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Available as a Product on the Downloads page
When full of balls and glaze, this Royal Doulton ball mill weighs about 80 lbs. If efforts to pour it out don't cause a hernia, the slurry ends up spilling everywhere as the balls come out with it! Trying to stop the balls with my hand ends up spilling more. The answer was to 3D print two pieces: A spout and a ball retainer (with holes). The bar and screw that normally hold the lid on work well to hold this in place. For multiple batches of the same glaze, the jar can now be poured right from the rack. This was drawn in Fusion 360, but it would be easy to do in any other CAD program capable of revolving and extruding. I first printed the green ring and flange (without the spout) to achieve a good fit into the rim of the ball mill jar. This took several prints. It was then determined that a better seal would be possible by scaling it back enough to make room for a wide rubber band stretched around it, this really improved the seal with the jar. Your jar will, of course, be different than this, so you'll have to custom-design for it.
Available as a Product on the Downloads page
Glossary |
Ball milling
A method of grinding particles in ceramic powders and slurries. A porcelain, metal or rubber vessel filled with pebbles tumbles and particles are ground between colliding pebbles. |
Glossary |
3D-Printing
Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production. |
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