5160, 5140, we know it as a general brand name in Australia as Kroball, but all of those grades come under it. The balls are also likely water, time quenched and then allowed to temper back with retained heat. That said they will be as hard as criptonite, but will normally be a really good grade of steel to use for some tooling applications, the only problem will be cutting it.

Cheers
Phil

[ZIG]

I've worked in a steamplant for 25 years, we have eight large ball mills. With different size balls for classifieing coal for the boiler. We use them to make tips for hat racks. And whatever You van think of.
Point being. Ours are from half inch to two and a half inch. They can be welded, even though They have absorbed coal and basically whatever. I've had good luck.welding them.to stuff by using a tig machine. Seems the hotter you get the balls, they will.pop and realize coal that absorbed onside them.
But We use water after the ball mill has emptied it'd coal supply and apply water to.cool.the pulvirizer down for us to.gain access. Each.mill.holds 55. 55 gallon drums full of them. They have been.in.operation since 1949. And always have a little flat spot on one end. Just right to.set on top.of a pipe or bar for welding. But ours run until two inch.balls get down.to less than marble size before changing. They are very hard material. One ever gets on that huge twenty foot round gear. And it'll stop a mill real.quickly. ha.
But they can be welded.and have even.brazed them.on to. Cable ends to.use as a push.rod to.shove down drains and the hold. Even on guidewire cable. Which is galvanized.
.they.make good shaping tools, or have for me. Got some as a hardie.tool and work.well.

[BM454]

What plant do you work at Zig? I'm at Widows Creek at the moment. Union Boilermaker

[ThomasPowers]

The usual when welding high C/high alloy steels: pre heat, post heat, stainless rod.

Manganese is used for work hardening alloys and if mill balls can absorb coal my Mat Sci profs would surely like to know about it! They can get a hardened layer through work hardening. (ever seen a RR rail where the outer layer is separating from the inner due to excessive work hardening?)

[dablacksmith]

ok ive actually cut one of these things ... took forever i used a chopsaw and would go at it for 5 minutes or so every day for over a month . i was able to weld a shank to it tho with a 200 amp wirefeed . i use one part in my flypress and the other as a stake ... verry tough stuff and i will never cut one again... i think you need to run your welder at fairly hi amperage and lay a thick bead in there as the mass of the ball will suck up the heat. i also dont put much side pressure on the weld so that could be why it has worked so far .it does make a good stake !

[Kenny O]

These were all attached like like eggs in a row, The "flat spot", is where the sprue, gate, or runner was connected to the next ball.

To be spinning around in 1000 (+-) degree mill for days at a time,They must be a high grade steel. The used ones where small and not usually very round.
Here's a photo of my stash




The sprue end


I an going to attempt to make a spring swedge, cut one in half an texture the two hemispheres, I will use the HF horizontal saw.
My intention is to make one of these....
http://www.iforgeiro...turing-reptile/

I don't have a power hammer though :(

[CBrann]

I have some balls from a cement mill in Maine. My understanding is that they start at 4 inches.. and when they wear down to a little under 2 inches they are pulled and recycled. I was able to cut one with an abrasive wheel... took about an hour to cut across 1 2 inch ball. They don't grind well, the surface is incredibly hard, but it works nice as a round face hammer, after we welded it to a "stalk" and put it on a handle.

Yes I did try to anneal one of the balls, I heated the whole thing up to orange, and plunked it in a bucket of ashes for a day.... still as a hard as anything.

[kpotter]

All these stories confirm it they are way to tough to play with I thought maybe it was just me. I have seen giant piles of them and it is all I can do not to make a pile and buy them but past experience has shown they are more work than they are worth, I have been buying 4 inch ball bearings that are still soft they are great.

[Frank Turley]

I think I read somewhere, that some such balls are made of white cast iron (no graphite) or chilled cast iron where you get a hard white case surrounding a gray cast iron center. The white iron is sometimes alloyed.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

[maddog]

I have some of those as well, living in AZ they are at the scrap yards I have had trouble welding them they are manganese steel at least that is what I was told. When I welded to them the stake that i tried to attach would crack off. I have found better balls but not cheaper balls from bearing supply houses.

Same here. Mine cracked off the stem too. I can't give up on the idea that it would make a great forming stake. I plan to try brazing it on.

Gunter used one without a stem. He just set it in the hardy hole.

[yesteryearforge]

Here is a picture of how I used mine
A lot larger ( 9 3/4 diameter )

Mike Tanner

[Suboc]

This is my first post. I was reading your question, and although I don't know what they are made of, I have used them for years as table leg ends, and in sculpture. The only way I have had any luck working with them is to pre heat if welding to them, or they can be drilled and tapped but only after I heat them to glowing in the forge, and then allow them to slowly cool.

Dan
Tucson

[glen56]

we used to make repo convict ball and chains out of them looked the part for sure,problem for us was getting them

[macbruce]

The balls I find around here anneal pretty well, spark like high carbon tool, and I cut em on the band saw. Seems they  tend to vary in composition. I like to make ph dies from them......mb

[Kenny O]

I like to make ph dies from them......mb

I intend to cut one in half and make a spring swedge of the halves.

[Bentiron1946]

I bought a dozen of them in the seventies and now only have one left. I put one in the forge and it must have had a hollow inside as it had a small explosion, nothing big just sort of flew apart in the fire with a loud pop. The others varied in hardness, some you could drill and tap very handily others you couldn't drill, saw, cut, nothing, that's like the one I have left is, hard! There was a casting seam on them all, some worse than others, I thought they were some form of cast iron except that you couldn't drill or cut some at all. Strange metal they were. :blink: