: docweathers - Viewing Profile

It sounds like I have some really good options for making cheap ball milling jars. With the PVC ones I would wonder if you would lose milling efficiency by having the smooth plastic walls versus the unglazed ceramic roughness. With the PVC, do you feel like it takes longer to ball mall your glaze than it ought to? I do have some 6 inch schedule 40 in my scrap pile

I have an idea how how to make your own ball milling jar. My understanding is that the reason you cannot just throw one is that it's impossible to get things absolutely round and square by just throwing. My experience says this is true.

Get a piece of plastic tubing that has an inside diameter about the size you want the outside diameter of your jar, maybe 8 inches in diameter. Cut it off very square at the height you want the jars roller surface to stop.

Take the blue feet off of my Giffen grip and throw a cylinder a little taller than the plastic cylinder and just slightly smaller, so that you can still slip the plastic cylinder over the clay cylinder. Put the blue feet back on the Giffen grip. Put the plastic cylinder over the clay cylinder and tighten the Giffen until it grasps the plastic cylinder.

Reach inside the clay cylinder and press it out until it is all the way up in contact with the plastic cylinder that it is inside of. Collar in the clay sticking out the top of the plastic tube to form a neck for a lid. Let dry in the plastic cylinder until it shrinks away and plastic cylinder can be removed.

Do you think this would work? Any suggestions on how to make it work better?